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eBay grows GMV in Q3, continues to invest in gen AI

Abbas Haleem — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Revenue and gross merchandise value (GMV) both grew year over year for eBay Inc. in its fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023.

CEO Jamie Iannone said in addition to delivering “solid results,” eBay has accelerated its innovation pace. Notably, that refers at least in part to eBay’s generative AI technology.

EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV. Digital Commerce 360’s 2023 Global Online Marketplaces Report includes key insights into the biggest players in the database.

EBay had a rough year in 2022, with GMV falling 15.4% compared to 2021, said James Risley, research data manager and senior analyst at Digital Commerce 360. In 2020, when supply chains “got far out of whack,” he said, eBay and other pure marketplaces saw a “huge surge” as shoppers turned to alternate channels and some people bought up popular products to resell on these giant marketplaces.

“This quarter, it remained flat over last year’s Q3 as GMV returns to the level it likely would have been at without a pandemic,” Risley said. “Stronger supply chains coupled with retailers adding on new marketplaces to their ecommerce operations have forced eBay to find ways to increase revenue without GMV increases, and they seem to have done that.”

eBay revenue and gross merchandise value (GMV)

In its fiscal third quarter, eBay revenue grew 5% year over year. That’s up to $2.5 billion from $2.38 billion in Q3 2022.

Meanwhile, eBay GMV grew 2% year over year. It reached $17.99 billion in Q3. That’s slightly less than eBay GMV in Q2, which was $18.21 billion, but it’s greater than GMV in Q3 2022, which was $17.72 billion. In the United States, eBay GMV declined slightly to $8.64 billion. That’s down 1% from about $8.70 billion in Q3 2022. EBay defines GMV as the total value of all paid transactions between users on its platforms during the applicable period, including shipping fees and taxes.

EBay active buyers decreased 3%, to 132 million in Q3 from 135 million in the comparable period of 2022. The marketplace identifies active buyers as those who paid for a transaction on its platforms within the previous 12-month period.

eBay generative AI technology updates

Iannone said the Magical Listing tool, which uses artificial intelligence to help sellers, rolled out to 100% of mobile app users in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany in eBay’s fiscal Q3. In October, eBay extended generative AI descriptions to 50% of desktop users in the same three countries, he said.

The Magical Listing tool makes it simple and fast to list items, he said. It also helps ensure listing are comprehensive to maximize sales, he said. As part of the Magical Listing experience, eBay has rolled out an improved background removal tool powered by AI, he added.

“Now, generative AI allows us to leverage our treasure trove of images and listing data to quickly create compelling listings,” Iannone said. “Early users have told us these capabilities will unlock more of the inventory in their closets and garages, which could ultimately keep more products out of landfills.”

The first phase of the Magical Listing process “leverages generative AI to instantly populate the item description within the listing flow based on a product’s title, category and other aspects,” he said.

EBay’s camera-based Magical Listing tool has been in employee beta for several months, Iannone added. It is also currently in a limited beta with a number of large sellers.

eBay earnings summary

For the fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, eBay Inc. reported:

$2.5 billion in revenue. That’s up 5% from $2.38 billion in the year-ago period.
eBay GMV increased to $17.99 billion. That’s a 2% year-over-year increase from $17.72 billion. However, eBay GMV in Q3 decreased from Q2’s 418.21 billion.
eBay active buyers decreased 3% year over year to 132 million.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s eBay update.

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Lights, camera, conversion: How some retailers use videos to entice shoppers to buy

Gretchen Salois — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:01:30 +0000

When a shopper lands on HomeDepot.com, the retailer only has a few seconds to grab their attention, says Michael Newsome, senior director, category experience and brand advocate at The Home Depot Inc. “If they don’t see what they want, or something doesn’t engage them, they’re going to move on to the next thing,” Newsome says. […]

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Natori says user-generated videos resonate more with shoppers

Gretchen Salois — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:28:37 +0000

Video used to be highly produced, big productions, says Ken Natori, president at lingerie brand The Natori Co.

Ken Natori, president, The Natori Co.

“Videos were completely controlled by us,” Natori says. “They had high production budgets and involved carefully curated and intentional content. That was the past.”

Now, Natori says shorter, user-generated-content videos are more popular with consumers. The brand works with influencers and features some of those videos at the bottom of its homepage.

“There’s a much greater appetite from consumers to see video not intentionally curated by the brand but more curated by other people,” Natori says. “There’s more appetite for video, and videos are more plentiful. The technology makes it much easier to post videos from a number of different sources.”

Natori uses video commerce vendor Firework and artificial intelligence software vendor Agora for video and livestreaming content. Natori says he can record video and use Firework’s app to launch livestreams on its website. He plans to use video to give consumers a “behind-the-scenes” view of products and experiences.

