“Buy Buy Baby is back and is guaranteed to be better than ever,” says a spokesperson for the revived retailer.

The company planned to unveil its ecommerce site offering baby and maternal products in October ahead of the stores, but late in the month, it rescheduled both the online and store openings for simultaneous launch in mid-November. The spokesperson didn’t say why. The stores will be in locations ranging from Maryland to Massachusetts.

Buy Buy Baby had 115 stores nationwide earlier in 2023, but they all closed this summer after parent company Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. filed for bankruptcy in April. Piscataway, New Jersey-based Dream On Me Inc., a manufacturer of cribs and other nursery furniture that had been a vendor to the old Buy Buy Baby, acquired the defunct retailer’s intellectual property out of bankruptcy for $15.5 million in July, the business publication NJBiz reported. In a separate auction, Dream On Me also acquired 11 Buy Buy Baby store leases in the Northeast for $1.17 million. Those locations will be the first of more than 100 planned stores to reopen, according to NJBiz.

What’s next for Buy Buy Baby and its ecommerce site

For the moment, Buy Buy Baby isn’t revealing much about its coming ecommerce site and mobile app.

In a statement, the spokesperson says “shoppers can engage with their favorite brands and receive expert advice to find the right products. Customers can also download the registry app in-store and on buybuybaby.com and scan items directly from their phones to add to the registry.” She adds that Buy Buy Baby will have “a fully ownable registry experience where customers directly add and purchase items off the dedicated app.”

The spokesperson says company executives won’t be giving interviews until about the time of launch. Buy Buy Baby’s new chief executive officer is Pete Daleiden, who came to the company in August from retailer Bealls Inc., where he worked for about a year in senior merchandising positions. Before that, he spent 16 years at Bed Bath & Beyond, mostly as a merchandising executive, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Online retailer Overstock.com Inc. acquired Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property in June for $21.5 million and has taken the Bed Bath & Beyond moniker as its brand name, although the firm’s legal name remains Overstock.

Overstock.com ranks No. 50 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond ranked No. 47 prior to its bankruptcy.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Goodbye, hello: Buy Buy Baby preps to be born again appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

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.

Do you rank in our databases?

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post What Sycamore gets for $1 billion to buy Chico’s appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Read more ecommerce earnings coverage here.

Here are four key takeaways.

1. Consumers were pickier about spending discretionary income

Consumers across the board are hampered by budget constraints, and multiple executives called out economic challenges. 

Shoppers are reluctant to spend discretionary income on goods, preferring to save or spend on experiences instead. That’s hitting apparel retailers particularly hard. Old Navy in particular is experiencing decreased demand from lower-income consumers, The Gap Inc. said in a press release. The brand is not benefitting from consumers trading down from more expensive retailers, according to Katherine O’Connell, chief financial officer.

“Some of the brands that are really winning with our consumers are T.J. Maxx, Amazon, Shein,” she said.

Designer Brands Inc. noted the same trend.

“The health of the consumer and overall macroeconomic headwinds” led to declining sales and made predictions difficult,” said Jared Poff, chief financial officer.

Another shoe brand, Zumiez Inc., cited similar headwinds facing consumers.

Other types of retailers were also impacted by consumers tightening their belts. Sportsmans Warehouse interim CEO Joseph Schneider attributed declining sales to “challenging macroeconomic conditions [that] continue to pressure consumer discretionary spending.”

2. Spending on home improvement and furniture is down

La-Z-Boy reported total sales declined 20% to $482 million in its fiscal first quarter of 2024. Online sales of furniture brand Joybird declined 17% year over year due to “more cautious online consumer demand,” the retailer said.

“In general, furniture consumers sort of hit that saturation point of who’s going to want to purchase online and who’s going to want to purchase in-store. And the majority of consumers do more in-store,” CEO Melinda Whittington said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

Other online furniture retailers’ reports supported Whittington’s suggestion. Overstock, which has since taken over Bed Bath & Beyond’s website, reported revenue declined 20% in its fiscal Q2 ended June 30. The retailer also said customers were ordering less frequently, and spending less when they did order. Wayfair Inc. also reported declines, though they were less severe. Net revenue declined 3.4% in its second quarter ended June 30.

