FedEx Corporation, the American MNC delivery services company headquartered in Memphis, has expanded FedEx Ground’s year-round Sunday residential coverage substantially. It now will be catering to nearly 95 % of the U.S. population, effective September 13.
Raj Subramaniam, its president, and Chief operating officer said “FedEx has nearly 50 years’ experience flexing our network to stay ahead of what’s next. We’re excited to have expanded our e-commerce capabilities even further—including the acceleration of FedEx Ground’s seven-day a week residential delivery, investments in automated facilities, and growth in our FedEx Freight Direct service and our retail convenience network. These strategic investments will help better support what is expected to be an unprecedented holiday shipping season.”
The expansion of Sunday residential delivery coverage comes aligned with its previous e Saturday residential service that is available to more than 96% of the U.S. population.thiswill provide a significant weekend competitive advantage for FedEx Ground and strengthens the company’s ability to serve the growing needs of its digital platform customers.
Amongst its other enhancements include FedEx Ground which is optimizing its network capacity to meet evolving customer needs through innovative technology solutions.
The company has increased capacity with facility investments across the network, which is including six regional sortation facilities, each strategically located to serve large e-tailers in short-haul solutions, four new automated stations, and eight new expanded large package facilities that further enable the safe and efficient handling of items like TVs and furniture, which consumers repetitively order online.
The company is expanding more than 50 existing facilities with additional material handling equipment and automation.
Shippers can now ship packages as heavy as 150 pounds through FedEx Home Delivery.
Its state of the art Retail Convenience Network, the FedEx package pickup, and drop-off services are now available at more than 8,000 Dollar General locations, further increasing its retail convenience network to more than 20,000 staffed FedEx locations.
Ninety-two percent of the U.S. population is now residing within five miles of a staffed FedEx location. The retail network includes more than 2,100 FedEx Office locations and well-known retailers such as Walgreens, Kroger, and Albertsons, allowing for an easy return and drop-off experience for shoppers.
Additionally, the retail network is well-positioned to serve as a Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS) network for small and medium merchants without brick-and-mortar locations.
FedEx Freight Direct – The service that offers delivery of heavy and bulky shipments inside customers‘ homes or businesses is expanding its Standard and Premium service offerings, with effect from Sept 14th to cover 90 percent of the country.
Businesses and Brands have been preparing for Black Friday to recover from the COVID fiasco. Team eCommerce Next interviewed Alex Timlin, VP verticals, Emarsys to get more insights. Following is our interview with him:
1. Why is this year’s Black Friday going to be different from previous years?
“This year’s Black Friday is going to be different from any other we’ve had simply because of Covid-19. With the closure of many stores across the world during lockdown coupled with consumer nervousness about shopping in person, this Black Friday is likely to be the first predominantly digital one. Retailers will have to ensure that their eCommerce offering is up to scratch to offset the inevitable dip in in-store sales on the big day.”
2. How has Covid-19 affected consumer confidence, and how will it affect spending on Black Friday?
“There’s a misconception that consumer confidence has nosedived since the start of the pandemic. While there is certainly some nervousness around consumers, our data shows that things aren’t as bad as they seem — consumers are now simply shopping online more than they did previously.
“As the graph below shows, online revenue growth from brands in the US since the start of the pandemic has been considerably higher compared with this time last year, peaking at 133% growth during the height of lockdowns across the country.
“In terms of Black Friday, I believe that consumer confidence is high enough for people to spend — especially to take advantage of significant discounts.”
3. Do you think consumers will shop in-store or online this Black Friday?
“Consumer research by Emarsys found that 28% of US consumers are planning on taking advantage of the sales — but only online. Just 4% say they will brave the stores.
“More than half (62%) also said that none of the safety measures that brands are putting in place would encourage them to shop in-store. Just 14% said that social distancing would encourage them to shop in-store, while just 7% and 6% said that contactless payment or click-and-collect services respectively would encourage them to go in-store.
“19% of consumers did say, however, that they would be tempted to shop in-store if the discounts they receive are greater than what they would get online.”
4. How are brands preparing for Black Friday this year? Have they started their preparations?
“Most of the retail brands we speak to in our client base are saying two things: we’re preparing for a record year in online sales but we’re also changing plans on the fly because of the global situation and its impact on consumer confidence and the supply chain.
“This year is really about getting the right product in front of the right customer, quickly, and making sure you manage your inventory on the fly because of availability. We’re also seeing a lot of clients invest in mobile website experiences and look at ways of using AI to help with things like product assortment and merchandising to make sure they’re putting the right products and offers on product pages and they’re only showing what’s in stock for the customer.
“We’ve also seen our clients heavily invest in planning their communications — mainly email but we’ve also a big spike in interest for SMS and even direct mail — letting customers know when stock will be released and when sales will be live. Brands are clearly preparing the way for a lot of traffic from mobile devices to mobile websites not just over one day, but really over what’s likely to be a week-long sales event in “Cyber Week” from Black Friday through Cyber Monday and either side.
“The last trend we’re seeing is that most of our clients expect the majority of their sales this year to come from existing customers (we’re predicting 55%+ of revenues will come from existing customers making repeat purchases) and they’re expecting a lot of competition for their customers’ attention. Much of these repeat purchases will come from customers who made the switch from physical to online shopping during the pandemic. We’ve seen many clients invest in planning for how they’ll give their repeat customers (not just those who are a member of a loyalty program) early access to products instead of just discounts on discounts — playing on the “fear of missing out” (FOMO) on great deals or highly sought after products.”
5. What are brands doing well in terms of their preparation so far? What are brands doing badly?
“I think what brands are doing well is looking weekly or even daily at what’s trending in the industry — both in terms of behaviors and in terms of products. This year has seen many peaks and troughs in demand driven by government announcements — lockdowns, stimulus packages, taxes, incentives, health warnings, easings, re-openings but then the threat of closures. It’s a really uncertain time and consumer confidence has been really rocked week by week. The brands that are doing well are keeping on top of these trends and looking at how to deploy their resources around it — when to put the foot on the gas in terms of sales and marketing spend, when to ease off, how to deploy their workforce, and when to plan inventory and in what numbers.
“Our most successful clients are looking not just at their sales data in terms of dollars but they’re looking at the products and categories they’re selling through and what’s not moving a lot more regularly. Sportwear, leisurewear, large consumer electronics, toys and crafting, fitness equipment, and furniture — first indoor and then outdoor — have all seen massive peaks in demand without much warning and then have tapered off again. Buying and merchandising teams are working closely with digital marketing and commerce teams to make sure they plan the right campaign and promote the right products in the right way at the right time — which is a big factor in successful business planning and great execution.
“The brands that are doing less well are focusing on their own business and their own problems and not really looking at customer data or industry data. By this I mean if you look at some really large brands who are struggling, their communications to customers didn’t really change from 2020 until late in the day and they were promoting the same products in the same way to customers not acknowledging that the game had changed. When that didn’t work, they then turned to sale and discounting and found that people still didn’t want to buy the stock. When a giant brand like GAP says they’re just going to sit on their inventory for a year and eat those costs in terms of the initial buy as well as the storage and warehousing space, it lets you know there are some people with some really big problems and a lot of it came because they were too slow to react and too slow to adapt to what’s a very different landscape from February 2020 to now.”
6. What should brands do to prepare for Black Friday this year?
“Because this year is likely to be the first predominantly digital Black Friday, brands need to start planning now. I would recommend brands do three things.
“First, I would triple check your website infrastructure. It sounds obvious, but before you start worrying about customer experiences, cart abandonments, or coupon codes, you have to guarantee your site’s infrastructure is up to scratch. If the predictions are to be believed, 2020 could be the biggest year in history for online retail traffic. Unfortunately, that traffic’s not much use if your website’s down.
“Secondly, use the time you’ve got now to drill down into your customer data. Take this time to dive back into last year’s Black Friday event, using analytics to understand what people bought, what promotions they responded to, and where they had issues on your site. But don’t just focus on your own data, check out what other retailers have done successfully and make the most of data that’s freely available online. Sites like ccinsight.org provide unparalleled insight into what consumers are buying — providing free access to over 400 million transactions from retail brands. Keep a close eye on this type of free data in the run-up to Black Friday, look for patterns and preferences, and then use those to inform your own promotional approach.
“Finally, optimize the digital experience for your customers early. With fewer in-store promotions to worry about, this Black Friday will give retailers even more time to focus on optimizing their digital experiences. With fewer than 100 days to go, your focus should be on mobile, social, and customer loyalty programs. With shoppers not out and about this Black Friday, it would be easy to assume that mobile purchasing will decline. In reality, the opposite is true, with 80% of shoppers now using their mobiles to browse and buy from home. Last Black Friday, mobile accounted for 67% of all online activity. This year we should expect that figure to increase even further, making mobile optimization a vital part of your Black Friday prep.