The retailer plans to work with more social media influencers in the future as well as film more instructional/styling content. The retailer also plans to give shoppers an inside look with more “casual videos,” he says. He plans to film parts of a supplier trip to the Philippines in the coming weeks to give consumers a look at how Natori’s products are sourced.

“The technology allows us to be creative quickly and easily,” he says.

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Ecommerce earnings recap: What you missed from Shopify, Wayfair, Etsy and more

Mary Meisenzahl — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 16:58:25 +0000

More retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 list of leading ecommerce retailers in North America reported ecommerce earnings results for the most recent fiscal quarter. Here’s the ecommerce earnings summary you need to know from this quarter. Read more ecommerce earnings coverage here.

Parentheses indicate the merchant’s ranking in the Top 1000.

Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1)

Amazon recorded its highest operating income ever in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Operating income nearly quadrupled year over year, growing 343%.

Read more about Amazon’s earnings here.

Canada Goose Holdings Inc. (No. 154)

Canada Goose reported total revenue grew 1% to $281.1 million in its fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 1. Direct-to-consumer revenue grew 15% in the same period, while comparable DTC sales declined 7%. Comparable store sales grew, but not enough to offset ecommerce declines, the retailer said in a statement. Though online sales were down, website visits to product pages increased in the quarter, Canada Goose says.

E.l.f. Cosmetics Inc. (No. 950)

Beauty retailer e.l.f. reported net sales grew 76% to $215.5 million in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30. The growth was attributed to strong sales both in stores and online. Ecommerce made up about 17% of sales in the quarter, the retailer says. The e.l.f. app and loyalty program are also both growing quickly, the retailer says.

Etsy Inc. (Marketplace No. 17)

Etsy reported consolidated revenue grew 7.0% to $636.3 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Gross merchandise sales on the platform grew 1.2% in the period, to $3 billion. Meanwhile, active buyers grew 3.4%, and active sellers grew 19.0%.

Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes reported revenue declined 6% to $784 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Global Ecommerce, the sector of the shipping vendor that handles B2C fulfillment services, reported a revenue decline of 12% to $313 million. Domestic parcel revenue grew 29% and volume grew 38%, offset by declines in international revenue.

“We recognize that the level of losses that we’ve been reporting in that segment are not sustainable,” Jason Dies, interim CEO, told investors of the Global Ecommerce segment in an earnings call.

Pitney Bowes is a shipping carrier for 104 retailers in the Top 1000.

Revolve Group Inc. (No. 87 in the Top 1000)

Revolve reported net sales declined 4% in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Expenses increased over the same period due in part to a pending legal case, leading to a 73% decline in net income to $3.2 million.

Revolve did not share specifics on online sales, but said sales through TikTok shop “increased meaningfully” over Q2. The retailer plans to expand its TikTok presence in the future.

Shopify Inc.

Shopify reported total revenue grew 25% to $1.7 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Gross merchandise volume, the total value of merchant sales across Shopify’s systems, increased 22% to $55 billion. Gross profit also grew, up 36% to $901 million.

45 retailers in the Top 1000 use Shopify. They account for a combined $8.30 billion in web sales annually.

Target Corp (No. 5)

Target announced that digital sales declined 10.5% year over year in the fiscal second quarter ended July 29. The retailer’s Drive-Up service led online sales, Target says.

Meanwhile, comparable in-store sales declined 4.3% versus Q2 last year. Target’s total revenue in Q2 reached $24.8 billion. That’s down 4.9% year over year. Operating profit after taxes was $3.89 billion, down from $4.63 billion in the year-ago period. Read more here.

Walmart (No. 2)

Walmart announced that U.S. online sales grew 24% for its fiscal second quarter ended July 28. International ecommerce sales grew 26%. Ecommerce sales were fueled by pickup and delivery orders.

Over the same period, comparable in-store sales grew more modestly, up 6.4%, excluding fuel. Total revenue grew, too, by 5.7% to $161.6 billion. Read more here.

Wayfair Inc. (No. 10)

Wayfair reported total net revenue increased 3.7% to $2.9 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

The online furniture retailer reported a larger increase in U.S. net revenue, which grew 5.4% to $2.6 billion. Meanwhile, international revenue declined 7.0% over the same period. Net loss was $163 million.

So what does it mean?

Apparel results were mixed, but Revolve’s involvement with TikTok shop hints at future possible avenues of growth for savvy retailers.
Pitney Bowes reported volume declines similar to what UPS previously recorded. Both fulfillment vendors will rely on the upcoming holiday season to reinvigorate business.

