e-Commerce news & more I 20 to 26th Jan
This week in the news: Asos is back in shape, Glovo exit few markets in a complicated wars for food delivery dominance, Express plan to close 100 stores, Ebays layoffs…, Ecommerce could kill 30K stores and half a million jobs by 2025 and more!
- ASOS shares rally as results mark return to form
ASOS, the UK Ecommerce powerhouse for Fashion & Apparel is back in shape with retail sales growing by 20% ahead of expectations. Last year was a complicated year for the company but this come back shows the strength of online platforms and their ability to retain & grow their customer base. Some impressive results in many dimensions: a) Website visits increased 27% year-on-year in December, b) + 15% active customers, c) International business has taken traction, with 15 million of the 21.7 million active customers emanating from abroad. Exciting times for Asos
2. Glovo exits the Middle East and drops two LatAm markets in latest food delivery crunch
The war on food delivery is on!! While many companies have received huge investment rounds at sometimes (or almost always) highly inflated valuations, the time is now to “Show the money”. The IPOs of Uber, Lyft and debacles of Wework last year have shown to investors and scaleups that it’s not only about exponential revenue growth and user traction, you need to make money at some point and have a clear path to profitability! Spain’s Glovo has today announced it’s exiting four markets, which it says is part of a goal of pushing for profitability by 2021. Another startup which also announced adjustment of strategy earlier this year is Rappi (Latin America-focused e-commerce Company) which reduced 6% of staff.
3. Clothing retailer Express shares jump on plans to shutter 100 stores
The retail apocalypse continues with Express expected to to close 100 stores by 2022, following the multiple announcements from companies, we continue to see the trends increasing. A recent report suggest that Ecommerce could 30K stores and half a million jobs by 2025! See following article!
4. E-commerce could kill 30K stores and half a million jobs by 2025
Credit insurance company Euler Hermes just released a study which found that 56,000 stores, or 10.7% of the discretionary retail footprint, have closed in the U.S. and 670,000 net jobs (9.6% of the total) have been lost since 2008. 41% of retailers have seen their profit margins decrease in that timeframe. Scary numbers and shows the importance of transforming retails, with the amount of new technologies coming in physical stores (Cashier less stores for example) combined with Ecommerce, we can expect the retail transformation to be massive in the coming years! I would say that we will see more than 56K stores closing!
5. EBay lays off 102 Silicon Valley employees
Did you know that Ebay is still the 2nd biggest marketplace in the world after Amazon? The Ebay story is quite amazing as it was once (not so long ago) the place to be to sell online and a true reference in Ecommerce. Today, it has been facing increased competition and challenges due to the amount of new marketplaces which are competing directly. From refurbished specialized marketplaces like #Backmarket to C2C platform such as OfferUp, will be interesting to see if any large traditional player goes for the purchase of Ebay (It could happen but most likely not yet as the valuation is most likely to go down further)
6. StartUp Of the week: Epost (Malaysia)
Malaysian cross-border logistics firm Epost bags $700k in seed funding. Cross-border shopping will make up 17% of eCommerce in 2023, with sales of US$736 billion globally based on Forrester forecast. With Cross border ecommerce growing, startups like Epost are in a great space to grow their business, especially as many of the key manufacturing for cross border products are in Asia. Founded in August 2018, the startup provides consumers and companies with end-to-end cross-border ecommerce services, helping traditional businesses expand in the space.
Cheers, Enjoy
Nabil