Tag Archives: Walmart

Fung Analysis: Amazon Yet to Crack the Menswear Market

Report Compares Amazon with Kohl’s, Walmart, and Macy’s and Identifies Relative Strength and Positioning of Each Retailer Compared to Amazon

Deborah Weinswig, a top-ranked global retail analyst, and her team recently released a special report titled, “Deep Dive: US Consumer Survey—Amazon Yet to Crack the Menswear Market.” This is the fourth monthly report based on the Amazon Shopper Intelligence service. and is focused on the menswear category. Key findings include:

  • Brick-and-mortar stores—which include discount stores, specialty stores and department stores—remain the main channel at which surveyed men most often purchase menswear, for a total share of 78.3% as of June 2016.
  • The majority of surveyed men have purchased menswear online, with 67.0% having done so in June 2016. However, those who do over half of their menswear shopping online remained a small minority, representing only 14.8% of surveyed men, whereas those buying most often online was a niche segment, at 2.6%.
  • The number of Amazon menswear customers has doubled over the past five years―23.4% of those surveyed bought menswear at the online retailer in the three months prior to June 2016, up from 9.4% in June 2011. However, those buying menswear most often at Amazon remained a niche segment, with a share of 2.1% in June 2016.

Amazon, Kohl’s and Walmart appeal to price-sensitive customers―over 85% of their customers cite price as the reason they shop there. Macy’s positioning differs slightly, in that it has an edge on selection and style compared to the other top retailers.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW REPORT Continue reading →

For Brands And Retailers, The Past Is Not The Future

From Forbes.com on March 20, 2017…

The retail grocery industry appears to be in a state of change. Consumer data trend insights show that for grocery retailing, the past is not the future.

  • On February 8th, Aldi announced that during 2017, it will invest $3 billion for 600 additional new stores, and spend $1.8 billion to remodel and remerchandise the existing store base.
  • Whole Foods announced on March 10th that sales for the 6th straight quarter declined in comparable stores while lowering its guidance for fiscal 2017…close 9 stores and curtail new store development.
  • On March 2nd, Kroger announced that its 14-year streak of ¼ identical store sales growth had ended and that management foresees minimal sales and earnings growth for the remainder of 2017.

I asked long time industry veteran and consultant Ron Lunde to analyze and comment on Prosper Insights and Analytics data in light of the changing retail environment.

Click here to read the interview.

Amazon Is Shoppers’ Top Destination For Holiday Gifts, Increasing Lead Over Walmart

From Forbes on December 15, 2016:

With the holiday shopping season entering the home stretch, it seems that Amazon.com will be the Grinch who stole Christmas from competing retailers this year. According to the Prosper Insights & Analytics December survey of nearly 7,000 U.S. adults, more than one in four holiday shoppers (26.2%) indicate they have purchased most of their gifts from the online giant this year, increasing 10% from last year.* Walmart ranks second place with holiday shoppers this year at 14.5%, lagging Jeff Bezos & Co. by almost 50%. Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, JC Penney, Toys R Us, eBay.com, and Costco follow, respectively, with single digit percentage shares. [*Results are tallied from an unaided, write-in question posed to consumers. Figures include digital as well as brick and mortar locations, where applicable.] Continue reading →

How Digital and New Competitors are Impacting Grocery

Guest post by Ron Lunde, Senior Marketing, Advertising Executive & Market Strategy Consultant

Choices = Disruption
What must companies do today to generate billions of dollars in revenue, create thousands of jobs, reward investors and sustain the environment —Survive? They have to think about it. They have to make new choices. They have to think outside the box, they have to think in new boxes. They must reframe both their personal and corporate mental & business models. They have to be able to Innovate and Re-Innovate.