“If you do all of this right, you’ll be in a great position to make the most of Black Friday this year. While we’re predicting that the majority of sales for brands will be from repeat, loyal customers, there is also an opportunity to collect data on brand new customers, which you wouldn’t have been able to do in previous years when they shop in-store. This data can be gold dust to you in your preparations for Cyber Monday and Christmas in terms of retargeting and driving repeat revenue.”
7. Will a predominantly online Black Friday offset the closure of brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday?
“Brands make most of their profit in store, while online sales are all about driving revenue. So, the closure of stores on Black Friday — or the lack of consumer footfall — is likely to leave a severe dent in brands’ overall profitability for the year. Therefore, it’s vital that brands make the most of their ecommerce this Black Friday. It won’t complete offset lost profit from lack of in-store sales, but it’ll help shift stock, which was a significant problem during lockdown, and boost overall retail activity.”
8. What advice would you give to brands for what to do after Black Friday?
“If you have prepared for Black Friday effectively enough with your technology stack, you’ll have centralized all your customer data, and you’ll be in a great position to retarget customers for Cyber Monday and for Christmas. I would recommend segmenting customers into loyal ones who spend regularly with your brand and one-off customers who you sold to over Black Friday. Then you can set up automated email campaigns promoting your Cyber Monday and Christmas offers in a personalized way to drive repeat revenue for your brand.”
9. Do you think retail will recover in the next few months to pre-COVID levels?
“Obviously, the retail recovery will depend on how long Covid-19 is with us in our society. I have no doubt that retail will recover eventually, but as to when, nobody can really say with any certainty.”
10. How important is offering a personalized experience to customers for this Black Friday? And how will a personalized experience drive revenue for brands?
“Most marketers know that loyal customers are the most profitable ones. The old 80–20 rule, which states that 80% of your profit comes from the top 20% of your customers, still rings true today. And so, it’s every marketer’s goal to create loyal customers. But given brands’ profitability is going to be severely hit by the lack of footfall this Black Friday in stores, marketers need to think differently about how to drive that loyalty and profitability.
“One of the best ways to foster loyalty is through digital personalization. Sending out a blanket marketing email to all your customers promoting your new products is unlikely to be an efficient way to drive revenue because not all your customers will be interested, and you risk alienating some customers with irrelevant information.
“But if you know a little bit about your customers — what they’re buying, what they’re looking at online, what time of day or month they usually buy — you can target marketing campaigns much more effectively by aligning your offering with whatever that customer is most likely to want. Artificial intelligence can help here by segmenting customers by particular behavior and loyalty, and then automation can help save you time by carrying out campaigns whenever a customer meets a particular threshold. For example, if you send a loyal customer a voucher over email, and they haven’t used it in 30 days, you can set up an automated email campaign to remind them to use it — helping to drive revenue for your brand.”
About Alex
Alex Timlin is the senior vice president of verticals at the omnichannel customer engagement company Emarsys. Alex leads the company’s world-class client success organization to drive adoption and growth across 2,500+ clients in more than 100 countries — empowering them to better communicate with their contacts and customers across billions of engagements.
About Emarsys
Emarsys empowers digital marketing leaders and business owners with the only omnichannel customer engagement platform built to accelerate business outcomes. By rapidly aligning desired business results with proven omnichannel customer engagement strategies — crowdsourced from leading brands across your industry — our platform enables you to accelerate time to value, deliver superior one-on-one experiences, and produce measurable results… fast. This industry-specific, outcome-driven approach combined with our customer-centric personalization, actionable AI, and a fully integrated customer data platform (CDP) — make Emarsys the platform of choice for more than 2,500 companies around the world. Join thousands of leading brands who trust Emarsys to deliver the predictable, profitable outcomes that their businesses demand and the highly personalized omnichannel experiences that their customers deserve.
Carewell, the family-run company with a mission to improve the lives of caregivers and their families has obtained over $ 5 million as VC funding from e.ventures, the strategic arm of the publishing company Bertelsmann and Levy of Primetime. Other partners in the round included Chewy.com’s former VP of growth marketing, Jason Klinghoffer, and Dia&Co founders Nadia Boujarwah and Lydia Gilbert.
The website says it all-“Our story began with one goal: to find a way to provide better care for loved ones through easy, personalized service. As a family, we needed help and guidance on caregiving products and needed a trusted company that we could turn to for information, products, and reliable service. What we were looking for didn’t exist, so we created it, and Carewell was born.”
The company was in the spotlight as the Coronavirus pandemic leads to a greater need for care and compassion for the elderly, whom the virus hit the hardest. Personal protection kits were in greater demand and Carewell was the platform for caregivers to purchase vetted supplies at competitive prices.
Carewell, which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was co-founded by Bianca Padilla and Jonathan Magolnick, a husband-and-wife team who say they launched the company after Padilla found herself in the role of the informal family caregiver. The company has core values in family, service, dependability, and trust and strives to develop strong relationships with the families they serve.
Informal caregivers are a group separate from those who are professional caregivers, with one of the key differentiators being that the former are unpaid. It’s estimated there are some 53 million unpaid family caregivers in the U.S., working out to some 20% of the population, with numbers still increasing. But as Padilla found out, even with these big numbers, there were precious few resources available to her to figure out best practices; and as an individual (not a nursing home, not a hospital, not an agency), there weren’t really places she could go online to buy supplies that she could trust to be good brands and good value.
And that’s how, in 2015, Carewell was conceived.
Padilla, who is the CEO, is clear about the vision of the company and does not view it as a commercial marketplace. “Carewell is an e-commerce site, so there are not any third-party product listings on the site,” she said.
“A huge part of the services we provide caregivers include researching and expertly vetting products before making them available for purchase. In partnership with manufacturers as well as our caregiver community, we offer a deeply curated product offering that addresses the unique challenges of caregivers and their loved ones. We want to ensure the quality of the entire customer experience, and maintain the integrity of the products being offered.”
And indeed, the company looks to be more than just a place to buy things which explains probably why e.ventures and Levy of Primetime, both with roots in publishing, were interested.
In addition to selling hygiene, home and personal care, meal, and other products, it also provides a series of guides intended to give information and advice to informal caregivers. They include subjects like getting around Medicare, dealing with mealtimes if someone has dementia, profiles of caregivers in the wider community, exercise ideas, and more.
“Carewell works specifically with the 53 million family caregivers taking care of their loved ones. Today, 90% of the care and support received by ill or disabled family members is provided by inexperienced family caregivers,” she said. “Almost half are providing complex medical or nursing tasks with no experience, so we cater to that audience. I saw this firsthand when my mother and I began taking care of my grandmother after knee surgery. We didn’t have the resources for guidance to really know what we were doing. That lack of education available for the caregiver community is why I started Carewell with my now husband.”
The COVID 19 pandemic saw the doubling of its revenues in the first month and since Feb nearly 40,000 people have purchased products on the site. The pandemic saw people preferring getting family members out of old age are care homes as the threat of spreading of infection was on the upswing. Also in general, closedowns lead a restricted social movement, and older members were looked up upon more than before.
Carewell has defined the economic need for such platforms that are curating products and offering them at competitive prices. The trend in healthcare and aging seem to point to more, not fewer, caregivers needing advice and supplies, and so that points to an interesting business opportunity for startups like this one.
Carewell estimates that some $88 billion is spent on caregiving products out-of-pocket versus $30 billion on products covered by insurance. “There’s a common misconception that insurance covers many caregiving products,” said Padilla. She added that with the exception of prescription medications, the vast majority of them are paid for out-of-pocket by family caregivers. We don’t work with insurers and are 100% cash pay, but most of our products are IRS-approved QMEs (qualified medical expenses), so HSA (healthcare savings account) funds can be used.
Five years ago, Bianca and Jonathan saw a need in the market, and that need is even more prominent today,” said David Beisel, a partner at NextView Ventures. “As the home care industry undergoes a rapid transformation and the number of unpaid family caregivers continues to climb, Carewell’s supplies, services, and support are of critical importance — and we see a tremendous opportunity for growth.” Beisel is being promoted as a board observer with this latest funding.
“Carewell is poised to become a national brand and top-level leader in the home care market,” said Mathias Schilling, co-founder and managing partner of e.ventures. “Through an empathetic approach and authentic customer engagement, they’ve formed a strong community and laid a solid foundation built on trust. We’re thrilled to support the Carewell team in expanding their impact and improving the everyday lives of an even greater number of caregivers.” Schilling too is joining the board of directors.
The pandemic has given a new ray of hope to the healthcare industry as people got sufficient time to ponder over how to rebuild a better life ahead. With investors pouring money and funds seeing the growth of e-commerce sites that address groups of people who have not been considered all that valuable in the past — in this case, the elderly and their unpaid caregivers — is one shining star in the dark night.
With the online sales retail business growing by leaps and bounds during the coronavirus pandemic, Walmart has come up with yet another strategy to compete with rival Amazon for delivery products.
The new paid membership service will offer a membership service for less than $100 a year for the free shipping of an unlimited number of items from its vast catalog of home delivery, including groceries.
