WARC (January Issue)
“E-commerce is expected to account for one-third (33%) of sales among chain retailers worldwide this year, rising from 23% in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.” The growth is forecast to continue, “with e-commerce to take an almost two-fifths (39%) share of sales in 2026. This comes amid strong online growth and stable or declining physical store sales worldwide.”
Tags: Chain retailers, E-commerce, Growth, Online, Physical store, Pre-pandemic, Rising, Sales, Strong
WARC (October)
“Almost two-in-five marketers (38%) in Asia Pacific are allocating more than 30% of their budgets on mobile marketing and advertising, according to data from WARC and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)…. In APAC, mobile commerce is far more popular than across other regions which makes it all the more important to master the e-commerce experience as consumers look to shop online more post-COVID.”
Tags: Advertising, APAC, Budgets, Commerce, Consumers, E-commerce, Experience, Marketers, Marketing, Mobile, Online, Post-Covid, Shop
WARC (June 1)
“As lockdowns start to ease and the scale of the economic challenge becomes clear, uneasy businesses are adjusting to a future which is looking decidedly different from the one they had planned for at the start of 2020.” For starters, many are slashing advertising spend as they move “back to basics: service and trust,” while also focusing more on online presence and purchases.
Tags: Adjusting, Advertising spend, Basics, Ease, Economic challenge, Future, Lockdowns, Online, Service, Trust, Uneasy
New York Times (June 9)
“Americans have been far too vulnerable for far too long when they venture online. Companies are free today to monitor Americans’ behavior and collect information about them from across the web and the real world.” U.S. lawmakers have fallen behind their European peers. In fact, widespread compliance with the EU’s GDPR means that “technocrats in Brussels are doing more for Americans’ digital privacy rights than their own Congress.” Finally, however, “there finally seems to be enough momentum to pass a federal law.”
Tags: Behavior, Brussels, Collect Web, Compliance, Congress, DPR, EU, GDPR, Lawmakers, Online, Technocrats, U.S., Vulnerable
Boston Globe (January 10)
“Many investors had expected department stores to enjoy robust sales over the holidays in light of a U.S. economy buoyed by low unemployment, higher wages, strong consumer confidence and cheap gas.” Lackluster results from Macy’s and Kohl’s sent “retail stocks into a tailspin… calling into question whether such mall-based chains can compete in a changing landscape where shoppers are shifting more of their spending online.”
Tags: Consumer confidence, Holiday sales, Investors, Kohl’s, Lackluster, Macy’s, Malls, Online, Retail stocks, Shoppers, Tailspin, U.S., Unemployment, Wages
Bloomberg (April 12)
“U.S. public companies are moving away from the traditional shareholders’ meeting, opting instead to interact with investors online. Sensible as this might seem in the internet age, it’s important to ensure that it becomes a way to improve — rather than stifle — communication.”
Tags: Communication, Companies, Investors, Online, Shareholders' meetings, Stifle, U.S.
The Economist (March 5)
“Every second three more Indians experience the internet for the first time. By 2030 more than 1 billion of them will be online.” Smart phone usage is soaring. And “no battle for the online future of India is more intense than the one now being waged in e-commerce.”While this is a “local battle for customers,” it is “also a battle for the future” that will likely prove “a better template for the e-commerce battle in other emerging markets.”
Tags: Customers, E-commerce, Emerging markets, Future, India, Intense, Internet, Online, Smart phone
New York Times (December 24, 2013)
With postal services around the world struggling to survive, Canada is taking a step that few nations have dared. “With the digital handwriting ever clearer on the wall, the Canadian postal service has announced that it will end its remaining door-to-door letter deliveries over the next five years and focus on its one clear growth area: package deliveries to a public that is increasingly doing its shopping online.”
Tags: Canada, Deliveries, Letters, Online, Packages, Postal Service, Shopping, Survival
Forbes (December 4)
“Cyber Monday” (November 28) “was the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.25 billion.” The rest of the week brought 2 more days (November 29 & 30) with cyber sales exceeding $1 billion. All told, “online sales for the first full week of what is considered the true holiday shopping season grew 15 percent to a record $5.96 billion.”
Tags: Cyber Monday, Online, Record sales, Shopping
