CEO Jamie Iannone said in addition to delivering “solid results,” eBay has accelerated its innovation pace. Notably, that refers at least in part to eBay’s generative AI technology.

EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV. Digital Commerce 360’s 2023 Global Online Marketplaces Report includes key insights into the biggest players in the database.

EBay had a rough year in 2022, with GMV falling 15.4% compared to 2021, said James Risley, research data manager and senior analyst at Digital Commerce 360. In 2020, when supply chains “got far out of whack,” he said, eBay and other pure marketplaces saw a “huge surge” as shoppers turned to alternate channels and some people bought up popular products to resell on these giant marketplaces.

“This quarter, it remained flat over last year’s Q3 as GMV returns to the level it likely would have been at without a pandemic,” Risley said. “Stronger supply chains coupled with retailers adding on new marketplaces to their ecommerce operations have forced eBay to find ways to increase revenue without GMV increases, and they seem to have done that.”

eBay revenue and gross merchandise value (GMV)

In its fiscal third quarter, eBay revenue grew 5% year over year. That’s up to $2.5 billion from $2.38 billion in Q3 2022.

Meanwhile, eBay GMV grew 2% year over year. It reached $17.99 billion in Q3. That’s slightly less than eBay GMV in Q2, which was $18.21 billion, but it’s greater than GMV in Q3 2022, which was $17.72 billion. In the United States, eBay GMV declined slightly to $8.64 billion. That’s down 1% from about $8.70 billion in Q3 2022. EBay defines GMV as the total value of all paid transactions between users on its platforms during the applicable period, including shipping fees and taxes.

EBay active buyers decreased 3%, to 132 million in Q3 from 135 million in the comparable period of 2022. The marketplace identifies active buyers as those who paid for a transaction on its platforms within the previous 12-month period.

eBay generative AI technology updates

Iannone said the Magical Listing tool, which uses artificial intelligence to help sellers, rolled out to 100% of mobile app users in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany in eBay’s fiscal Q3. In October, eBay extended generative AI descriptions to 50% of desktop users in the same three countries, he said.

The Magical Listing tool makes it simple and fast to list items, he said. It also helps ensure listing are comprehensive to maximize sales, he said. As part of the Magical Listing experience, eBay has rolled out an improved background removal tool powered by AI, he added.

“Now, generative AI allows us to leverage our treasure trove of images and listing data to quickly create compelling listings,” Iannone said. “Early users have told us these capabilities will unlock more of the inventory in their closets and garages, which could ultimately keep more products out of landfills.”

The first phase of the Magical Listing process “leverages generative AI to instantly populate the item description within the listing flow based on a product’s title, category and other aspects,” he said.

EBay’s camera-based Magical Listing tool has been in employee beta for several months, Iannone added. It is also currently in a limited beta with a number of large sellers.

eBay earnings summary

For the fiscal third quarter ended Sept. 30, eBay Inc. reported:

• $2.5 billion in revenue. That’s up 5% from $2.38 billion in the year-ago period.
• eBay GMV increased to $17.99 billion. That’s a 2% year-over-year increase from $17.72 billion. However, eBay GMV in Q3 decreased from Q2’s 418.21 billion.
• eBay active buyers decreased 3% year over year to 132 million.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s eBay update.

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 grows GMV in Q3, continues to invest in gen AI appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Earlier this month, Drinks sold Wine Insiders for an undisclosed sum to Full Glass Wine Co., which also owns the Winc retail wine ecommerce site. The sale opens the door for Drinks, or Drinks.com, to focus on selling its digital commerce technology stack, designed to enable any online merchant to add alcoholic beverages to product catalogs and such venues as “influencer” web storefronts.

Zac Brandenberg, CEO, Drinks Holdings Inc.

While ecommerce is a fast-growing channel for consumers to discover and purchase beverages, sales of alcoholic beverages through the digital channel are growing even faster, says Drinks chief executive and co-founder Zac Brandenberg.

“Consumers want to engage with brands/merchants at their convenience — where they want to, when they want to. That means from their laptop, their phone, their couch, etc.,” Brandenberg says. “As the alcohol category starts to come online, you’re going to see consumers rapidly adopt a digital shopping modality.”

To capitalize on consumers’ growing preference to purchase alcoholic beverages online, Drinks’s strategy is to focus on bridging the gap between consumers’ growing desire to purchase alcohol online and alcohol companies’ ability to scale online sales. The sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States totals about $250 billion, the company says.