The new paid-up service, called Walmart + is costing $98 annually for orders above $35, which is lower than $119 charged by rival Amazon Prime. But for Amazon, there is no minimum billing as in the case of Walmart is. However, Walmart+ is offering a $ 5- a- cent -gallon discount at certain affiliated gas stations.
“We are developing a product that is grounded in meeting customers’ needs,” said Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s chief customer officer, in a conference call on Monday.
Walmart is hoping that the strategy will help keep food fresh and ultimately cost lower than competitors. The kitty includes more than 1,60,000 items available on Walmart stores.“. But unlike Amazon Prime, Walmart’s service will not include streaming entertainment. Walmart+ will offer an option to pay $12.95 per month instead of the annual fee.
In June, Morgan Stanley analysts predicted that as many as 20 million people could sign up for the new service within a few months of its launch.
Wall Street analysts have been eagerly awaiting details of Walmart+ since news of its development came out this year. However other analysts found details of the actual offering, which is very close to an e-commerce service that Walmart already offers, underwhelming.
“For a $35 minimum and $98 annual fee, this is thin gruel,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail research and consulting firm.
The new service will be available on Sept. 15.
Janey Whiteside was quick to add that Walmart expected to announce additional perks for Walmart+ members in the future. She said most customers’ online orders were higher than the $35 minimum. The majority of the orders are of grocery items and also many competitive grocery delivery services adhere to minimum order requirements.
In past times, Walmart has shown sparks of innovation by coming out with innovative online sales initiatives such as a high-end concierge service called Jet Black, which ultimately could not gel with the customer.
On the conference call, Ms. Whiteside said Walmart+ was an outgrowth of some of those experiments and had been refined by studying customer behavior during the pandemic. “We saw that customers’ needs and wants were rapidly changing almost on a daily basis,” she said.
Walmart’s online sales during the pandemic have soared, as more people shun brick-and-mortar shopping. The online sales grew by a whopping 97 percent in the second quarter, more than double its average rate of growth, as the pandemic made people stay indoors and were adhering to safe distancing norms astonishing the Wall Street estimates.
A big boost to this figure came from the sale of groceries, which customers order online and pick up at Walmart parking lots. This new paid service is another bet by Walmart’s think tank that the customer is willing to shell out extra money for the added convenience of having daily food items delivered to their doorstep.
GAp, the US-based clothing, and accessories retailer has made a killing selling face masks during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A statement issued on Thursday by the company reported quarterly earnings that it brought in $130 million in sales during the period from its face masks.
That includes sales to individuals and in bulk to businesses. The city of New York, the state of California, and Kaiser Permanente are some of its clients, the company said.
During the quarter ended Aug. 1, Gap’s total sales fell about 18% to $3.28 billion from $4 billion a year ago. Its online sales surged 95%. But the online performance was negated down by the slowdown of real-time store sales as they forced to shut for part of the quarter due to the COVID pandemic.
Gap operates six primary divisions: Banana Republic. Old Navy, Intermix, Hill City, and Athleta.
Gap Inc. is the largest specialty retailer in the United States and each of the above brands currently has its own masks available in stores and online, in various patterns. shapes, sizes, and colors.
Its CEO Sonia Syngal said during an earnings conference call that Gap is currently the No. 1 search result on Google fr “face mask style guide.” She said Gap scaling this business is “the ultimate example of how we want to operate as a culture.”
The Covid-19 virus which can be transmitted through respiratory droplets from person to person has now made the face mask a mandatory issue as early on, it was contentious. Initially, the masks were in short supply and retailers such as Anthropologie and Madewell were treading slowly on the opportunity. But since most cities and states have come out with mask mandates, the growth on sales has gathered momentum
Gap shares climbed around 4% in after-hours trading Thursday, as it reported a narrower expected loss and a better than – expected sales for its fiscal second quarter. Its stock has fallen roughly 1% year to date.
The company has marched strength-to-strength on its online platform which has helped Gap add on to 3.5 million new customers, up over 165% from the previous year.
Walmart, the US multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores, is offloading two of its digital platforms namely Shoes.com and Bare Necessities as a move to make its digital business lean and mean.
The move comes at a time when the challenges of the digital platforms have taken a multi-dimensional and unique role in a market that is now adhering to social distancing and touchless deliveries, due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic.
Walmart seems to now focus on its main website with this divestment. The lingerie brand Bare Necessities will be acquired by Delta Galil Industries Ltd, an Israeli apparel maker that also owns the 7 for All Mankind denim business. The footwear site will go to private equity firm CriticalPoint Capital. The terms of the deals were not disclosed.
The divestments are in line with Walmart’s sale of indie apparel brand ModCloth in October, and its decision earlier this year to close down the Jet.com e-commerce site. The move is seen to simplify things at Walmart for a leaner and meaner competition with the rival company Amazon.
In an email, Walmart said, “The number of customers we’re serving in these categories on Walmart.com, along with the corresponding sales volume, is very different than before each acquisition.”
Plans of selling any other digital platform are on hold, which includes men’s apparel seller Bonobos, according to a person familiar with its operations. It could also have its hands full on the acquisition front as it is presently in active talks with Microsoft Corp. for buying out of TikTok as the Trump administration has pulled the heat on its US operations
Walmart meanwhile will continue to sell items from Bare Necessities and Shoes.com through its third-party marketplace site, which carries products from a wide variety of merchants as Delta Galil separately announced it was acquiring Bare Necessities.
Friday was a big day for Amazon as it announced a placing of an order of more than 1,800 electric vans from German automaker Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz. The move comes for improving its carbon footprint and as its endeavor to become carbon-neutral by 2040.
The order consisted of 1,200 of Mercedes’ larger eSprinter models and 600 of its midsized eVito vans. The price paid for the same was not disclosed.
Amazon said the move was part of its aim to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement a decade ahead of schedule. US President Trump back in 2017 had infamously pulled the U.S. back from the accord — which is designed to prevent global temperatures from rising over 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, “We welcome the bold leadership demonstrated by Mercedes-Benz by signing up to The Climate Pledge and committing to ambitious action to address climate change. We need continued innovation and partnership from auto manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz to decarbonize the transportation sector and tackle the climate crisis.”
Amazon showed its concern for the issue of Global Warming seriously in June when it launched a $ 2 billion VC fund for making a relevant investment into climate change initiatives. For Amazon, this is not the first time for such a bulk of electric vehicles as in the past it had agreed to purchase 100,000 vans from Rivian, a start-up in which it had made huge investments of millions of dollars.
But the company’s logistics model has been a source of worry for the postal services industry. Traditional postage firms have been making investments of their own to challenge Amazon’s dominance and change with the times. UPS, for example, ordered 10,000 electric vans from U.K. start-up Arrival at the start of the year.
The COVID 19 pandemic was an unexpected period of quantum growth for Amazon’s business as the online delivery model boomed due to people been confined to indoors. Bezos saw his wealth top S200 billion earlier in the week as the price of its share hit the roof, up by 84 %, year-to-date.
CNBC’s media buzz that Walmart is tying up with Microsoft for buying TikTok on Thursday gained further momentum when its interim head Vanessa Pappas told the press that the social media upstart and the retail giant shared a common interest.
Pappas was quoted as saying in an interview at CNBC squawk box on Friday, “For us, we have been really focused recently on rolling out some e-commerce features. We’ve been providing that for our creator community as another way for them to earn a livelihood “. She further added, ” I think there is a lot of different synergies here”.
TikTok, the Beijing based internet technology company founded in 2012 owned by Bytedance, started testing social commerce features last year by allowing users to add links to their videos and profiles. Levis was the first MNC giant to use its feature “Shop Now ” as a link to its merchandise. This lead to a significant increase in traffic as per reports of early tests in April as reported by TechCrunch.
The company reached an estimated valuation of $100 billion this year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance solidified its status as the most valuable startup in private markets. Its success outside China has also become a source of envy and inspiration among its local peers. But for now, the company is under tremendous pressure to sell off before Sept 20, the date of the executive order banning US entities for transactions with it becomes operational.
The Trump administration has raised issues of national security as American data can be subject to manipulation by the Chinese Communist regime. TikTok has vehemently denied such claims as it is not available in China, and data is not stored in that country.
Microsoft was amongst the first ones to show interest in its purchase and Oracle too jumped in. Walmart meanwhile has teamed up with Microsoft after its attempt to become a majority stakeholder with Google’s parent company Alphabet fell apart.
Meanwhile, Pappas has reiterated that she is not directly involved in deal talks but saw strengths in both Microsoft and Oracle as technology providers.”I think if you look at the various players and the partners that we’re hearing from, I think they’re amazing tech companies,” she said. “Oracle has its strengths in terms of being a leading data infrastructure company and focused on security, Microsoft as well, great security and privacy platform as well as everything they’re doing with the cloud,” she further added.
Pappas was made interim head at TikTok after former CEO Kevin Mayer announced his resignation this week.
Mayer was a former Disney executive who was thought to be in contention for that CEO job before it was filled by Bob Chapek, said he had been looking forward to running a global company.
