Instacart: Sales Growth and International Expansion; iOS 14 Privacy Changes
Instacart has emerged from 2020 as one of the top priority online grocery accounts for branded manufacturers. Our research suggests 1Q sales growth with Instacart was very strong, while 2Q sales growth has decelerated significantly due to much tougher comparisons. Recent sales trends appear largely in-line with plan, and…
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Walmart Digital Initiatives, Yahoo! Shops, Online Grocery Price Improvements
Walmart has several digital initiatives in place including a push for a more positive Walmart+ experience score, improving pick-up and Walmart Connect capabilities, and growing delivery. Priorities for Walmart Connect include growing offerings, introducing in-store experiences and unifying paid search across OPD and core. Manufacturers have made changes in response to…
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Amazon Vendor Negotiations; Costco Tests Curbside Pickup; Consumer Buying Behavior in Flux
Over the last several years, many manufacturers have increased spend requests during their Annual Vendor Negotiations (AVNs). In our latest benchmark study, Amazon appears most focused on asking manufacturers to spend more on co-op, merchandising programs, and its SAS resource. Our study suggested food and consumables manufacturers have a larger…
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Amazon Updates; Prime Day, Pharmacy Launch; 2Q Share Gains
Our recent consumer study suggests that 51% of Prime members made a purchase during Amazon's Prime Day this year (vs. 45% last year). Our research also suggests that Amazon was able to add a great deal of members during the shopping holiday period and its device sales performed particularly well. However,…
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Amazon Fresh Investment; Alibaba Sets Record; Pandemic Savings for Consumers
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered how consumers are buying groceries with a major shift to online platforms. As a result, a net 64% of brands plan to increase their level of support for Amazon Fresh in '21 and nearly 30% indicate that Amazon Fresh is a clear winner among…
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Retailer Paid Search; Whole Foods Expands Grocery Pickup; Commerce Marketing
As eCommerce gains prominence, manufacturers continue to be drawn to paid search advertising activations across different customers. 71% of respondents polled during our Summit indicated they spend 75% or more of their ad budget on Amazon within paid search activations. In addition, investing more and refining paid search strategies on…
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Instacart Activations; Kroger eCommerce Profitability; Consumer Holiday Shopping Plans
Our latest research on Instacart suggests brands should first turn to Featured Products (i.e. paid search) with their activation budgets, maximizing that spend before moving to other activations. This is analogous to how many brands have approached their paid activation strategy on Amazon. Our consumer research shows search remains the…
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Direct Import Program; Walmart+ Launch; Increasing Budget for Amazon Paid Search
We estimate Amazon’s GMV growth rate nearly doubled in 2Q20 as pandemic-driven buying behavior increasingly shifted online. We expect this trend to continue, forecasting 37% and 40% growth in 3Q and 4Q respectively. With massive growth comes fulfillment challenges and ordering and supply chain initiatives are increasingly being discussed in the manufacturer…
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eCommerce Growth; Bezos’ Testimony; eBay and Shopify 2Q Results
According to our interview with Michael Lagoni, Founder and CEO of Stackline, eCommerce growth has normalized around 60-70% year over year for the past several months. This is down from 80-90% growth in March and April, but is well above the 17% rate at which eCommerce was growing pre-pandemic. Stackline…
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