Top 4 Global E-Commerce Articles for the Week of April 11

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For those who are new here, every week(ish) I'll share various topics that I think are important for the modern leader in E-Commerce.

Every Monday, I'll try to share the articles that stood out to me that are worth a few minutes of your time to read.

Article 1:?B2B e-commerce is growing, but hurdles remain

Compared to the consumer side, B2B eCommerce has been neglected. B2B platforms are frequently lacking in the quality-of-life features that many consumers have come to take for granted over the past 20 years. Providing estimated delivery dates for recent orders could win more new customers who now expect the same experience in B2B that they have long seen as individual consumers.

B2B businesses should also remember that customer service is crucial. It’s arguably more important for businesses than for consumers given the high order volumes and associated stakes that a single customer can produce. Many buyers will want reassurance from a sales rep about the specifics of an order to ensure they are getting the best possible arrangement. Built-in business analytics capabilities within platforms could also help customers increase their sales.

The prevalence of bulk orders and the repeated purchase of specialized products that inundate the B2B industry means it is a natural fit for an eCommerce growth explosion. Few people want to go to a store to shop for their business if they can avoid it cost-effectively. Ecommerce could be more impactful in B2B than it has been for B2C. It’s also a huge opportunity for many brands who need to improve their eCommerce platforms for core customers.

Article 2:?Walmart Will Now Pay Starting Truck Drivers $110,000, Could it Backfire and Make the Nationwide Trucker Shortage Even Worse?

Walmart’s pay raise for its truck drivers is an investment in its workforce as well as the robustness of its supply chain. Walmart already paid its truck drivers above average wages for the industry and this latest move reveals they are trying to stay ahead of the labor shortage before it becomes a big issue on their backend logistics network. Walmart also has the luxury of its massive scale which can be leveraged to reduce other costs to offset the rising cost of labor. It’s unlikely that every retailer could pay their drivers these wages. Walmart is known as a master operator in retail. If they are raising wages, then they have already determined that the cost of doing so is less than the turnover cost incurred by keeping wages steady.

I do wonder how much this decision was affected by how the pandemic made many workers reprioritize family and home life over a lifestyle that requires so much time on the road. A pay increase makes this line of work more appealing once again by comparison.

Article 3:?If the economy is booming, why is there also fear of recession ahead of the 2022 election?

This great article combines perspectives from both the Australian and US economies to contextualize the historical battles that central banks have fought to keep inflation under control in decades past. Some recessions, like the one in the early 90s in the US, were engineered by the government by raising interest rates to prevent overheating and inflation. We could be facing the same situation again.

By now, it seems clear the US has placed too much money into circulation over the past two years and must pay a price to control runaway inflation. For all the talk of a soft landing, central banks can rarely stop inflation without causing a recession at the same time. Still, doing too much in 2020 could have been preferable to doing too little, but it’s hard to know how history would have shifted if the stimulus had been directed differently.

Another recessionary factor to consider is that rising interest rates could materially impact discretionary spending and household budget heath in advanced economies like Canada and Australia where homeowners must refinance every several years. One can imagine new relatively new homeowners could get pinched as rates rise.

Article 4:?Indian Giant Tata Takes on Amazon and Ambani’s Jio With Super App Tata Neu

Tata may have existed for over 150 years but it is behind eCommerce players like Flipkart, Amazon, and Jio. Tata’s new app, Tata Neu, which has been in development for over two years, aims to change that by integrating over a dozen functions under one platform. It rolled out to the public last Thursday.

A super app like this one will rise or fall depending on the relevance of its partners and properties. Having only one or two partners per-app function could limit the app if consumers want more choice as to where they get their groceries (BigBasket) or from whom they buy coffee (Starbucks). I also worry that an app like this risks failure by trying to do too much rather than mastering the experience for any one of its numerous functions. If it falls short, the consumer always has alternatives.