Sources told CNBC that a deal to buy TikTok’s U.S., Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand operations could be announced as soon as next week which may be valued between $20 billion to $30 billion.
BigCommerce, the public technology company which provides software as a service e-commerce platform came out with an 0nline shopping checkout tool for Facebook’s instant – messaging platform Instagram on Tuesday. The option allows customers to buy products directly from brands within Instagram’s messaging interface rather than being redirected to a separate e-commerce page.
This move comes as another up-pitch against its rival Shopify.
With this move, BigCommerce has propelled its growth ambitions portraying its bold intentions to compete step- in- step with Shopify. BigCommerce only went public early this month and has ambitious plans to become as popular as Shopify, since as for now it is not as big and popular as its competing rival. Shopify had previously had a similar arrangement with Facebook for offering a checkout option within its app.
BigCommerce, however, has its own set of apprehensions as it is a late starter as a messenger- based checkout solution and might be miles behind Shopify when it comes to competition, although Facebook may boast of more than 1 billion monthly users. As of June, Facebook had 2.7 billion monthly users of its flagship social networking platform.
Looking from a broad perspective, BigCommerce really doesn’t have to catch up with Shopify to grow, or for that matter disrupt Shopify’s growth. It may simply add to its size by leveraging the Instagram checkout tool with its other e-commerce solutions, current, and prospective Shopify users could instead choose BigCommerce as the foundation of an online store.
BigCommerce intends to announce its first quarterly results as a publicly-traded company on Wednesday, Sept 9th after the market closes.
The results are eagerly awaited as investors and the common public is keen to see its growth trajectory during these tough times when closures and lockdowns have pulled down the industry due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Market experts will also observe as to the quantum of benefit the company has derived from e-commerce solutions in such tough times.
“Dutchie is the easiest way to order cannabis products from the best dispensaries near you. Search the top marijuana stores, find the best cannabis products, place an order online, and pick it up or have it delivered in under an hour. Shopping for marijuana has never been quicker or easier”- quotes its website.
This Bend-based cannabis online shop which is just three years old has secured $35 million in early-stage investment, the largest amount in Central Oregon.
It has already raised $18 million in capital from investors like Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital, Kevin Durant’s Thirty-Five Ventures, Thrive Capital, Gron Ventures, and Howard Schultz, the founder- chairman of Starbucks.
With this fresh round of money infusion, the total fundings add to $53 million and enabled the company to grow from five employees to more than 100 with ambitious plans to expand on a global scale.
The platform envisions providing for legal dispensaries in 30 markets and 301 cities in the United States and Canada. The company is processing about 75,000 online orders per day as per a company’s statement.
Dutchie has been instrumental in putting Bend on the venture capital map as a leader as it was one of the earliest recipients of funding, according to Brian Vierra, Economic Development for Central Oregon venture catalyst. “In today’s environment, it brings excellent job opportunities at a rapidly growing company that is a pioneer in its industry,” Vierra said.
The ability to attract venture capital like this is a big deal for the community, said Damon Runberg, Oregon Employment Department regional economist.
“There is the energy behind these early state companies and excitement about the work being done here in Central Oregon,” Runberg said. “Although the flow of venture capital tends to slow during recessions, Bend businesses are well-suited to continue receiving these investments as long as we remain an attractive destination for the lifestyle-driven workforce.”
Basically the venture.capitalists are “betting” on Bend, Runberg said.
COVID-19 has caused a surge in legal cannabis sales, which in turn sparked a need for online presence, said Ross Lipson, Dutchie’s CEO. Lipson and his brother, Zach Lipson, who is the company’s chief product officer, created Dutchie.“There’s been a huge consumer shift from ordering in-store to ordering online,” Ross Lipson said. “We’ve seen our sales increase by 700% through the lockdown. And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.”
The coronavirus pandemic saw a dramatic shift in people shopping preferences with a surge in online – sales. In fact, the total online ordering in any industry, whether food items, groceries or cannabis – was $211.5 billion in the United States in the second quarter, an increase of 31.8% from the first quarter of 2020, according to latest data from the Census Bureau.
Dutchie charges a flat fee to provide a platform for cannabis retailers to sell products linked to their point of sale systems that keep track of inventory. Customers can have the easy experience of either driving down to the store or having their orders delivered by another vendor or even do a curbside pickup.
“Everyone is remote right now because of the pandemic,” CEO Lipson said. “However, we have 102 employees and have a plan to double the team in the next year. We have set lofty goals for the company. To execute them takes a large amount of capital. We want to build a team and innovate on the product to keep up with the needs of the dispensaries and the consumers. The cannabis space is unique, and it’s evolving. “
As the growth chart moves upwards, the company is planning to move to a larger office space in District 2 in the NorthWest Crossing neighborhood of Bend.
Facebook is introducing new tools for small retailers. As the COVID 19 pandemic has pushed the e-commerce platforms on the upfront, Facebook is becoming more than just ambitious in getting to the largest slice in the pie. The social media and networking platform is now moving at breakneck speed towards making it more of a shopping platform.
After acquiring Instagram at $1 billion in 2012, it has seen a quantum growth with Instagram having more than a billion users globally. The company recently launched and expanded a few products that aim to make its apps shopping destinations, particularly for small retailers.
Facebook Shop is a new tab coming to the Facebook app that’ll allow users to discover businesses and products on the social media platform. It is more of a mirror image of the Instagram Shop, which the company came out with in the last month.
Introduced in May, both the Facebook and Instagram tabs build are on the Facebook shops. It allows businesses to easily upload a product catalog and begin selling through Facebook quickly. Customers can pay through Facebook Pay, and their payment credentials will be carried over from one Facebook app to another.
Creating a dedicated tab on Facebook for shopping could accelerate the adoption of Shops. Many businesses have a larger and more established presence on Facebook versus Instagram
Facebook has over 180 million businesses globally on its flagship platform, although the Shop feature is currently only available in the U.S.
Facebook plans to charge a selling fee, but it’s waiving the fee through the end of the year. It also doesn’t charge to set up a Store on its platform.
Furthermore, it offers a free customer messaging system through Instagram Direct, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Store owners are offered free insights and measurement statistics for their stores for a better overall shopping experience.
Shopify, another prominent e-commerce shopping platform has seen its business grow by leaps and bounds during the coronavirus pandemic, although it does not offer its services free completely. Facebook might be attempting to do the Shopify way, yet it may view the market differently.
In fact, it views the company as a partner. Merchants can import their Shopify product catalogs to Shops with just a click. Additionally, Shopify merchants won’t need to use the Facebook Commerce Manager as a backend for their Facebook Shop if they don’t want.
The long term plan may obligate the fact that while Facebook will eventually charge a fee every time a store makes a sale, that revenue stream might not be as valuable to Facebook as the potential for earnings from the ad, which can be deemed as incremental revenue.
The add- on benefits could be that Facebook Shops, combined with Facebook Pay and Instagram Checkout, which allows shoppers to pay for items without leaving the app, ought to lead to higher conversion rates for people who click on ads.
Facebook will be able to provide better measurement statistics for merchants as the icing on the cake with all this combined adding to value addition for advertisers.
In the long term, they may be willing to pay higher for ads for such a service.
Online sales ads are becoming more and more important for Facebook. Smaller businesses and direct – response advertisers have taken to Facebook while some of the big brand’s players have boycotted it. This has more than made up for the pullback in ad spend. Facebook is now betting on small retailers as it seems.
Will all this change the face of Facebook from a social networking site to an online sales and shopping mall, only coming times will tell. But for now, it is sure that Facebook has smelled the opportunity to pounce upon the retail and shopping format of doing business.
Digital shopping has been a trend in the world since the coronavirus pandemic. People are shifting from physical stores to digital stores. Departmental stores are seeing a decline in customers, the sales are said to decline by 25% in the first quarter and carry on to decline by 75% in the second quarter. The sales are also said to decline by 60% in the full year. People are now shifting their focus to digital and e-commerce platforms. As a result, eCommerce has grown for 20 per cent in 2020.
The customers are also shopping for various categories since the pandemic started. As per the reports, people on not buying more clothes rather they are buying essential items including groceries. The sales of groceries have gone up to 12%. The sales of alcohol have gone up to 16% and home improvement material sales have gone up to 14%. The decline in clothing has been reported because of the work from home and school from home trend. Experts are suggesting the department stores to pick up modern services just to keep their business growing. The department stores must incorporate E-Commerce and pickup services to provide a user-friendly experience to the consumers.
Walmart and Target have recorded brilliant sales in their recent quarters. Walmart’s e-commerce sales went up to 97% in its last quarter. Target’s e-commerce sales went up to 273% in the quarter. Amazon also witnessed a 40% sales growth. According to the Q2 2020 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. retail e-commerce reached $211.5 billion. A total increase of 31.8% from the first quarter, and 44.5% as compared to the previous year. The department stores are witnessing a new era of e-commerce flourishment. Many of the department stores are adapting new measures so that they can revive their business revenues. Although, the question of the permanency of this market acceleration is still unanswered. Experts have although said that the online market has jumped five years ahead of its time.
