March 25th, 2024: Shoptalk 2024 recap, Nordstrom could be taken private, Temu’s owner PDD doubles annual profit, and Google launches retail media beta
Today’s episode of the Watson Weekly podcast is sponsored by Commercetools.
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It’s March 25 2024 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
Shoptalk 2024 Recap
Nordstrom Could Be Taken Private
Temu’s Owner PDD Doubles Annual Profit
Google Launches Retail Media Beta
- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
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To hear new episodes of the show every Monday morning, subscribe now at rmwcommerce.com/watsonweekly and wherever you get your podcasts.
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BUT FIRST in our shopping cart full of news….
Shoptalk 2024 Recap
Hot off the press, I just flew back from Shoptalk in Las Vegas. If you haven’t been to a lot of conferences, let me try and break down the reason you go to events at all.
First, is relationships. After going to shows for 20+ years in eCommerce, for me this is the highlight. I’ve made so many friends over the years that in some cases these events are almost like family reunions and they feel that way. Any other goal pales in comparison to this one.
Second, business gets done! Relationships lead to business. They just do. But almost more importantly, people go to conferences to look for solutions to problems. Sometimes those solutions are in the Exposition Hall. Sometimes these solutions are at dinners and events. Sometimes these solutions come from the speaker presentations and sessions. Every year I’ve spoken at a conference, it’s led to business. A conference is a great place to see all of your prospects, partners and current clients in one place.
Finally, one of the highlights of the show for me was an RMW Commerce hosted dinner with a select number of friends. Truly great to relax and enjoy a great meal. This year was at the French restaurant Mon Ami Gabi, which is one of my favorites. Thanks to everyone who attended. You know who you are!
Now that I’ve helped you to understand why you attend eCommerce events, what was the vibe at the show?
First, most retailers and brands I spoke with were still optimistic about 2024. That was a good sign in my book.
Second, most attendees I spoke with were incrementally more negative about Shoptalk itself in 2024, despite the fact that most still reported it was the best show out there.
Third, I always love getting opinions from people about the speed-dating matrix pods at Shoptalk, and I find people on both sides either love it or hate it. Vendors pay a lot of money for these meetings and there is really no middle ground on how good these meetings. Brands are the same, finding them either extremely valuable or a complete waste of time. It’s difficult to understand why there is such a bifurcation in the audience on this point.
Finally, the energy level on the show floor seemed incrementally worse than last year, and the talks at the event were reported to me as worse than last year. Personally, I don’t go to a lot of talks, but this is self-reported feedback from others that I got almost universal agreement on from the large brands I spoke with.
Personally, I loved the show and appreciate the hosts like Joe Laszlo, Adam Plom and HG Connell and it’s my favorite show of the year by far, but I thought you might also like to hear what others told me about their experience too. There’s always things to improve.
PS: if you didn’t know, RMW Commerce is available to help with your own marketing and 1events. This year, VTEX, Shopware and Hawke Media are coming on as sponsors to our new podcast, the Watson Weekend. Extensiv has hired me to keynote their Extensiv Edge user conference in San Diego from June 3rd to 5th. I participated in a VTEX Dinner Sunday night at Shoptalk with a number of great brands and had a wonderful time. If you’d like to hire RMW Commerce to help you break through the noise in eCommerce landsape, don’t hesitate to reach out. As I like to say, we are part marketing channel, part analyst, part influencer, and part eCommece operator. There is really no other organization out there with the unique set of assets we can bring to bear. If you’ve been on the fence about participating, now’s the time to get moving before slots fill up.
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Our Second Story
Nordstrom Could Be Taken Private
A new article from Reuters seems to indicate that the founding family of Nordstrom’s is prepared to take the retailer private. This would be a huge event as the company has been public since 1971 but apparently may have decided that the public markets are not the right place to be for the retailer right now.
This move is a little bit surprising because Nordstrom over the past 30 something years has been a pretty good performer. On the other hand, in the last 5 years the stock is down 50% from its previous levels.
It’s rumored prior to the pandemic that the Board of Nordstrom’s considered going private, and decided that it was not a good time and turned down a $8.4 billion dollar offer. Given the lack of private equity acquisitions in the past couple of years, and the amount of money sitting on the sidelines, it does make sense that it could be a good time to find the right owner.
