Podcasts about walmart target

On today's MJ Morning Show: Meeting Mariah Carey Morons in the news Roxanne saw Dr. Koco Eaton What time does the average person know they're having a bad day? MJ's conch pounding J.Lo officially filed for divorce MJ Morning Show Complaint Department IG - Chloe's birthday photo Matthew Perry's former doctor is back at work Walmart/Target floor walkers Bad Day calls Some stores are enforcing young shopper policies Simone Biles was offered a $26,000 bottle of champagne after the Olympics Jury duty chatter U.S. birth rate hits new low MJ's headed to the movies after the show How to get arrested at Applebee's

Teresa Murray, a consumer watchdog with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), joins Wendy Snyder (filling-in for Lisa Dent) to talk about the latest product recall of White Coated Confectionary Items that are sold at several Walmart, Target, and Dollar General stores because of a possible salmonella contamination. Follow The Lisa Dent Show on […]

Whew boy, what a month. I don't know about you, but all the adrenaline has me exhausted. Our listener pick this month comes from Mike, who beered us Smokin' Aces! With a cast as stacked as this one, it's crazy to think that this film almost serves as a palate cleanser after Cranked-out Statham, Harry HISHANDSISGUNS Potter, and Riki-Freakin'-Oh. That said, this movie has its moments, and you might want to pick it up from your local Walmart/Target bargain bin. *Smokin' Aces © 2006 Universal Studios

Over in the US, a slew of big-box retailers have slashed prices across their stores. Walmart, Target and Amazon are among the big names bringing down their prices ahead of the summer season. Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds says these moves are being made to appeal to inflation-weary customers. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over in the US, a slew of big-box retailers have slashed prices across their stores. Walmart, Target and Amazon are among the big names bringing down their prices ahead of the summer season. Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds says these moves are being made to appeal to inflation-weary customers. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's MJ Morning Show: MJ is flying Spirit for first time this weekend Morons in the news Head transplants? We took calls. Pot use exceeds alcohol Restaurant covers up the 'no tip' option with a sticker at the register Skydiver's phone fell from 12,000 feet. Diver found it. Most unhappy age to be alive Another lawsuit against Diddy Red light therapy Chaka Khan's daughter going against Diddy Fester's birthday cake from The Cake Girl Someone shipped live rattlesnakes What's a hagmaxer? Do you legally have to stop to have your receipt checked at Target/Walmart? Delta caught throwing golf club bags Memorial Day Airbmb cancelations Guy texts to date next day... is it the age difference? Best beach bar American Airlines lawyers blamed the 9-year-old who was recorded in the bathroom

Why USC QB Caleb Williams should drop in the NFL Draft. KFC is now selling a chicken pizza in the United States. A candlelight vigil was held for a Hooters in West Virginia before it was demolished. Relaxing sleep affirmations can have a calming effect on the heart. Wendy's planning Uber-style ‘surge pricing' where burger prices fluctuate based on demand. Walmart and Target are getting rid of self-checkout lanes.

AP correspondent Tiffany Wang reports on New Year's Eve store hours.

In this episode: Lobbyists for rent-seeking retailers like Walmart, Target and Home Depot are pushing policies in Florida that send small-time shoplifters to prison for many years — and then make it harder for them to get back on their feet when they finally get out. It's an example of short-sighted, self-interested corporate lobbying that prioritizes protecting the profits of a few above all else. And it is blocking bipartisan reform efforts in the Florida Capitol that could help more workers find sustainable careers, bring prices down for consumers, and save money for taxpayers.Further Reading:* The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality (Book, Website)* House Bill 785 / Senate Bill 704 – Limited Barbering (2024)* House Bill 549 – Retail Theft (2024)* House Bill 133 / Senate Bill 42 – Professional Licensing Requirements for Barbers and Cosmetologists (2024)* Institute for Justice: License to Work (3rd edition)* Florida Policy Institute: Saving Taxpayer Dollars and Reducing Recidivism Through Occupational Licensing Reform* The Marshall Project: What the Panic Over Shoplifting Reveals About American Crime Policy* KPMG & Florida Department of Management Services: Charting a Path to a Safer, More Efficient Correctional System* CNBC: Retailers are shaping a wave of laws to crack down on organized theft — here's how they do it* Seeking Rents: The Florida Legislature just let Target dodge $15 million in corporate taxesContact: Garcia.JasonR@gmail.comFollow: Twitter Follow the show: Apple | Spotify Get full access to Seeking Rents at jasongarcia.substack.com/subscribe

▶方格子訂閱專欄：https://reurl.cc/r6vojN ▶Podcast傳送門：https://linktr.ee/MooreStock ▶合作報價：https://reurl.cc/Eomnvg ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ▲本次大綱： #生活分享 00:03 天冷生活分享 #市場解析 04:05 Nvidia 季報感想分享 07:50 Walmart、Target 法說重點分享 #笑話時間 14:42 笑話時間 如果喜歡我的節目，歡迎在 #Applepodcast #Spotify #Mixerbox 留下五星評價。 另外也歡迎支持我的方格子訂閱專欄，讓節目持續成長。 小額贊助支持本節目： https://open.firstory.me/user/ckqj0nufie8yl0930ilr6fkpi 留言告訴我你對這一集的想法： https://open.firstory.me/user/ckqj0nufie8yl0930ilr6fkpi/comments Powered by Firstory Hosting

Singapore stocks opened stronger today, as the earnings season approaches an end. In early trade, the Straits Times Index (STI) rose 0.3 per cent to 3,114.97 points after 93.9 million securities changed hands in the broader market. In terms of companies to watch for today, we have Genting Singapore, after the company on Friday posted a net profit of S$216.3 million for the third quarter ended September. That's up 59 per cent from S$135.8 million a year earlier.  Elsewhere from more on global EV sales, to expectations for the October's consumer price index due tonight, more international headlines are in focus.  On Market View, The Evening Runway's finance presenter Chua Tian Tian unpacked the developments with Khoon Goh, Head of Asia Research at ANZ.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The stock market continued its rebound last week with a Friday rally that sent the major US indexes to their highest closing levels in nearly two months.