Team eCommerce Next interviewed Steven Ridzyowski, a leader in the eCommerce/digital media buying space for over ten years. He discusses e-commerce in general and challenges during the current scenario of COVID 19. Following is our interview with him:
How did you start your business?
With many years of experience in niche advertising and affiliate marketing. I decided to create my own agency and offer something new that no one else is doing. A full-service e-commerce agency. Specializing in turnkey Shopify e-com store as well as a full-service digital marketing service all in one. I was introduced to affiliate marketing and became an affiliate in the ringtone niche for a few years. Little did I know, I was paying “influencers” on YouTube to have links for ringtone offers in the music video description, before “influencers” became the sensation they are now. I then went on to create my own white label skincare brand, which became one of his pivotal successes. Between the moment of changing from affiliate marketing to owning and running digital media buying for my own skincare brand, I started to follow trends, learning the ins and outs of digital marketing, spending over $30m in paid digital ads across the entirety of his career. I am also a member of the Forbes Business Council and the Young Entrepreneur Council.
What can you do to be unique for an e-commerce page?
What separates our agency from all the others is our ability to quickly find niche and trending products and create multiple landing pages per product creating single page funnels for the highest conversion rates and largest average order volume. Today, I focus heavily on e-commerce and marketing, especially with the agency, which offers a turnkey solution for e-Commerce. I mastered everything from product research, to product trends, and have created converting funnels to growing multiple 6 to 7-figure stores with his agency. Using amazing photos and videos and the right messaging in tandem with funneling is the key to success.
Any tips or tricks in the business?
Don’t be stuck on selling 1 product, test multiple products, and give the time and marketing budget to the one that is converting best. Don’t spread out the budget too thin trying too many things and once you find what works, keep repeating that and using the same tactic for similar products or services. This is key to beating revenue goals or just goals overall. My constant ability to want to increase and my drive to continually do better.
What’s the most challenging part?
The most challenging part of the business has been probably delays with suppliers for goods and doing this during the COVID pandemic has been the most challenging part as everything is not fully open or experiencing shipping delays. Finding trustworthy suppliers and doing my due diligence on them as well in regards to them. Finding ways to shift during the pandemic and find other sources of revenue and marketing outside the box has helped me and my clients succeed in different areas.
Good content is very important, especially in advertising. You want content that will have great engagement whether its Likes or shares. Something that people are willing to share and or comment on is going to become viral and that’s what’s going to set a good e-commerce site from the rest of them.
What does your day look like?
My day consists of following up on emails, DM’s making sure I communicate with my team on the daily tasks and goals. I chose this career because I always wanted to own my own agency & business and I wanted to constantly be driven to be successful in everything I do and take pride in being self-taught in everything I do. Instagram and Facebook is the biggest driver of social media right now. Those platforms have the broadest demographics to target for your eCommerce business and will produce quality content for your ads.
What tools do you recommend?
I recommend spy tool called ad spy it helps you see what people are marketing on Facebook other than your own newsfeed. it grabs content through a special algorithm to help you see photos or videos of competitors as well as you can choose the demos of certain advertisements that are being run. The pandemic made me pivot because I have to constantly change my focus because of the uncertainty of everything going on and being able to adapt quickly to these changes is what sets us apart from our competitors.
About Steven Ridzyowski
Steven Ridzyowski has been a leader in the eCommerce/digital media buying space for over ten years. Ridzyowski takes pride in being self-taught in all aspects of his career. Ridzyowski was introduced to affiliate marketing and became an affiliate in the ringtone niche for a few years. Little did he know, he was paying “influencers” on YouTube to have links for ringtone offers in the music video description, before “influencers” became the sensation they are now. Ridzyowski then went on to create his own white label skincare brand, which became one of his pivotal successes. Between the moment of changing from affiliate marketing to owning and running digital media buying for his own skincare brand, he started to follow trends, learning the ins and outs of digital marketing, spending over $30m in paid digital ads across the entirety of his career. Today, Steven Ridzyowski is focused heavily on e-commerce and marketing, especially with his new agency, which offers a turnkey solution for e-Commerce. Ridzyowski has mastered everything from product research to product trends and has created converting funnels to growing multiple 6 to 7-figure stores with his agency. Ridzyowski is also a member of the Forbes Business Council and the Young Entrepreneur Council.
The ongoing COVID 19 pandemic has added to the Chinese e-commerce and food delivery giants as the digital format of doing business are gaining all-round growth. Most of the Chinese players have reported very strong earnings for their second quarter as the lockdown rules are still not relaxed completely and the fear of outdoor shopping and virus transmission still remains.
“Post COVID-19, the pace of digitization continues to accelerate and the shift from offline to online, in particular for individual shopping, is becoming a habit for consumers,” Jefferies said in a recent note discussing Alibaba’s June quarter earnings.
As figures indicate, China’s biggest on-demand delivery services firm, Meituan Dianping reported a net profit of 2.2 billion yuan ($319.5 million), a more than 152% year-on-year rise. That compared with a loss of 1.58 billion yuan in the March quarter of 2020.
While operating profit for Meituan’s in-store, hotel, and travel segment declined 11.9% from last year, food delivery saw a more than 65% growth, as an increasing number of people ordered meals online to homes directly fearing contact transmission of the virus. The company also said that the number of newly-onboard branded merchants increased by more than 110% on-year in the second quarter.
“The pandemic has accelerated the restaurants’ online migration, increasing the mix of high-quality merchants on our platform during the period,” Meituan said in a press release.
Alibaba, the Chinese MNC that offers C2C and B2C sales services via web portals as well as electronic payment services and cloud computing services also reported revenue of 153.75 billion yuan for the April to June quarter, which was a whopping 34% year-on-year rise. This growth rate was higher than the one recorded in the first quarter of the year. And like Meituan, Alibaba’s on-demand delivery service Ele.me, also gave rewarding numbers.
In its June quarter earnings released last week, Alibaba said “Ele.me food delivery GMV (gross merchandise value) growth turned positive in April and improved during the quarter as lockdown measures for the pandemic in China were lifted”.
Alibaba’s rival, JD.com also posted strong earnings. The company said net income for the June quarter was 16.45 billion yuan ($2.32 billion), rising over 2,500% year-on-year.
CEO Richard Liu of JD.com said, “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, JD has steadfastly leveraged our distinctive supply chain and technology capabilities to contribute to society and ensure the steady supply and undisrupted delivery of daily necessities to consumers,” in the company’s earnings statement earlier this month.
Tesco, the British MNC groceries and general merchandise retailer, which has shops in seven countries across Asia and Europe, and is the market leader of groceries in the UK is adding 16,000 jobs to cater to the online increase of demand during the ongoing coronavirus times.
This is a rare dose of an economic boost to the struggling UK economy which has seen the closure of a lot of retail giants as bankruptcies are on the rise
The largest UK supermarket chain said in a statement on Monday that the newpermanent roles are in addition to 4,000 jobs it has already added since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Temporary workers will be offered permanent posts first with openings in diverse portfolios such as delivery drivers, pickers for assembling of customer orders, and distribution center jobs.
Tesco now serves nearly 1.5 million customers online each week, up from around 600,000 at the start of the pandemic. Its UK CEO Jason Tarry said, “These new roles will help us continue to meet online demand for the long term.”
Online sales of food items gained momentum as the fear of coronavirus confined people indoors and safe distancing became the norm of doing business. Lockdowns further added to the surge as people started adapting to the digital format of shopping. Amazon was one of the first ones to encash on the opportunity when it offered
free grocery deliveries to Prime members in London and the surrounding areas.
The figure for online sales has grown to more than 16% from a mere 9% before the pandemic, as reported by Tesco. The company anticipates that the value of online sales to grow by two-thirds compared to 2019, reaching over £5.5 billion ($7.2 billion) this year.
Big retail giants such as Mark & Spencer, Walgreens, and other players have resorted to mass lay- off due to poor sales and this announcement comes as a welcome reprieve for UK retail workers. The Office of National Statistics of UK painted a gloomy scenario earlier this month stating that 7,30,000 jobs have been shed since the coronavirus pandemic spread in March.
Amongst other companies that have cut thousands of jobs include the iconic company Rolls- Royce and British Airways
Tesco said on Monday that more numbers may be added to the jobs as the business is in a growth trajectory. Furthermore, it also plans to offer six months of work experience to 1,000 people under 25, as part of a government-subsidized program
The worst fears for big retailers are coming true as they are struggling to survive the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The fears were confirmed in early July when seven big retailer companies filed for bankruptcy protection. These included the likes of The Paper Store, Brooks Brothers, and Lucky Brand.
In the preceding month of May, companies like J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, and J.C. Penney and four other retailers had already filed for bankruptcy. Lord & Taylor and the off-price shop Stein Mart led another wave that hit earlier this month. The industry is showing no signs of revival and perhaps the writing is on the wall.