Given that the company’s market cap is now around $3 billion dollars, I’m sure the firm would like to hae that old $8 billion dollar offer back, but is unlikely to fetch something at that level this time around.
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Our Third Story
Temu’s Owner PDD Doubles Annual Profit
If you were looking for signs that Temu is going to pull back on its digital marketing spending, you won’t find it in the earnings call of its parent company PDD Holdings.
Pinduoduo announced on Wednesday that the company doubled its profit dollars in 2023 are compared to 2022, which is one of the larger jumps in absolute profit dollars I’ve seen from a retailer’s earnings this year.
At the moment, PDD is primarily one of the biggest competitors of Alibaba, so I expect that is who should be most worried by this news. However, other retailers in the United States like dollar stores Wish.com and Ali Express are already under pressure from Temu’s tremendous growth in North America. In the future, the concern goes beyond that, however. Could Temu use these dollars from its parent company to go up-market over time and threaten retailers like Amazon and Walmart?
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And Our Last Story
Google Launches Retail Media Beta
The publication Retail Touchpoints has reported that Google has launched a new retail media solution, and that Lowe’s Home Improvement is its first beta customer.
Google claims that the new solution will have a clean-room type approach and will not expose user-level data to brands. Google calls the solution an “off-site” retail media platform where brands are able to leverage Lowe’s Google Search and Shopping to advertise and interact with consumers who are shopping on Google. Then, brands can get insights into the sales that are driven back to the retailer.
It sounds to me like this is directly in Google’s wheelhouse and early indications are that Google could have a winner here. Right now Amazon is running away with retail media spend, but it’s not hard to see how Google could quickly take second place ahead of Walmart given its advertising prowess as this program develops.
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It’s That Time Friends, for our Investor Minute. We have 5 items on the menu today.
First
Lily AI Raises $20M Series B-1 Funding
Lily AI has raised $20M in Series B-1 funding, aiming to enter international markets and expand social and eCommerce platform integrations. This sounds like a great trajectory for the company.
Second
Big Sur AI Raises $6.9M in Seed Funding
Big Sur AI, an AI-powered SaaS platform, has raised $6.9M in Seed Funding, showcasing its AI Sales Agent for product discovery and shopping assistance. Is this conversational commerce version 3.0?
Link: https://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2024/03/13/big-sur-ai-7m-shopify-merchants
Third
Outdoor Voices to Close All Stores
Outdoor Voices plans to close all retail locations and transition to online operations only. Are we beginning to see direct-to-consumer brands go back to online only or is Outdoor Voices an outlier? Sounds like they got over their skis.
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/14/24100720/this-e-commerce-darling-couldnt-cut-it-irl
Fourth
Clothing Brand Another Tomorrow Raises $2M in Series A Funding
Another Tomorrow, a luxury B-Corporation sustainable clothing brand, has raised $2M in Series A funding, Sounds like sustainability brands could be a counter-trend to places like Temu which are about disposable products.
AND FINALLY …
Liquid Death Raises $67M in Venture Funding
Liquid Death has secured $67M in strategic investor funding, valued at $1.4 billion, from strategic partners and distributors, indicating a potential expansion of the brand's distribution. The company represents one of the best examples of branding, messaging, and packaging in the last decade in my opinion.
Today’s final word for the week of March 25th 2024 is Vegas baby! Well you probably thought this was coming. I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed Shoptalk and the chance to speak in front of a great audience the last Wednesday of the show. My topic was Innovation in Large Organizations and in addition to a 15 minute presentation, there was a 45 minute panel discussion with leaders from Mattel, Esprit and Mars Snacking. If you missed us in Vegas, reach out to me for a copy of the presentation!
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Did you know that RMW Commerce has a brand new podcast? Check out The Watson Weekend for an unfiltered and lively eCommerce chat each week with me, Rick Watson, my co-host Jess Lesesky, and an array of interesting guests and topics. All focused on eCommerce. You can find the Watson Weekend right here on your preferred podcast platform like iTunes or Spotify.
That’s all for this week! Till next time Watsonians.....
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Hi, I’m Rick Watson, CEO and Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting and host of the Watson Weekly podcast - your essential eCommerce Digest.
Our production partner for the series is CitizenRacecar. The show is produced by Jose Baez; Production Manager, Gabriela Montequin.
To hear new episodes of this show every Monday morning, subscribe now at rmwcommerce.com/watsonweekly and wherever you get your podcasts.