Ecommerce earnings calendar

Here’s when to expect other ecommerce earnings this quarter:

Amazon.com Inc.: Oct. 26
Best Buy Co Inc.: Nov. 21
Chewy Inc.: Dec. 6
Costco Wholesale Corp.: Dec. 14
The Gap Inc.: Nov. 16
The Home Depot Inc.: Nov. 14
Lowe’s Cos Inc.: Nov. 21
Macy’s Inc.: Nov. 16
Target Corp.: Nov. 15
Walmart Inc.: Nov. 16

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Retail blogs can deliver sales but only with a strategic plan

April Berthene — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:03:41 +0000

Blog content is a key digital marketing tool for online bridal merchant Azazie.

The bridesmaid dress retailer revamped its blog in Q2 2023 with a strategy, plan and one goal in mind: to have Azazie.com show up higher in search engine results, says marketing manager Keily Hernandez.

Azazie has had a blog on its site since 2019, with search engine optimization as one of its goals as well as using it to promote giveaways and promotions without significant financial investment. But SEO wasn’t the primary focus, and the merchant didn’t have a team dedicated to managing it. As a result, Azazie did not rank highly in search results for its targeted keywords, Hernandez says.

Now, Azazie updates the blog one to two times a week. Each month, Azazie picks a keyword to focus on, such as “bridesmaid” or “bridal gown,” and focuses all its marketing content, including social media posts, influencer content, content across the website and its blog, on that keyword.

“We have everything point back to us as the leader of that keyword,” Hernandez says.

I would think and I would hope that every company and every brand in every industry has a blog. It’s kind of like the low-hanging fruit of organic content.

Keily Hernandez

This focused and integrated effort has led to a 24% increase in sales revenue attributed to organic search (which includes blog content) from April until September 2023, compared with that same period in 2022, Hernandez says. And the content is resonating with shoppers, as sales from shoppers who viewed Azazie’s blog content increased 50% from January through September 2023, compared with the year-ago period.

Azazie is among the roughly half or so retailers that offer a blog or editorial content on their site, according to Gartner data. A Gartner analysis of 300 U.S. retailers (75 luxury retailers, 105 multi-brand retailers and 120 monobrands) in March 2023 finds that 47% of retailers have a blog or editorial content on their site, such as articles related to the products they sell, content about that category’s trends, company history or policies.

Merchants cite several reasons why investing in editorial content can help their bottom lines, including more traffic from search engines, higher conversion rates and low return rates. But execution is key, as retailers will not see any return on their investments if they are not thoughtful and thorough with their strategies. And investments can be significant, as merchants may have to invest in internal employees to generate the content or hire outside agencies.

Only 6% of online shoppers say blog content is an important feature for a well-designed and functional online shopping experience, according to a Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights survey of 999 online shoppers in October 2023. But shoppers put a higher value on similar content, which retailers could publish on a blog, such as how-to guides, at 19%, and an About Us page, at 12%.

Data from research firm Forrester Research Inc. also finds that only a small subset of consumers consult a blog before a purchase. 3% of U.S. online adults who purchased clothing or footwear (online or in person), and 5% who purchased furniture or home improvement products in the past six months visited the retailer’s blog in the past month, according to data fielded between November 2022-March 2023.

Yet, only 17% of shoppers say online retailers have met or exceeded their expectations with providing detailed product information such as origin story, history, business policies and sustainability. And only 12% said online retailers have met or exceeded their expectations with additional content such as how-to guides and blogs.

Retail blogs boost SEO value, organic search traffic

While shoppers may not rely on blog content to make a purchase, retailers and analysts still believe it can be an important component in the online shopping journey. In fact, shoppers may not realize that a blog post was how they landed on that retailer’s site to begin with. If brands write their blogs and editorial content with search engine optimization in mind, it can have a large impact on bringing in organic traffic, says Brad Jashinsky, director analyst at Gartner.

And organic traffic is important for Azazie. The wedding apparel retailer says about 10% of its site traffic and sales come from organic search, which includes shoppers finding its site from the blog articles.

“I would think and I would hope that every company and every brand in every industry has a blog,” Hernandez says. “It’s kind of like the low-hanging fruit of organic content.”

Chip Malt, CEO and co-founder of cookware brand Made In, says that roughly 25% of its site traffic comes from organic search, which includes shoppers who come to Made In’s robust blog. On average per month, its blog receives 2 million page views, and each reader views about six pages in the blog, Malt says. This shows good engagement, Malt says. On average, this is about 20% of the site’s overall page views, he says.

What’s more, when Made In sends content-focused emails, the click-through rates are three times higher than its selling-focused emails, Malt says. Similarly, its content-focused ads on Google produce click-through rates at four to 10 times higher than selling-focused ads, he says.

