In March, President Donald Trump caused a stir by accusing Amazon of paying little or no state and local taxes. Research then concluded President Trump was wrong (imagine that?); Amazon does pay sales tax. True, this was a more recent development, within the last few…
As Coldplay, once sung, “I used to rule the world, felt the fear in my enemies’ eyes…” After 30 years of watching the retail space, I have seen Sears move from the world’s most dominant (and feared) retail company to an afterthought today. Walmart’s era…
As the excitement of Walmart’s annual meeting dies down this week, it is pretty clear that the company is making a concerted attempt to court a more upscale consumer. The new website delivers a more lifestyle-driven experience that simplifies navigation and significantly declutters the homepage….
Walmart has invested in an extensive overhaul of their online experience to be a little less like, well, Walmart. Relaunched last month, the new site creates a more lifestyle-driven experience that showcases relatable photography with more localized and personalized features that are significantly differentiated. A…
The battle for grocery e-commerce supremacy just got a whole lot more interesting with the annoucement of a strategic alliance between US supermarket giant Korger and UK grocery e-commerce pure play Ocado. I consider Ocado to be best in breed in terms of their automated…
Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods has been far from a smooth transition to date. Between culture clashes (the data driven approach at Amazon versus the emotional and experiential approach of Whole Foods), changes of policies to small vendors and systems integration with widely reported out…
“Data is the new oil” will be the “retail apocalypse” storyline of 2018. We will hear it – over, and over, and over again. But unlike the apocalypse storyline – a shoulder-shrugging, sky-is-falling, backward glance at the past, data as oil is a forward-looking call…
I stopped into the Brandless Pop-Up store, which is open for two weeks on Melrose Avenue in Santa Monica, California. Brandless has been on my radar for some time now, and our office has even ordered some of the products. Yet, I was strangely moved…
Fast on the heels of Walmart’s surprise sale of Asda to Sainsbury’s for nearly $10 billion comes further news on the battle for Flipkart, one of the top players in India’s fast growing e-commerce market. For context, India is a booming retail market but one…
Retail bankruptcies in 2018 are starting off similarly to the way 2017 finished up with wave after wave of prominent retailers filing for bankruptcy. The latest casualty of Retailmageddon is Nine West, the iconic seller of shoes who will no longer be selling footwear as their saga…
