Wednesday’s Tipsheet: Home Depot’s $300K PAC Spend | Walmart’s Plan to Beat Amazon
“Wal-Mart plans to be an online juggernaut” by Brian O’Keefe at Fortune. “To align the interests of its retail foot soldiers with Neil Ashe (CEO Global Ecommerce) and his crew, the company has created a system in which managers at all 4,000 Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. get credit for all sales in their zip codes, whether on- or offline. “That creates 1.4 million advocates for the holistic shopping experience,” said Ashe.” Read more & see the video: https://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/23/wal-mart-plans-to-be-an-online-juggernaut/?iid=SF_F_River
“Wal-Mart’s plan to beat Amazon” at Fortune. “At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, Wal-Mart Global E-commerce CEO Neil Ashe discusses what the retail giant is doing to compete with Amazon in the online shopping space.” See the video: https://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/07/23/t-bst-walmart-amazon-prime.fortune/index.html?iid=SF_F_River
“A Third Of U.S. Shoppers Showroom, Buy From Online Retailers While In Stores” by Mark Walsh at Media Post. “Worse yet for traditional retailers, the study showed arch nemesis Amazon is the main way that people choose to compare prices; it was twice as popular as Google for that purpose. A price difference of as little as $5 on a $50 item can tip the balance in Amazon’s favor. Furthermore, nearly half (46%) of survey participants were Amazon Prime members, with special perks and free shipping.” Read more: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/205154/third-of-us-shoppers-showroom-buy-from-online-r.html#axzz2ZxihCvAr
“Home Depot’s PAC Gives Nearly $300K to Support Internet Tax Bill” by Jana Kasperkevic at Inc. “In the weeks since the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would let states force online retailers to collect sales tax, the behind-the-scenes action has been heating up…Home Depot’s PAC, which gave just $77,500 in donations during last year’s presidential election cycle, donated $296,500 to campaigns and leaderships in June alone.” Read more: https://www.inc.com/jana-kasperkevic/retailer-pacs-increase-lobbying-internet-sales-tax.html
“Best Buy bets big on ‘store-within-a-store’ concept” by Thomas Lee at Star-Tribune via Seattle Times. “Analysts like to say Samsung and Microsoft stores will bring buzz to Best Buy, but whether that translates to additional sales throughout the store is far from clear. Investors measure the value of a retailer in two ways: sales per square foot and customer traffic. Best Buy generates a seemingly robust $852 per square foot, compared to $303 for Target and $140 for J.C. Penney. But fewer people are visiting Best Buy stores, which means that $852 figure is likely to continue to fall unless the company can somehow reverse that trend.” Read more: https://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2021450682_bestbuystoremallxml.html
“Walmart says cannot meet India’s local sourcing rules” at Fox News. “Walmart has told India that it is unable to meet local sourcing requirements for foreign supermarket groups wanting to open stores in the country, a report said Wednesday. Under rules introduced when the government opened up the sector in 2012, foreign supermarkets are required to buy 30 percent of their products from local small-scale industries.” Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/24/walmart-says-cannot-meet-india-local-sourcing-rules/#ixzz2ZxnxRTgS
“GNC Announces Opening of First Retail Store in China; 25 Planned Over Next 12 Months” “GNC has been selling its Made in the USA products in China since 2011 when it opened its Shanghai-based office and distribution center. GNC currently has over 60 store within a store locations within 8 different major grocery, convenience and health and wellness chains in China, including Ole, City Super, Sam’s Club and Watson’s.” Read more: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/update-gnc-announces-opening-of-first-retail-store-in-china-25-planned-over-next-12-months-216518321.html
“RadioShack Comps Positive in Q2 — First Positive Comp Since 2010” “Looking ahead, we expect the turnaround to take several quarters, and during that time our results may vary from quarter to quarter as we make strategic changes to improve our long-term financial performance. We will be guided by the five pillars of our turnaround strategy – repositioning the brand, revamping our product assortment, reinvigorating our stores, operational efficiency and financial flexibility.” Read more: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/radioshack-reports-financial-results-for-second-quarter-2013-including-second-quarter-comparable-store-sales-growth-of-13-216562751.html
“Why Retailers Don’t Know Who Sews Their Clothing” at WSJ. “Retailers sometimes have little idea where some of their clothes are made. Many retailers don’t maintain the manpower in Dhaka or other garment hubs to regularly check on factories that are supposed to be making their clothes. “An order could be produced in 20 different units and it comes to one place for final inspection,” says Zulficar Ali, executive director at the Bangladesh office of U.K.-based Synergies Worldwide, a buying house that works with manufacturers to fill orders for retailers.” Read more: https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324436104578579552855683948.html?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f
Thanks for reading…
Follow on Twitter @retaileyeretail