The holiday season is adding to the trigger of the rush in the Bankruptcy filing as companies online sales have brought a new dimension to the shopping mall visit culture. People are adhering to safe distancing and are switching preferences to the online format which is now becoming the new norm for apparel brands and departmental stores format. Analysts have forwarned that the closedown and bankruptcies will be on a roll if the second round of the pandemic happens, as predicted by some.
Bradley Snyder, Executive MD of liquidation firm Tiger Capital Group year said ” The pipeline is full as it has been all year ” referring to the potential for more retail bankruptcies.
Some 44 retailers have already landed in bankruptcy court in 2020, as per reports by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Snyder added, ” The challenge is making sure we can actually close stores in a window that is open.”
The Standard & Poor’s Global list of companies that pose a risk of defaulting on their debt and exercising the bankruptcy option include Meal-kit company Blue Apron and online furniture retailer Wayfair
Other major apparel makers such as J. Jill, Christopher & Banks, and Destination XL Group are also in the firing line and facing the prospect of going bust commented S&P Global in an analysis this month.
Millions of Americans have been out of jobs and have applied for unemployment aid. Shoppers’ pockets have pruned down and sales have plunged drastically in the past few months. Big giants firms such as Tiger, Hilco, Gordon Brothers, and Great American Group appear to be racing around the clock to work through what seems to be turning out to be the hardest year for retail bankruptcies since the Great Recession.
Tiger Chief Operating Officer Michael McGrail said, “I think there is a lot more to come. It’s just like anything else. We’ve seen the first wave, where those in critical condition are getting in trouble.”, as he oversees the appraisal and disposition practices of Tiger’s retail, wholesale, and commercial and industrial divisions.
Sporting goods chain Modell’s, filed for bankruptcy on March 11 — much before COVID 19 was viewed as a global pandemic and shutdown was implemented. The company was all out for the shutdown liquidation sale but COVID slowed things down. Home goods retailer Pier 1 Imports, also went bust before the pandemic but was hunting for a buyer in its court restructuring process. Unfortunately, COVID crises could not make it sustain and it shut shop permanently
Perry Mandarino, head Investment banking for B. Riley FBR. said “Whereby certain species survived because they were strong enough to, others have been weighed down by too much debt.” Thousands of brick-and-mortar stores are shutting permanently this year, with closures already topping 6,000, according to Coresight Research.
Retailers currently holding going-out-of-business sales include J.C. Penney, Stein Mart, Ann Taylor owner Ascena and Pier 1.
For some consumers, this may look like an opportunity in crises as they may engage in bargain hunting as retailers may try to offload merchandise at attractive discounts and to cover up on losses leading to a more competitive holiday season.
Kohl’s Chief Financial Officer Jill Timm told analysts this week that she expects a lot of sales promotions during the last half of the year. “We expect the margin pressure to persist, given both liquidation pressures as well as people trying to go after that market share and the earlier holiday period,” she said.
“We may just be a little bit on pause right now because there has been so much [activity],” said Andy Graiser, co-CEO at the restructuring firm A&G Real Estate Partners. “But I think you are going to start seeing mid-and small-sized companies filing in the fall. In some cases, they have gotten government money and have been able to buy time. But if their sales aren’t there, you are going to see more bankruptcies. And you may see more Chapter 7s because they can’t reorganize and don’t have the money to go through a Chapter 11,” he said, referring to liquidations versus reorganizations under federal bankruptcy law.
You might have the question of what is the best way to keep up with the trends in e-commerce marketing? I would vouch for e-commerce conferences as it is the venue where thousands of like-minded professionals, entrepreneurs, top-level executives from across different sectors.
It is a place where you’ll learn about trends that will keep your business afloat. At these conferences, keynotes and sessions are arranged to allow people to network with others in a similar or different sector since networking opportunities are never to be shunned.
Meet well-known brands, know what their CEOs and founders did to stand out from the crowd and learn about cutting edge techniques, technologies, and tactics for exponential growth in the commerce industry.
More than 30 conferences are organized every year across the globe and that is where the confusion of attending which ones might arrive.
Not only is it a good place to learn new things in the industry, but it is also a great place to network with other people as well.
So even if you believe that you know everything or that most of the stuff could be learnt online, the sheer experience of meeting people will not be had from your couch. A great e-commerce conference will not only boost your knowledge but your branding and marketing as well.
Best e-commerce conferences to attend in 2020
Here’s a list of best Ecommerce conferences to attend in 2020 for a wholesome positive experience.
Alibaba E-Commerce Expo
Alibaba e-commerce expo
It is one of the largest e-commerce conferences to attend Sydney, Australia. It brings both local and small businesses from Australia and New Zealand with the growing market in China to bridge the gap between the two.
Panel discussions, sessions are all part of the Expo with hundreds of speakers and sub-events organized by the Chinese conglomerate in Sydney.
Last year, it reported sales of over $245 billion before the Expo was organized which gives a glimpse of its mammoth size.
Talking about its size, more than 147 exhibitors took part in Alibaba E-Commerce Expo 2019 with 13,000+ attendees and 15+ million attendees on a live stream.
Location: Sydney & Melbourne, Australia
Dates: Postponed to March 19-20, 2021
GrowCommerce
GrowCommerce
It is a place where trendsetters and professionals arrive for discussing the e-commerce topics on a high-octane event that spans over a few days.
At GrowCommerce, everything from a brand, omnichannel media, direct response marketing, and the art of luring customers and adding leads and sales is discussed on a global scale.
GrowCommerce sees more than 800 brands and 1200+ retail growth experts from across the globe including brands such as Stance, Warby Parker, Aella, Walmart, Joybird, Amazon, Frey, Bombas to name a few.
If you love networking with like-minded people, surely go for GrowCommerce with attendees from across the globe attending the event in Queens, NY.
Location: Queens, New York
Dates: To Be Decided
CommerceNext
CommerceNext
Another great e-commerce conference that you must consider attending is CommerceNext. The 2-days event brought along more than 90 speakers from different industries including online retail, digital marketing, and customer acquisition among others.
More than 700 people participate in the event that has more than 42 sessions including 11 keynotes. It is a great venue for networking with like-minded people, professionals, and top-level executives from brands like Purple, Poshmark, FTD among others.
CommerceNext is all about acquiring knowledge and insights on various aspects of a business including DTC as well as networking to increase brand image among others.
We all know that this year has been different and so has been the planning to host conferences as well. Since physical events can’t be held, everyone is hosting virtual events and so the CommerceNext was also virtual this year.
While the conference has already taken place, you can find the recorded sessions from this conference from here.
Location: New York, US (Virtual for 2020)
Klaviyo: BOS
Klaviyo: BOS
Last year, Klaviyo: BOS organized a 2-days e-commerce event with over 1,000 attendees who participated in its action-packed keynotes and sessions.
Klaviyo: BOS brings industry leaders from across the globe and allows attendees to network with others on one of the most influential e-commerce marketing platforms.
Klaviyo: BOS organizes workshops, 1:1 sessions to the Klaviyo community, and focuses on strategies and tactics to run businesses efficiently making more money than before. What you get at the event is actionable advice to run a business irrespective of the sector for a better outcome.
Location: Boston, MA, United States
Dates: August 26-27, 2020
eCommerce Expo London
eCommerce expo
The event organized in London, UK as the name suggests, brings 350 speakers on-board catering to the aspects of B2C and B2B marketers and professionals. Gain valuable insights, network with people in the same industries, attend workshops, open sessions, and more.
This year, the eCommerce Expo London is going virtual similar to other events. It will on-board 60+ seminars, 25+ hours of content to stream, and more than 50 speakers who will discuss everything from fulfilment to DTC, UX to CRO, omnichannel to the future of e-commerce, and so on.
Location: Online
Dates: September 29 to October 1, 2020
Make It Big
Make It Big
One of the biggest e-commerce conferences to fuel your business’ growth, Make It Big is organized by the e-commerce giant BigCommerce.
Every year, the biggest virtual event takes place over a period of three days where industry and eCommerce experts join hands with professionals with proven strategies, tips, and tactics to fuel business to its ultimate growth.
Get advisable insights with tangible tactics to revive a stalled business. This is an online event for those who don’t want to attend a physical event.
Location: Online
Dates: October 6-8, 2020
ShopTalk
Shoptalk
Supercharge your knowledge of business and trends around e-commerce marketing at ShopTalk. The event allows thousands of entrepreneurs, business owners, and other personalities to learn about trends in the e-commerce industry, the tactics, and techniques to impose to get better results.
The event brings along hundreds of retail brands as well as brick and mortar businesses. With more than 100 sessions, ShopTalk manages each of the participants from acquiring knowledge, network with others, and bank on the opportunities that may come at the 3-days event.
Location: Online
Dates: October 20-22, 2020
Paris Retail Week
Paris Retail Week
Paris Retail Week is one of the largest e-commerce conferences. It is a 3-day event comprising themes which include B2B, omnichannel commerce, marketing, and so on.