Education through content has been a part of cookware brand Made In’s strategy since Day 1, Malt says. Made In launched a blog six months prior to launching products on its cookware site and the fourth employee the brand hired was a part-time content contributor, he says.

“Education is a part of the brand’s story,” Malt says.

Made In sells high-end cookware that’s designed for cooking enthusiasts and is popular among professional chefs. For example, its 10-inch blue carbon steel frying pan is $109, and the brand’s average order value is $330, according to Digital Commerce 360 estimates. The blog helps to explain the value of its cookware.

Today, the brand has 10 full-time employees on its content team, it publishes roughly 50 blogs per month and the blog ranks for 56,000 keywords within Google Search, Malt says. About 50% of these keywords are in the top 20 search terms on Google, with 25% of those on the first page of search results, he says.

One of the top navigation tabs on MadeinCookware.com is “Learn,” where the brand publishes its founding story, recipes, care for its products and cooking techniques. As Made In has expanded its product lines to include bakeware and wine glasses, it also has added content to support these products as well.

“If we are offering this line of cookware, we also want to keep up the pace of content. …. It’s something we wanted to do for our community,” Malt says.

Retail blog content connects to shoppers post-purchase

This large breadth of content distinguishes the brand from its competitors, such as All-Clad, Malt says.

“Long term, we believe if you are shown All-Clad or Made In, and you walk out the door and you are on your own, and you went with Made In, you have all this helpful content behind you. And that makes the consumer go with us overall, because they see us as a value-add,” Malt says.

All-Clad has a blog on its site with recipes and other product content. All-Clad did not provide a comment as of press time.

Top online floral merchant 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. also invests in editorial content as a way to engage with shoppers, says chief marketing officer Jason John.

It operates six blogs across its 17 brands, which include a variety of giftable products such as cookies and chocolates as well as flowers. The goal is to deepen the relationship with shoppers, so they don’t just view the e-retailer’s ecommerce sites as shopping destinations, John says. It updates each blog multiple times per month.

“It takes us beyond one transaction and helps solidify us as a part of the customer relationship,” John says.

1800Flowers.com addresses themes within each brand’s product assortment and customer base to appeal to shoppers. For example, topics that have resonated with consumers are about how to write sympathy cards, including pet sympathy cards, for its 1800Flowers.com blog, and articles about hosting holiday dinners for its food and gifting brand HarryandDavid.com.

Results from retail blogs

Web visits to its blog have increased 70% year over year, John says. Even more telling is that shoppers who view a brand’s blog content convert at a 3%-5% higher rate than shoppers who don’t. This speaks to the quality of its blogs, John says.

“You need a North Star with content,” John says. “A lot of companies, you can tell they are putting out content to put out content, and they are putting out content for a commerce outcome. We don’t believe there is authenticity in that type of content.”

While conversion metrics are a clear performance indicator, Made In says privacy regulations can make it difficult to track a direct conversion to a blog post, because many shoppers don’t accept cookies and may visit the site several times before deciding to make a purchase. The path to purchase becomes more muddled especially with products that are high-ticket and more considered, like Made In’s relatively pricey skillets and knife sets. Instead, Malt describes its investment in content as a “brand tax that we absorb,” meaning a cost of doing business for higher-end products.

Besides increasing site traffic, results from investing in a blog shows up in other ways, Malt says, such as aiding in the customer journey, helping its customer service team and low return rates. If shoppers are more informed about the products they buy from reading the blog, they are more likely to purchase the right product for their needs and not return it. He points to its stainless-steel products, which have a less than 2% return rate, without sharing more.

Roughly a third of the visits to Made In’s blog come from shoppers already on the website, and the rest from outside the site, such as search results, emails and ads. If Made In was only doing the blog for SEO purposes or completely focused on that as the goal, Malt would expect 99% of the traffic to come from outside sources. But that’s not Made In’s primary goal.

The fact that a third is internal traffic shows that the content is providing value to shoppers as they consider the brand’s products. Instead of having an article only live in the blog section, Made In peppers relevant content throughout the site to aid in the shopper journey, Malt says. For example, on the search results page, it may surface a post about the difference between nonstick and stainless-steel cookware.

“We believe content should be intertwined in the customer journey and are happy to have internal traffic get there,” Malt says.

Using blog content in multiple ways is smart, Gartner’s Jashinsky says.

“If you are going the extra mile to make great content, you need to make sure it’s discoverable, across social, across search, and product pages and search pages,” Jashinsky says.

How retailers know what to feature in blog content

Made In surveys its shoppers via email and uses that feedback to inform its content strategy. Based on 20,000 comments, Made In determined it needed more blogs about how to care for its products post-purchase, and now publishes such articles regularly.

