E-commerce news & more! 23-29thSep

This week was another busy week for ecommerce news, few major announcements from Ebay, Microsoft, JD.com, Wing and some challenges in supply chains from RenttheRunway!

1.      Devin Wenig steps down as eBay CEO

Devin Wenig has stepped down from the role of CEO after 8 years at the company. In recent years, Ebay has lost some of it’s high growth and popularity due to increasing competition and new platforms. However, it still remains one of the most popular options for listing and selling items quickly (especially Customer to Customer segment). Ebay reported 9.6Bln revenue last year so it’s definitely a major player but with the new competitive landscape of marketplaces and platforms including Wish, Aliexpress, Shopify etc…Ebay really has to step up it’s game to remain in a leading position! New CEO will have a very ambitious challenge!

2. Rent the Runway pauses taking new customers as inventory and supply chain issues mount

Rent the Runway, the famous clothing rental company pauses taking new customers!! How crazy is this? This is the crisis of success or the failure of supply chain? In this case it’s simply a supply chain problem. Renting clothes online is as much a fashion and clothing business as it is a supply chain business. This situation shows the critical importance of supply chains for any ecommerce & direct to Consumers Company. The risk are huge if you don’t manage growth and operational execution at the level expected by your customers!

3. Microsoft launches e-commerce tools as Amazon rivalry intensifies

It was time for Microsoft to make a stronger push into ecommerce. This is it! Last monday Microsoft announced Dynamics 365 Commerce, which will let brands create detailed personalized product web pages with room for customer ratings and reviews. This is a smart approach for Microsoft to bundle cloud & commerce customers as it would give a needed edge to compete against Amazon. This move is certainly not only to compete with AWS but also would provide solutions to serve merchants who want to grow their online sales. Microsoft moving into the space to compete directly with Magento (Adobe), Shopify, SalesForce Commerce to name a few!

4. JD.com adds more bricks-and-mortar stores to supply chain to speed up deliveries

Click to door in 30 Minutes! That’s what China JD.com is aiming for when it comes to speed to consumer! This need for speed is supported by huge network of ecommerce Distribution centers as well offline retail outlets, including Walmart. JD network includes today 20,000 stores in 54 cities, including 175 Walmart hypermarkets, the race for dominance in the biggest ecommerce market in the world is is on and speed to consumer is key in this market which is not only the biggest but also the most sophisticated and advanced market when it comes to speed to consumer.

5. International Transit Time will be reduced by half in Brazil

Brazil national Correios just launched a new Cross Border service “"Correios Packet"in order to cut the delivery times from 60 days to 18 days for China-Brazil packages, and from 25 to 12 days for US-Brazil packages. This new service will improve significantly the experience and speed to consumer for the 250 Thousands packages imported daily in Brazil. We can expect this to impact positively the amount of products purchased internationally by Brazilian consumers

6. U.S. to remain in the Universal Postal Union 

This is a big deal, U.S. Avoids Postal 'Brexit' as Universal Postal Union Reaches a Deal! President Trump threatened to leave the 145-year-old organization next month if it didn’t get agreement on the ability to set its own rates. This United Nation body regulate the worldwide mail systems. US leaving this agreement would have created a chaotic situation for international mail and ecommerce packages across the globe. Under the agreed solution, member countries that meet certain requirements will be able to opt-in to self-declare their rates starting 1 July 2020.

7. Wing Aviation to begin FedEx, Walgreens drone deliveries in Virginia

FedEx, Walgreens & Wing agreed to begin commercial drone deliveries next month in Virginia, that’s a big deal and we are getting closer to a drone delivery commercial program in the US. Products targeted will be food, healthcare, wellness-related and convenience products. With a network of store reaching 78% of US population within 5 Miles, Walgreens is in unique position. Wings is leading the drones race at this point being the first drone company in the U.S. to get the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Part-135 certification which allows it to to run paid customer deliveries and to fly drones at night, outside the line of sight of an operator and without certain other flight path restrictions.

8. StartUp of the week: Narvar power pick up Urban Outfitters orders at your local Walgreens

Narvar is taking the Click & Collect to a new level for Urban Outfitters (especially to support their recently launched clothing subscription model)! Could Walgreens become the biggest ecommerce return and PickUp DropOff network in the US? With 8000 locations across the US, yes, it could be! This is an interesting move and something to watch! 

Have a great week! Cheers

Nabil