Every year, hundreds of exhibitors and companies participate from all parts of the world with over 200 conferences arranged this year alone. It is attended by over 25,000 professionals and the figures are increasing every year.
The 3-day global event allows top-level executives and CEOs from all sections of the retailing ecosystem to connect with the attendees. Brands like Lacoste, Qatar Airways, Diesel France among others have already participated in past events.
Location: Paris, France
Dates: September 15-17, 2020
E-commerce Operations Summit
Ecommerce operations summit
The Ecommerce Operations Summit is now an online conference dedicated to operations and logistics which is a crucial part of any e-commerce website.
Thanks to its various seminars and sessions, people have garnered actionable ideas that they can employ to get better results on the business.
The three-day event gives you access to the various workshops, presentations, expert panels, and others. The purpose of the vent is to strengthen the operations aspect of any industry with omnichannel operations, DTC, and fulfilment taking the front seat.
Location: Orlando, Florida (Online for 2020)
Dates: September 9-10, 2020
The Prosper Show
The Prosper Show
The event particularly focuses on selling stuff on Amazon. The event has more than 1,000 attendees along with 40 speakers including former Amazon experts you’ll need to clear off any queries to help you facelift your marketing strategies on Amazon.
The event does have a wide range of workshops you can attend, presentations, and instructionals on video strategy on Amazon and more. It is designed for Amazon sellers giving them insights and valuable actionable ideas among others.
Location: Las Vegas, US
Date: October 20-24, 2020
DX3
DX3 conference
If you want to know what big retailers do to earn profits, check out DX3, one of the biggest retailer e-commerce conferences in Canada. Get access to workshops, product
demonstrations, more than 100 international speakers from across the globe.
A few participants of DX3 are McDonald’s, Microsoft, Amazon, and a total of 50 exhibitors allowing people to gain necessary inputs about to run and optimize business models and practice to churn out profiles on sales.
Technically, the DX3 conference does not count as the best e-commerce conference to attend in 2020 but it happens in the first quarter of the year which means you can attend it next year if you register this year so there we go.
Location: Toronto, Canada
Dates: March 2-3, 2021
So here is our list of the best e-commerce conferences to attend in 2020 and many of them can be attended physically while some have resorted to going virtual given the current situation.
It is worth noting, however, that there are a lot of other conferences in the year related to e-commerce which have either been postponed or cancelled this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
These events have entry fees that could run upwards of $3,000 and the slots are limited so if you want to attend the event, reserving the seat a few months ago would result is higher chances of getting the tickets to attend the event.
Facebook has added new paid events options for businesses and creators whereby one can generate income sitting at home amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
With the social distancing norms now becoming a part of normal routine life, businesses are radically transforming themselves into the online format. Different events and their services are going online to connect with end-user customers as well as reaching new ones.
As Facebook explains :
” […] By combining marketing, payment, and live video, paid online events to meet the end-to-end needs of businesses. Pages can host events on Facebook Live to reach broad audiences, and we’re testing paid events with Messenger Rooms for more personal and interactive gatherings.”
This new option will be available initially in 20 countries and enable businesses and creators to charge directly on Facebook for access to their online events. As it is in the launch phase, Facebook is not taking any cut in the fee paid, as per its partner monetization policy but the catch is that the attendees will still need to pay a 30% cut to the App Store if they sign up on iOS
Facebook said “For transactions on the web, and on Android in countries where we have rolled out Facebook Pay, small businesses will keep 100% of the revenue they generate from paid online events. We asked Apple to reduce its 30% App Store tax or allow us to offer Facebook Pay so we could absorb all costs for businesses struggling during COVID-19. Unfortunately, they dismissed both our requests and SMBs will only be paid 70% of their hard-earned revenue.”
With Apple having a very rigid policy stance on in-app payment, it may be asking for trouble by coming under more scrutiny. This can be further related to the context that Epic Games this week decided to go against the App store rules and implement direct payment options within its popular ‘Fortnite’ app. In retaliation, Apple was quick to remove the Fortnite from its Store, citing the rule breach, but Epic is setting itself up to battle the tech giant in the court of law regarding payment rules.
The company’s troubles are not diminishing as it already has several antitrust investigations going on over its conduct around App Store payments and Facebook has also taken the heat on. Whether those actions eventually force a change at Apple is yet to be seen but as far as the rules of the game are concerned, for now, businesses will not be able to take 100% of the income generated by their events. Unless they direct all interested parties to sign up via the web (or Android) instead.
Facebook is not new to the paid events option as in past it has a subscription-based option for gaming streamers via its ‘Level Up ‘ program. Furthermore, in June, it also began rolling out paid events within its existing Fan Subscriptions program for prominent creators.
However, it is for the first time that Facebook has made paid events such widely available. What effects will it have on money-making options and overall business growth is something which needs to be keenly observed in times to come.
When COVID-19 hit its stride, it drove the general public indoors, engineered the hibernation or collapse of many businesses, and led to the loss (or suspension) of many more jobs. The list of industries affected encompasses all of them to varying degrees, however, some were affected much more significant than others. To see both ends of the spectrum, we can look at the retail world in general.
Traditional retail suffered greatly from lockdown measures, for instance. Grocery stores were able to stay open due to the essential nature of their goods, but other stores were left with negligible foot traffic if they were allowed to open at all (most weren’t). And with rental bills still to pay, plenty of those stores were ultimately shuttered with little hope of ever reopening.
Online retail, though, was able to endure very capably — and even thrive. Stuck indoors, many people turned to online shopping to safely procure supplies and splurge on purchases like entertainment systems and home improvement items to help them cope with extended isolation. And now that countries worldwide are making serious progress in emerging from lockdown, it’s one of the industries best positioned to take advantage of renewed economic activity.
If you’re looking to start a new business, then, becoming an online merchant is a perfectly sensible move — but given how much competition is out there, you need to approach it correctly to have a great shot at success. In this post, we’ll run through some strong tips for growing a new e-commerce business as the business world recovers from COVID-19. Let’s begin.
Choose a model that suits your abilities and resources
The very first thing you should do is think carefully about what kind of e-commerce business you can (or should) launch. There are plenty of viable methods, after all. There’s conventional reselling whereby you negotiate with suppliers, stock some products, and sell them on. There’s white-label selling that sees you buy generic products, customize them slightly, then sell them as your own branded items. There’s print-on-demand, an option great for graphic designers: pass your designs to print companies, then ship your customers the results.
Most popular for first-time e-commerce sellers is dropshipping, of course, which involves outsourcing almost every element of the retail process. All you need to do is choose the most suitable products from generic ranges (easier said than done, admittedly), tack on your profit margins, then leave everything else to the suppliers. Is it right for you? That depends on various things. How involved do you want to be? How far do you want to take your store?
If you just want to make a bit of extra cash on the side, then something like dropshipping or print-on-demand could work really well for you — but the profitability will be limited. If you want to make your store your primary source of income, then you’ll need to think bigger, and maybe even look into manufacturing your own products from scratch.
Research recent changes in consumer demand
People haven’t been buying in the same ways they did before COVID-19 started to rear its ugly head, and it’s unlikely that their patterns of behavior will revert to type now that its effects are beginning to diminish. After all, it’s sure to be years if not decades before those of us who lived through it will forget how it upended our lives and reminded us of how fragile everything is (our lives in general, and the global economy).
Due to this, before you think about launching your store, you need to have a strong idea of what your target audience wants. Not what it wanted before all of this, but what it wants now. Are the people you’re hoping to attract already seeing their levels of disposable income go back up, or are they likely to struggle for quite some time yet?
Has the pandemic changed which products they prefer to invest in? Some people have decided to spend more liberally following such an enormous reminder of how short life can be, while others have opted to save their money in an effort to guard against comparable catastrophes in the future (or simply further COVID-19 waves). Figure out how your prospects think, and you’ll start to determine how best you can sell to them.
Start small and scale up when you get results
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it’s essential that you start small. There’s still so much we don’t (and can’t) know about what’s going to happen in the next few years. Will we get COVID-19 totally under control, keeping the cases to a minimum until an effective vaccine is developed and made widely available? Will it come back even worse and plunge the world into a state of panic once again? The only way to find out is to wait and see.
Begin with a low-cost e-commerce platform (there are various suggestions here), commit only the resources you can afford to lose and try various things. You may need to test myriad products or even models until you find something that gets results, so there’s no sense in putting all your eggs in one basket as soon as you kick things off.
Wrapping up, e-commerce has done tremendously well during the COVID-19 crisis and stands to do similarly well as the world recovers from it — but if you want to carve out a decent slice of the profits for yourself, you need to put in serious effort to follow the steps we’ve set out here. Good luck!
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted a lot of businesses in the retail industry, the integration of technology with retail is needed more than ever. Team eCommerce Next interviewed Sree Singaraju, Senior Vice President AI & Cloud Solutions to get more insights. Following is our interview with him:
How can technologies like contactless payment and mobile apps help retailers keep their employees and customers safe and in-business?
