Vincent Lootens’ Post

It's great to see Amazon 'tinkering' with the traditional grocery business and trying to bring much-needed innovation to a space. With inflation driving grocery prices sky high, perhaps new formats and new approaches to grocery retail can help retain margin while also maintaining consumer convenience. Yes, of course there are challenges with the 'just walk out' stores, but one has to applaud the effort. 1MRobotics is also leading the charge on developing new 'self-serve' grocery retail formats in the US and EU... and solving the many shortcomings of the Just-Walk-Out concept. https://lnkd.in/gaYCNSiD

WALMART ISN’T COPYING ANYONE The article I’ve attached attempts to make the argument that Walmart has copied Target’s strategy of using their stores as hubs to fulfill online orders, and is using the strategy to go after Amazon. In the US, Amazon's fulfillment network is made of some 1,300 facilities (plus about 500 Whole Foods locations). Amazon continues to invest in increasing the speed of their deliveries. Amazon is piloting an automated micro-fulfillment system from AutoStore™ and has wisely invested in the company Instock.com which provides automation for fulfilling online grocery and retail orders. Note to Amazon: Install Instock’s system in the Kent, WA facility or inside a Whole Foods Store. Amazon should select other facilities to test the solutions from Cartesian Kinetics Inc and Fulfil; my advice is install the solution from Fulfil inside a Whole Foods Store as well. Target operates nearly 2,000 stores and fulfills 95% of their digital orders from their stores. Target does this to reduce costs and increase delivery speed to their customers. Target also operates 55 supply chain facilities. Target utilizes Shipt to make deliveries for a portion of their online orders. Note to Target: Divest Shipt. There are much better last mile delivery strategies you should be using. Walmart operates 4,700 stores in the USA and operates over 200 distribution centers. Walmart is in the process of opening more automated facilities using technology from Symbotic. SoftBank and Symbotic have partnered to create a company called Greenbox. Walmart will be a beneficiary of the strategy. What the article doesn’t mention is that Walmart identified more than two years ago that it needed to better leverage their stores for online fulfillment and increased BOPIS. Walmart has opened significantly more pickup parking spaces outside of their stores. Are there similarities between Walmart and Target’s strategy? Yes. Did Walmart copy Target? No. Not even close. The question that must be asked is this: Can Walmart take market share away from Amazon by fulfilling from their stores? Yes. Will they? If they do it will be minimal. Is Amazon at a disadvantage because they don’t operate as many stores as Walmart? No. Amazon can leverage a combination of regional distribution centers, satellite distribution centers, micro-fulfillment centers, delivery stations, and lockers to eventually fulfill orders within minutes to 90% of the population just like Walmart can. Amazon’s strategy will require less capital, however, and Amazon has much more flexibility in how they implement their network. The challenge will be for other retailers and brands to match Amazon and Walmart’s scale and speed. Most won’t be able to and they’ll partner with Walmart or Amazon for use of their logistics network and capabilities. #retail #logistics #supplychain https://lnkd.in/grsgTdFQ

Amazon owns ecommerce, Walmart owns retailing. For the grocery segment, Walmart dominates and both seek to eat out of each other's bowls. Walmart is adding 3rd party sellers and growing its ads business. Amazon is adding conventional stores to its touchless Go stores, perhaps mulling an acquisition beyond Whole Foods Market to close the lead. Data drives both #competition #strategy #retail #ecommerce #growth #dx

More’ become less for Amazon in grocery retail Amazon, one of the country’s best-known e-tailers, is looking to bring down its dependence on More Retail, an investee company, for supplying grocery orders to consumers. The move comes as the two increasingly chart independent plans to drive their respective grocery operations in the country. Amazon, for instance, is working with local retailers as it takes its grocery operations under Amazon Fresh to over 60 cities. It also has over 25 specialised fulfillment centres of its own in 10 states for its grocery business in the country. The move comes as the two increasingly chart independent plans to drive their respective grocery operations in the country. Amazon, for instance, is working with local retailers as it takes its grocery operations under Amazon Fresh to over 60 cities. It also has over 25 specialised fulfillment centres of its own in 10 states for its grocery business in the country. More Retail, on its part, has launched its own app in the last few months to turbocharge its e-commerce operations. This will reduce its dependence on Amazon, which provided online orders to it as part of its overall omnichannel push. Amazon has a 49% stake in More Retail’s parent Witzig Advisory Services, while Samara Capital has a 51% shareholding. The two had picked up the stakes in 2019 for Rs 4,200 crore from the Aditya Birla group — the previous owner of the chain. More has over 900 stores within its network, including both hypermarkets and supermarkets. In response to a mail on its grocery business in India, an Amazon spokesperson said that Amazon Fresh was committed to providing the best grocery shopping experience to consumers. Customers benefit from the largest selection of products available at great value from Amazon Fresh sellers, coupled with convenient delivery slots. We are investing across areas where we can bring value to our customers, and will continue to work with the local ecosystem to enable small businesses and partners. But the move to take separate paths, say retail experts, is linked in part to the larger plan of the primary shareholders to list More Retail on the bourses. Media reports in the past have suggested that Amazon-Samara propose to launch an initial public offering of More Retail in the next one year for which it is talking to investment bankers. Before that, the combine may look at a private funding round for which it may dilute about 20% equity capital in the company. #amazon #amazongrowth #b2cmarketing #equityfunding #marketpositioning #distribution #ceos #hrrecruiters