“The nice part of being a direct brand is that people tell you exactly what they think,” Malt says.

Made In’s editorial team plans the focus of its blog posts for each month. Each of the brand’s departments, such as its product, customer service and marketing teams, give input on their teams’ current priorities. For example, the product team may say that it is launching a bird beak’s paring knife that month and request at least two articles featuring the product. The customer service team might say it’s had an influx of shoppers calling in about how to season their carbon skillet and propose a video blog and step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

“Customer service acts as a very direct line to our actual customer. So our customer service team has direct input into the content calendar,” Malt says.

The customer service team’s input gets particularly high priority when planning the blog’s editorial calendar, as the articles they suggest can help them assist customers much faster, Malt says. For example, with the “how to season the carbon skillet?” question, instead of taking 10 minutes to write out tailored instructions for each shopper, agents can direct shoppers to a video or blog that addresses their need.

“It’s an efficiency play,” Malt says. While Malt doesn’t have a direct KPI figure to tie to its retail blog, he knows speeding up solving customer service issues keeps agents and shoppers satisfied.

Azazie also taps its customer service team for input on what it should include in its blogs.

“If they have a question about a trend, we can respond and create a content strategy to that, that tying into what’s trending, and what we are also offering,” Hernandez says.

For example, a common question shoppers call in about is sizing for a bridesmaid dress while pregnant. Azazie has a blog that provides examples and tips on this topic, but it was first published in 2016. So, the content team refreshed the blog with examples of Azazie’s current maternity dresses and relevant links to its products. The customer service team refers to this blog while helping shoppers and directs shoppers to read it.

Customer service acts as a very direct line to our actual customer. So our customer service team has direct input into the content calendar.

Chip Malt

Azazie also looks to any interactions it’s gotten on social media and trends in the bridal industry to inform its content strategy.

The blog is under the purview of its digital marketing team, and Azazie also employs an SEO consultant to help determine its content and execution. Overall, the blogs that gain the most traffic and lead to the most sales are the ones that are integrated into its overall marketing strategy and are tied to press releases and influencers, she says.

“It’s a lot of moving pieces and work, in order to put a campaign behind a keyword, but those are the most successful, the ones with a content strategy,” Hernandez says.

Involving multiple departments in content creation will serve retailers well, Gartner’s Jashinsky says. Retailers would also be wise to track which types of content shoppers click on, and use that information to personalize product recommendations and for ad targeting. This is a way to gather first-party data directly from the consumer, which is especially valuable now that cookies that track shopper behavior across the web are increasingly being phased out, and can greatly benefit retailers in the long term, he says.

If retailers do decide to make a focused effort on improving SEO through blog content or guided selling tools like a quiz to match shoppers with suitable products, they should expect it could take a year or two to see results, not months, Jashinsky says.

“We always tell clients, this is not something you can get up and running in a week or month,” Jashinsky says. “This takes many months to get up and running, and takes a year or two to start to see significant payout. So you really need to make sure you have a long-term strategy and you are ensuring you reallocate this content as many places as possible to make sure that investment pays off.”

For something like a quiz that guides shoppers through a series of questions and links to relevant product pages, retailers should expect to pay thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to a vendor to build it, Jashinsky says. But to do an editorial program at scale — which may take a team of writers to publish content daily and collaborate with different teams, plus the technology to plug into personalization software — that could take hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions, he says.

For Made In, these marketing costs show up as the salaries for 10 employees dedicated to digital content instead of spending these dollars on ads. Similarly, the cost of the blog for Azazie shows up in its marketing staff resources. 1-800-Flowers also has an editorial staff that “fluctuates” depending on the time of year, John says without revealing more.

Retailers that do strategically invest in content often see an increase in traffic from organic search, and small increases in basket size and conversion rates for shoppers that engage with this content, Jashinsky says. This, of course, varies by how well the content strategy is executed and product category.

“Whether you are selling online or in-store, it is a pretty cost-effective way to increase SEO and increase conversion rates, and typically almost every retailer is already creating content and already has a lot of these pieces in other parts of ecosystem,” he says.

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How True Religion boosted online traffic ahead of the holiday season

Mary Meisenzahl — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:11:25 +0000

True Religion Apparel Inc. is aiming for a big holiday season. The denim retailer recorded triple digit traffic growth to TrueReligion.com in September, says CEO Michael Buckley. Now, its looking to capitalize off that momentum with a holiday campaign.

True Religion ranks No. 892 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers in North America.

True Religion’s holiday plans

True Religion’s digital holiday campaign is called “Style is a gift,” says Kristen D’Arcy, chief marketing officer. It’s based around the idea of giving True Religion jeans as a gift. The campaign will incorporate influencers, musical artist Quavo, and the Los Angeles Rams leading up to the holiday season.

