Chris Walton’s Post

I loved every topic Anne Mezzenga and I covered in this week's Omni Talk Retail Fast Five Podcast. Be sure to checkout our weekly Friday newsletter that includes our podcast, along with all the exclusive content we have planned to come your way, including upcoming webinars with Ethan Chernofsky of Placer.ai and Michael Klein of Talkdesk. #retail #retailing #grocery #conveniencestores #cpg #branding #advertisingandmarketing #onlineshopping #shoppingandtheretailindustry

Holy Cow! Over two billion parcels valued under 150 euros entered the EU tax exempt in 2023 alone. That is a staggering figure.

I love today’s recap newsletter because it shows the depths and extent to which we reach our retail executive audience, along with the topics they care about most. Much of what you see in today’s recap of our most-listened to podcasts to start the year is a testament to retailers being focused on what matters most. For example, anytime a pod on item data cracks the top 10, I know Anne Mezzenga and I are hitting the right chords. #retail #retailing #grocery #conveniencestores #cpg #branding #advertisingandmarketing #onlineshopping #shoppingandtheretailindustry #supplychainmanagement #FastFive #fashionretail #luxuryretail #beauty

Cool Sh*t Alert

We recorded a great Friday Fast Five podcast this week. If you haven't yet discovered the Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, our friends Kelly Carey (Monahan) and Jeff Dwyer of the Alvarez & Marsal Consumer and Retail Group joined us this week, and this week's episode is gives you a great introductory vibe to the feel of our show. #retail

Another interesting, smart move from Walmart #retail

More on Target's Marketplace . . . Yesterday, Target came out and admitted they had 1,200 vendors on their marketplace, like it was a source of pride. But, let's put that number into perspective. Target's Marketplace has been live since at least 2018 because I remember the day like it was yesterday. Forbes got wind of it, found the test site and asked me for my perspective. So for the past 6 years, Target has onboarded 200 vendors per year, or, as an even worse point of reference, 3.8 new vendors per week!!! If you understand e-commerce, then you will agree those numbers are woefully slow (and sad), and that is before even bringing comparisons to Walmart or Amazon and into the picture. "Curated" should not be an internal code word for "Fear." Because that is what these numbers illustrate -- a fear from the Target leadership team to buy into a marketplace strategy and, even more glaringly, a lack of competence in overseeing the initiative over that time horizon. https://lnkd.in/gxNf8iGY #retail #retailing #cpg #branding #advertisingandmarketing #onlineshopping #shoppingandtheretailindustry

In the lead for most ridiculous quote of the year: Q: Is that curation what makes Target Plus different from other digital marketplaces? A: It’s a big one, for sure. We call Target Plus the ‘un-marketplace,’ because the shopping experience — and the assortment — are carefully crafted to make discovery easy and enjoyable All of which has been said amidst paltry digital growth, only 1,200 vendors on the actual marketplace, on a day when Target ostensibly announced the very same thing with Shopify that Walmart announced four years ago, and now Amazon and Walmart both are in position to scale their ad revenue with their marketplaces at rates far far beyond anything Target can conceive. Newsflash - you aren’t a marketplace if you don’t want to buy into being one.

Hate to say it but this seems like a big “nothing burger.” For a number of reasons: 1) Walmart announced something quite similar back in 2020 (https://lnkd.in/gRarmX-C) and we haven’t heard word one about it since. 2) Target already has a full functioning marketplace, so what added value does the Shopify connection really provide? Good merchants should already be finding and sourcing these products. 3) The idea that Shopify vendors can go into stores long-term is also a bridge too far. Again, if the digital marketplace and merchandising teams are functioning and coordinating properly, the infrastructure should already exist to take in new brands based on their marketplace performance and/or these brands should already be on the radar screens of the merchants deciding the stores' assortments. 4) Any new Shopify vendors that aren’t already on the Target marketplace are probably not there for a reason and also likely not ready for the prime time effort it takes to place your products wholesale in actual mass market stores throughout the country, which in Target’s case is approximately 2,000 stores, if this strategy is to have any material impact on revenue. #retail #retailing #grocery #cpg #branding #advertisingandmarketing #onlineshopping #shoppingandtheretailindustry #supplychainmanagement #fashionretail #luxuryretail #beauty https://lnkd.in/gxNf8iGY

Buy or sell : Netflix House?