Lowe’s Cos. Inc. and The Home Depot Inc. in the adjacent home improvement category also noted declines in spending on home products. Lowe’s and Home Depot executives both pointed to a pullback in consumer spending on large DIY projects in the quarter. Meanwhile, consumers remained willing to spend on smaller projects. For example, transactions of $1,000 and up decreased 5.5%, Home Depot said.

3. Discount retailers were the winners in second-quarter earnings results

Discount retailers like Dollar General Corp. and Five Below are reaping the rewards of these pressures on consumers. Dollar General grew average ticket, even as traffic declined slightly. Dollar Tree reported sales of discretionary items grew 3.9% in its fiscal quarter ended July 29, 2023, as consumers traded down to dollar stores for those purchases.

TJX Cos. Inc., which owns T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s, Sierra, Winners, and Homesense, also benefited. Sales were “well above the company’s plan, and entirely driven by customer traffic,” the retailer said. 

ThredUp grew revenue 8% by appealing to customers on a budget who are “feeling the pinch across their discretionary purchasing power” from broader economic trends, CEO James Reinhart told investors. 

Not every discount retailer automatically benefits from consumers trading down, though. Big Lots shows that simply having low prices isn’t enough to win in 2023.

“Our results for Q2 illustrate that we remain in a very challenging environment, in which our core lower-income customer remains under significant pressure and has limited capacity for higher-ticket discretionary purchases,” CEO Bruce Thorn said in a written statement.

4. Omnichannel drove second quarter sales

Omnichannel sales aren’t as buzzy as they were early in the COVID-19 pandemic, but retailers still rely on them to reach customers. Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. both credited omnichannel sales for leading online sales in their second fiscal quarters. Both retailers cited their versions of online order pickup as standouts in the quarter.

Several retailers noted that omnichannel customers tend to be more loyal or make more additional purchases.

Bath & Body Works Inc. reported positive results for BOPIS, which it first implemented in Q1 2023. In its fiscal second quarter, adoption grew 25%, the retailer said. About 30% of BOPIS customers buy something else when they pick up their orders, driving further sales, it said.

Similarly, BOPIS and curbside pickup were responsible for most of the online sales growth BJ’s Wholesale Club reported, the retailer said.

Ulta Beauty announced intentions of growing its omnichannel business. Its omnichannel customers purchase 2.5 to three times more than single-channel customers.

Do you rank in our database?

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post What were the big themes from Q2 earnings reports? appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

C&S will pay $1.9 billion in cash for the stores, which are mostly located in the West and middle of the country, the companies said in a Sept. 8 statement. This confirmed a Bloomberg News report from earlier that week. Closely held C&S is a major grocery wholesaler that also operates Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly stores.

The same day, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union released a statement in response. It said its “team of experts will be analyzing every aspect of this proposed deal and will assess the impact, positive or negative, that it may have on our UFCW members, the customers we serve, and the communities we call home.”

The Kroger Co. is No. 8 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers by web sales. Albertsons ranks No. 26.

Fighting for (antitrust) approval

Kroger is betting the store sale will help it persuade the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to allow the Albertsons transaction. The transaction is the centerpiece of the retailer’s push to keep up with Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The FTC, which has recently challenged high-profile deals in video games, pharmaceuticals and mortgage software under Chairman Lina Khan, is scrutinizing the merger’s impact on grocery competition.

Amazon ranks No. 1 in the Top 1000. Walmart is No. 2.

“This comprehensive divestiture plan marks a key next step toward the completion of the merger by extending a well-capitalized competitor into new geographies,” Kroger and Albertsons said in the statement.

Frontline workers will remain employed and existing collective-bargaining agreements will continue, they said. Kroger may require C&S to buy a further 237 stores in connection with efforts to win regulatory approval of the Albertsons deal, which would bring the total divestitures to 650. That’s the number Kroger had earlier defined as the ceiling for store divestitures.

The Cincinnati-based company also released financial results for its fiscal second quarter. Kroger grew digital sales 12% in the quarter.

The FTC still could sue to block the deal. Labor unions including UCFW and officials from a range of states have urged the regulator to oppose the merger. They say it would hurt wages and competition. Some senators and members of Congress have also criticized the transaction.

Kroger said the Albertsons acquisition remains on track to close in early 2024, with CEO Rodney McMullen having vowed to fight in court if necessary.

