www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-consumers-dont-buy-more-sustainable-fashion-susanna-koelblin
Susanna makes a strong case for why sustainable fashion has yet to gain traction. “The immediate action we all can take is buying less and resist the social media addiction, where everything is only a click away, to buy things we don’t need.”
On the surface Amazon‘s move into private label appears to be a deft move.
Analysts predict that nearly half of all online shopping in the United States will be conducted on Amazon’s platform in the next couple of years. That creates a massive opportunity for Amazon to more than double revenue from its in-house brands to $25 billion in the next four years. That’s the equivalent of all of Macy’s revenue last year.
It started with a simple battery.
Continue reading “Amazon & Private Label. It started with a simple battery.”
“Continue to engage with people outside your discipline, your gender, your race. Talk with people who grew up in different places, who believe different things, who live and worship differently than you do. Talk with them, listen to them, get their perspectives… and encourage them to work in and with technology too.” – Sheryl Sandberg, in her Massachusetts Institute of Technology commencement speech.
“Even the newest technology can contain the oldest prejudices and our lack of diversity is at the root of some of the things we fail to see and prevent,” said Sandberg.
“In Amazon’s early years, a running joke among Wall Street analysts was that CEO Jeff Bezos was building a house of cards. Entering its sixth year in 2000, the company had yet to crack a profit and was mounting millions of dollars in continuous losses, each quarter’s larger than the last. Nevertheless, a segment of shareholders believed that by dumping money into advertising and steep discounts, Amazon was making a sound investment that would yield returns once e-commerce took off. Each quarter the company would report losses, and its stock price would rise. One news site captured the split sentiment by asking, “Amazon: Ponzi Scheme or Wal-Mart of the Web?”” – Lina Kahn, Yale Law Review
Eighteen years later, it’s no longer a joke. No one seriously doubts that Amazon is anything but the titan of twenty-first century commerce.
Success, efficiency and scale are achievements to be admired. Should they be regulated?
Continue reading “Trust, Mistrust & Antitrust. Amazon is Not Broken. Should it be Fixed?”
Keen Footwear has a robot called “Uneek” that can build a shoe in under six minutes.
The company describes the Uneekbot as the world’s smallest shoe factory.
Uneek operates at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, mass customization, and same-day delivery. Continue reading “New micro-factory produces custom shoes, in six minutes”
In Europe, PRIVATE LABEL is bigger than in the U.S., with about one in three purchases made on private label brands.
For some European countries like Switzerland, nearly half of purchases made are on private label. Will it ever get that big in the U.S.?
Given the high penetration of private label sales in retail industries like home and apparel and of both ecommerce and private labels, there is much growth ahead for private-label brands in the U.S. that can promote innovation online.
The NPD Group research reveals there is a lucrative segment of shoppers who are actively engaged with direct-to-consumer private-label brands online. Industries like apparel and home are further along than tech or accessories in the online pervasiveness of Private Label. But given the private label growth in these industries online, NPD believes things are just starting to heat up.
Moreover, as national brands lose share, the writing is on the wall: private label is far from finished growing.
Thank you Marshal Cohen and NPD for this graphic.
This year, compared with last year.
Note the major shift in Netflix and Instagram statistics.
Thank you to Lori Lewis and Chadd for these powerful infographics.
#socialmedia #internet #statistics Facebook Amazon Alphabet Inc. Google YouTube Twitter
Sellers on Amazon have a new tool, “Marketplace Appstore,” to help them navigate the world of online retail using third-party apps.
The new software platform will be available to sellers based in North America and accessible through Amazon’s seller portal, Seller Central. It will assist sellers with pricing, inventory, marketing and other business needs.
More than 1 million retailers use Amazon to sell their goods through Amazon Marketplace.
CNN reports, here.
What if Amazon is Retail’s Only Hope?
“Retail Apocalypse.” The term has its own Wikipedia entry. This transformation, of “biblical” proportions, is often blamed on Amazon.
What if Amazon is not the brick-and-mortar store killer? What if Amazon is retail’s champion?
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of retail’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The retail industry is not in dire shape, it’s in a different shape. Change is essential: it’s not easy, nor painless.
And, there is an important difference between correlation and causation. Amazon’s success and the disruption of the legacy retail market are certainly related, this does not mean one caused the other. Amazon did not overturn the traditional retail model: Macroeconomics drove this disruption.
Amazon is strategically and significantly investing in mortar-and-brick retail. Further, the company provides valuable tools to third-party retailers to help them succeed. And, critical to its own success, Amazon needs other retailers to thrive.