Michelle P. Maidenberg is a renowned clinician and mental health advocate. Operating a private practice in Harrison, NY, she serves as the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of "Thru My Eyes," a nonprofit organization that offers a deeply compassionate service. This initiative is dedicated to providing free, professionally guided video recording sessions to individuals battling chronic and severe medical conditions. Through these heartfelt interviews, "Thru My Eyes" helps these individuals document their personal stories, insights, and messages for their families and loved ones, leaving a lasting legacy of hope and inspiration. As an adjuct faculty member at NYU, the author of several books, and as a Tedx speaker, Michelle  shares her expertise and insights with us and, together, we're going to explore how technology can be used to improve our mental and physical well-being.    In this episode you will hear:  Living authentically and aligning to your values.  Leaving a legacy and the “Thru My Eyes” nonprofit organization.  Evaluating your values and how you are living them each day.  Tapping into your sense of purpose. What mindfulness is and how it impacts mental and physical health.  The impact of intergenerational trauma and stopping the cycle.      Michelle P. Maidenberg, Ph.D.,MPH, LCSW-R,CGP, maintains a private practice in Harrison, NY. She is also the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of “Thru My Eyes”, a nonprofit 501c3 organization that offers free clinically-guided videotaping to chronically medically ill individuals who want to leave video legacies for their children and loved ones.   Michelle is adjunct faculty at New York University (NYU) teaching a graduate course in Mindfulness Practice. She is a member of the American Red Cross Crisis Team. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Westchester Trauma Network (WTN) in Westchester NY. Michelle is the author of the book “Free Your Child From Overeating" 53 Mind-Body Strategies For Lifelong Health” and new book “Ace Your Life: Unleash Your Best Self and Live the Life You Want” is available at: Thriftbooks, Barnes and Noble, Walmart Target, and Amazon. Note that all paperbacks come with a free ebook. Listen to Michelle's TED TALK: Circumventing Emotional Avoidance. Michelle writes the Psychology Today Blog: Being Your Best Self and is a contributing editor of the journal GROUP. She does weekly guided meditations on her YouTube channel. She is dedicated and invested in health and mental health advocacy.   Connect with Dr. Michelle Maidenberg: Website: https://michellemaidenberg.com/  Psychology Today Blogger: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/michelle-p-maidenberg-phd-mph-lcsw-r-cgp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellemaidenberg YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrMichelleMaidenberg Twitter: https://twitter.com/drmaidenberg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemaidenberg/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmichellemaidenberg/ TedxTalk: Circumventing Emotional Avoidance Latest Book - Ace Your Life: https://michellemaidenberg.com/ace-your-life-book/      Connect with R Blank and Stephanie Warner:  For more Healthier Tech Podcast episodes, and to download our Healthier Tech Quick Start Guide, visit https://HealthierTech.co and follow https://instagram.com/healthiertech Additional Links: Shield Your Body website: https://ShieldYourBody.com Shield Your Body Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/shieldyourbody Host R Blank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rblank9/ Shield Your Body on Instagram: https://instagram.com/shieldyourbody

its Jimmy --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aei-leon/message

Jamie Roller is Associate Director of Growth Channels at Dr. Squatch - a 9-figure DTC-first brand who have really nailed not only the Amazon game, but have managed to build a strong international presence through their own DTC website and complement their US business with channels such as Walmart & Target. Dr. Squatch produces high quality, organic men's health products and have managed to carve themselves out a niche for offering unique products to their growing & loyal audience. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marketplace-jungle/message

Check out this weeks KICK ASS PODCAST with ya boy QPC and special guest Todd the IT GOD ... It's more fun than pouring bud light on Kid Rock, I PROMISE !!! LOL !!! Topics discussed: Trump arrested, SpaceX news, Bigelow/Skinwalker ranch, Walmart/Target bags, Minimum wage and sooooooo much more ... You're gonna LOVE THIS SHOW !!! CHECK IT !!! 