Store footprint

The agreement with C&S covers stores in 17 states and Washington, DC, along with eight distribution centers and five private-label brands. The sale also includes the QFC, Mariano’s and Carrs banners, plus exclusive licensing rights to the Albertsons brand name in Arizona, California, Colorado and Wyoming.

On a combined basis, Kroger and Albertsons currently have a footprint of about 5,000 stores. Walmart has roughly 5,200 retail locations in the U.S., including about 600 Sam’s Club warehouse stores. Amazon, which is already a force in categories such as diapers and some packaged goods, recently began the biggest overhaul of its grocery business since it acquired Whole Foods Market six years ago.

When Kroger announced the Albertsons acquisition in October, the companies said they would spin off as many as 375 stores if they couldn’t find buyers. Kroger later suggested in a merger agreement that 650 was the upper limit for divestitures.

For C&S, the deal will further an expansion into retail grocery stores. The Keene, New Hampshire-based company bought 12 stores from Tops Markets in 2021 when the latter grocer merged with the Price Chopper/Market 32 chain. The FTC approved that divestiture.

“C&S recently expanded its retail operations with the acquisition of 11 Piggly Wiggly Midwest retail stores, and hired a former retail grocery executive with significant retail experience to lead retail efforts,” the regulator said at the time.

In its sprawling wholesale business, C&S supplies more than 7,500 independent supermarkets, chain stores, military bases and institutions with over 100,000 different products.

Aldi opens 1,000th UK store

Aldi opened its 1,000th UK store on Sept. 7 and committed to a further 500 outlets in the country as the German discount grocer snatches market share from rivals.

The supermarket had previously aimed to have 1,200 stores by 2025 and is now targeting 1,500 over the long term, Aldi said that day. That’s ambitious growth for a company that opened its first store in Britain in 1990.

“We’re looking for new Aldi stores from Hackney to Harrogate and Bath to Brentwood,” Giles Hurley, chief executive officer of Aldi UK and Ireland, said in a phone interview. “We’ve had an unwavering will to grow in the UK and that’s been backed up by capital.”

U.K. shoppers have been flocking to Aldi as inflation erodes their purchasing power during the cost-of-living crisis. The discounter became Britain’s fourth-largest grocer last year, knocking Morrisons off the spot. Now, £1 in every £10 spent at U.K. supermarkets is at Aldi.

Shoppers are turning more to store-brand goods to tackle rampant food inflation, a trend that favors Aldi. The grocer also stocks fewer big brands than competitors. The grocer has served more than 1.1 million new customers over the past 12 months, said Hurley.

“We’ve seen customers switch their shopping” to Aldi, he said. “Existing customers are consolidating their spend with us and treating us as a first-stop shop.”

The grocer is growing sales at the fastest pace among supermarkets, seeing an increase of 21% in August from a year earlier, according to Kantar data. Sales at fellow discounter Lidl rose by almost 20% in the same period, while revenue at higher-end rivals Waitrose and Co-op rose by 4.4% and 3.4% respectively.

Competitors are watching Aldi’s rise closely. Both Tesco Plc and J Sainsbury Plc have pledged to match Aldi’s prices on hundreds of goods, while grocers are increasingly doing away with in-store food counters and delis in favor of the discounters’ simpler approach.

More reductions

Food inflation has begun to ease in the UK, though remains at a high level, with the Office for National Statistics reporting a rate of 14.9% in July. Supermarkets are keen to demonstrate they are cutting prices where possible.

“I’m quite optimistic that between now and Christmas there will be more price reductions in our stores,” said Hurley. “When it comes to the longer-term picture on inflation it’s definitely more difficult to read. There are a lot of influences on the grocery sector.”

This year, Aldi will open 20 stores as part of its existing £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion) expansion plan. The new one opening in Woking, Surrey, is one of more than 150 that Aldi has in the South East, as it seeks to attract customers in the affluent region.

Aldi also relaunched its website, priming it for ecommerce growth. The grocer is not currently ranked in any Digital Commerce 360 databases.

Do you rank in our database?

Submit your data with this quick survey and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Kroger and Albertsons to sell 413 stores, Aldi expands in UK … and online? appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Rexel is an international distributor of electrical, heating, lighting, and plumbing equipment.

