US Ecommerce & Retail Highlights – May 2018

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US Ecommerce & Retail Highlights – May 2018

Every month B.D.C. unveils Retail essential information. Latest trends and innovations, key players, startups, market figures… Do not miss the latest retail news, check them out in 60 seconds only.

 

US MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

A survey conducted by Blueshift with Tech Validate entitled ‘Activating Customer Data for AI Powered Marketing’ enabled to list key takeaways and confirm that AI adoption will grow this year:

  • 43% of marketers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) including machine learning for expanding their audiences today. 64% of all marketers are planning to increase their use of AI in marketing campaigns over the next 12 months,
  • For now, just 6% of marketers are making use of advanced AI capabilities including personalizing campaigns with collaborative filtering and predictive models,
  • Marketers who have direct access to customer data across their enterprises are 1.6X more productive than their more data-constrained counterparts. Today, 35% of marketers are using 50% or more of the available data in their enterprises for campaigns.

KEY PLAYERS

Amazon Go targets Chicago and San Francisco to open some new cashierless stores. Although no timetable or deadlines have been unveiled yet, Amazon has posted job listings for store managers at upcoming locations. This seems to reveal an intent for Amazon to deploy its concept more widely in the U.S. as it has been done with the Amazon Books stores, accounting for 13 locations thourghout the country as per today.

Besides rolling out its service nationwide (to be within range of 75% of the U.S. population), Target is cutting down its next-day delivery “Restock” fee by half, passing from $4.99 to $2.99. For customers who buy items with Target’s branded credit/debit card, they won’t pay anything extra at all. With “Restock”, customers can buy baby formula, coffee and any of 35,000 items online by 7 p.m. any week day. The purchases are then dropped at their front door the next day. This announcement adds some more competition in delivery standards, which is a prime battleground for retailers.

WHAT’S HOT

On the beginning of May, Macy’s announced it acquires the New York-based concept store Story, founded in 2011 by Rachel Shechtman, who will join the department store chain as Brand Experience Officer. Her role will be to build partnerships with brands and create better in-store experiences.

Located in the elegant Chelsea neighbourhood, Story is a 2,000-sq.-ft. retail space that reinvents itself every four to eight weeks, every time with a new theme, a new interior design and new curated items and brands. Love, Well-Being, Beauty, Fresh, Work/Space, Tech, Art or Color are some of the different shopping experiences that have been implemented since the creation of this rotating boutique.

“We are committed to growth in 2018 and this is one important step along the way,” Jeff Gennette, chief executive and chairman of Macy’s, said. While Story will continue to operate in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, a small Story shop-in-shop is expected to exist within Macy’s locations. It will be a testing ground for the retailer to understand how customers react to new brands, and for some to become part of the permanent merchandise.