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…
Walmart’s performance in the third quarter should serve as a powerful reminder to the retail community that the world’s largest retailer remains a formidable competitor even as Amazon continues its assault on the rest of the market. Comparable store sales were up 3.2% in the…
CHICAGO, IL- Aug. 5th, 2019 In this report McMillanDoolittle details shifting consumer expectations across all retail categories – and the blind spots the leaders of both legacy retailers and digital natives must overcome as they adapt to an integrated retail landscape. In Different Leaders /…
As I’ve written several times before, there are multiple reasons why the grocery category is well under-penetrated relative to other e-commerce categories. Multi-temperature products, awkwardly sized and shaped products, product and SKU proliferation, delivery challenges, combined with razor-thin margins have kept e-commerce penetration today to…
In July 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com. 25 years later, he is the wealthiest man in the world and Amazon controls 50% of the online business in the U.S. with no signs of slowing down. I have been tracking developments in the world of retail…
Efforts to intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform have largely been driven by activist organizations and individuals. Retailers, for the most part, have been content to stay on the sidelines for fear of alienating a particular customer group and targeting one demographic group…
While not nearly as dramatic as Walmart’s $18 billion bet on Flipkart India, their recent announcement to invest $320 million in China’s Dada-JD Daojia could provide a glimpse into the future of retail. China is a fascinating market to study retail’s evolution. It is the…
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…
Amazon’s newest brick and mortar location in Chicago opened this week – a Campus Pick-Up point in the heart of the DePaul-Lincoln Park neighborhood. In a neighborhood with several Amazon Lockers nearby, and a Whole Foods just up the street and Prime Now same day…
Three things have become strikingly apparent during the start to the 2016 Holiday season: Retail sales are off to a very good start, driven by strong promotions and a big influence from online sales. 154 million shoppers were reported to have gone shopping over the…
