Amazon Advertising Challenges; Amazon Store & Posts; Retail Foot Traffic
Increased cost to advertising on Amazon is top challenge for brands year-to-date: In our 2022 Amazon Advertising benchmark we found that over half of General Merchandise and Food & CPG brands reported that CPC/CPM increases have been the biggest challenge within Amazon Advertising since the start of 2022. For General…
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E-Grocery Consumer: Price Sensitivity & Future Usage Outlook; Live Shopping
How do consumers view e-grocery platform pricing compared to in-store? In our latest study tracking 1800 online grocery shoppers it was clear that the online grocery players fall into 3 tiers in terms of consumer price perception. First, is Walmart.com which is by far perceived as being most fair / cheapest…
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Digital Fulfillment: The Key Questions Your Organization Should Be Asking
Brands are facing continued transportation and shipping costs pressures, with benchmarking data from CRC’s Traditional Retail Council suggesting it's the top cost pressure for brands, above labor, commodities, packaging, and more. Retailers are feeling these same transportation and shipping cost pressures, which has resulted in more vendor drop ship requests…
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Shifting Digital Preferences; Online Grocery Forecasts; Kroger + Instacart Partnership
Throughout the pandemic, consumers’ preferences for purchasing groceries in-store vs. online have ebbed and flowed. In our most recent round of work, we found yet another reversion away from stores with 35% of consumers saying they did the majority of their grocery shopping online. This is a step up compared…
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Amazon Advertising & Supply Chain Strengthened; Outlook for 2021
Brands continued to lean heavily into paid search in the fourth quarter as 56% reported increasing their spend compared to only 6% cutting back. Also, 33% of brands report spending more on media and DSP with Amazon in 4Q compared to their plans entering the year, vs. 13% that have…
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Walmart Media Group; Marketplaces; ’21 Amazon Forecasts
Our research suggests Walmart is expanding its advertising inventory meaningfully and asking vendors to significantly increase their investments with Walmart Media Group (WMG). With Walmart’s new integrated merchandising structure, WMG team members are beginning to join more meetings between the buyer and vendor and the pressure to invest greater funds…
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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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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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Dropshipping, Kroger Online, YouTube
Dropshipping Capability Growth In our 2019 supply chain benchmark, 56% of manufacturers we polled indicated they currently have dropship capability, an increase from 40% from last year’s benchmark. Hardline manufacturers tend to outpace CPG companies with this capability as CPG products tend to be very difficult to economically ship directly…
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