e-Commerce & more I 23rd to 29th Nov - #73
Online, not inline!!
The big news of last week was definitely the online sales of Black Friday (or maybe we should consider calling it Cyber Friday now). Digital sales grew 21.6% YoY to $9 billion, this is the second-highest online sales day in U.S. history (even higher than Cyber Monday 2019).
Also…
Best Buy digital sales up 175%, Pinduoduo to raise $6.1b for social commerce platform, Kroger partner with Ocado technology, Dija, delivery startup raising $20M, Bigblue raise $3.6 million to automate e-commerce fulfillment in Europe
Cyber Monday: Up to $12.7B will be spent online, marking biggest-ever US shopping day
Digital sales grew 21.6% YoY to $9 billion, this is the second-highest online sales day in U.S. history (even higher than Cyber Monday 2019).
Some amazing numbers came from Shopify which host more than 1M merchants with Friday sales increasing 75% YoY to $2.4 billion, which means, consumers are not only buying from Market place but Direct To consumer brands are very successful as well!
The losers…Malls of course! In-store traffic declined between 48% (RetailNext) and 52% (Sensormatic Solutions) on Friday. Lower traffic was definitely expected but that’s a huge hit! 40% of all sales were on handsets, mobile shopping is increasingly gaining momentum!
Best Buy posts 'blockbuster' Q3 with digital sales up nearly 175%
Best Buy posted a fantastic quarter with digital sales up 175% and at the same time decided to close Mexican operations. This is a clear sign of the focus of the company in winning in the US Market!
Tencent-backed Pinduoduo to raise $6.1b to strengthen online produce business
Based in Shanghai, Pinduoduo provides buyers low-cost merchandise and an interactive shopping experience. It’s also leveraging the online migration of grocery shopping as the pandemic continues to impact businesses & consumers globally.
Pinduoduo is one of the examples of China leading the way in social commerce and its aggressive growth & ambitions will certainly drive the next wave of innovation in the space!
Kroger will use Ocado technology to boost pickup fulfillment
Online grocery has been growing significantly with the pandemic and this alliance between Kroger and Ocado comes at the right time. Kroger will use Ocado software and technology to boost in-store fulfillment of pickup orders, the agreement will includes 10 Ocado Customer Fulfillment Centers and is extending its partnership to in-store operations as same-day pickup and delivery demand has risen significantly.
StartUp of the week: Dija, a new delivery startup from former Deliveroo employees, is closing in on a $20M round led by Blossom
Another $20M invested in the last mile delivery!! Yes, yes, the delivery space continue to get funding!! While competition and pressure on margin in this space are increasing by the day, VCs seems to be ok with putting more money in this space, maybe they are looking at a quick ramp up at loss and a quick sell to one of the large players like Uber? Or Delivery hero?
Bigblue wants to automate e-commerce fulfillment in Europe
Bigblue, a French startup automating fulfillment just raised a $3.6 million seed round. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen a lot of momentum with StartUps raising money to enhance speed to consumer and automate warehouses…As logistics become a competitive advantage in ecommerce, this will continue to accelerate!
Condolences to the families of Tony hsieh from Zappos (one of the most impactful CEO of the ecommerce world) & Diego…
You both made significant impact (on a very different manner) on many people life’s…
Stay safe, Cheers
Nabil