Sublime

But for now – there is not a lot of capital in the space, and many of these sellers cannot keep up with their own growth. The easiest way to get de-ranked is by running out of inventory, but a business that can’t get financed, is fully bootstrapped, and that is growing quickly (with holiday season volatility) will struggle to procure inventory fina... See more

Based on this high level analysis, it’s not surprising to see that alcohol, convenience, and pet are emerging as battlegrounds for on-demand delivery of late. Uber acquired alcohol delivery startup Drizly last year, and GoPuff acquired Liquor Barn in June. Doordash has recently expanded into Pet and Floral.

The cultural shift to e-commerce has brought about new expectations for immediate gratification from consumers, and with that, increased environmental impacts as retailers attempt to meet those demands. However, when companies are willing to invest in creating sustainable solutions to navigate the evolving demands of today’s shopper, they will see ... See more

Brands and retailers must create their own deep and sticky ecosystems of content, argues Doug Stephens.

Interestingly, Nike has been pulling out of what it calls “undifferentiated retail”: stores that are too broad in their target customer. One example of this is when they pulled their products out of Amazon.

Smaller, pickup-only grocery stores could offer a few advantages, particularly in metropolitan areas. On the business side, they would reduce two of the biggest cost centers: headcount and footprint. Less expensive sub-street level space could be leveraged for storage, in addition to facilities outside a city. Customers could place orders ahead of ... See more