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyBill D'Alessandro is the Founder and CEO of Elements Brands, one of the original holding companies for direct-to-consumer brands. He has acquired or founded more than a dozen businesses with over $100M of revenue and has realized seven exits in both DTC and SaaS. Bill is also the co-host of the Acquisitions Anonymous podcast.On this episode Chris & Bill discuss:➡️ Lessons learned from Element Brands and owning 6 businesses➡️ His pivot to owning Natural Dog Company and why focus is powerful➡️ How to decide between marketing & product innovation➡️ Insights on the pet industry and why it's hugeKey Takeaways:(3:13) - What was your strategy in 2016 and why have you totally flipped on it in 2023?(4:57) - DTC is not a business model(6:14) - Prioritizing marketing over product innovation(10:36) - Was there ever a time when you thought this massive ad spend was unsustainable?(12:23) - What's happened in the past 18 months since Apple changed its advertising privacy model?(14:33) - Putting brands on autopilot(16:22) - When did you start to realize only one of your eight brands was worth working on?(19:53) - How has your life changed after consolidating your focus?(22:14) - Is there a way to make the Aggregator model work?(25:46) - How big is the pet industry and where is its potential?(26:59) - What are you going to do with this business now that you're solely focused on the one instead of 8?(30:14) - Why have you chosen to go into retail?(33:18) - How do you get your product into 4-5k stores?(35:55) - Is there any brand with leverage over Walmart?(36:54) - What could make this move into retail go wrong?(39:35) - What's your approach to product packaging and design?(42:45) - How did you arrive at the decision to launch 12-16 new products this year and how do you decide what they'll be?(46:32) - What needs to happen in order to get into Walmart and Target?(48:59) - Would you get a higher valuation on your company if you're in Walmart/Target and successful there?(49:46) - What has podcasting done for you?Additional Resources

