Wal-Mart takes aim at Amazon's online dominance

Wal-Mart Stores is rapidly building fulfillment capacity and will be able to match Amazon's range of products and delivery speed within two years, Wal-Mart Global E-commerce CEO Neil Ashe says. "This is not a side project," he said. "This is how we will be serving customers going forward." 

NRF

News about Amazon

Planet Retail reports that Amazon is going to experiment with the new single package delivery and demand anticipation models wherein the company will use its extraordinary analytic capacity to predict the likelihood of an item purchase and ship it closer to the client's location to cut the delivery time and cost for the customer. 

Another news is the company now offers Sunday delivery service in UK. 

Price Intelligence - a big gun in Amazon's arsenal

Amazon.com makes more than 2.5 million price changes every day, compared with a little more than 50,000 total price changes made by brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart and Best Buy throughout November.

The extent of Amazon.com’s daily price changes is even more significant when compared with the number of daily price changes implemented by brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart and Best Buy. During November, Best Buy made a total of 52,956 price changes and Walmart a total of 54,633 price changes, highlighting the massive price advantage Amazon has over other retailers — and demonstrating why retailers need to monitor their online competitors’ prices every day to remain competitive on the market and avoid losing sales.

http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/amazon%E2%80%99s-quest-be-most-price-competitive-retailer-web

Buying local will beat online in the next 5 years

 According to one of the predictions from the IBM "5 in 5" annual report about the use of technology in the not so distant future, "buying local will beat online".

The forthcoming innovations can bring the power of the Web into the bricks and mortar stores making sales people smarter and more effective at servicing customers.

Artificial intelligence can be incorporated into physical shopping experience.

Augmented reality can deliver more information to the store shelves.

Retailers will use the immediacy of the store and proximity to customers to create experiences that online-only retail can’t replicate.

The technology will help stores to anticipate customer wants and needs. 

The report even suggests that on-line retailers will have to "set up showrooms to help their own sales".

Technology will help us save time and reduce the 'pains' of shopping for some while amplifying the fun of shopping for others. In grocery retail, augmented reality will map out the optimal route to the products on our shopping list; based on the list of product, a shopper may get suggestions as to some items a person may be missing; using the history of one's shopping choices, the technology can help us not miss some stuff we usually buy or suggest something new to try in line with our tastes; or show what's on sale visually, directing a shopper to the sale products; we may be able to see interactive product descriptions and contents that will even tell us if they can work with our diet plan or health requirements; we will be able to locate staff on the floor and connect with them more easily or a store manager or any other function of the company; we will be able to instantly share our thoughts about products with fellow shoppers and ask their opinion about it. In apparel retailing, we will be able to instanteniously get fitting rooms and remotely ask for help; get any information about the product contents, construction, history, compare them with what we have in our wardrobe; we will be able to get our questions answered and concerns addressed. The home and hardware retailers will show and explain how to use, store and recycle products. Physical retailing will be interactive, efficient and fun.

To expand on the topic about what could happen in the future, here's the link to Michio Kaku's "The Physics of the Future", which gives mind boggling predictions based on more than 300 interviews with top scientists of today - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UgE-NhcmbM







http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/16/ibm-reveals-its-top-five-predictions-for-the-next-five-years/

Victims of late Xmas package deliveries, try shopping in store

 This short article about the failure of UPS to deliver last minute Christmas online purchases on time raises an interesting point. Perhaps it is not realistic to count on last minute online purchases for Christmas to arrive on time. This is a great opportunity for brick and mortar retailers to drive more traffic to stores a few day before December 25. I expect that next year we will see commercials with this theme on TV before Xmas. Hopefully this will alleviate some of the pre-xmas strain on the delivery services and result in a merrier holiday for all.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131228172641-205524815-ups-is-no-santa?goback=.nmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=NUS_UNIU_PEOPLE_FOLLOW-megaphone-fllw

WalMart plays a catch up game with Amazon

Neil Ashe, a CEO of global e-commerce of the biggest retailer in the world, is tasked with a challenging mission to create a defensive line against the world's biggest online retailer, Amazon, by making e-commerce central to the company and "lead Wal-Mart into a more digital future".

WM has many cards up its sleeves.

The biggest one is its sheer size that ability to generate revenue. The company reported $446b of top line performance in 2013. It has deep pockets and is capable to finance pretty much any kind of strategic initiative.

For many years the company has been at the forefront of supply chain management/logistics innovations and a leader in retail technologies. It currently has 11,000 stores worldwide.

However, being nimble enough to weave together physical and digital retailing - the quality that consumers now have come to expect from the retailers - is a major challenge for the behemoth.

WalMart's Black Friday one-hour guarantee is an example of how the company "takes the assets we have and make them contemporary" in attempt to respond to "shoppers' shifting expectations".

The company bought several start-ups that developed expertise in social gifting, subscription boxes and other online retailing trends.

In 2014 WalMart expects to reach $13b in sales from Walmart.com - mere 3% of overall sale in 2012.

WalMart has long way to go...will it succeed?

- "At Wal-Mart, moving the needle on e-commerce", Fortune Tech: Technology blog

AMAZON gets physical

Amazon appears to be venturing even further into the world of physical retail. The online giant is experimenting with standalone automated Kindle Kiosk vending machines at airports and shopping centres.

Costco co-founder to receive top retail award by NRF

Costco Wholesale co-founder Jim Sinegal will receive NRF's Gold Medal Award at a ceremony during Retail's BIG Show in New York City next week. Sinegal, who stepped down as CEO in 2012 but remains on the board, earned the honor because of his "committment to the industry and Costco, and dedication into creating such a well-respected culture throughout the organization he helped build," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. The Seattle Times (1/7)

China may surpass US as the world's largest trader

China has held the title of the largest exporter and second-largest importer globally since 2009, but it is expected that 2013 numbers will show the country now has the world's largest trade value. China's trade in 2013 is expected to have reached $4.14 trillion, while the US, which saw $3.26 trillion in trade from January to October, is not expected to have hit the more than $880 billion necessary in November and December to exceed China's numbers. China's year-end trade data is expected within the coming days; US numbers are expected next month

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-01/04/content_17215274.htm

Loblaw’s Galen G. Weston named CP’s Business Newsmaker of the year

Thanks to the biggest takeover in Canadian history valued at more than $12b as well as his stance on ethical sourcing labor issues in developing countries, Galen Weston received a title of CP Business Newsmaker of the Year. 

Galen took over the reigns of Loblaw in 2006 from his father. Since then he successfully spearheaded the transformation of Loblaw Ltd. to improve its competitive position agains domestic and international rivals. 

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/loblaws-galen-g-weston-named-cps-business-newsmaker-of-the-year/article16124912/?service=mobile