Over the last several years, Amazon has boldly entered brick-and-mortar retail through its Go and Fresh stores as well as its highly publicized acquisition of Whole Foods. Walmart has responded in tandem by pursuing omnichannel capabilities and digital acquisitions. This September, Walmart launched its Walmart+…
Much like the rest of 2020 conventions, this year’s Holiday season will be quite different than in years past. From a topline perspective, experts are forecasting tepid growth compared to last season due to recessionary pressures stemming from the novel coronavirus. According to RetailDive, about…
This summer, McMillanDoolittle partnered with Retail Tomorrow on a four-part virtual series exploring the impact of COVID on the rapidly shifting retail landscape. Hosted by McMillanDoolittle’s Neil Stern, each episode of the Brave New Retail World series highlighted the impact of COVID on key areas…
In late July, FreshDirect announced that it would be partnering with Fabric Robotics to build a micro-fulfillment center (MFC) in Washington D.C., providing same-day delivery to area customers. The online-only grocer has traditionally only done next-day fulfillment, but is planning to expand same-day throughout the…
The COVID-19 crisis has quickly swept over the US, amassing over 1.5 million cases and 90,000+ deaths through May 18 (NYT COVID Tracker). Consumers have responded with dramatic shifts in shopping and purchasing behaviors. While some of these new behaviors are probably short-term responses to…
Lost in the wake of Walmart’s blowout quarter (e-commerce sales up 74% and same store sales climbed nearly 10%) is the news that they are officially shutting down Jet.com. The news itself is not shocking: they have been telegraphing this for well over a year…
There’s nothing like massive disruption to accelerate a trend that was already occurring in the market. In this instance, a global pandemic the likes we’ve never seen before has caused significant change in the retail landscape. While grocery stores have remained open and fared better…
News reports today indicate that Brandless, the SoftBank Vision Fund backed start-up, will shut down permanently. This news follows a tumultuous few years for the once promising start-up that offered high quality, “brandless” goods for a single fixed price point of $3. Brandless was an…
Greg Foran, the former CEO of Walmart U.S. said that “Retail Will Change More in the Next Five Years Than It Has in the Past 50 Years”. If he is even remotely correct, expect to see a rapidly shifting retail landscape as we enter a…
As the Holiday season of 2019 winds to an end, I am going to use this time to look back and to look ahead. The 2010’s were a transformative decade for retail. While Retailmageddon didn’t exactly come to pass, we saw a significant slowdown in…
