Walmart is starting to see demand pick up for its drone delivery service, as the giant retailer has expanded to 37 store-based deployment hubs in seven states and 26 municipalities, with 6,000 deliveries in 2022, an executive told attendees at NRF’s Big Show 2023 in New York.
Singles Day, really Singles Nearly Fortnight (to borrow a British term) running from Nov. 1-11, was hit by headwinds from an anemic economy, the pandemic, Chinese crackdowns and supply issues, increasing 8.5% to $84.54 billion for originator Alibaba, the lowest jump since its inception in 2009.
Driven by a pandemic-fueled lack of travel and more disposable income, the China luxury goods market grew 48% in 2020, doubling the country’s overall share, according to Bain & Company. The upward trend is expected to give China a leading share of 45% of the global luxury market by 2025, outpacing Europe and North America.
With the meteoric rise in ecommerce, consumer scrutiny on ecommerce sites is at an all-time high. Before, the only job of an ecommerce merchandiser was to show consumers what they came for and inspire them to buy. Now, that role is incrementally more complex. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind for this holiday season.
Boding well for the holiday spend here, the U.S. was the top seller of goods during Alibaba’s Singles Day 2020, which raked in $116 billion combined on Alibaba and JD.com. Alibaba itself reported $75.28 billion yuan in GMV, while JD.com said its Singles Day GMV was $40.72 billion. Sales from U.S. retailers topped $5 billion.
Amazon is taking a serious run at counterfeit sellers on its marketplace, with the creation of a Counterfeit Crimes Unit that includes former federal prosecutors, investigators and data analysts. The company said it has limited counterfeit complaints to 0.1% of items listed, but legislators and media investigations have still taken it to task.
Alibaba set another Singles Day record this year on 11/11/19, recording $38.4 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the 24-hour promotion created as a reverse spin on Valentine’s Day 10 years ago, up 25% from last year. By comparison, Adobe is forecasting $29 billion in total ecommerce sales for Cyber Weekend 2019.
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%.
Walmart announced plans to invest $1.2 billion into its China business to beat out competition. The company plans to invest the money into distribution centers over the next 20 years with a focus on grocery delivery.
Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com is working feverishly to realize customers’ desires for getting their online orders delivered when, where and how they want them, rolling out new technology to help conquer the last mile and go head-to-head with main rival Alibaba Group.