e-Commerce & more I 27th Jul to 2nd Aug - #59

Time to double down!

This week was the biggest week for earning reports and some amazing Ecommerce numbers for the quarter…

Amazon double profits and plan 50% capacity growth! Shopify blasts earnings… (Double rev VS last year), Apple crushes expectations (26Bln in Iphone sales without physical retail stores…), Rakuten US Marketplace Buy.com closing, Flipkart Quick, 90 minutes delivery (Indian version of Prime Now), Walmart & Shopify deal starting to pay off, Burberry & Tencent launch the first Social Store, Tractor Supply reports 'triple-digit' e-com sales growth.

1. Amazon Doubles Profit to $5.2 Billion as Online Shopping Spikes

In Q1 earnings report, Bezos said to investors “you might want to take a seat” announcing 4Bln investment in COVID related expenses for Q2, the stock didn’t do so great on that day…What he didn’t tell the market was that he knew he will be blowing the numbers again for the upcoming quarters of 2020 (and beyond…). The company doubled profit to 5.2Bln (even with covid related expenses) and they are doubling down with 50% increase of network capacity (this is a huge announcement and gives a clear hint at expected volume for the peak season!). The company is doubling down in capacity to strengthen the position to “unbeatable status” in US at least…

2. Shopify Blasts Q2 Earnings 

I’m a huge fan of shopify (top stock in my personal investment portfolio!). The company platform is clearly the leading merchant platform globally and they have been able to create a massive ecosystem of plugin solutions to serve their merchants by extending the core digital store capabilities (a bit similar to what Apple did with the App Store). They have now made significant moves into physical POS, fulfillment (which will be critical for long term success), strategic partnerships with companies like Walmart and launched their own bank to support their merchants. A very bright future for the company and it will be un-doubtfully an amazing 2020.

The big number: Quarter total revenue grew by 97% to $715M!

3. Rakuten is shuttering the online shop formerly known as Buy.com

Bye Bye Rakuten US Marketplace! Japanese Ecom giant has pulled the plug on its U.S. online retail store, originally known as Buy.com. Operations will close down in the next two months. This shows the complexity for marketplaces to compete globally and win in multiple markets! That’s why we have ecommerce regional powerhouses rather than truly global leaders dominating multiple regions.

4. India’s Flipkart gives hyperlocal delivery service another try

Speed Speed Speed!! Flipkart Quick (very original name right? J) is here to deliver your order within 90 minutes. The company plan to use its supply chain infrastructure and a new location mapping technology framework to deliver more than 2K products across grocery, perishables, smartphones, electronics accessories and stationary items. The race for ecommerce dominance in India is heating up and Flipkart wants to make sure it can compete effectively…Speed is one of the most critical decision criteria for conversion.

5. Walmart Marketplace seller additions surge following Shopify deal, up 3x from January

Sellers needs to sell across multiple channels & marketplace, dependence on a single marketplace or channel is very risky and we saw what happened to the brands & sellers which depended only on Amazon sales channel during the pandemic…

Well, if you missed that, here is a summary. When Amazon had to prioritize only “essentials product” (which was the right thing to do in my opinion), the sales of these sellers went to 0 with no alternative (of course if they were not selling essential items).

Walmart increase of seller in its marketplace is a good news for consumers and merchants as it increase the options to consumers and ensure we have a bit more competitions between the marketplaces. 

6. Burberry teams with Tencent to launch world-first social-retail store

The convergence of physical & online shopping experience is becoming more critical for brands & retailers every day. The future will have stores, the future will have online but it will not be different experiences or channels, it will truly be a unified brand experience centered on consumers and personalized experiences which bring value. I know we have been talking about that for years but the term omnichannel being a reality is far away for most of the companies…

This Social-Retail store concept launched by Burberry & Tencent is an interesting step as it combine the best of both world: Luxury store experience by Burberry + Tencent’s WeChat Social Commerce capabilities. Exciting times coming in retail…

7. Tractor Supply reports 'triple-digit' e-commerce sales growth

Ecommerce in time of COVID is not only growing for retail and grocery!! All categories are impacted! It was time for companies in other sectors to understand and take actions on their digital transformation roadmap. People purchasing tractors are the same people buying their groceries or “stuff” online, so people expectations and service level are now going across all categories of products and frictionless experience is expected everywhere. Triple digit ecommerce sales at Tractor Supply should motivate other companies in the space to take actions….

8. Stat of the Week: 10 Years in 3 Months!

Unbelievable new reality & opportunity!

I get this question every day....

"Will online sales stay to this level or will they decrease once we have a vaccine?"

Simple Question = Simple Rational = Simple Answer

We never seen ecommerce numbers decreasing since the birth of online shopping.

Simple reason: We all get hooked to the convenience of online shopping!!

This penetration push will continue to grow and remain!

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Join me on the 14th Aug for a great webinar with Kraig Foreman (President Ecommerce North America)

Cheers, Enjoy

Nabil