EP299 - Thanksgiving Week 2022 with Rob Garf of Salesforce A discussion of Thanksgiving Week 2022 from a retail perspective with Rob Garf, Vice President and General Manager, Retail at Salesforce. This is Robs' fourth time on the show, having previously been on episodes 110, 248, and 282. Thanksgiving week 2022 will go down as one of the most complicated holiday weeks on record. With covid impacts still in place, a global economic crisis, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, new retailer discounting practices, and new consumer behaviors we have a lot to unpack. This episodes covers a wide range of topics around the most important shopping week of the year. We make liberal use of real-time data from Salesforce Shopping Insights HQ, which tracks how 1.5+ billion consumers are shaping shopping trends. You can see a real-time holiday dashboard, powered by Tableau so you can interact with the data yourself on the Salesforce Holiday Insights page. Episode 299 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday November 29th, 2022. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 299 being recorded on Tuesday November 29th 2022 the day after Cyber Monday I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:41] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scot show listeners Jason it wouldn't be a delicious turkey five if we didn't have our regular holiday guests robbed our van Rob is the vice president and general manager I think it's total maybe longer than yours a retail at Salesforce let's see those two forces that's like eight words so you need to get to work this is Rob's fourth appearance on the Jason Scott show he was here for episode 1 10 to 40 9282 and back for number four here and episode 299 Rob welcome back. Rob: [1:15] Gentlemen it is such a pleasure to join you today I can't wait to talk about cyber week. Jason: [1:21] It wouldn't be a several week if we weren't talking to you Rob and as a I feel like a special bonus for me two of the three people on this podcast have received a 10 out of 10 rating from room Raider. Rob: [1:33] Hmm who Could That Be Well I know you did it because you have a sweet pillow that shows it off. Jason: [1:39] And I think I feel like you got up before me. Rob: [1:42] I think so you know I gotta tell a really funny story quickly if I can I was doing early on in the pandemic a webinar I think it was probably with. Business Insider and they brought like a staging expert online and I thought I had the best background I had like a. Something like my wife got me for my 40th birthday long time ago by the way I like 1910 or 1920 National Cash Register in the background I felt all good about that and she totally. Blew up my room and thankfully she did cuz I turned out on top with a 10/10. [2:18] I know I probably shouldn't have given that away but I felt pretty cool about it. Scot: [2:21] Jason had a team of 10 people at publicist set his up so don't don't don't listen to him. Rob: [2:26] Either and he probably gets like product placement dollars as well as a influencer for all the cool things he has in the. Scot: [2:33] And they came in from France. Jason: [2:34] And side note on that the jury is out on whether giant marketing holding companies can actually help your sales but they can for sure help you win Awards. Rob: [2:43] Congratulations. Scot: [2:46] Well Rob weird. Rob: [2:47] Scot the trifecta anyways we digress. Scot: [2:49] Well yes some of us I guess my day job I'm like I don't know not really working on my room. Rob: [2:55] Actually you are about to say you're actually working or aren't ya. Scot: [2:59] Well yeah the so in case even though this is your fourth time around let's there's definitely we always pick up millions of new listeners so let's if you could recap the data that you guys have at Salesforce where it comes from and then you know we're recording this the day after Cyber Monday you've got some hot delicious fresh data will jump in after you kind of give the high-level overview in case people aren't aware. Rob: [3:25] I can't wait I'm loving it we've been swimming through this data for a better part of the we can't wait to share it with your crowd your audience yeah so by way of introduction again Rob Garf here. With Salesforce I came to Salesforce by way of the demandware acquisition which is about. Six years ago I spent five years prior at demandware on the GM for retail what that means is I oversee our product. And solution strategy along with our industry insights team and that's what gives me the great pleasure of talking cyber week and actually providing insights and intelligence for our customers all year long and the way we do that is all the data that flows through the platform we bubble that up we obviously strip out all pii data. And in its aggregate form billions of billions Shoppers it gives us an amazing read and pulse on the industry and we publish at throughout cyber week on our shopping insights HQ it's an interactive dashboard, built on Tableau and it really allows our customers the broader industry to understand what's going on in digital and be able to Benchmark themselves. Scot: [4:32] Frequent thanks for that summary so let's start with the kind of the elephant in the room I get this question and Jason does a lot as well you know I'm a CNBC junkie and all they talk about is inflation and recession so so anything kind of in the macroeconomics showing up in the data that you've seen. Rob: [4:51] Yeah absolutely and I think it's important to understand this holiday while the global numbers look really promising much of that if not all of that growth was concentrated. In the u.s. there's a bunch of headwinds happening for various reasons across Europe and UK along with Australian and Zealand but the US consumer who was really happy this. Cyber week and we'll talk about the data but yeah in terms of inflation are shopping index which the shopping insights ahq is built off of, has been showing an average selling price increase for the last seven quarters and that's been pretty steady and so, that's definitely played a key role in this holiday season in that much if not all of the growth that we're seeing, is driven by increased pricing not necessarily people buying more, product and I think that's a really important distinction now what I will say and I'm happy to say this in the first time we're seeing a leveling off of that inflation globally over cyber week it was only I say only a three percent increase which is promising as we're looking forward to the new year. Scot: [6:02] Yeah I think it's Cressida at least the macroeconomic around 10% so so 3 is 3 is a pretty good. Rob: [6:09] Yeah exactly it's promising. Scot: [6:12] And then that ASP increase is, does that account for mix shift so like you know if people buy more luxury goods than our and then another segment goes value could that factor into that ASP or you normalize for that in some way. Rob: [6:27] We normalize for that because to your point obviously average order value for luxury versus value segments are going to be different but we really normalize that look at it across the board, and so it's taking into account of the various factors based on segments. Jason: [6:44] Yeah and as the resident Debbie Downer it's. We always want to have simple sound bites to describe this weekend like all of these Trends to me are super complicated because you just highlighted the, conflicting Trend that like we have inflation goods are costing more / we're probably going to talk about discounting later to help Goose holiday sales which of course brings prices down and when people are nervous about the economy they shift to more needs which have higher inflation than the wants and it seems when you really dive into it it's really complicated kind of inflation seems different on online versus offline and category by category. Rob: [7:25] Yeah it is complex you're right there's not a single kind of soundbite answer although if we stay on long enough I'm sure I'll come up with one or two. But you know you're right in terms of the discount right so if I dive into that for a sec Jason to put a little color around it we saw for the week in the