“The growth in the sale of alcoholic beverages online increases the total addressable market opportunity because it expands consumer choice and access, particularly in markets where regulatory restrictions have limited shopping access points or SKUs available to consumers or created other impediments,” says Brandenberg,  adding: “The growth in the sale of alcoholic beverages online is not being fueled exclusively by the shift away from brick-and-mortar shopping.”

At the core of Drinks’s business is its Drinks app for Shopify, which provides Shopify merchants of all sizes with an embedded, real-time alcohol tax and regulatory solution. In addition, the platform helps merchants that want to sell alcoholic beverages manage regulatory compliance, required disclosures, customer messaging, product catalog and inventory management, merchandising optimization, and product fulfillment.

An app for managing online alcoholic beverage sales

“Our vision is to provide an operating system for this industry — that means any business that wants to sell alcohol online,” Brandenberg says. “Our Drinks Shopify App provides the regulatory technology for alcohol producers and merchants to sell alcohol online.”

In addition to its core regulatory tax compliance platform, Drinks offers a wine-as-a-service (WaaS) platform to develop a branded nationwide wine program and offer omnichannel shopping experiences. As a result, ecommerce merchants that don’t carry a liquor license can add alcoholic beverages as a product category in a fully compliant manner directly to their storefront, Drinks says.

Retailers such as Macy’s Wine Shop, Thrive Market and Misfits Market use the Drinks platform.

Other apps offered by Drinks include its Pair platform, which uses data-driven insights with artificial intelligence and machine learning to create personalized shopping experiences. The company also operates a customer experience and retention agency called Electriq, which helps wineries take the tasting room experience online and increase customer loyalty through lifecycle strategies, email/SMS marketing, and web design and development.

“We have a lengthy waitlist of merchants who want to add beverage alcohol products into their storefronts, covering almost any audience,” Brandenberg says. “Drinks is enabling any business that sells something online to now be in the alcohol business. We are able to power online, direct-to-consumer alcohol commerce for bellwether retailers, digital-first commerce brands, and celebrities like Martha Stewart and Geoffrey Zakarian. As we scale our technology footprint, more merchant types, as well as experts, creators and influencers will follow suit.”

One merchant segment that looks especially promising is “creator” and influencer websites, which are not part of the alcohol ecosystem in the traditional sense. Tapping this merchant segment represents new distribution opportunities for alcoholic beverage brands.

“The early innings of creator/influencer-driven marketing have operated similar to an old-school affiliate model, where an endorsement led to a transaction on a brand/merchant site,” Brandenberg says. “That’s obviously evolving, and opportunities abound for the creators themselves to be the conduit for transactions, to maintain that one-to-one relationship they have with their audience. That presents an opportunity for us to enable an ever-increasing number of consumer-facing commerce sites or outlets.”

Peter Lucas is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy.

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 Development, at mark@digitalcommerce360.com and 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 Drinks.com sells its wine website, focuses on ecommerce tech sales appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Mobile shopping will be big in 2023

The Adobe holiday spending forecast predicts more than half of online spending (51.2%) will be made on mobile devices in 2023. That would be a significant increase from 44.88% last holiday season, according to Adobe data. 

The analytics firm says mobile spending will hit a record of $113 billion this holiday season, up 13.7% year over year. Mobile holiday spending is projected to be highest on Thanksgiving and Christmas, when consumers are most likely to be spending time with friends and family, Adobe says. 

Retailers will offer steep discounts

Adobe says holiday discounts will reach record levels this year, with sales up to 35% off listed prices. 

The vendor predicts toys, electronics and apparel will see the highest discounts. For example, toys will peak at 35% off listed price, Adobe says, compared to 34% off in 2022. Electronics discounts will likely hit 30%, up from 25% in 2022, and 25% for apparel, up from 19%. 

Cyber Week will be the time when consumers can find the biggest discounts, Adobe says. Cyber Week alone will drive $37.2 billion in online holiday spending, 16.8% of the total season, according to Adobe. That’s up 5.4% year over year. Adobe predicts Cyber Monday will be the single biggest shopping day of the season and the year, with $12 billion in spending. 

“Despite an unpredictable economic environment, where consumers face several challenges including rising interest rates, we expect strong ecommerce growth this season on account of record discounts and flexible payment methods,” Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing at Adobe, said in a written statement.

BNPL keeps growing

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is projected to be used as a payment method for more online spending than ever this holiday season. Adobe projects BNPL will be used for $17 billion in online spending, an increase of $2.5 billion and 16.9% over 2022. 

