There has been an ongoing shake-up in China’s e-commerce industry lately. While Pinduoduo has been taking share gradually from traditional e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD since late 2020 mainly in sportswear and apparel sectors, Douyin and Kuaishou, the known-to-be live-streaming leaders, have also started to gain momentum in getting substantial market share in the past few months — especially for the apparel and cosmetic sectors.
Both Warby Parker and First Watch have been aggressively growing their offline presence. So, we dove into the foot traffic data to find out how the brick and mortar expansions are affecting visit patterns. Much has been written about Warby Parker’s brick and mortar expansion. The eyeglasses disrupter opened its first offline store in 2013 and now operates over 140 stores throughout the United States. And the growth in stores has led to a massive increase in foot traffic.
As businesses rooted themselves deeper in digital ecosystems, many sought counsel on digital transformation, IT and cloud security. The push for digital transformation, along with the increase of sophisticated cyberattacks last year, benefited large IT firms. By the end of next year, the cloud security market is expected to reach $12.73 billion. This will have been a 25.5% increase since 2017. As the market expands, companies will have to use elevated branding to set themselves apart from other services.
When StockX announced a $255 million funding raise in April, valuing the company at $3.8 billion, much was said of StockX’s uniqueness as a company: a “stock market of hype,” many of the goods bought and sold through its marketplace represent Gen-Z consumers’ interest in alternatives to traditional investments. Best known for apparel and accessory resale—primarily sneakers, streetwear, handbags, and watches—products on StockX have broadened to include collectibles and electronics.
Since the United States has no federal parental-leave policies, local governments and companies often step up to fill that void. Business Insider identified large public companies with the most generous parental leave and benefits for new parents. The list includes tech giants like Netflix and Amazon, as well as financial sector firms like Freddie Mac and Capital One. But do these company policies actually lead to measurable outcomes for women?
Our Q3 Quarterly Index is now live! We analyzed a wide array of brands in several major retail categories including apparel, grocery, fitness, home improvement, and superstores to bring you the latest insights and identify trends shaping retail right now. Below is a taste of our findings. In Q2, it seemed like the pandemic disruptions were waning and the grocery and superstore spaces were returning to pre-pandemic foot-traffic patterns, until COVID cases began increasing again, causing consumer concerns about the economy to surge once more.
If hotel prices are any indication, COVID-19 surges aren't going to keep travelers home this holiday season. The average daily rate for a hotel room in the US is $143.30— up 6% from 2019. In popular destinations like Hawaii, average daily rates are as high as $258.65, according to data from hospitality analytics firm STR. Which leaves many eager travelers (myself included) looking for alternative accommodations for family get-togethers or tropical getaways.
In September, challenger brand McDonald’s took 25% of spend among top brands, followed by Wendy’s with 16%. When it comes to the number of chicken sandwiches sold, McDonald’s and Chick-Fil-A are neck-and-neck. Most brands studied have sold increasing numbers of chicken sandwiches from 2020 to 2021, except for Popeyes. The Chicken Sandwich Wars have been raging so fiercely and for so long now that there’s even a Wikipedia page about it.
TV streaming platforms such as FuboTV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV have been on the rise for the past few years, bolstered by a combination of price increases and new subscribers. While OTT streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu experienced a spike in sales and customers at the start of the pandemic, a different pattern has emerged for TV streaming services. Consumer transaction data shows that TV streaming companies, especially FuboTV, generally experience the highest spike in sales and new subscribers in September, corresponding with the start of football season.
In this Placer Bytes, we dove into Target’s offline Deal Days performance, self-storage’s impressive monthly visit gains, and physical therapy chains’ summer surge. This year marked the first time that the Target Deal Day sales extended not only to the Target website and app, but also to all brick-and-mortar Target stores. The sale lasted from October 10th through October 12th amidst reports of supply chain challenges and impending retail shortages pushing consumers to get a jump-start on their holiday shopping.