“The share of digital in total sales is expected to double and reach 50% by 2027 versus 24% in 2021,” says Rexel CEO Guillaume Texier.

To achieve its goal, Rexel is setting a series of target dates and introducing a host of new digital initiatives. Rexel sells a wide range of equipment and services in the fields of:

• Automation
• Technical expertise
• Energy management
• Lighting
• Security
• Climatic engineering
• Communication
• Home automation
• Renewable energies

Rexel digital sales growth

By 2027, Rexel has plans for digital commerce to account for one-half of all sales. That includes 40% by 2025, up from 28% for the first six months of 2023.

“The digitalization of our business is at the heart of Rexel’s transformation and the ramp up toward our target of 40% of digitally enabled sales in 2025 continues,” Texier told analysts on the Rexel’s recent second quarter earnings call. “We were at 24% at the end of last year, and we are at 28% at the end of H1. We also strive for supply chain excellence with the aim of tripling the numbers of automated distribution centers.”

One way, the distribution company will grow its digital sales base — and its overall business strategy — through acquisition. For example, Rexel in the second quarter acquired Wasco, a distributors of HVAC products and services in the Netherlands with annual sales of 650 million euros ($712.7 million). About 60% of all sales for Wasco are digital, Rexel says.

“Wasco has posted double-digit growth over the past few years, and its acquisition will allow Rexel to benefit from energy transition related opportunities, Texier said.

More Charts & Data Stories

Check back soon for more Charts & Data Stories, like our weekly B2B infographics. We add new content regularly. 

The post How a big distributor will reach its digital milestone appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The online furniture retailer completed its acquisition of competitor Bed Bath & Beyond in June for $21.5 million. 

Overstock.com ranks No. 50 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond ranked No. 47 prior to its bankruptcy.

Bed Bath & Beyond is the future, Overstock hopes

“The acquisition of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand is the beginning of a new phase of growth for us,” Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson said in a written statement. “The successful launch and early performance of our Bed Bath & Beyond business in Canada has been encouraging. The Bed Bath & Beyond brand is strong.”

The U.S. site is scheduled to launch in early August.

Overstock’s name and branding is a problem for the retailer, solved by the deal, Johnson said in a July 27 call with analysts.

“Overstock has had a great business model but weighed down with a boat anchor of a name,” he said. Bed Bath & Beyond was “weighed down by a boat anchor of an outdated business model,” he said, so combining the brands is a boon to both.

Overstock is planning a “larger-than-normal promotional and marketing budget” for the next few quarters to win over Bed Bath & Beyond customers, he said. Time are tough for home furnishing retailers particularly online. Ecommerce sales were down 5.9% for home furnishing retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 in 2022. Things were only marginally better when including brick and mortar sales, which grew 1% in 2022.

Sales slowed in Q2

Though revenue was down year over year, things are looking up for Overstock, according to chief financial officer Adrianne Lee. Revenue was down 20% year over year, but that’s less of a drop than the 29% decrease in Q1, Lee noted.

Overstock attributed sluggish sales to problems in the home furnishing category overall. Lee pointed to decreased consumer engagement and the weak housing market, echoing talking points from April.

Overstock’s gross profit was $94 million, down $27 million from the year-ago period. Margins will likely be worse in the next few quarters, the retailer shared, due to plans to advertise more discounts.

Consumers are trading down

Customers are ordering less frequently — and spending less when they do order, Overstock said.

The number of active customers declined 29% from the previous year to 4.6 million. Consumers are shifting spending to experiences rather than goods, the retailer said. Overstock also transitioned away from selling non-home related merchandise, which contributed to the decline, it said.

Orders per active customer declined slightly, down 5% to 1.56 in the second quarter. Average order value also declined 5%, to $234. Though down year over year, that’s an increase over AOV of $220 in Q1.  Overstock sees evidence of customers continuing to trade down to less expensive merchandise, Lee said.

Overstock earnings

For the fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2023, Overstock Inc. reported:

• Total net revenue fell 20% year over year to $422 million.
• Gross profit was down $27 million, totaling $94 million.
• Active customer count declined 29% to 4.6 million.
• The number of orders delivered fell 16% to 1.8 million.
• Overstock average order value (AOV) fell 5% to $234.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding.

