Are you up-to-date on the latest ecommerce developments? Do you know how, or if, you should be switching up your strategy in response? 

To help you keep up, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest news stories in ecommerce, with analysis and advice from Teikametrics’ top analyst leaders.

 

1. Amazon has been in talks to potentially Acquire JC Penney’s. Not only is this potentially interesting for Amazon’s ecommerce marketplace, but it could also present an opportunity for Amazon to creatively utilize JC Penney’s brick and mortar assets.

Analyst Meghan Gleason says, “There are lots of opportunities for Amazon to reinvent the mall experience. It’s a pretty interesting opportunity for Amazon to provide a better customer experience.”

 

2. There’s been speculation that Amazon Prime Day will be scheduled for September, and there may also be a soft lines mini Prime Day in June. 

Gleason points out that there have been a lot of fulfillment challenges during the pandemic and Amazon will need to be able to readily fulfill “one- or two-day Prime in order to be at full capacity for Prime Day.”

 

3. Walmart announced that it was sunsetting Jet.com after having acquired it for more than $3 billion dollars only a few years ago.

At first, the news was alarming to some, but our analysts saw it differently. Ryan Walker said, “This one really isn’t a shock. Walmart has continued to invest in its ecommerce capabilities and has been somewhat successful in that aim so that they can get rid of Jet.com.” 

Walmart used Jet.com to gain infrastructure and expertise, as well as to attract talent. Letting it go is a sign that they improved those aspects of Walmart.com and are confident of their continuing growth as an ecommerce marketplace. 

Walker advises, “It’s definitely a good time to start engaging with Walmart if you haven’t already… It signals that Walmart feels like they got what they wanted and they’re ready to continue pushing forward with Walmart.com, which I think is pretty exciting.”

 

4. Facebook’s latest move to become a retail site came with the announcement of the new Facebook Shops feature. 

Analyst Kelsey Robb comments, “It makes sense that Facebook feels like they need to have a play here… What we know is that they have about 8 million or so advertisers and the majority of them are small businesses on Facebook.” 

Robb suggests that using Facebook Shops could be sensible for small businesses who may already have a presence on Facebook and don’t have the time to manage multiple selling platforms, but she also cautions small businesses to not allow themselves to become dependent on Facebook as a sole marketplace. 

 

5. New data indicates that demand for online grocery shopping has risen dramatically. During the pandemic, many people have made their first-ever online grocery order. Questions remain about consumer expectations as the pandemic is addressed and people’s expectations on delivery times may change. 

Analyst Laura Pattison says, “We’re still trying to evaluate how shopping behavior is going to change through the next year.”

 

For the analysts’ complete analysis of these news stories, watch the Ecommerce News of the Week: Analysis & Advice webinar replay.

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