Beyond contactless payment, technologies like “order ahead, pick up in-store” and curbside pickup were not as popular before the pandemic. Now, because of their safety and convenience, more businesses have implemented mobile apps to keep employees and customers healthy while still bringing in revenue.
Retailers have attempted to implement other tools, but they have had limited success. For example, there was a lot of buzz around social distancing tech early in the pandemic, but it has now largely died off. This effort to contact trace and provide digital measuring tools did not work as well as many had hoped because the technology needed is just not advanced enough yet. It is hard to model human behavior with the current tools we have and there were privacy concerns as well.
Because of this, some stores started to indicate the busyness of their locations so customers could make better decisions on when to shop. People have gotten better at policing themselves when it comes to social distancing, so some of these technologies that many thought would become a big deal just faded out.
How do you expect digital strategies to have an impact on the next several months of in-store shopping?
In April, it looked like habits that people developed such as order ahead, curbside pickup, and online shopping were almost a de facto approach for people shopping. And while we see that new methods of digital shopping have become a permanent new habit for many, consumers are starting to go back to their normal routines of in-store shopping for some of their needs. It’s clear that COVID-19 has expedited long term shifts toward digital methods of shopping for the majority of consumers, but because these trends – and the effects of the pandemic on local geographies – are changing so quickly, it is near impossible to predict how digital strategies will impact in-store shopping in the very short-term.
For example, just a few months ago, basket sizes were much bigger because everyone was doing all of their shopping online, now it is much more selective. There are clear preferences for what items people want to pick up curbside and what they want to pick up themselves. However, with the right promotion and marketing tactics, restaurants and retailers can entice people to come back and use those digital channels in the next several months and beyond. If you look at Target, their curbside program is performing really well due to geo-fencing and other key features.
How do digital platforms understand customer patterns and preferences to meet the needs of all customers and how can retailers use this data?
We are able to look at traffic trends for restaurants and retailers to predict orders based on the current situation in the zip code or geographical area. If COVID is really prevalent in certain areas, we can see exactly how that impacts orders. By using these digital platforms to understand customer preferences we can make correlations between location and frequency of orders. For example, early on we saw in-store shopping dip in New York and New Jersey while mobile orders were through the roof. Now we are seeing the exact same thing in Florida. Retailers can use this data to better predict how customers’ behaviors are changing and ensure that their inventory and system processes are prepared for these shifts.
How will the increase of data from in-store, online, and mobile apps help retailers improve and accelerate their digital solutions? Will the tech curve continue to be compressed?
The most successful solutions are built by anticipating customer patterns and preferences to meet the needs of all customers. This means companies need to build agile solutions that can easily change as customer expectations shift. By taking data from in-store, online, and mobile apps, retailers can work on reducing points of friction along the customer journey to create a more efficient and high-quality customer experience. Once these friction points are reduced, mobile users will be more likely to download and utilize these apps.
And, right now, the tech adoption curve has been compressed because digital laggards no longer have the option of refusing to use these apps. With stores closed or operating at a reduced capacity, consumers need to go mobile to take advantage of the contactless payment and curbside options these apps offer. Now that they’ve seen the benefits of these tools and have gotten comfortable using them, we are likely to see a shortened adoption curve moving forward.
What are the best practices for implementing curbside pickup apps and contactless payment strategies?
The best curbside pickup apps and contactless payment strategies are successful because they have a cohesive tech stack. Without one, digital solutions will only create more friction points for customers. Some best practices include having up-to-date inventory, successful credit card transactions, and accurate pickup information — minimizing operational costs while keeping customers satisfied and loyal to the brand.
Once an app is in place, retailers can work out kinks in the solutions and adapt to customer needs over time. Rolling out digital strategies now will establish a reliable foundation to prepare retailers to best meet their customer needs during whatever phase comes next.
What are some challenges companies face when it comes to the functionality of their mobile apps that need to be addressed early on to improve customer services?
When we look at our covid-related retail Friction Reports, a major challenge is that in-store inventory systems aren’t connected properly. That is shocking to see. For example, a shopper goes on the mobile app and sees that a bike is available at the sporting goods store. A shopper makes the purchase and is ready to head over to pick it up curbside. But, they get a call from someone at the store saying they are sold out, they are canceling and the shopper needs to select another bike. Not only is this a negative experience for the shopper, but it also costs the story money to have an employee go through this process.
Many big retailers do not have accurate inventory in their backend systems. It’s not an easy fix, but it is a necessary challenge to overcome if they want users to engage with their new mobile apps consistently. People may give a store a second chance, but if their item is out of stock or the order fails a second time, they will likely give up on that channel.
Are curbside pickup apps and contactless payment strategies the solution for retailers of all sizes? What aspects do retail chains need to take into consideration that small businesses may not need to think about and vise versa?
While creating a custom app is the best way to make sure you are delivering the best experience to your customers, it may not be feasible for all businesses. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend a custom app solution to smaller businesses, and a lot of the platform vendors, are coming up with approaches that target small and medium businesses. These out-of-the-box tools allow businesses to create a shopping experience right on the platform’s site.
In the next few months, Apple is coming out with a strategy that will be beneficial to small vendors who have less than five storefronts. App Clips, which is like a micro-app that users don’t need to download ahead of time, will allow shoppers to use Apple Pay and pick up items curbside. Downloading an app is a big friction point to people, and it’s even harder when people know they won’t use the app frequently. But, with App Clips customers are skipping ahead of all those friction points by scanning a QR code and making the purchase without exchanging any personal information or agreeing to promotional emails afterward.
Why do companies need to take a look at their full tech stack to develop new strategies that lead to seamless customer adoption of new tools?
Companies need to look at their full tech stack to ensure all of their technology is integrated. When companies do not integrate their mobile app with their backend systems, customers can experience that inventory error discussed earlier, as well as incorrect shipping and pickup times. The whole system needs to work together in order to provide customers with a seamless digital experience. Right now, many retailers are offering cobbled-together, clunky experiences. Because of that, a customer’s negative experiences may prevent them from fully adopting these new tools and it may cause them to turn to a competitor who offers a better shopping experience.
Do you expect contactless digital solutions to remain a staple part of the in-store shopping experience after the pandemic has ended?
Things are always changing, but one area where we’re seeing strong consumer feedback through our Friction Reports is around the discomfort consumers are facing when they have to handle payments directly with associates – instead of using a contactless option. The contactless experience has become the norm, and with this, it is now the new expectation that consumers demand. For industries to successfully deliver positive customer experiences, they need to understand that the adoption of touchless-digital options (payments, orders, etc.) is the new way of life.
What will happen to retailers who don’t adopt or update mobile apps to support contactless shopping experiences?
In the past, nearly half of the retail and food companies did not provide a digital storefront and were considered ‘digital novices’. Whether it was because they simply did not have the financial means or the process of developing the solution was too daunting for them to go through, not having a mobile app wasn’t a deal-breaker in the eyes of the consumer. However, this is not an option anymore, companies need to create contactless channels consumers can use.
Because the pandemic is still ongoing and the ability to access stores digitally is crucial, we’ve entered a digital leapfrog moment for retailers. They need to update their technology in order to survive. Most retailers are updating customer service bots, adding curbside picking, and creating a seamless stack from end to end. This ensures their employees are not getting burnout and that customers are not getting frustrated by unfilled orders and leaving for competitors.
About Sree Singaraju
Sree Singaraju is the Vice President of Cloud Services at Mobiquity. In his experience, the cloud is the key enablement ingredient for any digital solution: mobile, voice, web, chat, AI/ML. Since the cloud is at the center of every Mobiquity engagement, Sree is a natural fit and great asset to every company engagement. Blending his experience leading transformations at organizations like Johnson & Johnson, Dun & Bradstreet, Merrill Lynch, and State Street Bank, with his expertise in cloud and artificial intelligence, Sree spends his time helping companies transform their goals into reality.
A true believer in the power of personalization, Sree wants to support companies in their journey to create responsible AI. To do this, Sree’s work involves creating programs that cater to an audience of one, meaning every single engagement that a user has is personalized to them. No longer will customers get ads for credit cards they already have or promotions for meat lover’s pizza if they are a vegetarian. Rather, Sree is focused on creating meaningful experiences for each individual customer.
Sree holds an MBA in Information Technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a graduate of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University where he studied Civil Engineering.
About Mobiquity
Mobiquity is a digital consultancy that partners with the world’s leading brands to design and deliver compelling digital products and services for their customers. Its approach balances human needs with usefully applied technology, unbound creativity with research and analytics, and agile development with strict engineering and security standards. Mobiquity’s end-to-end services consider every dimension of digital business from marketing to IT, providing strategy, experience design, product engineering, cloud services, and analytics. Mobiquity is an AWS Partner Network (APN) Premier Consulting Partner and has worked with AWS since 2011 to deliver 100% cloud-based innovation to its clients.