Quavo poses for True Religion’s holiday campaign.

Like many retailers, True Religion typically records its highest sales volume of the year in the fourth quarter, D’Arcy says. That makes successful holiday marketing even more important, because of the potential for even more sales and gifting.

True Religion’s holiday campaign will involve influencers with varying follower counts, D’Arcy says, from larger influencers to micro- and nano-influencers. Each week, a different influencer will take over True Religion’s Instagram account to post about the retailer as a gifting destination.

Customer engagement is important to True Religion this year, D’Arcy says. In addition to the Instagram takeovers, the brand will launch a meme generator to encourage consumers to engage directly with it.

“So they [users] will be able to take a picture of absolutely anything. And then we will auto-generate a word to complete the line. Blank is a gift,” D’Arcy says.

True Religion will launch a meme generator as part of its holiday campaign.

True Religion launched its holiday campaign in October, earlier than in previous years. That was an intentional choice, D’Arcy says. The retailer studied consumer behavior and Google search trends, alongside information from consumer research firms like McKinsey and Deloitte.

“What they are all saying across the board is that people are going to shop earlier, but there’s still a bulk of people that will wait for the big deal moment in November,” she says.

So, True Religion launched an early holiday campaign to enter consumers’ consideration for gifting, with plans to unveil further deals in the traditional Cyber 5 period.

Traffic growth across channels

True Religion is doing well with brand awareness, but it takes an extra push to get consumers to consider the retailer for holiday gifting, D’Arcy says. That’s where the holiday campaign comes in. True Religion started setting the stage for the campaign earlier, with efforts to boost web traffic.

D’Arcy attributes traffic growth to several factors. First, True Religion is in the middle of a repositioning of who its core customer is. The retailer is now targeting 25- to 45-year-olds, and styling photos and campaigns more attuned to that audience as a result.

Second, True Religion gained online traction from its involvement in New York Fashion Week in the form of comments and mentions on social media, D’Arcy says. Follower counts began rising 10% week over week, the highest it had experienced in a long time, she said without specifying further.

Then, a “tremendous amount of traffic” started coming to the website from consumers going directly to the retailer’s URL, she said. At the same time, paid social ads started to perform better, and organic social traffic grew to numbers normally only seen during the holidays. So far, October web traffic is up double digits over last year, she says.

The growing traffic and engagement are already turning into sales, D’Arcy says without giving more details. The engagement and social media mentions create a “halo effect” that continues itself, she says.

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Earnings recap: What you missed from Amazon, Deckers and more

Mary Meisenzahl — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 18:28:07 +0000

This week, more retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 list of leading ecommerce retailers in North America reported ecommerce earnings results for the most recent fiscal quarter. Here’s the ecommerce earnings summary you need to know from this week. Read more ecommerce earnings coverage here.

Parentheses indicate the merchant’s ranking in the Top 1000.

Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1)

Amazon recorded its highest operating income ever in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Operating income nearly quadrupled year over year, growing 343%.

Read more about Amazon’s earnings here.

Columbia Sportswear Co. (No. 149)

Columbia reported net sales grew 3% in its fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023. Growth was balanced between wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels, it said. Physical stores are outperforming ecommerce within direct to consumer.

“Consumer demand for soft goods, including apparel, footwear, remains weak,” Tim Boyle, CEO, said in an earnings call.

Deckers Brands (No. 74)

Deckers reported revenue grew 25% to $1.1 billion in its second fiscal quarter of 2024 ended Sept. 30. Direct-to-consumer net sales increased 38.8% to $331.7 million.

“Consumer demand was robust in stores and online,” says Dave Powers, Deckers CEO. Greater numbers of Hoka and Ugg brands drove average prices up, he said. [what do you mean? products from those brands?]

Hasbro Inc. (No. 554)

Hasbro reported revenue declined 10% in the third quarter ended Oct. 1. However, the toy retailer reported large gains in online gaming. Digital gaming revenue grew 40%, driven by Magic The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. Consumer products and entertainment revenue declined 18% and 42%, respectively.

Overstock.com Inc. (No. 49)

Overstock reported revenue declined 19% to $373 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Results reflect the Overstock brand through July 31, and Bed Bath & Beyond beginning Aug. 1. Active customers declined 15% and net revenue per active customer declined 13%.

Skechers USA Inc. (No. 301)

Skechers reported sales grew 7.8% to $2.0 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Direct-to-consumer sales, which include ecommerce, grew 23.8%. Domestic ecommerce slowed as U.S. consumers returned to stores. Last year at this time, stores had a lack of inventory, pushing consumers online, the retailer said. This year, stores are better stocked, so consumers went there first. [attribution?]

