This year, US consumers will pay over $35 billion in retail membership fees, according to our forecast. Some 53% of that will go to Amazon, making it by far the biggest player.
Instacart and Gopuff struggle to deliver growth and profits: Inflation is eating into consumers’ spending power and causing them to adjust how they shop for groceries.
Amazon Prime, Walmart+ woo customers with new perks as fee revenue growth slows: We expect paid membership fee revenues to grow just 6.5% this year.
Patagonia sues Nordstrom in latest bid to safeguard brand reputation: The outdoor retailer alleges that the department store is selling counterfeit products at its off-price Rack stores.
Amazon looks to reduce the number of damaged goods it sends: The retail giant is deploying artificial intelligence in several fulfillment centers to streamline its supply chain decision-making. (This article was written with the assistance of ChatGPT.)
The partnership opens up the provider to a massive merchant network, which can help it add users and grow volume.
China’s example would suggest that retail media has enormous headroom for growth in the US. Companies like Amazon have been growing their ad revenues by leaps and bounds, and yet ecommerce channel ad spending will still only represent 14.6% of the US digital ad market this year. In China, the share will be 38.1%.
Dollar General cut its full-year same-store sales and profit forecasts: The move dovetails with Dollar Tree and other discount retailers seeing lower-income consumers pull back on discretionary spending.
Luxury spending in the US is returning to historical norms: Shoppers are increasingly focused on saving money and travel.
Macy’s and Nordstrom brace for softer sales as discretionary spending weakens: Beauty and off-price were bright spots during an otherwise challenging Q1.
The universal appeal of mobile messaging apps puts them at the forefront of advertising growth in emerging markets.
BuzzFeed has created a commerce site for its lifestyle brand, Goodful, while Time has launched a platform for product recommendations and reviews. TikTok’s Pulse Premiere program offers publishers 50% of ad revenues and a brand safety guarantee.
It will use AI for transaction approval, predictive analytics, and customer experience tools
Expanding Alipay+ should help it recover from steep net profit losses from last year
Digital and mobile gift cards are becoming more popular among younger consumers
On today's episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss exactly how much of the retail membership market Amazon Prime has gobbled up, whether Walmart+ is even competing with Amazon, and how valued benefits have shifted. Then, for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank our top four creative recommendations for what retail memberships could offer members. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Blake Droesch.
Economic concerns, inflation, and subscription fatigue have all tempered consumer appetites for subscription offerings.
Amazon workers are frustrated: The retailer faces a driver lawsuit at the same time that corporate workers walked off their jobs. Those challenges could threaten the retailer’s reputation.