VR and Metaverse for Retail Training, Google and the the online shopping experience, The paradox of eCommerce, All about returns in eCommerce, Social Commerce statistics for 2023...

Vol 1.

Sep 09, 2023

Hello!

This is the first edition of ComerceUpdates, the newsletter that aims to be the reference when it comes to informing you about everything that is happening in the US eCommerce and Retail sector. Every week you will receive a free summary with the most relevant facts of this industry.

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Thank you.

Here we go!

Reports

The future of grocery Retail. Change and choice, as retailers grapple with six forces transforming their markets, models, and mechanics, by Deloitte
The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year, by McKinsey.

Retail

- How J.C. Penney is pivoting its brand as part of $1B company turnaround plan. An investment to improve areas like customer experience and operations. The effort also introduces a new brand positioning and campaign, called “Make It Count”.

- Kroger, Albertsons in talks to sell 400+ stores as part of merge, to C&S Wholesale Grocers for nearly $2 billion.

- The US mall is not dying, they are merely adapting to a new environment. Foot traffic in top-tier malls was up by 12% in 2022 compared to 2019, while traffic in lower-tier malls was up 10%.

- Good times for Walmart:

Sellers are dedicating more resources to Walmart’s third-party marketplace this holiday season.
Walmart is following Amazon’s Marketplace Playbook, but it has an Ace in the hole ,its 4,600 Stores.

- If you happen to have an old, unused Trek bike sitting in your garage, Trek wants it back. OK! but…. Why?

- VR and Metaverse for Retail Training.

Attending to this source, who partake in VR training train 4X faster than those who train in a classroom, and are 275% more confident to apply skills learned after training

How can retailers best leverage the technology to land the strongest sales performance outcomes?

Align the Tech to the Business Goals.
Supplement the Training Toolkit.
Keep the Customer Experience in Your Purview.

If you are interested in this topic, I recommend reading the PwC article “What does virtual reality and the metaverse mean for training?”.

eCommerce

- Alibaba presentes “Super September”, a B2B sales event will connect more than 40 million buyers and 200,000 suppliers from around the world. Over 70 million products will be featured in this sales event.

- In Europe, Online marketplace Zalando has removed product reviews from its platform. Instead of posting a review about a product, customers can now answer a survey about the product information featured on a page.

- Google introduces autofill enhancements to improve Online Shopping experience. These enhancements aim to make the checkout process more seamless and secure.

- Three new features on the eBay marketplace:

Rolls out an AI tool that generates product listings from photos.
Launches Back to Uni hub.
eBay eCharity Hub launched

- A good report to know everything about returns in eCommerce.

The eCommerce rate of return RoR) of your online store indicates how frequently customers return items.
It can take up to 66% of the item’s original price to process and deal with returns.
72% of customers expect a refund within five days of returning an item.
69% don’t want to pay for return shipping or packaging.
49% check the returns policy of an e-commerce store before making a purchase.
52% have abandoned an online purchase out of fear of a complicated return process.

Social Commerce

- It's not a good time for TikTok in the United States. TikTok Shop it’s a showcase for cheap goods from China and pushes social features as growth cools. But it's not all bad, is TikTok the future of television?

- Pinterest announces industry-first body type technology to increase body representation on platform.

- Social Commerce statistics for 2023.

Social media users spend an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes on social platforms.
80% of internet users make online purchases.
Approximately 50% of Gen Z and millennials make purchases on social media.
Social commerce in the U.S. is projected to reach $107.17 billion by 2025.
More than 70% of online shoppers will use social media to recommend the brands they purchase from.
64% of U.S. internet users discover brands and products from social media.

Amazon

- The paradox of eCommerce. Why Amazon isn’t the Amazon of Latin America or the power of MercadoLibre.

- Amazon tweaks in-garage delivery option. Amazon will soon start adding a small fee for Prime members.

- Amazon one begins to be used outside of retail. Crunch Fitness has become the first fitness brand to introduce the palm recognition service as an entry option for its members.

StartUp

Europe has overtaken the US to become the most active tech M&A market in the world. Europe has led global tech M&A since surpassing the US in Q1’22. However, the US is still the undisputed champion of M&A deals worth $100M+