Tractor Supply Co. (No. 99)

Tractor Supply report net sales grew 4.3% to $3.41 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Ecommerce sales grew in the high single digits, the retailer said without revealing more. Digital sales made up more than $1 billion in the last 12 months. The Buy Online, Deliver from Store program is also doing well, Tractor Supply said.

Meanwhile, comparable sales declined 0.4%.

United Parcel Service Inc.

UPS reported profits and revenue declined in its fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023. UPS consolidated revenue declined 12.8% from the year-ago period to $21.1 billion. Consolidated operating profit declined 48.7% over the same period to $1.3 billion.

So what does it mean?

Retailers are still reporting soft consumer demand in the face of rising prices and turn toward experiences rather than physical goods.
However, some apparel retailers are reporting bright spots. Deckers and Skechers both say they’re seeing strong interest from consumers.

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The post Earnings recap: What you missed from Amazon, Deckers and more appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Reseller uses AI to speed up listing process

Mary Meisenzahl — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 18:33:57 +0000

Formalwear resale marketplace Queenly uses generative AI and 3D modeling technology to improve the web experience for sellers and buyers, Kathy Zhou, chief technology officer and cofounder says.

AI simplifies the product listing process

Queenly spent 2023 redesigning the way sellers list products on the platform, Zhou says. “We had a standard UI for listing a dress, basically it was just like a very long form,” she says.

Now, instead of asking potential sellers to fill out a form describing the dress they’re selling, Queenly asks them a personalized path of questions. For example, it might ask “Where did you wear this dress?” and “What are the flaws of this dress?”.

Kathy Zhou, chief technology officer and cofounder, Queenly

Then, Queenly uses generative AI to generate a product description based on their answers.

The completion rate of the listing prices increased after the redesign, Zhou says. Now 85% of listings are completed, compared to 60% before the generative AI implementation. Sellers can also create those listings faster, down from an average of 9.5 minutes to just 4.5 minutes.

Queenly discovered its customers generally prefer longer descriptions, too. That finding is true across the board. A September 2023 survey from Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights of 999 online shoppers found that 58% said a detailed product description is an important feature when online shopping.

The average description on a Queenly listing is now 230 characters, up from 80 characters before the AI-generated listings.

3D modeling helps consumers know what they’re getting

Queenly also added new technology on the buyer side. The resale website released a new 3D modeling feature designed to show customers how a dress would look beyond just a picture, replicating the experience of seeing a product in person. For now, it’s only available on certain listings.

Queenly’s 3D Modeling tool.

After testing different technical solutions, Queenly landed on photogrammetry to create a 3D map of an object based on high resolution images.

The problem, according to Zhou, is that the technology requires 200 to 300 images to create an accurate picture of the dress. That’s not feasible for the average user lister.

“How do we make it so that a seller doesn’t have to take 100 pictures of their dress? What if they only had to take five pictures of their dress,” Zhou says. Then, the technology does the rest of the work, filling in gaps from the photos into a model that consumers can rotate and zoom in on. Queenly is considering giving sellers the option to display 3D models of dresses they want to sell, but they must submit a list of required photos.

Online resale is growing

Consumers are increasingly looking towards resale as an ecommerce shopping option. Online resale retailer ThredUp Inc. reported increases in revenue and total orders in its second quarter ended June 30. ThredUp CEO James Reinhart said that the brand was making gains with customers who are “feeling the pinch across their discretionary purchasing power” due to economic trends.

Secondhand retail continues to make headway with consumers, amounting to $177 billion in secondhand global sales in 2022, according to ThredUp’s 2023 resale report. The report projects the secondhand industry will nearly double to $351 billion in global sales by 2027.

In 2023, children’s clothing retailer Hanna Andersson and apparel retailer H&M both launched resale platforms to recirculate previously owned clothing.

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What Sycamore gets for $1 billion to buy Chico’s

Gretchen Salois — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 13:00:48 +0000

Sycamore Partners purchased Chico’s FAS for $938.1 million in an all-cash deal. Chico’s is ranked No. 108 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American e-retailers.

Digital Commerce 360 takeaways:

Chico’s has a loyal and long-lived customer base — and this isn’t the first time private equity firm Sycamore Partners has tried to close the deal. Sycamore tried to purchase Chico’s in 2019 to no avail. This time, however, the deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Chico’s debuted a new loyalty program, Chico’s Rewards+, in 2022 and sign ups have surpassed expectations. Within nine months, 80% of Chico’s customers were members of the program, senior vice president of marketing Leana Less told Digital Commerce 360.