November is slated to be the largest month of BNPL usage on record, with $9.3 billion in spending. Adobe predicts $782 million in spending with BNPL on Cyber Monday, surpassing the previous record of $658 million on the shopping holiday in 2022.

BNPL has already shown significant growth in 2023. As of October 2023, U.S. consumers spend $46.7 billion through the payment method, up 14.7% from the previous year. BNPL growth is greatest in the grocery, home and furniture and apparel categories, Adobe says.

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 Adobe forecasts online holiday spending will exceed $221 billion appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

“We want to meet the consumer where they are, and they prefer digital experiences — but it’s also really good for our business,” Glaser says. “We get so much more data to inform our future plans and marketing choices from a performance marketing perspective.”

General Mills can be more flexible by offering digital promotions, Glaser says. This includes incentivizing the consumer to take action when they’re most likely to convert.

“How do we build those relationships with consumers?” asks Glaser.

One way General Mills is building incentives for customers is through the Fetch rewards mobile app. Consumers download the Fetch app and create an account. They take photos of their grocery shopping receipts from in-store or online shopping and upload them to the app.

Consumers earn points they can redeem for gift cards. Eligible receipts that have at least one participating brand may receive at least 35 points. Each dollar is worth one point. 1,000 Fetch rewards points are worth $1, for example, and consumers need to reach 3,000 points in order to redeem for gift cards at stores including Starbucks, Macy’s, Amazon, Nordstrom Rack and Home Depot as well as for Visa cards. Fetch charges participating retailers like General Mills a referral fee.

Brand loyalty: What it is and how to build it

There is a lot of data exchanged between Fetch and General Mills, Glaser says.

“We get a ton of data from the Fetch partnership — about 62 million lines of data per day,” he says.

That data feeds into the brand’s customer data platform (CDP), which is a software platform that collects first-party data from multiple sources to help brands create targeted and personalized marketing campaigns.

“Loyalty programs are something that the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space isn’t necessarily ubiquitous — it’s something not all CPGs have nailed,” Glaser says. “We wanted to be intentional. What does that look like? How does it come to life?”

In March 2023, General Mills said it had added 2 million customers to its Good Rewards loyalty program with Fetch within the first six months of launch.

Consumer engagement experience

Fetch has about 18 million monthly active users, with 6 million of those using the app every day, says Robin Wheeler, the chief revenue officer at Fetch. In April 2023, the rewards app said it had surpassed $152 billion in annual gross merchandise value (GMV) across U.S. in-store and online retail sales.

“Fetch isn’t your traditional kind of shopping app,” Wheeler says. “It’s a consumer engagement experience.”

A larger portion of consumers are Millennials and Gen Z, Wheeler says.

“The younger generation is definitely coming to Fetch and I think a lot of that is tied to the experiences they’re seeing on social media,” Wheeler says.

Fetch rewards: adding brands

Fetch shares its general merchandise value scanned daily, Wheeler says. Fetch employees also track potential opportunities.

“We’re reading the trades and keeping up to speed on industries,” she says. “If we’re seeing national brands start to compete with a certain brand of deodorant, for example, our primary goal is to focus on where we’re seeing a lot of activity where we’re not currently rewarding consumers. Because that’s low hanging fruit.”

The company uses this information as it attempts to build relationships with other brands.

“There are plenty of big companies we haven’t started working with, and we need to be there,” she says.

This includes providing carousel information displayed at the top of the app that consumers see when they open it. Whether the promotion is about back to school or another busy shopping period, brands also want to include their offers and create more consumer awareness.

Fetch also has daily spin feature where consumers can obtain a daily reward.

Brands use influencers to reach new customers

This includes learning about the app from social media influencers, Wheeler says.

Fetch can share with brands what consumers are spending based on the receipts they upload to the app. Brands can target consumers, whether they’re loyal customers or “competitive buyers, which you have a to work a little bit harder for,” Wheeler says.

Fetch works with influencer agencies to source talent, Wheeler says. The company monitors influencer content and when it finds the right fit, it reaches out with affiliate links.

While the majority of Fetch receipts are in-store, Wheeler says online receipt uploads are growing.

“We have integrations with Amazon and Walmart,” Wheeler says. “We also have emailed receipts. If we have your email integrated and you order from DoorDash, we’re able to scan and pick up that receipt. So emailed receipts are definitely growing.”