Total construction starts rose 10% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $889.7 billion, according to Dodge Construction Network. All three sectors improved: nonresidential building starts rose 15%, residential starts moved 9% higher, and nonbuilding starts increased by 6%. “Construction starts have struggled over the last three months as concerns over rising prices, shortages of materials, and scarce labor led to declines in activity,” stated Richard Branch, Chief Economist for Dodge Construction Network.
Video streaming services have benefitted from a wave of content becoming available on home devices at the same time it’s been released in theatres. But as more delayed blockbusters such as the finally released No Time to Die James Bond movie come to the big screens, will viewers be lured away from the comfort of their couches? In today’s Insight Flash, we look at Video Streaming trends in the UK and US to see where the market currently stands, including doing a deep dive into US cross-streaming rates.
The wider Home Improvement category was one of the retail bright spots early on in the pandemic, with brands like Home Depot and Lowe’s showing a unique level of strength. Yet, one of the more interesting storylines was the rise of Tractor Supply – a brand that also outperformed over the last 18 months. Home furnishings leaders were also among the better performers over the last year as key trends aligned to give an added boost to their specific offerings.
When many Americans sheltered in their homes early in the coronavirus pandemic, meal delivery sales reached new heights. Our data reveals that in September 2021, sales for meal delivery services grew 17 percent year-over-year, collectively. The ongoing pandemic may also be driving more Americans to make their first meal delivery purchase. In September 2021, 50 percent of U.S. consumers had ever ordered from one of the services in our analysis, up from 44 percent a year ago.
When U.S. cities and states faced shelter-in-place orders to limit the spread of the coronavirus, Americans’ reduced mobility resulted in plummeting sales at rideshare companies. With the exception of a late 2020 dip, sales have been gradually recovering since April 2020. Uber sales were up 110 percent year-over-year and Lyft sales were up 87 percent year-over-year in September 2021.
While many retailers took a cautious approach to expansion following the COVID outbreak, Dollar General bucked the trend, deciding instead to launch a new concept, Popshelf, mid-pandemic. Courting a new type of customer, it plans to open up to 50 of these locations by the end of the year. Popshelf is attracting higher-income shoppers: 29% of its customer spend in 2021 came from households with annual earnings of more than $150K, while this figure was 22% at its parent, Dollar General.
The online business of Lowe’s Home Improvement has had many fits and starts over the past few years. Although our CE Transact credit card data has been accurately tracking the company’s total U.S. sales along with those of competitor Home Depot, our newly launched CE Receipt data is our first data offering to be able to break out the e-commerce channel. In today’s Insight Flash, we dig into online home improvement trends such as how online share compares to total company for Home Depot and Lowe’s, how the two stack up in terms of items per transaction
Piccoma, published by Kakao Japan Corporation, launched in 2016, and has achieved monumental success by surpassing the $1 billion milestone, 1 of only 15 non-gaming apps globally to do so to date (October 10, 2021). This is particularly impressive because all of its consumer spend came from one market: Japan. Japan is one of the world’s most lucrative mobile app markets for monetization with the highest monthly consumer spend per device.
Meituan Waimai, a food delivery app published by Sankuai Technology Company, has surpassed 100 million app downloads across iOS and Google Play worldwide. Meituan Waimai was released on Nov 19, 2013 on iOS and July 18, 2017 on Google Play. In addition to delivering international cuisines ranging from specific fast food partners such as Pizza Hut and KFC as well as local favorites such as barbecue and hot pot, Meituan Waimai also delivers soda drinks, fresh fruits, pharmacy items, and supermarket groceries.
After a brief month of year-over-two-year visit growth in July, nationwide dining visits fell once again below 2019-levels in August, and declined even further in September. To understand how current dining trends were affecting the QSR sector, we dove into in-store visits to Chipotle and Yum! Brands’s portfolio – KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. While Chipotle has been investing heavily in its digital channels, offline traffic has been lagging behind pre-pandemic levels. But the brand has been opening new locations