I was quoted in a Seattle Times article about Amazon's grocery business. Digital transformation of the grocery industry still remains one of my favorite lectures to teach! In all my conversations about Just Walk Out and Dashcarts, I keep going back to the question -- is shaving off a few minutes in the checkout process the biggest problem in the grocery industry? It is a razor-thin margin industry with a very price-sensitive consumer base, and some people actually like going to the grocery store and serendipitously end up sampling what will become their favorite coffee or waffles. I think there are other gigantic problems in groceries and access to groceries in the U.S. where technology and Amazon, with their gold standard SCM, can actually make a huge impact --- like impacting food deserts or addressing food inequality, and I do hope that is where all these efforts converge.

Following on from the news that Waitrose is in talks with Amazon (https://lnkd.in/eF4zeu9m), a good read in The Economist Schumpeter column about Amazon and Walmart: “Neither firm thinks of itself as competing head-to-head with the other. But they are, because both have big growth ambitions. For Walmart, that means expanding its e-business beyond grocery into general merchandise, as well as attracting higher-income online customers. Both of these are Amazon’s forte. For Amazon, it means a bigger presence in grocery, both online—where food shopping still accounts for only about 10% of America’s $800bn supermarket business—and offline” Amazon still cannot crack the on-line grocery nut. #IBMRetail #IBMConsumer #FMCG #ConsumerGoods #Retail

📢🛒‘More’ become less for Amazon in grocery retail:🛒📢 🛒 One of the most well-known online retailers in the nation, Amazon, is attempting to reduce its reliance on investee business More Retail to fulfil grocery purchases for customers. 🔰 Why is this action being taken? 🛒 The move comes as the two organisations develop separate strategies to lead their distinct supermarket businesses across the nation. 🔰 Amazon's Outlook: 🛒 As it expands its food operations under the Amazon Fresh brand to more than 60 cities, Amazon is collaborating with regional shops. 🛒 For its nationwide grocery business, it also has over 25 dedicated fulfilment sites of its own in 10 states. 🔰 More Retail's Outlook: 🛒 To bolster its e-commerce activities, More Retail has released its own app. 🛒 As a result, it will be less reliant on Amazon, which gave it internet orders as part of its larger omnichannel drive. 🔰 More vs. Amazon Shareholding: 🛒 Witzig Advisory Services, the parent company of More Retail, is 51% owned by Samara Capital and 49% by Amazon. 🛒 The two purchased the interests from the Aditya Birla group, the chain's former owner, in 2019 for ₹4,200 crore. 🛒 In its network, More has over 900 locations, including supermarkets and hypermarkets. 🛒 The decision to follow different courses, however, is partially related to the principal shareholders' bigger aim to list More Retail on bourses.   🛒 Amazon-Samara is in talks with investment bankers about launching More Retail's IPO within the next year. 🛒 Prior to that, the group may consider a private investment round that would require a 20% equity capital dilution of the company. 🔰 More's Financials: 🛒 More Retail's FY23 financial results have not yet been made public.   🛒 However, the company's sales for FY22 only increased slowly, by only 1.74%, from ₹4,844.44 crore to ₹4929.11 crore. 🛒 In contrast, losses more than quadrupled to ₹474 crore in FY22 from ₹104 crore reported in FY21. 🔰 Amazon's Financials: 🛒 On the other side, Amazon Retail has also seen its losses grow over the past few years. 🛒 The corporation did not release any FY23 numbers. 🛒 However, according to regulatory filings, sales increased by about 8% in FY22 to ₹1,710 crore from ₹1,585 crore reported in FY21. 🛒 Conversely, losses increased 22% to ₹794 crore from ₹650 crore as recorded in FY21. 💡What do you think of Amazon's decision to lessen its reliance on More? Post your comments about it below💡👇 #amazon #amazonfresh #moreretail #shareholding #financials #strategy #linkedinnews #linkedinpost #linkedinforcreators #financewrapindia

“First, let’s define “pureplay” retail: for retail, the kind of consumer selling where you mostly buy low and sell high and optimize the middle to drive as much margin as possible when you look at the leaders in the retail industry today, you see more of the same - companies who look less like a retailer and more like either a conglomerate or a services firm. When Amazon is not a retailer and Walmart is a tech company, you know that we’re not in retail” Very interesting article by Nikki Baird in Forbes Exploring the increasing multiple revenue streams as classical “pureplay “ retail becomes part of a much broader play across media , technology , service , organisations and leaves the historical retail model behind,

Market leaders like Amazon and Walmart have set high standards when it comes to delivery speeds, but implementing same-day delivery isn’t easy for companies to do on their own. With 96% of market leaders currently offering same-day service — and 80% reporting an increase in revenue as a result — giving shoppers a way to get their orders faster is a great way to attract new customers. You could build your own same-day logistics infrastructure or you can leverage Roadie’s crowdsourced platform. With the latter, it’s easy to get off the ground quickly, with no minimum volume commitment or capital investment required, and it’s flexible and scalable based on demand. #Roadie #Samedaydelivery #ultrafastdelivery #samedayROI https://lnkd.in/gwayBhs2