In the midst of posting another blockbuster quarter, Amazon dropped the bombshell news that founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping out of the top role in Q3 to become executive chairman. He will be replaced as CEO by AWS head Andy Jassy. Bezos started the $1.6 trillion company as a bookseller on the nascent internet in 1994.
As 2020 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect back on a wild and crazy year in retail, to paraphrase the Festrunk brothers from Saturday Night Live. COVID-19 came in like a wrecking ball in February and March, causing widespread shutdowns that hit retail especially hard, leading to hockey-stick growth in ecommerce.
The monumental shift to ecommerce is causing businesses to re-evaluate their fulfillment experience to make sure they get it right. At the heart of that process is understanding how to improve the status quo by putting the customer relationship front and center. The stakes are high, but those who get it right will see substantial growth.
While ecommerce was initially thought to be a boon during the coronavirus crisis, with stores and malls in lockdown, execution is proving to be anything but as a growing chorus of drivers and facility associates complain about the danger of exposure. Workers at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods staged protest walkouts.
Grocers may be ringing up major sales from the crush of store and online panic buying due to the growing coronavirus threat, but the market will be painful after the situation abates as demand falls and supplies are overstocked, a Barclays analyst said in a research note.
Amazon has temporarily suspended fulfillment of non-essential items through FBA through April 5, due to high coronavirus-related demand. Meanwhile, retail and DTC brands are closing their doors, while UPS assures customers their deliveries are safe, and major e-grocery delivery app downloads are setting records daily.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a new measure that will require many companies using independent contractors to hire them as employees and provide benefits, dramatically changing the economics of the gig economy in ecommerce delivery. Deliv got ahead of the law in June by hiring its California workers.
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 is offering three-hour delivery for certain home goods and technology products in Mexico, as it battles Amazon in the major Latin American market, according to Reuters. The new service covers 12,000 items including laptops, cell phones, televisions and clothing irons and is supported by two new ecommerce fulfillment centers.
Two months after dropping out of the Google Shopping Actions platform and the Google Express same-day delivery service after a year-long test, Walmart is adding Google’s voice ordering capability for online groceries as it continues to wage war with Amazon.