  • Cell phones weren’t introduced by AT& T
  • Online mapping was not introduced by Rand McNally
  • Overnight package delivery wasn’t introduced by the U.S. Postal Service
  • Diet and caffeine-free soft drinks weren’t introduced by Coke

There is a significant lost opportunity and cost inflicted on companies if their management teams are mired in the status quo, teams that don’t or can’t tackle the hard work of Innovation and Re-Innovation.  Continue reading →

Wal-Mart’s Dot Com Dilemma Won’t Be Solved By Jet.com

From Forbes on August 12, 2016:

The recent record-setting acquisition of e-commerce start-up Jet.com has certainly given Wal-Mart Stores its fair share of headlines lately. The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, has been heralded as Wal-Mart’s strike back at rival Amazon.com and a jolt to the discounter’s standing in the digital retail arena, vis-à-vis Jet.com’s innovative Smart Cart technology as well as it’s potentially lucrative base of younger (read: Millennial) and more affluent shoppers. However, recent analysis of consumer data collected by Prosper Insights & Analytics suggests that Walmart.com is struggling with deeper, core customer issues that the Jet.com buyout isn’t likely to fix. Continue reading →

Has Wal-Mart’s Revamped ShippingPass Subscription Ignited Shopper Interest?

From Forbes on June 28, 2016:

Nearly a year after its test launch, Wal-Mart Stores recently revamped its ShippingPass delivery subscription program, rolling back the price of a yearly membership by $1 – to $49/year – and speeding up the delivery time frame from three days to two. At the time of these changes, mid-May, the program appeared to be invitation-only, allowing interested shoppers to sign up for a wait list for membership. As of late June, while ShippingPass is still termed a “pilot” program, Walmart – per its website – has opened up subscriptions to “everyone, no invitation required.”  With Walmart now offering comparable shipping speed at half the price of Amazon’s popular Prime membership, has consumer interest ignited for ShippingPass? Continue reading →

Amazon Prime Reaches Peak Membership: Why Target Should Worry

From Forbes on June 2, 2016:

At the recent Shoptalk commerce event, Jason Goldberger, Target’s Chief Digital Officer and President of Target.com, spoke about his customers’ point of view regarding on-demand delivery, insisting that instead of an immediate gratification shipment, Target guests were more concerned with having their expectations met within an accurate delivery window. That is, if the shopper was informed that their package would arrive on Tuesday, it should be sitting on the doorstep on Tuesday, even if that meant waiting the standard three to five business days for the package to arrive. This sentiment was also reinforced by the retailer’s recent abandonment of its pilot partnership with the Curbside pick-up app to focus on delivery and execution of retail fundamentals. However, recent research collected by Prosper Insights & Analytics suggests that Target guests in particular prefer a more expedited shipping process. Continue reading →

Lowe’s Poised As Successor To The Sears Appliance Empire

From Forbes on April 26, 2016:

With speculation about the future of Sears Holdings running rampant among analysts and amid news of additional store closures, one has to wonder which retailers might step up with shoppers should a Sears shutdown become a reality. Earlier in the year, I detailed the highs and lows for Sears, according to insights from Prosper’s consumer survey of more than 6,000 U.S. adults 18+. One positive that remained for Sears was its first place position in appliances; however, while Sears currently leads in this category, the once dominant department store’s share is undoubtedly slipping with shoppers. With some of retail’s biggest boxes, including Home Depot and Best Buy, vying for the appliance crown, recent analysis reveals that Lowe’s appears to be best positioned to succeed Sears’ reign. Continue reading →

New Sam’s Club Shopper Segments Added To Prosper Insights & Analytics InsightCenter

Worthington, OH – 10/22/2015

Prosper Insights & Analytics™ has added the newly announced Sam’s Club Shopper segments into its Shopper Marketing InsightCenter™. Now consumer packaged goods companies who need to connect their brands with these particular segments will have compelling consumer insights and predictive analytics instantly available. These latest segments are added to an already robust list of consumer groups available in the InsightCenter including a variety of Walmart Shoppers segments by categories and demographics, along with their competitors’ shoppers.  Continue reading →

Are Shoppers Buying The Jet.com Hype?

From Forbes on September 17, 2015:

Recently, retail industry analysts and pundits were abuzz with the launch of Jet.com. A combination of membership-only exclusivity, low-threshold free shipping, and an intricate pricing algorithm, this new shopping site was seemingly positioned to be a formidable challenge to the web dominance of Amazon.com as well as other popular club retailers. In a spending environment where shoppers continue to be driven by price, loyalty is hard-won and easily lost, and this new entry to the retail space was certainly positioned to turn shoppers’ heads (and wallets) in a new direction. Enough about Jet.com’s potential, though: are shoppers buying into the Jet.com hype? Continue reading →