Top 4 Global Ecommerce Articles for the Week of June 06
Guru Hariharan
CEO at CommerceIQ ?? | Host of Leaders in REM feat. C-Suite Ecommerce leaders | ?? DM me if you run a Fortune 100 brand and need help growing your Ecommerce business
???? to the +5 new subscribers that joined the newsletter over the last week, bringing us to 2,724 and counting!
For those who are new here, every week(ish) I'll share various topics that I think are important for the modern leader in Ecommerce.
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.
Before we get to the articles, you might've seen this?video I released two weeks ago.?I've been observing a massive opportunity for brands to recover millions of lost profits by solving for erroneous chargebacks and shortages within their Amazon ecommerce business. If you think recovering up to 7% of your Total Shipped COGS as incremental profits would be helpful, I highly recommend you tune in to this event my team is hosting on June 8.
Great article from the New York Times on Friday looking at corporate pricing power and its role in inflation. Corporate greed has always existed as a fundamental tenet of the free market. But has it become more powerful in its effects in the past year?
It’s complicated. Corporate pricing power is part, but not all, of the equation. In an inflationary environment where consumers have cash on hand and are optimistic about their personal finances, concentrated industries can raise prices more than they otherwise would in response to real rising costs. Retail has also become more concentrated, especially since COVID. More concentration means less competition, and the possibilities for price gouging multiply. Yet this power is unlikely to continue past 2022 as shoppers increasingly change their behavior in response to rising prices.
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Combining brick & mortar stores with online fulfillment centers is the holy grail of omnichannel integration. For Walmart, it’s been an initiative unfolding in the background, quietly powering fulfillment speeds and customer service levels that can give Amazon a run for its money, especially in grocery.
Walmart’s stores play a vital role in its ecommerce ambitions. Its advantage is twofold. Its supercenters have the square footage and productivity to support both fulfillment operations and a full-service store, and their geographic saturation make fast, same-day fulfillment possible for almost all of America.
Walmart is also gaining a sales benefit as shoppers return to stores in full force for the first time since early 2020. On the flip side, Amazon is expanding its brick & mortar strategy for much the same reason. Smaller locations help spur convenient in-store trips in urban and suburban locations which can also serve as hubs to enable ever-faster fulfillment.
A second article from CNBC this week. This one provides some good context for Dave Clark’s departure from Amazon. While a specific reason for his exit was not given, the end of his 23 year tenure marks an ongoing shift away from the leaders who once surrounded Jeff Bezos and on to a new cohort of leaders.
The company faces real challenges – and opportunities – moving forward. High fuel prices are especially cumbersome for its rapid delivery model. Labor shortages are driving up wages and costs. To succeed, Amazon will need to stick to what made it such a powerhouse in the first place: fast failing and iterative innovation. It must also cultivate its image as a desirable place to work, and it must deliver on that promise both at the corporate and warehouse level. Here the terrain is a little unfair vs. other retailers. Amazon receives so much scrutiny in part due to its past success which has fueled lofty expectations. Maintaining that growth and dominance is no small feat.
The last article of the week focuses on the challenges that Tata’s ‘Neu’ superapp will have to overcome if it is to be successful in India. Namely, that it markets itself as a one-stop shop and lifestyle solution center but is limited to only those services, categories, and brands covered by its partners. There is a real risk that shoppers will see this effort as a mishmash combination of half-hearted efforts rather than as a real solution to their needs. The company already put out a calculated statement that seems to distance itself from overly high expectations, stating they don’t expect everyone to adopt the app all at once. Time will tell.?