Holiday season trends, Amazon’s new challenge, Alibaba Super September top categories, unique US eCommerce website visitors...
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Reports
Unlocking commerce in the metaverse. Consumers already know what they want at the intersection of virtual and physical retail, de McKinsey.
Reinventing Enterprise Operations. How optimizing operations can help to access a new performance frontier, de Accenture.
Retail
_Walmart reaches 100,000 active Marketplace Sellers, has doubled in size in 18 months.
_How retailers plan to promote their stores for last-minute holiday orders.
_The future of shopping: exploring Virtual Reality's impact on Retail.
_Redesigning the shopping experience or how Walmart explores “limitless potential” of virtual commerce.
_According to the Deloitte report “2023 Holiday Spending Outlook”, five trends shaping the holiday season:
Earlier holiday shopping preparations.
Consumers plan to spend less on holiday gatherings.
CPG as a holiday hotspot for consumer resilience.
A fierce festive showdown between brands
Ignition of Online holiday CPG shopping
eCommerce
_Temu overtakes Target in unique website visitors, but Amazon remains on top. eMarketer Highlights:
Temu’s popularity hasn’t waned since its debut last year, as consumers continue to flock to the platform for its ultra-low prices.
But site visitors are not necessarily buyers. Temu’s contribution to owner PPD’s total sales was likely less than 1% in Q2.
Looking ahead, Temu may be facing serious competition from TikTok Shop, which just rolled out to all 100 million US users.
_AI & Retail: Retailers test generative AI to create product detail page content and How AI-Powered and Data-Driven Retailers can prosper in tough economic conditions.
_Alibaba insights Super September Top categories.
_What’s driving marketplace and drop-shipping platforms' transactions.
_H&M will expand return fees for online orders. The fast-fashion retailer has begun charging customers in the U.S., U.K. and most of Europe, unless they belong to its free loyalty program.
_With 14 million eCommerce sites, the US is atop the online world. The number of eCommerce sites worldwide nearly tripled between 2019 and 2023 to over 26.5 million and the U.S. accounts for more than half of them.
Social Commerce
_TikTok launches holiday discounts to compete with Amazon and Walmart. The social media app may have taken the first shot at a pricing war.
_Social Commerce around the world: TikTok Shop launches “refurbished technology” category (UK) and WhatsApp users can now pay businesses with credit card and other UPI apps (India).
_TikTok elevates its search game for Gen Z by integrating Wikipedia results. Although it's too early to ascertain if TikTok can truly rival traditional search engines in their full capacity, these initial steps indicate a fascinating future for digital search.
Amazon
_Amazon’s new challenge: Bargain Retailers that are playing a different game. eCommerce giant weighs how to respond as online shopping sites Shein and Temu notch rapid growth by stressing low prices, not fast shipping
_FTC names Amazon execs in “Dark patterns” complaint. The agency also revealed details from previously redacted internal messages from the e-retailer’s employees, warning leadership of unfair practices.
_Amazon brings eCommerce to Prime Video with a merch shop, starting with “Gen V”. As users move around the campus store, they can click on items they want to buy which pops up a window to complete the transaction on Amazon.com by clicking the yellow “Buy Now” button.
_Amazon adds RFID to cashierless tech to support apparel purchases. The new capability enables cashierless shopping for softline goods like clothing, fan gear, hats and shoes.
_Second Prime Day Event: Amazon to kick off Holiday Shopping Oct. 10. Walmart and Target follow Amazon with early start to holiday sales.