Retail & Ecommerce

As social distancing practices continue in the US, consumers are increasingly using their credit cards for restaurants and groceries. In Bankrate polling conducted by YouGov, 51% of respondents said they used a credit card for restaurant takeout in April, vs. 30% who said the same in December 2019.

eMarketer research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu at Insider Intelligence discuss what happened when Amazon eased up for a few months and what will happen when it hits the gas. They then talk about some new Google features, Amazon looking to buy a driverless car company and some maybe permanent grocery store foot traffic trends.

Clothing and apparel retailers will see steep declines in 2020 as spending on discretionary items comes to a near halt amid the ongoing pandemic. We forecast a drop of nearly 22% in 2020 for total sales of apparel and accessories, which equates to a year-over-year loss of over $100 billion.

TechStyle Fashion Group, a global fashion retailer that operates membership-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands—including ShoeDazzle, JustFab, Kate Hudson’s Fabletics and Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty—has become one of the fast-growing retailers with more than 5.5 million active members worldwide since it launched a decade ago.

Frictionless commerce, a trend permeating many facets of the customer journey today, leverages technology to improve the retail experience by saving people time and hassle. And arguably the most competitive battleground in frictionless commerce is in fast and free ecommerce delivery.

Insider Intelligence junior analyst Blake Droesch, research analyst Daniel Keyes and principal analyst Andrew Lipsman discuss Facebook Shops and whether businesses and customers will want to use it. They then talk about the significance of Walmart shutting down Jet.com, whether polls will work on LinkedIn and what shoppers expect to do after shelter-in-place orders end.

Walmart's US ecommerce sales are expected to rise 44.2% to $41.01 billion this year, a significant bump from 2019’s stellar 36.8% growth—and an increase from our January 2020 estimate of 27.0%.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Cuts Clothing has grown a lot since it first launched in 2016 on Kickstarter. “Since day one, we have been focused on making premium minimalist shirts for the modern man,” said Steven Borrelli, CEO and co-founder of Cuts.

Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu discuss how the coronavirus changed retail and ecommerce. What are our base, best and worst cases scenarios? They then talk about who frictionless retail is for and what Americans' online grocery experience really looks like.

Click and collect sales in the US will see an acceleration of growth amid the coronavirus pandemic, rising roughly 60% to $58.52 billion this year, according to our estimates. That’s a considerable increase from our previous estimate, when we anticipated a 38.6% growth.

TikTok’s social commerce features are not as robust as Instagram's or Pinterest's, but the popular short-form video app has been slowly adding shopping ads while integrating creators along the way.

US bank branches are still shuttered amid the pandemic, but consumers are more likely to conduct their banking online, according to recent research.

eMarketer principal analysts Andrew Lipsman and Nicole Perrin discuss the most fortunate and unfortunate D2C companies during this coronavirus pandemic, and what they are doing to survive it. They then talk about Google helping retailers highlight curbside pickup, Uber's offer to buy GrubHub, the Media Ratings Council maybe taking Facebook's advertising badge of approval and what to make of some major retailers filing for bankruptcy.

Cities in China have begun lifting shelter-in-place restrictions to gradually reopen restaurants, shops and other public spaces—but many consumers are still wary about venturing out.

Even with a partial lifting of lockdown measures, the coronavirus continues to limit movement of people—and this has hit the UK high street hard. From retailers with a high dependency on physical stores to restaurants and coffee shops without delivery facilities, the obstacles have proven insurmountable for some. For others, the longer-term question is, "Will the UK high street be able to recover when (and if) normalcy returns?"

Mosaic Foods has had to acclimate to a new normal in the past few months, and as a relatively new brand, that hasn’t always been easy. Before the pandemic, employees of the meal delivery company were able to test out new recipes and offer feedback right then and there. But today, meals are shipped to co-workers who do video taste tests and offer notes.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and senior forecasting analyst Oscar Orozco discuss whether ride-hailing apps can whether the storm, how much power will Facebook's oversight board actually have, Starbucks reducing its reliance on cash, Amazon possibly buying AMC Theatres, the next wave of sports programming, updated cookie consent, what does yawning tell you about yourself and more.