Showing 1,180 posts

Rental, Subscription and Resale: How Companies Are Tapping Demand

Under pressure from subscription and rental services, mainstream retailers are launching rental services of their own and teaming up with digital natives. We’re seeing brick-and-mortar retailers strike collaboration deals with online subscription services, launch their own services—and be acquired as digital natives look for physical space.

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Alibaba vs. Amazon: Head to Head in E-Commerce and Technology

​Alibaba Group and Amazon are innovators in retailing and technology, and both are expanding their presence into international markets. Employing its “New Retail” strategy, could the emerging China giant threaten Amazon’s global dominance? We discuss the competition between these two companies, considering their retail ecosystems, global expansion plans, financial performance and internally developed technologies.

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3Q19 US Earnings Season Wrap-Up

Third-quarter 2019 retail earnings show mixed results across categories. Our coverage of the Coresight 100 reveal most companies beat consensus, but there were sectors that fared much better than others—and luxury was one that did not meet expectations despite recent recovery.

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Convenience Stores: More than Just Retail

Major convenience-store chains across China, Japan and the US—such as 7-Eleven, Casey’s General Stores and FamilyMart—are making significant moves to increase sales and store traffic in line with changing consumer preferences. We look at how this fast-growing retail sector is diversifying its offerings through a number of key trends, including a greater emphasis on foodservice and the introduction of delivery services and new store formats.

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Cannabis Insights: The Marijuana Consumer

We analyze the results of our US survey of marijuana (or cannabis) users, in nine states where marijuana is legal for recreational use. We look at how much marijuana users spend on the drug, how often they use marijuana and how they consume it, where they purchase the drug and why they use the drug—including medical and recreational reasons.

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Tencent’s Smart Retail Strategy

Chinese Internet giant Tencent is focusing on the business-to-business space through its “Smart Retail” concept—the company’s answer to Alibaba’s New Retail. Tencent’s Smart Retail ecosystem has a number of components that facilitate the integration of online and offline commerce, including the leveraging of WeChat mini programs, investment in JD.com and the exploitation of the company’s strength in gaming and digital entertainment.

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How Dollar Stores Are Gearing Up To Sustain Growth

Dollar stores emerged as Wall Street darlings in the early 2000s, got a boost during the financial crisis—and just kept going. We look at how the major players, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Dollar General, plan to maintain the momentum in the coming years.

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Holiday 2019: Retailers Harness the Power of Social Media

Continuing our Holiday 2019 series, we outline the popularity of social media channels among holiday shoppers for gift inspiration and promotion tracking. We discuss the engagement of selected retailers—including Amazon, Target and Walmart—and outline their holiday campaigns heading into the holiday season.

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Aldi and Lidl Global Update

Aldi and Lidl are growing store numbers, adjusting formats to serve regional markets and moving further into e-commerce. We discuss global developments and growth metrics, with a focus on the US, the UK and China.

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Holiday 2019: Hottest Toys

Continuing our Holiday 2019 series, we outline key trends that we think are going to influence toy gifting in the US this shopping season. We also consider the competitive strategies of major players in the toys and games sector, including Amazon and Walmart.

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Cannabis Insights: The CBD Consumer

Our new survey sheds light on the CBD boom. We look at who is buying CBD, where they buy it and why they use it—to review the opportunity for retailers to enter this fast-growing category.

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