US there was a 30%. Average discount rate globally it was twenty-seven percent and we can talk about how that looks your rear and how it looked, compared to 2019 but even with those large discounts and by the way those are large discounts compared to any normal day. During the year we're looking at 15 16 percent discount rate so it's you know in the double of what we typically see, the reality is the reality is people are still paying more for a particular product than they were two years ago so people are feeling really good obviously that average is 30 in the us but we all saw over the last couple days, 40% 50% even yesterday 60% in the massive amount of emails that I got trying to push and really. Incentivize people to actually click the buy button so my point here though is even with these high discount rates people are still spending more for a particular product than they did a couple of years ago. Jason: [8:42] Yeah I like to say 40% off is the new 30% off for this holiday. Rob: [8:48] Yeah I mean my father was in retail growing up so we would get discounts at the various apparel and Footwear companies he worked for and he always would joke that my mother would save us so much money we're going to go broke. Jason: [8:58] I love that we might come back to this counting but I do want to zoom out for just a second. Traditionally Black Friday is the official heart start of the holiday shopping season here in the u.s. is that even true anymore. Rob: [9:15] Well certainly retailers don't want that to be true they want it obviously to be pulled earlier and earlier in the season and that's another story line that we've seen here you know we actually saw a little bit. Of holiday happen over the summer don't forget and I know you two wouldn't of Amazon Prime day or the first Amazon Prime day and for those retailers not named, Amazon we saw a 21% year over year increase looking at the second week of July compared to the second week of July two thousand twenty one so there was a little bit, very little pull forward and then of course people getting retailers Brad's wanted to take advantage of the halo effect of the second. [9:56] Prime day that happened in October and once again we saw a little bit of a bump interestingly enough some of the larger retailers front ended that with Weekend sales and that pulled a lot of growth during that time you know the weekend before Prime day in October, but the reality Jason after a couple years of spreading out of that demand earlier earlier for various reasons which we can talk about, there was so much of a concentration that happened, over cyber week meaning and based on our data the pulling forward of the couple of percentage points to earlier, in November really we're taking back, this year and were put back in cyber week and it all came down to discounts it all came down to Consumers being really patient. Not seeing what they liked in terms of the lackluster deals and waiting for. Cyber week which really contributed some very positive growth particularly in the US. Jason: [10:57] Yeah it's super interesting because as you pointed out Amazon added a second sale day which I think they technically don't call Prime day right is like Prime Early Access today. Rob: [11:05] Right right right get behind the Velvet Rope and be able to get some early deals. Jason: [11:09] Exactly and Walmart Target and others all counter programmed against that with big sales but it cut it kind of feels like all that got defeated by the fact that consumers are well aware that the discounts are going to be deep this year and it almost seems like they may have decided to wait for deeper discounts. Rob: [11:29] Yeah yeah we call this and I've said it before on the show but I gotta do it right it's an annual tradition, discount chicken right the idea that retailers go into the holiday season with a really well thought out. Plan for the promotional calendar and by the first weekend they typically rip it up and call inaudible. And really try to chase the deals and you know that's what happened this year contrary or in contrast to last year if you remember I know you do gentlemen. Because you track this closer than anyone you know their inventory inventory scarcity issues there was high demand so retailers didn't feel compelled to Discount they didn't we saw the lowest discount rates. In recent history last year and so retailers thought that the consumer was reprogrammed reconditioned and they would buy earlier the problem was, the Retailer's didn't come to the table with the biggest discounts again discount chicken the consumers are going to wait it out and wait for that. [12:29] Best deal and finally the retailers came to the table during cyber week and the consumers answered, in kind you know again last year was probably the first year that retailers won the game of discount chicken this year consumers you know, fought with their leverage and wait and they ended up winning and got some really good deals again 30 percent discount rate in the US over the course of. Thanksgiving it really peaked at Black Friday with 31 percent in the US so they really finally came to the table. Scot: [13:04] Wow, you know we were reading all about last year all those cargo ships were sending off the coast of Long Beach where it is and then you know I've heard a lot of retailers in their commentary talk about being overstocked, do you think do you think that played a role in these big discounts is just retailers or just kind of we got a really clear the shelves out kind of thing. Rob: [13:27] Absolutely absolutely both in the store and in warehouse space they got spooked a little bit right in terms of, them waiting it out didn't quite work and so the Retailer's really had to step up Scott to your point they don't want to go into the new year with too much inventory they really needed a free up both inventory and cash now of course they did that. At the feet of margin right because you see I don't care how great your margin is alright some probably are that great particularly in the luxury segment but 50 60 70 percent discount or you know I saw some it was 50% oh and by the way we'll give you an extra ten percent just to make it sound like they weren't really giving away everything but the reality is. Really margin took a hit because of the deeper discounts that retailers just had to do and to your point they have to free up both the inventory the Shelf space and the cash. Jason: [14:26] Yeah I think even Makin where's I've had a number of clients come to me and say hey we've got too much inventory but even worse it's the wrong inventory that like a lot of that stuff that we ordered for mid-year all the Home Improvement and outdoor furniture stuff that they were trying to get four last year is all in stock now and so what even further incentive fising retailers to discount. Rob: [14:52] Yeah yeah and I give credit to some of the big box players who took a hit over the summer recognizing they tear Point Jason had the wrong inventory and they did something about it they tried to clear it out earlier they were public about it and they took a hit but I think they're going to come back strong you know it's interesting I was a, analysts back in the day and one of our Focus was on supply chain and Mr research was known for supply chain got acquired by Gartner for their supply chain and industries practice, and you know always tracked the gentleman how Lee who came up with the bullwhip effect the idea that, you know any shock in the supply chain will just have this ripple effect that could last, quite some time I got it conceptually heard some examples of it but we've been living that over the last couple of years you know going from inventory scarcity buyers getting really excited thinking of the demand would really. [15:47] Keep steady and then when finally dear points got it came through the port of LA got through the domestic supply chain it was the wrong product or enough people had bought, you know a new monitor or TV or a desk or some cool background to get you know 10 out of 10 on rumerator and the demand wasn't there anymore so you're right I mean some of the things, in terms of replenishable products