Tariffs Schmariffs

That's the only mention of the T word you'll find in this edition. It’s meteorological spring so I’m rolling with it. Here’s what’s up.

Events

We’ll be at Shoptalk and sponsoring a couple of fun events so hit us up if you’d like to meet.??

In the news

• Adaptive Commerce - is the next term you’ll probably hear a lot. It’s the new ‘omnichannel’. My term, ‘Malleable Commerce’, has not yet caught on. (Retail Touchpoints)
• Cordial - discussed ‘5 trends reshaping retail marketing in 2025’. My favorite? Emotional connections become the competitive edge.
• Best Buy - beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations while comparable sales rose slightly. (CNBC)??
• ThredUp - the Recommerce retailer’s revenue was up slightly for the quarter. They are seeing success with image searches powered by AI (85% conversion lift). This was built by their team. (PYMNTS)
• eBay - talked with Modern Retail about brand collabs and how ‘vintage’ is one of their top search terms. They are forecasting weak demand in Q1. (Reuters)?
• Unilever - and other large CPGs are facing declines from people shifting to smaller, less expensive brands. (Reuters)
• Kraft Heinz - is starting in the alcohol space with Crystal Light Vodka Refreshers. I did just write that. (Food Dive)??
• Nordstrom - had a good Q4 and their CFO is leaving for Starbucks. (Retail Dive)
• Target - Beat expectations for Q4 but warned of a “meaningful” drop in first-quarter profit. (CNBC)
• Advance Auto Parts - is continuing their turnaround work. They’ve identified supply chain inefficiency as their main culprit. They’re shuttering hundreds of stores and four of their sixteen distribution centers. (BusinessWire, USA Today)
• Autozone - missed quarterly estimates this week because of weak demand and currency rate fluctuations. (Reuters)??

• Joann - is closing for good. Modern Retail has a big writeup about them. (Axios)
• Rand Fishkin - commented on the digital extortion that Google has on brands. 44% of Google searches are for specific brands but you have to pay to appear there. Here’s to the competition Perplexity and others are creating.
• Prada - Looks like they’re close to acquiring Versace from Capri. Prada Group reported double digit growth for the fourth consecutive year. (Bloomberg, AP)
• Urban Outfitters - sales were up 10.1% to a record $1.6B. Their Nuuly rental business is also doing well. However, they lost the aircraft carrier docked outside their cafeteria. (DC360)
• Solo Brands - CEO is out as they face their stock being delisted.?(Retail Dive)
• Lowe’s - Has rolled out a ChaptGPT bot called Mylow for logged in rewards members. It’s targeted at your average homeowner who needs project and product guidance. (CSA)?
• Walgreens - Sycamore Partners is probably taking them private for $10B. (WSJ)

Our Partners

• Klaviyo - had a big B2C CRM product release. They are expanding into customer service and rebranding their CDP to KDP (Klaviyo Data Platform) to power everything. Their Customer Hub is the first service product which allows for easy order tracking, product discovery and subscription management. Lots more to come.
• Klaviyo - had a great Q4 earnings call. For the year, revenue grew 34% to $937M.
• Shopify - had their earnings call and I summarized the relevant parts for Enterprise.
• Shopify - launched their AI store setup today. This is targeted towards smaller businesses for now.
• Salesforce - revenue for the quarter was below expectations. They expect modest revenue from Agentforce this year but more next year. (CNBC)

Tomorrow is another day.

Nick