Consumers can connect their Fetch account to their email, Amazon and Walmart accounts to earn Fetch rewards.

Fetch social

• 61% of Fetch monthly active users engaged with social features during July, up from 24% in January.
• Daily Reward launched in December 2022. Consumers have played daily rewards over 222 million plays since then.
• People who engage with social features/in-app games are more likely to scan receipts every day and have retention rates around 4-5 points higher than cohorts that don’t engage with these features.

Fetch eReceipts

• On average in 2023, about 10% of all receipts submitted to Fetch were eReceipts.
• About 29% of Fetch users who scan receipts also submit eReceipts.
• Top retailers include Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, McDonald’s, Starbucks.

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 Infographic: General Mills incentivizes customers through mobile app Fetch appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Nike ranks No. 9 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American e-retailers.

Nike’s digital retail strategy

Chief financial officer Matt Friend said Nike consumers spent more time in brick-and-mortar locations in the quarter.

“But 90% of their shopping journeys are starting with digital,” Friend said. “And so we continue to believe that our digital and physical strategies of serving consumers are the right strategy to serve demand as we look forward.”

In North America, Nike Digital sales grew 4% in the retailer’s first quarter. Nike Digital refers to sales made through the retailer’s websites and apps.

At the same time, Nike Digital sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa decreased 2%. And they decreased 3% in Asia Pacific and Latin America. In Mexico specifically, though, Nike’s “digital business delivered double-digit growth,” Friend said, without revealing more.

“We’ve increased the size of our supply chain in the last few years to be able to address the growth that we’ve seen in our business, both overall and in digital,” Friend said.

To improve that efficiency, he said, Nike has reduced digital split shipments so consumers don’t get two deliveries for the same order. It has also invested in “regional service centers that are closer to where consumer demand is.” In other words, it has improved its fulfillment by opening distribution centers in strategic areas.

Nike Digital sales in China

In the Greater China region, Nike Digital sales grew 6% in Q1. The footwear brand held a three-day sports festival called Sportchella in China.

“The team amplified the impact of the festival by partnering with Tmall to create the first Nike Super Brand Week, which drove more than 2 billion impressions,” Friend said. “And this partnership seamlessly integrated the events with a digital shopping journey that generated very strong consumer response and engagement.”

Tmall is an Alibaba-owned marketplace, along with Taobao. Taobao ranks No. 1 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest such marketplaces by gross merchandise value. Tmall ranks No. 2.

Nike App increases Nike sales

The Nike mobile app had “strong growth,” Friend said. Nike mobile app traffic had high single-digit growth in the quarter, he said.

“We saw member activity continue to increase both in terms of engagement and buying behavior and a higher basket size, a higher AOV,” Friend said.

That drove “sustained momentum on the Nike mobile app” as loyalty members increased their buying frequency in the quarter, he said.

“We continue to see a growing structural advantage as more consumers start their shopping journeys with us on mobile,” Friend said.

Nike Direct revenue

Friend said member engagement through Nike Direct grew double digits in its Q1 compared with the year-ago period. Average order value through Nike Direct sales increased, but he did not specify how much.

Nike Direct refers to the retailer’s direct-to-consumer sales (online and offline). It grew 6% year over year in the first quarter.

In North America, Nike Direct grew 7%, led by 11% growth in physical store sales. Nike Direct sales grew 10% in China. They grew 6% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 3% in Asia Pacific and Latin America.

How much does Nike make in a year?

For the fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 31, 2023, Nike reported:

• Revenue grew 2% to $12.94 billion, from $12.69 billion in the year-ago period.
• Profit also grew 2%, to $5.72 billion from $5.62 billion the year before.
• Similarly, Nike Digital sales grew 2% year over year in the quarter.
• Nike Direct, or the retailer’s direct-to-consumer sales (online and offline), grew to $5.4 billion. That’s a 6% year-over-year increase.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s Nike report.

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 Nike Digital sales grow modestly in fiscal first quarter appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Costco is No. 6 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers.

Costco ecommerce sales

Although Costco did not provide a dollar amount for its ecommerce sales, it said they decreased 0.8% year over year. Costco ecommerce sales for the fiscal year decreased 5.7% compared with 2022.

Food and sundries also led the retailer’s ecommerce sales, “with fresh foods right behind and some offsets on some of the non-foods categories,” said Richard Galanti, chief financial officer, in the retailer’s fourth-quarter earnings call. Sundries are small, miscellaneous items.