sure they have a long shelf life they have a long turn but some don't they have an expiration date and retailers are struggling with that and certainly, coming back around it is driving the discount strategy it's not over either will continue to see probably not the same heightened levels but now that we have an extended holiday season because, of create a fulfillment options will see some more discounts it's not the end of it. Scot: [16:34] Yeah that that's a good segue into kind of talking about the shape of the holiday so last year sounds like you saw the data we started a bit earlier and maybe maybe we kind of ended around after the turkey five or kind of came off a cliff there seems like this year consumers waited they won discount chicken and then we've had a robust turkey five maybe walk us through the days we've talked a little bit about Black Friday Cyber Monday anything else you want to hit there and then what do you think happens kind of post. Rob: [17:07] Yeah absolutely to round it out actually and just give that perspective for the entire shape as you talked about the anatomy of the Season as a bunch of my customers talk about. Um there are some kind of pretty nervous people in the industry coming out of the first two weeks of November the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks, of November you know sales kind of words Riri we saw a negative seven percent during that time again little bit of a spike the first. Week in October because of prime day and then it really leveled off quite dramatically 27 percent decline, globally and so we're really worried is this a trend is this going to continue in really what it told us is, that cyber week becomes back into Focus again people were willing to wait people are willing to be patient waiting for those deals you know what we saw for cyber week with again a higher concentration probably around 25 percent of all, digital sales will be when it's all said and done over the course of cyber week in the way we look at it sales force is, the Tuesday before American Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday so we put another two days and it just to make it a full week but we can slice and dice it anyway, you want especially on the dashboard via Tableau on our shopping insights. [18:30] HQ but for the overall cyber week for us we saw nine percent growth. [18:38] And for Global we saw two percent growth. That again as you can tell because of the global number largely buoyed By Us sales Black Friday really strong us we saw. 12% in the US and we saw. [18:57] 3.5 percent growth globally that's Black Friday Cyber Monday we saw eight percent growth in us and we saw four percent growth, globally so very strong what we also saw by the way is healthy traffic we even saw healthy traffic. Earlier in the season so what that told us is people were interested they showed intent to buy but they weren't given the right incentive to actually purchase so you know there's a demand there's. Need there's a want earlier in the season because of the traffic we saw that traffic stayed pretty steady both us and globally, throughout the week as well and obviously that turned into higher conversion rate because people are actually now buying. Scot: [19:47] Cool and then from your day to do you think Cyber Monday was the biggest day we've ever had is do you guys pontificate on them. Rob: [19:54] Yeah we do we do we actually saw a turn of the corner about 3 or 4 years ago where Black Friday. Digitally became the largest day and really what that was, primarily driven by many retailers were actually shuttering their doors both on Thanksgiving either part of or all of Black Friday and they were encouraging people to shop online that was a great altruistic message from a brand perspective but it was also great you know to actually give their Workforce some time off, as well and so n obviously Drive traffic towards digital while providing great deals, online the other piece to it that really helped drive that change was mobile. Really the huge increase in Mobile we saw a mobile traffic this year through the course of cyber week account for about seventy nine percent. [20:52] All traffic and so people were on the go it was more accessible. And they either did more of their shopping during Black Friday or actually what we started to see and it really came into Focus this year buying on the couch in the later days after Thanksgiving meal. In the u.s.a. people got sick of their family needed to digest a little watch football and they took out their phone you know they either got distracted or I don't know if you're a marketer inspired by something they saw on their phone and they started shopping so that's my long way saying we actually see Black Friday of a higher concentration a bigger, overall sales volume for online then Cyber Monday. Scot: [21:38] Interesting okay and then there used to be this big disparity between mobile traffic and sales so used to be if you had 80% traffic you could knock that in more than half or is that number closed into you guys track that. Rob: [21:50] We do we do yeah it hovers around 60% of orders and that has progressively gone up up until about. How long have we been, going through this pandemic up until a pandemic because what happened is people are actually at home they weren't visiting their friends and family they weren't as much on the go so they actually went to their computer during Thanksgiving you know for me I spent the last couple years out by my fire pit and, you know came in from the cold and went to my computer instead of my phone to check out the latest deals on Thanksgiving or. The day after two Black Friday so we did see a dip. Last couple years in Mobile because people were at home but it spiked back up this year both traffic and orders and I give you know retailers credit because, and I know Jason you spent a lot of time with your customers thinking about customer experience and design and really breaking down that friction between inspiration and purchase, you know retailers are getting much better at making it easier to actually not only find the product they want on their phone but make that purchase. Scot: [22:58] Okay so that brings us up to Cyber Monday and then you kind of hinted that you think they'll be some more discounting seems like if consumers One retail chicken you can't you can't kind of go off of it right so if you've got this inventory left you're going to have to either discount further at least keep the discounts on is that what you think is going to happen. Rob: [23:17] Yeah exactly I mean we typically see a little bit of a dip coming off of cyber week to just. Retailers take a breath analyze what they have what they did how their margin looks and then get back at it a little bit but we we are going to see perhaps not higher rates, because retailers I'm sorry consumers are getting really, crafty around price adjustments so it's not only dipping further into their margin but it's creating more operational expenses and headaches as well for the retailer and so I don't necessarily anticipate, higher discount rates but a steady drumbeat of discounts particularly those retailers that have physical stores and can extend the shipping cut off window by offering, store fulfillment options so you'll see you know a real leaning into discounts promotion. Overall just attracting people hey you haven't missed the window yet you can get that last gift for your cousin or uncle or family member and oh by the way you don't have to pay for it and you're more guaranteed to get it because you can pick it up in an around the store or will get it. To you through some sort of last mile delivery that is shipped from the store. Scot: [24:35] I think one takeaway is you know so Jason's hearing there's some concerns about revenue and stuff and then you know I'm hearing discounting could be a rough earning season as we kind of come out of the holiday if all this discounting is go on but at least I guess they'll start the year kind of having flushed out all this massive inventory. Rob: [24:54] Yeah yeah you know coming into this year we do our predictions all the way back in June and we kind of look