Top 4 Global Retail Ecommerce Articles for the Week of September 12

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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 Retail 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.

Article 1:?Where Walmart, Amazon, and Target are spending billions in a slowing economy

It’s different than 2008. Rather than cut back on tech investment and employees, big retail companies like Walmart and Amazon are investing straight through the market’s downturn. These moves put them in a good position to steal share from competitors when consumer spending picks up again.

During times of uncertainty, big brands and retailers can leverage their scale and resources while smaller, challenger organizations can use their flexibility and pulse on what the market needs to emerge in a better spot than other players. This applies to tech players as well as retailers. For brands, this means that larger accounts like Walmart, Amazon, and Target are only going to become more important. As these businesses focus on tech investments in efficiency and speed, they expect their vendors to keep pace. Managing an omnichannel business via Retail Ecommerce Management (REM) has never been more important. At the same time, there will be an opportunity within tech to help smaller companies succeed via ecommerce aggregation.

Article 2:?Dollar General’s newest shoppers: people making $100,000 a year

No surprise here. As many shoppers find ways to trim their budget, low-price retailers are benefiting the most. Walmart and Dollar General are seeing the majority of their sales growth come from new shoppers who make over $80,000 per year.

More broadly, this shift benefits those retailers that can operate and afford to maintain lower prices at scale. Wealthier shoppers can always trade down, but upscale retailers have a smaller reserve of shoppers to pull from. Even though average inflation may have reached its peak, grocery prices are continuing to rise. Walmart learned a powerful lesson in the aftermath of the 2008 recession when Dollar General was eroding its share. It pays to invest in price leadership during times of uncertainty. Expect Walmart to benefit as long as this continues.

Article 3:?Instacart acquires ecommerce platform for independents

Instacart is acquiring Rosie, an ecommerce platform for smaller, wholesale, and independent retailers. This is a vertical integration opportunity for Instacart since smaller stores do not have the scale to host a robust ecommerce platform. Outsourcing to a third party like Instacart that can also provide and manage delivery is a smart move for everyone involved. As I said above, there are opportunities for bigger tech players to aggregate the management ecommerce operations for smaller players that can’t build out those capabilities in isolation.

Instacart also gains more direct control over the entirety of the shopper experience, acting less like a middleman and more like a full-service platform. The transition from point solutions provider to comprehensive platform is a big shift in Retail Ecommerce Management that will continue over the next several years.

Article 4:?India’s Daalchini raises $4M to make smart stores and vending machines ubiquitous

Despite high inflation and economic uncertainty, India’s tech scene continues to boom, and retail is no exception. Decentralized, franchised vending machines with brand investment could make a lot of sense to reach millions of shoppers in crowded environments, especially when the geographies and demographics might be unfavorable to larger stores. Toward that end, these machines offer not only snacks and drinks, but also a broader variety of products found in typical supermarkets, including fresh groceries. I wonder if this could be a low-cost alternative to stores for some Indians.