Check back for more earnings reports.

Do you rank in our databases?

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Overstock CEO says brand name is a “boat anchor” ahead of Bed Bath & Beyond relaunch appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

That’s an improvement from being down 3% in Q1, said Stephen Priest, senior vice president and chief financial officer, on a July 26 earnings call with investors.

EBay active buyers dropped by 1 million quarter over quarter, totaling 132 million, Priest said. Buyer count — for both new and returning buyers — has also grown year over year for four straight quarters, he said. The number of “enthusiast” buyers was stable in Q2 at 16 million, he said. Spend per enthusiast grew year over year, averaging roughly $3,000 annually. However, he did not specify how much that spend has grown.

President and CEO Jamie Iannone also said advertising revenue reached 2% penetration of GMV, “a major milestone.”

“Total ads grew 35%, while first-party ad revenue grew roughly 50 points faster than GMV,” Iannone said.

Iannone added that eBay introduced in its fiscal Q2 a new way to rank ads on search that leverages its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The method optimizes cost per acquisition placements for both conversion and ad rate, he said.

EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s new 2023 Global Online Marketplaces Report. The Global Online Marketplaces Database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV.

eBay GMV

In the United States, eBay GMV decreased 4% in Q2, Priest said. International eBay GMV grew 1%, he said.

“Enabled by artificial intelligence, we will fine-tune the breadth of inventory and other aspects of the shopping journey to cater to the varying needs of new buyers, infrequent shoppers and eBay enthusiasts,” Iannone said.

He said eBay began rolling out changes on the consumer-facing side in recent months. Those started with “testing a more modern and intuitive view item page, which is the most visited page on eBay,” Iannone said.

The updated eBay item page offers:

• A streamlined appearance.
• Larger and higher resolution images
• An optimized information hierarchy.

“Early tests indicate a measurable uplift in GMV versus our existing design,” Iannone said.

“EBay has five categories that each generate more than $10 billion annually in GMV, making up more than 80% of volume on our marketplace in aggregate.” Iannone said.

Those categories are:

• Motors parts and accessories
• Electronics
• Collectibles
• Home and garden
• Fashion

Iannone said the marketplace is investing in “improved in-house risk modeling to alleviate transactional friction for sellers and buyers on eBay.” That has lifted conversion, he said without disclosing details. It has also led to “hundreds of millions of dollars of incremental GMV during the first half of 2023 alone,” Iannone said.

eBay embraces AI

eBay has been implementing AI in different parts of its business.

Iannone said over the next few quarters and years, eBay expects advancements in artificial intelligence, including generative AI, to impact “nearly every aspect of our organization.” He said the advancements will drive meaningful efficiency and productivity improvements.

He also said eBay’s recent acquisition of Certilogo will expand eBay’s fashion category. Certilogo provides AI-powered authentication for apparel.

Iannone said Certilogo empowers brands and designers to:

• Manage the life cycle of their garments.
• Protect their customers from counterfeits.
• Encourages ecommerce via QR codes that serve as digital product passports.

Using AI for inventory

Moreover, Iannone announced a new feature called Magical Listing. He said it will make it “significantly easier” for sellers to list their inventory.

“One of the biggest challenges to operating a listings-based marketplace is the burden on sellers to fill in descriptions and item aspects for their products,” Iannone said. Magical Listing launched in May, he said. The feature “dramatically reduces this friction for our sellers via AI-generated item descriptions.”

“We integrated Azure’s open AI API into our core listing flow,” Iannone said.

EBay sellers can choose to have generative AI instantly populate detailed product information, he said. It would use the product’s title, category and any item aspects that have been input, he added.

In Q2, eBay enabled more than 50% of iOS and Android users in the U.S. to test this beta feature. Iannone said he expects to reach 100% in the coming weeks. About 30% of users have tried the feature at least once, he said.

“Early signals have been extremely positive,” Iannone said. “We’ve observed acceptance rates of over 90% for AI-generated descriptions, including those with edits.

“Customer satisfaction is over 80% thus far, which is among the highest CSAT for any new feature launched in recent memory. Sellers have told us that this feature will unlock more of the unique inventory in their closets. And on average, we are seeing description lengths double when gen AI is used.”

Furthermore, Iannone said eBay is “just getting started” with Magical Listing.

