1. Alibaba Crushes Amazon
Every year on Nov. 11th, China’s Alibaba Group has a massive online shopping “festival.” Every year, it smashes the previous year’s sales record. This time, shoppers bought $30.7B worth of merchandise in 24 hours. Up 27% from last year. The event is nicknamed “Singles’ Day” because it coincides with a folk holiday for the unmarried. Comparing it to Amazon: “If you take Prime Day, which happened this summer, Amazon reported $4B this year, which is a really strong number but in comparison it’s kind of cute,” Danielle Levitas, executive VP of research at App Annie, told CNBC. All the single ladies and Alibaba have their hands in the air singing “woah, woah, oh, oh.”
(Source: AdAge, Bloomberg, The Verge)
2. Victoria’s Secret Apologizes
After an interview with Vogue, Ed Razek, CMO of Victoria’s Secret, is now the center of a lot of negative buzz. Backlash has been circling around his response to if the company would ever put plus-sized or transgender models in their Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Razek blundered back with a no they wouldn’t because “The show is a fantasy. We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don’t,” he said. “It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute, including the competitors that are carping at us.” An apology has been issued since, but we can’t help but wonder if we should send our What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube book their way.
(Source: Vanity Fair, USA Today)
3. Amazon & Apple Partnership
In the next few weeks, the latest Apple products will be available on Amazon, with Apple being the verified seller. The tradeoff: Apple will get access to Amazon’s 100M prime members and Amazon will get first access to their high-end products, helping extend their reach into a pricier market. Who’s losing? Best Buy. They can no longer say they sell Apple products that Amazon doesn’t. This partnership may serve as a wakeup call for other brands, signaling that it’s essential to sell on Amazon’s marketplace.
(Source: Digiday)
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Both B2B and B2C online retailers are seeing an upward trend that is expected to reach nearly $5B in sales by 2021. In order to grab even a small portion of this market, start with three easy steps here.