at the data what we've seen what the storylines are and. Start craft the narrative we were big Partners in that a couple of years ago where you coin ship a get in and you know we were both early on seeing man there's some issues with this surge going on in the capacity issues with. The carriers but you know one of those storylines or the main storyline just last June was. And here's comes your soundbite so get ready are you ready to rumble. I just set way too high expectations sorry about that but you know we're really concerned that margin will be the Grinch That's deals, Christmas and to your point we don't see that until the February timeframe after the Retailer's close out their fiscal year and start reporting again some retailers got ahead of it and caution what this is going to look like but I'm. Anticipating that will be a key storyline come February Scott. Scot: [25:57] All the who's in Whoville loved prophets a lot but. Rob: [26:00] Oh nice I like it I like it and we haven't even talked about returns yet right because that's I know that's one of Jason's favorite topping that's going to certainly come into play as well as we talk about margin. Jason: [26:12] You guys are bringing me down and actually I'm afraid I might want to bring us down even more because, I would say like I came into this holiday season thinking hey top binds going to be okay because of inflation because of you know pent-up demand a variety of things but that you know the story was going to be about profits as you guys just perfectly laid out um and then you know the Cyber weekend happen and Rob's been on every news program I've watched for the for the last 12 hours and you know they're also citing these like Salesforce vanity stats right that like oh my gosh e-commerce was higher than it's ever been before which is not shocking right like. And then the internet came out with a study today more people went shopping this weekend than ever before which again. There are more people in the United States than ever before so that's not that's not shocking I have in talking with retailers, they're more guarded like they all did scenario planning for like sort of good good weekends and bad weekends and they're all like talking about being on the low end of those, scenario plantings I know you have great data for the online portion of spending but you know 74 ish percent of all this spending is in stores I know you have some signals for the in-store sales but do you. [27:38] Like are you confident that this was a really strong turkey 5 I'm I'm not clear if it was or wasn't. Rob: [27:46] Yeah I think it remains to be seen if we're defining it as Jason we should be. Retail in totality and the fact that a vast majority of sales still happen in the physical store right and we're seeing that traffic. Is up but oh by the way it was Don the last couple years so what's that comparison set right is it actually up from 2018 or 2019 I'm not, convinced it necessarily, is and so we don't track that but we look at smart people like you Jason and Scott and some other friends in the industry and the word on literally the street or the mall or whatever strip center anyways I digress, is that it was the physical traffic a bit lighter and so we can say that. [28:37] Also online sales were strong but I also to your point want to temper that by if somebody or a retailer was reading this in almost any country in Europe. They probably wouldn't believe that headline right because it just you know they've been visiting head wins, not only during cyber week for the better part of this year and so most categories saw a negative growth, throughout Europe and you can see the data specifically by each country, on our dashboard and so it to your point earlier Jason it's not a sound bite that we'll be able to tell you the entire story right and so it was positive I'm feeling pretty good about the sales and you know the retailers I'm talking to who are forecasting closer to Fat flat not fat flat, growth were pretty happy but I think it still remains to be seen in terms of stores what that looks like margin what that's going to look like and if you're a global brand how does it look in totality. Jason: [29:44] Yeah for sure, decided I'm going to make a prediction most of the good store traffic data is about three days leg so we don't have it yet but I think what I think you called it exactly right I think store traffic is going to be up from last year but still below, 2019 levels and what's confusing it is there's a few Pockets there's a few a malls that did really well this weekend as they always do and so I think journalists went to these a malls and saw a bunch of people and they you know they're talking about how it was a robust in-store holiday but I I am going to be eager to see that that store data which brings me to my next question a lot of people use your tool set for Boba so I'm imagining that you got to see. Some of the trends in both us and like did that reveal anything in terms of people that might be going to store to pick up orders. Rob: [30:37] Yeah I think that's interesting and it also talks about Jason like what are the new metrics given this new world like do. Bo piss or curbside orders count as traffic I don't know you know the consumers come in close. To the store or they're going to the pickup area within the store in many cases they buy more product so I think again if. [31:00] Weaving in those stats it helps definitely the online traffic I don't think by the way many retailers are looking at it that way just yet and I think it's an important factor to consider. But he has your question yeah I mean I think. [31:16] Bo pasts and create a fulfillment options from the store are helping Elevate traffic and driving people to brick-and-mortar based on our data what we saw is botes usage. Overthrew we'll call it cyber weekend we saw close to 10% growth compared to earlier, in the holiday season what super interesting what we typically see is the lead up to a big holiday like for instance we looked at Halloween for the two days leading up to Halloween we actually saw. Double the amount of, Opus orders because people realize they didn't get the costume or the candy or whatever other ornaments that they needed and they knew it wouldn't get shipped in time they also want to make sure it would be available if they actually purchased it. And they did both this the other really interesting thing is throughout cyber week and again we look at that for the full seven days but even no matter how we slice it it's high what we saw is and this is u.s. specifically by the way, retailers that had bo piss they offered it grew online Revenue by 38% more. [32:33] Then those without this creative fulfillment option and so it does speak to. How important the store is to your digital business right so you know another stat. [32:47] Why not I'm on a roll that I'll say is. Our research shows that 60% of digital orders are influenced by the physical store whether that's where demand is being generated or demand, is being fulfilled in this case it's being fulfilled because somebody's buying it from the comfort of their own home and it's convenient and they're able to pick it up with the confidence that the product would actually, be there so again the new rules of you know both how do you provide the incentives to the store associate how their role is changing and how you measure, Effectiveness because of such the interplay between digital and physical is super interesting to be a part of. Jason: [33:29] Yeah that to me I saw that stat about the bow purpose retards that offering boat best outperforming returns that don't and, that was super interesting and kind of tragic Rob because I don't know if you've noticed this but so both this isn't universally offered by all retailers more retailers were offering both pissed last year than this year like everybody scrambled in the pandemic to come up with some version of bow pose and a number of them turned it off either because they didn't have a robust implementation or they couldn't hire enough labor this year to support. Rob: [34:05] Yeah yeah it's less about a technology. [34:09] Project or initiative and it is