Retail Trends from CES

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) today, we heard from several retail and commerce speakers. Arguably one of the most impacted sectors in 2020, there were a lot of questions today around what we can expect in 2021.

To me, after hearing from Lauren Hobart, President of Dick’s Sporting Goods and Tony Shan, Head of Tmall Global, Americas of Alibaba Group, there were two key takeaways.

Retail stores are critical to the omni ecosystem

While many retailers have seen huge growth in ecommerce, and that growth is sustaining, it doesn’t mean that store locations are declining, or not critical to omni. Instead, we are seeing the shift in brick and mortar stores – from only handling in-store action to being responsible for local ecommerce fulfillment, order online/pickup in store and physical retail sales.

The key is – while foot traffic may be lower than normal, the retailers adopting their in-store models to adjust for ecommerce and BOPIS are the ones setting themselves up for future success. It’s not just about the shopping experience, though. Inventory and logistics are critical.

Singles Day global implications

Singles Day hit $74.1 billion USD in sales. Although, ‘Day’ is taken lightly, as it goes on for 11 days now! There were a few things that were particularly interesting here. Firstly, U.S. companies selling to China accounted for $5.4 billion USD in sales – this is huge and growing rapidly. Secondly, while U.S. shopping dates are largely focused on deals – Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Thanksgiving night, etc. – Singles Day is really about shopping and doesn’t rely on discounts only to drive product. It’s about the shopping experience. We see companies launching new products, testing new technologies like live stream selling, launch exclusive content, or even launch huge marketing platforms – it’s like the shopping scale of U.S. events like Black Friday, but with the marketing implications of audiences like the Super Bowl.

2020 completely changed how we work, live, play, consume – every aspect of our lives has been impacted, and shopping is no exception. We saw some of these big changes in particular during the holiday 2020 shopping season. But for brands, just adapting to the latest eCommerce behaviors isn't necessarily enough to succeed. You need to look forward, and consider everything from consumers' priorities, to their hopes and how they're seeking to solve problems. For example, our latest POOL research (which tracks the impact of COVID-19 on Americans) highlighted that in 2021, Americans’ top priority is to save money. So then it makes sense that a lot of retailers are looking at partners like Affirm or Afterpay, to making financing easier for customers. This is providing people with more options for smarter spending.

Written by Mara Greenwald, Director, Shop+