“The next iteration of our Magical Listing will leverage our improved image recognition capabilities to provide flows with the option of a more seamless camera-based listing,” Iannone said.

Authentic and certified fashion products

EBay launched Authenticity Guarantee for streetwear in the U.S. in June. It is now authenticating new and pre-owned streetwear items from 20 trusted brands, Iannone said. It has since expanded eligible streetwear in July.

Among the eBay-certified brands:

• Adidas
• Jordan
• Nike
• Supreme
• Kith
• Off-White
• Palace

EBay plans to expand coverage to luxury brands later in the year, Iannone said. Those include Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton.

“This marks our entry into authenticated apparel, a category that has strong overlap with our passionate community of sneaker enthusiasts, adding another layer of trust when they shop,” Iannone said.

EBay also launched a Certified by Brand program in April. Iannone said the marketplace expects this to facilitate more ecommerce in the luxury space. There are already more than 20 brands participating in this program, he said. They offer new and certified preowned inventory across the watch, jewelry and handbag categories.

Listings from this program will show a direct-from-brand or brand-authorized seller badge, which he said brings an enhanced level of trust to these listings similar to visual trust signals for Authenticity Guarantee.

eBay earnings summary

For the fiscal second quarter ended June 30, eBay Inc. reported:

• $2.54 billion in revenue. That’s up 5% from $2.42 billion in the year-ago period.
• eBay GMV decreased to $18.2 billion. That’s down 2% year over year from $18.55 billion.
• eBay active buyers decreased 4% year over year.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports.

Do you rank in our databases?

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Ebay implements new AI capabilities as Q2 revenue increases, GMV drops appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The post B2B marketplaces continue to proliferate, but the name of the game is “get big” appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The post U.S. ecommerce acquisitions and funding in the Top 1000 appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

• Swallow up smaller sellers that sell on Amazon and other marketplaces.
• Consolidate on a central technology, market, and supply chain platform.
• Scale the business the combined acquisitions from there.

SellerX ecommerce aggregation

Now, it seems one of the biggest aggregators has swallowed up a smaller but significant U.S. competitor.

SellerX is one of the biggest ecommerce aggregators in Europe. It has signed an agreement to acquire Elevate Brands, a leading U.S.-based ecommerce-business aggregator. The combined companies will form SellerX Group and become a global consolidator of ecommerce brands with a diversified portfolio spanning over 40,000 consumer products.

The combined business will have a strong global footprint and sales of over €400 million ($437.58 million), SellerX says.

“This acquisition brings together two key players in the aggregator space,” SellerX says. “Bringing together complementary global footprints, the joint business will cover both the European and U.S. markets with a roughly even revenue split across the two regions.”

The combined companies will offer over 80 Amazon private label consumer brands in the segments of:

• Sports and outdoors.
• Home and kitchen.
• Mobile accessories.
• Pets.
• Consumables.

Founded in 2020, Berlin-based SellerX manages more than 50 European ecommerce brands. Austin, Texas-based Elevate Brands has a portfolio of 32 brands.

“By leveraging our combined strengths, I am convinced we are well-positioned to drive further consolidation in the industry,” says SellerX CEO Philipp Triebel.

Prior to the merger, which SellerX expects to complete by the end of the month, both aggregator companies were well funded. Since launch, SellerX raised nearly $900 million in equity and debt. It is valued at more than $1 billion. Meanwhile, Elevate has raised about $250 million, according to TechCrunch.com.

The idea of businesses raising money to pursue Amazon-like economies of scale looked smart and bankable.

“There are tens of thousands of individual retailers selling across big online marketplaces, and it seems like a no-brainer that this fragmented space would need consolidation and exit options for those retailers,” TechCrunch says. “But the funding landscape has gotten significantly more constricted in the last 18 months, and many investors have become jumpy pouring large sums of money into startups that have not been able to turn a profit. So, it only felt like a matter of time before the consolidators themselves — these aggregators — would start to get consolidated, too.”

Sign up

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact Mark Brohan, senior vice president of B2B and Market Research, at mark@digitalcommerce360.com. Follow him on Twitter @markbrohan.

Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when we publish Digital Commerce 360 B2B News content.

The post A European ecommerce aggregator buys a key US competitor appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.