The global sleep company Casper, in a crowded field of mattress-in-a-box companies going direct to customer it helped spawn, has been a darling of the business and lifestyle press, That is, until it recently filed for an IPO, and pundits and the business press attacked the CEO for his obsession with a unicorn valuation.
Extend, a provider of extended warranty programs, has raised $16.4 million in new capital and acquired assets from Aon division Affinity Insurance Services as it looks to make warranty programs available beyond enterprise-scale retailers. The company said current clients have combined annual sales of more than $11.5 billion.
Amazon and Walmart will continue to slug it out atop the world of global e-grocery food sales, with the ecommerce giant projected to pass the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer by 2024 with revenues of $15 billion, compared to $14 billion, according to a new report from research firm Edge by Ascential. The projected CAGR through 2024 is 13%.
Same-day delivery services startup Dolly has raised $7.5 million in new capital to fund expansion and increase its operational and technical teams, raising its venture funding total to $20 million. An Amazon executive is one of the new investors. Dolly plans to expand to 15-20 new markets this year and uses independent contractors.
It’s about time retailers drop the term omnichannel from their vocabulary. Creating an omnichannel experience is not even that difficult. What is much harder is giving your customers a reason to shop, a belief that you are looking out for and providing them with unique experiences that they appreciate.
While Amazon dominates ecommerce overall, accounting for roughly half of all online consumer sales according to some estimates, it is not out in front in the grocery wars as competitors like Walmart and Target with more physical assets are winning in curbside pickup.
If stores are the weak link in inventory accuracy, how do you improve it to avoid stock-outs and dissatisfied customers? Steve DeNunzio of Ohio State’s graduate logistics program covers the challenges and solutions in this MCM CommerceChat podcast. He’ll also lead this discussion at Ecommerce Operations Summit in Columbus, OH.
In an indicator of the continuing evolution of retail, more shuttered stores and malls are being converted to industrial space, especially for ecommerce fulfillment, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm CBRE. See where this is happening, what the drivers are and the prevailing local headwinds.
Instacart, the same-day grocery delivery company used by many grocers, is dealing with customer ire as freelance shoppers fulfilling the orders are passing up some jobs due to a change in the pricing structures. Also a number of shoppers have taken to Twitter to call for a boycott of the service due to a drop in their wages.
Target is taking a new approach to its distribution model for retail and ecommerce orders, testing out a “flow center” concept that draws from a common inventory pool and sends smaller shipments to stores to enable quicker turns and lower stock levels.