Delivery and Pickup Delays; COVID Costs; Expected “Return to Normal” has Worsened
In September, when asked about their most recent online order, anywhere from a third to 44% of consumers have experienced delays on delivery or pickup times across multiple retailers. When looking at the weighted averages, Target.com performed best, while Wayfair had the longest delivery time. Interestingly, despite winning the top score for…
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Post-Pandemic Retention, Costco Holds Off on BOPIS, Holiday Promotional Plans
We recently surveyed 1,386 general merchandise consumers across seven key online retailers to determine how these retailers are performing, which ones are leading and lagging on different dimensions, and to what degree consumers think they’ll use these eCommerce sites post-pandemic. When considering post-pandemic retention, a net 83% report being comfortable…
Read More Target Supply Chain Fulfillment; Lowe’s Invests in Digital; Amazon Staffing
According to our recent Target.com research, early supplier feedback has been positive on the addition of fresh and frozen items for Pickup and Drive Up, and Target seems committed to expanding this offering so that all stores are carrying fresh and frozen items for Pickup and Drive Up before the…
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Instacart Activations; Kroger eCommerce Profitability; Consumer Holiday Shopping Plans
Our latest research on Instacart suggests brands should first turn to Featured Products (i.e. paid search) with their activation budgets, maximizing that spend before moving to other activations. This is analogous to how many brands have approached their paid activation strategy on Amazon. Our consumer research shows search remains the…
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Prime Day; Amazon’s Partnerships with Kohl’s and Toys R Us; eCommerce Growth Forecasts
We expect the holiday shopping season to kickoff early this year, as Prime Day is expected to run in mid-October and Amazon’s competitors are following suit with holiday-type promotions planned to start earlier than normal (Home Depot the most recent example). We expect the consumer to react reasonably well to…
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Direct Import Program; Walmart+ Launch; Increasing Budget for Amazon Paid Search
We estimate Amazon’s GMV growth rate nearly doubled in 2Q20 as pandemic-driven buying behavior increasingly shifted online. We expect this trend to continue, forecasting 37% and 40% growth in 3Q and 4Q respectively. With massive growth comes fulfillment challenges and ordering and supply chain initiatives are increasingly being discussed in the manufacturer…
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“Overstocked” Items at Amazon; CVS Media Platform; Retention Expectations
Since July, weighted average inventory amounts at Amazon have remained in normal ranges, although some manufacturers are seeing changes to inventory on certain ASINs (Amazon increasing inventory on high volume ASINs, decreasing on low volume, especially as it preps for 4Q demand). As part of this dynamic, 15% of those…
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Back-To-School; Post Office Raises Rates; eCom Market Booming in the US
According to an analysis from Stackline, online growth across Amazon, Walmart and Target has decelerated in back to school categories year-to-date. Both Walmart and Target had discussed back-to-school sales across digital and store formats during their earnings calls this week, although both expect the selling period to extend longer than…
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WFH Expectations; Lowe’s Supply Chain Improvements; Kroger Looks to Expand
Consumer expectations for returning to the office have worsened according to our latest consumer study results, with 51% of workers expecting to go in for work in the month of October compared to ~70% in our July study. This aligns with recent announcements that Google has extended its remote work policy until…
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