Retail chains more likely to have loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are not prevalent among Top 1000 retailers. In fact, fewer than one-third of Top 1000 retailers have a loyalty program. And less than half of retail chains have loyalty programs, more than any other merchant type, according to Digital Commerce 360 data.

Retail chains (48.1%)
Consumer brand manufacturer (26.5%)
Web only (20.3%)
Direct marketer (13.9%)
Top 1000 retailers (27.9%)

Chico’s Rewards+ members are incredibly valuable for the retailer, according to Less. In the most recent fiscal quarter, average spend per customer was 40% higher among members than among non-members.

The average member “spends significantly higher [than non-members] and then the likelihood of her coming back the next quarter versus somebody that’s not in the loyalty program is significantly higher as well,” Less says.

The apparel retailer‘s brands include Chico’s, White House Black Market, and Soma.

Chico’s reports online sales growth in Q1 2023

Ecommerce sales were “up low single digits and outpaced stores on very strong traffic,” at Chico’s for the first quarter, chief financial officer PJ Guido told investors.
Online sales accounted for 41% of the retailer’s revenue over the last 12 months.

Mary Meisenzahl contributed to this report.

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Nike Digital sales grow modestly in fiscal first quarter

Abbas Haleem — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 13:00:14 +0000

Nike Inc. started its fiscal 2024 with digital sales growing in its first quarter ended Aug. 31, 2023. The athletic apparel and footwear retailer did not share a dollar amount for digital sales but reported $12.9 billion in revenue for the quarter. That’s up 2% versus Q1 of its fiscal 2023.

Nike ranks No. 9 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American e-retailers.

Nike’s digital retail strategy

Chief financial officer Matt Friend said Nike consumers spent more time in brick-and-mortar locations in the quarter.

“But 90% of their shopping journeys are starting with digital,” Friend said. “And so we continue to believe that our digital and physical strategies of serving consumers are the right strategy to serve demand as we look forward.”

In North America, Nike Digital sales grew 4% in the retailer’s first quarter. Nike Digital refers to sales made through the retailer’s websites and apps.

At the same time, Nike Digital sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa decreased 2%. And they decreased 3% in Asia Pacific and Latin America. In Mexico specifically, though, Nike’s “digital business delivered double-digit growth,” Friend said, without revealing more.

“We’ve increased the size of our supply chain in the last few years to be able to address the growth that we’ve seen in our business, both overall and in digital,” Friend said.

To improve that efficiency, he said, Nike has reduced digital split shipments so consumers don’t get two deliveries for the same order. It has also invested in “regional service centers that are closer to where consumer demand is.” In other words, it has improved its fulfillment by opening distribution centers in strategic areas.

Nike Digital sales in China

In the Greater China region, Nike Digital sales grew 6% in Q1. The footwear brand held a three-day sports festival called Sportchella in China.

“The team amplified the impact of the festival by partnering with Tmall to create the first Nike Super Brand Week, which drove more than 2 billion impressions,” Friend said. “And this partnership seamlessly integrated the events with a digital shopping journey that generated very strong consumer response and engagement.”

Tmall is an Alibaba-owned marketplace, along with Taobao. Taobao ranks No. 1 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest such marketplaces by gross merchandise value. Tmall ranks No. 2.

Nike App increases Nike sales

The Nike mobile app had “strong growth,” Friend said. Nike mobile app traffic had high single-digit growth in the quarter, he said.

“We saw member activity continue to increase both in terms of engagement and buying behavior and a higher basket size, a higher AOV,” Friend said.

That drove “sustained momentum on the Nike mobile app” as loyalty members increased their buying frequency in the quarter, he said.

“We continue to see a growing structural advantage as more consumers start their shopping journeys with us on mobile,” Friend said.

Nike Direct revenue

Friend said member engagement through Nike Direct grew double digits in its Q1 compared with the year-ago period. Average order value through Nike Direct sales increased, but he did not specify how much.

Nike Direct refers to the retailer’s direct-to-consumer sales (online and offline). It grew 6% year over year in the first quarter.

In North America, Nike Direct grew 7%, led by 11% growth in physical store sales. Nike Direct sales grew 10% in China. They grew 6% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 3% in Asia Pacific and Latin America.

How much does Nike make in a year?

For the fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 31, 2023, Nike reported:

Revenue grew 2% to $12.94 billion, from $12.69 billion in the year-ago period.
Profit also grew 2%, to $5.72 billion from $5.62 billion the year before.
Similarly, Nike Digital sales grew 2% year over year in the quarter.
Nike Direct, or the retailer’s direct-to-consumer sales (online and offline), grew to $5.4 billion. That’s a 6% year-over-year increase.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s Nike report.

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