So here we are: Q4. If the East and Gulf coast dockworker strike beginning today is any indication, it's going to be a wild one.
- Adobe Analytics - is predicting a very specific $240.8B holiday online spend from Nov 1-Dec 31, up 8.4% from 2023. They’re predicting higher big-ticket item purchases and an average of 30% off for Cyber Week sales. BNPL will also increase and half of all purchases will be on mobile. (Washington Post)?
- commercetools - surveyed 150 enterprise individuals for their “Replatforming and migration trends for 2024” white paper. They found that 77% of potential platform migrators (those that are considering it) feel a sense of urgency to make the switch in the next year. I think the important consideration here is speed to market.???
- Amazon - report by Fortune on the new agile human-like robots being used in warehouses. It could cut down on many of the injuries warehouse workers are known to suffer.
- Ace Hardware - extensive interview with their CEO. Of note: Ace’s app revenue is up 67% and their entire inventory is available there. It’s replacing phone calls. (NRF)
- Costco - is finally able to show in their app or online if products are at your local store. No word on specific location data in the store yet. (Business Insider)?
- Uniqlo - launched their sister brand, GU, in NY recently. Their first store out of Asia, it’s targeted towards Gen-Z trend-focused shoppers. (Glossy)
- Puma - is using Google Cloud’s Imagen 2 AI model to create personalized imagery unique to a customer’s location. The example shown was Mt. Fuji for buyers in Japan. DTC accounts for less than 25% of revenue and is being pushed by strong competition from HOKA and On Running. (WSJ)
- 5 of the biggest CEO moves to hit retail this year. (RetailDive)
- NRF - notes that nearly half of Halloween shoppers start before October. In my town, it seems nearly half of the decorations are up by mid-September.
- Gymshark - held their biggest US event yet, Lift:NY to help drive US expansion. It also noted total revenue was ￡556 million for the year ending July 2023 ($739M USD using today’s exchange rate). (Glossy)
- This is a really good breakdown by
Juozas Kaziuk?nas
on the rise of China in 3 charts: Made in China, Sold in China and Promoted by China.
- WSJ - showed how foreign automakers in China have seen market share decline from 50% in July 2022 to 33% in July 2024. This decline is accelerating and the impact on carmakers will become acute soon.?
- America’s dollar stores are now living in a Temu world. It highlights the difficulties they’re facing. (FT)
- Tiktok - added search ads.
- Wordpress - has banned WP Engine and used strong language: “If you want to experience WordPress, use any other host in the world besides WP Engine.”
- Rodeo - is a new technology from Shopify industry veterans to identify and login shoppers from email/SMS. I’m bullish about their impact on CRO to centralizing app data like store credits and serving up relevant offers. Thanks
Klaviyo
for the intro.
- Shopify - has a new case study about the world’s largest online nursery, Fast Growing Trees, and their shift to Shopify Hydrogen. Fashion Nova also made the move to Hydrogen.
- Shopify - announced their Roku partnership expansion for native shoppable campaigns. This continues their drive to put commerce everywhere.
- Shopify - For Liquid themes, CLI 3.67 is in developer preview. It’s now faster and easier to use. This has been helpful for us.
- Shopify - Their CEO, Tobi, posted highlights of his Summit presentation from June. These are always packed with valuable insights.
- Salesforce - unveiled Agentforce. They think AI agents are the future and are moving beyond chatbots and copilots. In Benioff’s words: “others require you to DIY your AI.”?
- Salesforce - in advance of Dreamforce, they introduced their next generation Commerce Cloud with a Unified Commerce Experience.
- Salesforce - acquired Zoomin, a data management provider for unstructured data. This is the third company they acquired in September.? ?
