Shopping

• [New] We believe Nordstrom will benefit from a recovery in apparel spending as consumers refresh their wardrobes throughout the year and easing restrictions support a return to in-person shopping.
• [New] Safety will remain a top concern for consumers, even as the world reopens, so retailers must adapt their in-store experience to provide shoppers with greater confidence and peace of mind.
• [New] App stores provide developers access to a global customer base who shop at app stores with greater confidence because they trust that their app store purchases will be safe and secure.
• [New] As online shopping continues to expand - with sales due to rise by another 16% in 2021 - companies will start setting their sights on boosting digital success by enhancing customer experience.
• [New] For retailers without a strong ecommerce channel, their businesses were at risk as consumers' shift to online shopping experienced a dramatic acceleration when lockdown came into effect in the UK a year ago.
• [New] Italy's government is expected to close schools, restaurants and shops later Friday as its hospitals come under pressure from a new wave of COVID infections.
• Online grocery shopping in the U.S. is expected to more than double its market share by 2025.
• The grocery stores that reaped the benefits of digital shopping over the last year using Instacart's platform now realize digital's growing foothold, and worry that Instacart could become a threat to the economics of their business.
• Downward pressure on property tax revenues could grow in 2021, especially for offices, hotels, shopping malls, and retail and restaurants.
• A perfume shop will be in tight competition with big retailers such as Amazon more than competing perfume shops, deciding to offer online services.
• At a recent meeting with BMO Capital Markets analysts, Stitch Fix executives acknowledged that e-commerce remains a largely inefficient search-based task, with an opportunity to shift online shopping to a simplified browse-and-select scroll of few-but-hyper-curated items.
• The fear that losing Amazon as a customer would present a great challenge, especially as the online giant continues to add to its dedicated fleet leases, has largely receded and data from Bloomberg shows that FDX's largest customers, including the U.S.
• Physical stores are expected to receive more business as vaccines make Americans comfortable with in-store shopping and compel them to pull away from their devices.
• The multimedia messaging app's parent company Snap's purchase of the Berlin-based startup will enable Snapchat to tap into online shopping in a new way.
• Singapore's e-commerce market reached SGD 9.3 billion ($7 billion) in 2020 and is projected to grow by 40% over the next four years driven by mobile shopping.
• Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. will raise 150 billion yen ($1.38 billion) from Japan Post Holdings Inc. in a capital tie-up intended to boost competitiveness in logistics, online shopping and other digital services.
• Love of in-store shopping is a standout trait of Brazilians, or was, until lockdowns and infection fears quickly eroded that bond.
• More than half of the U.S. population will be online grocery buyers by 2022, and online grocery sales will be 11.2% of total U.S. grocery sales by 2023.
• Globally there will be major changes in the way stores, chains, shopping centers and online shopping is set up and organized.
• Recent developments within the CITES regulatory trade framework to recognize wild-cultivated products through labeling as human-assisted could facilitate improved transparency during the process of importation and in retail shops and e-commerce markets.

Last updated: 11 April 2021