“Results showed good improvement this quarter versus our year-over-year results in Q2 and Q3,” he added.

Galanti also said some product category ecommerce sales decreased 15% to 20% year over year in Costco’s fiscal second and third quarters. Those included:

• Home furnishings
• Small electronics
• Jewelry
• Hardware

However, compared with Costco’s fiscal fourth quarter last year, these sales decreased just 5% this year. Those big-ticket departments comprised more than half of Costco ecommerce sales in the quarter, Galanti said. Online appliance sales grew 30% in the quarter as well.

He also said he has been getting calls about Costco selling one-ounce gold bars on its website.

“Yes, but when we load them on the site, they’re typically gone within a few hours and we limit two per member,” Galanti said.

Galanti said Instacart shoppers do not count toward Costco ecommerce sales because Instacart employees enter the retail stores to shop, purchase at the register, then take the order to their customers. Instacart sales do not count toward Costco mobile ecommerce sales either, he said.

Costco operates ecommerce sites in:

• The United States
• Canada
• The United Kingdom
• Mexico
• Korea
• Taiwan
• Japan
• Australia

Costco mobile ecommerce

“We’re always asked about this,” Galanti said.

Costco redesigned parts of its mobile ecommerce website, he said. It also redesigned its account page and the digital membership card, he said. And it also redesigned the header with a larger search bar and expanded selling space.

“We’ve added an app box for messages and advertisements right in the app,” Galanti said. A few months ago, Costco “opened an optical digital store where you can virtually try on glasses and then order them for pickup — prescription glasses.”

Costco app

The retailer has also worked to improve its in-warehouse shopping tools on its app, Galanti said. That includes:

• Digital membership card
• Managing shopping lists
• Viewing warehouse savings
• Seeing gas prices (if the location has a gas station)
• Searching warehouse inventory
• Scanning barcodes from the app

“With the improvements made thus far over the past year, our app store rating has gone from a dismal 2.3 stars to currently 4.7 stars,” Galanti said.

Unique visitors to the Costco ecommerce site increased 40% year over year in the fiscal fourth quarter, he said. Meanwhile, Costco app installs increased 46% year over year.

Costco Next

Galanti said the retailer is also working on growing Costco Next.

Costco Next is the retailer’s way of connecting members with its top suppliers through an ecommerce website. The suppliers drop-ship those orders.

“When you transfer to one of our suppliers’ sites, you will be able to purchase directly from that Costco supplier,” Costco says on its website. “For any items purchased on the supplier website, the supplier will ship, provide customer service and handle returns.”

Costco Next now has 62 suppliers on its site, Galanti said. He adds that the retailer is onboarding more in categories, including:

• Apparel
• Electronics and accessories
• Home improvement
• Pet
• Sports
• Toys

Costco earnings

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 3, 2023, Costco reported:

• Net sales increased to $77.43 billion. That’s up 9.4% from $70.76 billion in the prior fiscal year’s fourth quarter.
• Net income was $2.16 billion, up from $1.87 billion in the year-ago period.
• Costco ecommerce sales declined just 0.8% year over year.
• $1.51 billion in membership fee income, up from $1.33 billion in the year-ago period.

For the 53-week period ended Sept. 23, 2023, Costco reported:

• Net sales grew to $237.71 billion. That’s a 6.7% increase from $222.73 billion last year.
• Net income increased to $6.29 billion from $5.84 billion the previous year.
• Costco ecommerce sales decreased 5.7% compared with the previous year.
• $4.58 billion in membership fee income, up from $4.22 billion in the previous year.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s Costco report.

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 Costco ecommerce sales improve compared with previous quarters, but still down overall appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The report, “A Retailer’s Guide To The 2023 Holiday Season,” reviews how U.S. consumers went about their holiday shopping last year, Forrester said. Based on that, 45% of consumers shopping online are most interested in free shipping, according to the report. This is also in line with Digital Commers 360 consumer insights, which consistently find that free shipping is the most important factor when shopping online, along with the right price. Similarly, Forrester data found that 44% of consumers are most interested in discounts during the holiday season.

The report focuses on how retailers and manufacturers prepare for the 2023 holiday season through:

• Marketing
• Customer service
• Fulfillment
• Security

Bizrate Insights fielded surveys of U.S. online consumers before, during, and just after the 2022 holiday season. It shared with Forrester for this research. Bizrate Insights collects over 25 million surveys from verified customers for 2,000 retailers each year.

