Retail & Ecommerce

As the pandemic continues to alter consumer behavior, some brands and retailers are shifting influencer marketing initiatives to highlight products and services that are now in demand. Influencer agencies and platforms are seeing more interest from industries that were not investing heavily in influencer marketing previously, and some marketers are taking a more performance-based approach to working with creators.

While some consumers haven’t changed their stance about shopping for a car online, others have altered their views about it since the spread of the coronavirus.

A day after launching in Ulta Beauty stores, foot care brand Barefoot Scientist received unfortunate but inevitable news: Ulta's locations would have to close due to the pandemic. For the relatively new company, it was disheartening that consumers wouldn’t be able to test its products in-store. But like other brands coping with the pandemic, Barefoot Scientist has learned to adapt and focus on the present.

Grocery companies—and more specifically their systems and services—have really been put to the test amid the pandemic. Many grocers are having trouble keeping items on the shelves. And even the most prepared are encountering issues with supply chain logistics.

Our first forecast for peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments users in Canada shows a still-developing market with plenty of room to grow. This year, 19.7% of the country's population (or 6.0 million people) will be P2P mobile payment users. But that significantly trails the US market, where 30.6% of the population uses P2P payments.

Facebook had a decent Q1, all things considered. Ad revenues rose 17% year over year, reaching $17.44 billion, and user growth was especially strong. There are now nearly 3 billion people using Facebook’s family of apps on a monthly basis worldwide.

Ellen Houston, managing director at research firm Civis Analytics, joins host Nicole Perrin to talk about some of the company's recent polling about how consumers are reacting to the coronavirus pandemic. They cover media usage, job and virus worries, shopping behaviors and more.

Lunch and dinner subscription company MealPal started out as a service through which consumers could pick up meals from local restaurants during the work week—but, like many in the food industry, it has adjusted its operations for quarantined customers. The company now offers groceries supplied by local restaurants via MealPal Market.

TikTok is experiencing a substantial boost during the coronavirus pandemic. It added more than 12 million US unique visitors in March, reaching 52.2 million, according to data provided to us by Comscore. Between January and March, its US unique visitor count rose 48.3%.

Due to the pandemic, retailers are currently struggling with finances, logistics and maintaining relevance. With stay-at-home orders still in place indefinitely, many companies are wondering when they can get back to business as usual.

NBCUniversal is accelerating its plans to launch its Checkout platform, a move aimed at helping retailers, particularly those that have temporarily closed during the pandemic, and a way to drive ad revenues as many TV networks are losing billions due to canceled or postponed sports programming.

Consumers have been conditioned to expect fast delivery of online orders, but the pandemic has flashed a spotlight on how strained supply chains can get—even among savvy retailers like Amazon, which heavily focused its business on expedited shipping.

Snap Inc. reported strong gains in both users and revenues in its Q1 2020 earnings on Tuesday, despite growing concerns about the impact of the coronavirus on worldwide ad budgets. Here are three takeaways for advertisers.

US consumers are shopping online more as they continue to avoid brick-and-mortar. According to a recent eMarketer study conducted by Bizrate Insights, health, food and beverage purchases made digitally are seeing an uptick. Apparel, not so much.

eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman discusses how the coronavirus pandemic will affect retail and the balance of power between Amazon and the competition. He then talks about eBay appointing a new CEO, 'Amazon Shipping' being put on hold and Le Tote and Lord & Taylor going online-only.