Digital Activation; Changes to Amazon Seller Profiles; China’s Shopping Holidays
Our most recent report on commerce marketing highlighted steady, but perhaps, slow progress from Amazon’s key omnichannel rivals. In our research, brands are continuing to look for more advanced analytics and activation options across Walmart, Target, and Kroger in particular. While these retailers are eager to build a robust advertising business…
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Costly eCommerce Growth, COVID-19 Bonus Pay, China Retail Slow to Recover
COVID-19 created an unprecedented shift to eCommerce, representing a significant change in eCommerce acceleration. While many brands have seen tremendous growth since the start of the crisis, eCommerce represents a headwind to profitability for omnichannel retailers. According to our research, 29% of manufacturers have already seen key omnichannel customers looking…
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Amazon Activations Recovering; Counterfeit Crimes Unit; Highest Outperformance in Two Years
Our research throughout the COVID-19 crisis has suggested manufacturers tended to invest more deeply into AMS so long as they were able to stay in stock. The most recent benchmark suggests that principle remains, as we now see a net positive number of both essential and non-essential manufacturers investing more,…
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Return to “Normal”; Antitrust Charge in Europe; Income Breakdown
While the COVID-19 crisis will leave us with a “new normal,” we have been gauging when consumers expect to resume behaviors that were considered commonplace prior to the crisis, such as going out to eat and shopping at an indoor mall. In comparing the results from our study last month,…
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Renewed Focus on Drop Shipping; Amazon Summer Sale; Walmart Digital Mix
Our research indicates a significant uptick in drop shipping as eTailer capacity constraints and inefficiencies have limited the ability to fulfill demand. Many vendors are proactively increasing their drop ship activity to minimize supply chain issues and better serve demand. In addition, Walmart and Costco have more recently been approaching…
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Amazon Media; Social Commerce Update; Material Acceleration in eCommerce Growth
Amazon’s advertising business grew 44 % during 1Q (ending March 2020), up from 41% during the prior quarter. In our research, 1P manufacturers on average were increasing the amount of spend with Amazon’s paid search advertising units (AMS), citing continued positive ROI’s and the reduction in other promotional vehicles like…
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Government Stimulus, Amazon Shipping, Wayfair up 90%
Feedback from our most recent consumer survey indicates that around 60% of consumers have received a government stimulus check, with an additional 27% expecting to receive one soon. Of those who have received government stimulus, our data indicates that they are tending to spend more on groceries, rather than on…
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Amazon Shipping Times, Best Buy Online up 250%, eCommerce Share Gains
Our most recent Amazon Vendor Benchmark indicates shipping times are delayed by 2.5-4.6 days on average for manufacturers in the benchmark. Our research suggests this has hurt conversion rates to a degree on Amazon, opening the door for its rivals like Walmart.com, HomeDepot.com, Wayfair and others to gain new customers…
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Essential Product Sales, In-Store Shopping Bans, Amazon COVID-19 Cases
The second round of our Amazon manufacturer benchmark indicates that Amazon’s focus the last 10 days has resulted in a widening performance disparity between essential and non-essential categories. This played out with a much wider dispersion in sales in March (66% of essential category manufacturers seeing 100%+ lifts vs. 11%…
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