Forrester: Consumers start holiday shopping early

Forrester found that about a quarter of online shoppers began their holiday shopping in October or earlier in 2022. That’s a slight decrease from about 30% in 2021. On the other end, about 20% in 2022 waited until December to begin shopping.

Previous experiences factor in, too, according to data from Bizrate Insights. 69% of online consumers planned to order earlier in the 2022 holiday shopping season because of late deliveries in 2021.

Bizrate Insights found that more than half of U.S. online shoppers (55%) expected to spend the same amount in 2022 as they did in 2021. Meanwhile, 25% said they expected to spend less when it came to gifts, decorations and other holiday-related merchandise.  Those who planned to spend less on holiday shopping in 2022 most often cited “increased expenses/spending on other things,” the report said.

Forrester said this can likely be attributed to factors including rising inflation and the increase in spending during the year as a whole.

Smartphones are the go-to holiday shopping device

Even if consumers aren’t buying everything on mobile, Forrester found they’re starting their holiday shopping there. More than half (58%) of U.S. adults who use their smartphones to shop online regularly use the devices to research products and services before making a purchase, according to data Forrester cited. That’s an increase from 54% in 2021.

Furthermore, Forrester said, 27% of U.S. online shoppers found out about retailer sales and promotions from mobile apps last year. 21% found out through coupons and discount apps. 15% found out from promotional text messages, and 11% from automatically applied promo codes within apps.

“Smartphones play an integral role in every part of the shopping experience, from discovery to purchase and beyond,” Forrester said in the holiday shopping report.

That was particularly the case during the Cyber 5 period, or the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. In that period, 79% of U.S. online shoppers used their mobile phones to shop online, according to Bizrate Insights data cited in the report. That’s up from 54% in 2016, Forrester said. The following week in 2022, 55% used their mobile phones to shop online.

And many consumers followed through on their mobile holiday shopping last year, Digital Commerce 360 reported.

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 Forrester’s findings: Mobile rules holiday shopping appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The world’s largest retailer by revenue announced Walmart Business in January as a new ecommerce channel primarily for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. With more than 100,000 items available across more than a dozen categories ranging from office furniture and laptops to health care and automotive products, Walmart Business is encroaching on a market dominated by such rivals as Staples Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. It also provides such B2B purchasing features as letting up to five buyers share the same account.

Amazon, Costco, Staples and Walmart each rank in the Top 500. Furthermore, they’re all among the Top 20.

Ashley Hubka, senior vice president and general manager, Walmart Business

Walmart recently upped its B2B foray with a mobile app and new tools and services designed to help small businesses and nonprofit organizations improve their procurement operations, according to Ashley Hubka, senior vice president and general manager, Walmart Business. The changes followed a May 2023 survey of 501 small business owners. They identified ordering supplies and managing customers as among their biggest challenges. Research firm Morning Consult conducted the Walmart-commissioned poll.

The Walmart Business upgrades include:

• Walmart Business App. It lets buyers access and purchase items among all product categories. And it lets them choose how to receive orders, including via scheduled delivery service or curbside pickup at more than 4,700 U.S. locations. Up to five purchasing team members can share a single account from the app.
• An upgraded add-to-cart feature, which is designed to quicken high-volume orders.
• Hire Angi. It lets customers click from the Walmart Business website or app to connect with the Angi contractor-hiring service.
• Spend Analytics. This enables Walmart Business+ members to track their organization’s spend by user and by product categories. It also allows them to identify spending patterns. Walmart Business+ is a membership program that, for a $98 annual fee, offers perks like free shipping on all orders.

More on Walmart’s online sales

Walmart doesn’t break out ecommerce sales. But for the company’s most recently reported financial period, the fiscal first quarter ended April 30, it said ecommerce sales grew 27% over the prior-year quarter. Total sales grew 7.6% to $151.0 billion.

Walmart ranks No. 2 in the Top 1000 database for online sales, behind only Amazon. We cover Walmart ecommerce sales quarterly with year-to-date earnings summaries. Check back in for updates on the page below.

Paul Demery is a freelance writer specializing in ecommerce trends. He is based in Savannah, Georgia. Follow him on Twitter @pdemery.

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.

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

The post Walmart Business woos small businesses with a new app and online services 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.

General merchandise retailer Tractor Supply is among the early adopters learning valuable lessons from its nationwide 5G rollout.

Compliments of TMobile

The post 5 ways 5G can improve retailers’ profits appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.