to your point it's about operations and you know part of the reason people turned it off you mentioned some of them is. They couldn't get down the operational efficiency we're seeing more retailers lean into Automation and, more productivity to really refine their fulfillment operations and it's not easy it's not just about having. The right amount of labor but it's having them focused on the right tasks based on the time of day and what. The priorities are and that's not easy to do at all especially you know when consumers are standing right in front of the associate and the associate is you know tasked with having to make a call do they. Fulfill this. Bullpen disorder because they have to within 15 minutes or do they serve the consumer who explicitly came in the store because they wanted to be in a physical space and talk to a human. And get some knowledgeable service so it's my long way saying it's not easy those retailers that have been able to move from Scrappy which many did to scale really thinking about how to automate some of the processes, how to really focus on efficiency and productivity will be winners because they're not only helping with loyalty serving the consumers who want to shop that way but also thinking about the margin pressures they're feeling otherwise. Jason: [35:35] Yeah that totally agree and I can definitively answer one thing I rarely I'm almost always guessing but in terms of whether both is counts a store traffic or not I have no idea whether it should count or not or whether returns would like it to counter not but I can tell you when it does and doesn't count most retailers in America have a device on their front door that counts how many people walk in the store and it excludes employees and so two companies sell those devices sensor Matic and Retail next and they both publish Anonymous store traffic data so if you see data from either of those companies it did not include dopest but Place Rai is the third company that provides that data and they use the GPS in the consumers phone which does Campo. Rob: [36:23] Yes. Jason: [36:24] So in three days you're going to see data from all three of those companies and it's not going to agree and that is why. Rob: [36:31] That's super rich I've been that right there that is the best nugget of the last however long we've been talking that's. Jason: [36:37] Six hours. Rob: [36:38] It feels like it I could talk another six though that's the fun part but that's Jason that's super interesting and that's the type. Data you know it typically use whichever one helps tell the story you want but understanding the differences like you just dissected is so important. Scot: [36:54] Cool let's we're getting towards the end so we know you had a long day but one of my favorite things about your data is you can peel the onion on categories I have a sixteen-year-old daughter and I can vouch for the Beauty and athleisure categories but did you see those kind of pop in any other categories up or down that you want to talk about. Rob: [37:15] Yeah absolutely well again there is a correlation between performance and discounts at least from a top-line perspective and so yeah we saw some strong performance in health and beauty for sure. We also saw in consumer electronics. And we also saw it in actually General apparel and Footwear as well believe it or not particularly on the Footwear side we saw it because people are actually putting on shoes and sneakers again and getting out the. You know world again whereas I guess I can't live in my slippers or flip-flops anymore actually when we looked at the data by actual product, we saw flip-flops actually had some of the largest decline that we saw your every year because again people are getting out in the world again. The good news is two by the way again to plug the shopping insights HQ you can slice and dice by I think it's at least nine if not about 12. Categories and see what it looks like for orders and sales and the like along with traffic as well. Jason: [38:27] I did. Notice so I've been playing with the dashboard a lot and side note as you know my pandemic hobby as I learned to have well so it's super exciting for me that you you are publishing the data and Tabla, it does seem like some categories popped that like. Had been underperforming for most of the pandemic so like you know Electronics had not been a very bright spot but it does seem like they they had a pretty decent weekend like do you have a, am I seeing that data right and do you think like that that might mean they've turned the corner or do you think that that could be a holiday anomaly. Rob: [39:07] It's hard to say because again discounts drove so much of the buying there was such a correlation between discounts and sales and so it's a little hard to say and it's really interesting to understand to like some of that. Binge shopping that we all did over the pandemic and it subsided perhaps over the last 6 to 12 months, and then in gift-buying times you're seeing a pop again so I wouldn't necessarily stake the claim on this is now what's going to happen for the next 12 months in terms of demand for these categories, because a lot of it again is correlated to Discount a lot of it is correlated to what people have pot over the purchased excuse me over the last couple of years. Jason: [39:51] That's totally fair so let's pivot to how they paid for it you alluded earlier to buy now pay later traction like can you share what you saw in the data and where there any other interesting Trends in terms of payment methods. Rob: [40:06] Yeah totally this was kind of fun because we put it in there as we did each of the mornings early early early particularly those that are on the west coast thank you to the team by the way I should have done this at the beginning but it's not just me I have the fun part to have this conversation with you and speak to so many people about this including a lot of retailers not just today but we have through the rest of the holiday season we have a way to go. But it's make possible through the team that brings these data and insights to life and, the reason I say that is we are trauma through the data one morning and we got the normal like what the sales look like what does traffic look like what are the hot categories biggest discounts, and then Kayla Schwartz on my team who really is the master behind the shopping index was that. This is super interesting around buy now pay later because of the Divergence between orders. [41:04] For buy now pay later and at the average order value and what I mean by that is specifically we saw. A five percent this is throughout the course of cyber week. In the u.s. in particular where we saw in the increase of 5% year-over-year, of orders with buy now pay later and by the way this is after, a couple of years of really nice growth so five percent based on the bass is really we consider noticeable however on the other side we saw. [41:37] Average order value for the same transactions decrease by five percent so it's indicating to us. [41:46] Again you know this better than anyone buy now pay later really was hatched as a finance option for. Bigger ticket items home appliances television couches and other Home Furniture but what we're seeing is a turning of the corner. Because of the ubiquity and he is and also I think the desire to finance and spread payments over the course of a given time period rather just at once for lower price for less expensive goods and gifts, compared to 2021. Jason: [42:21] Yeah I will say you know a lot of the retailers that are like looking at the economic snapshot for next year and I really concerned about. The consumers discretionary dollar they're they're kind of concerned about this you know. Acceleration of buy now pay later and other credit means as kind of a an early indicator that the consumer might be overextending themselves. Rob: [42:47] Yeah I mean we don't look at that very closely but it is fairly intuitive to see it that way that people are leaning on. Newer creative finance options over the holiday and what does that mean for the subsequent quarters will be keeping an eye on that really closely for sure. Jason: [43:05] Yeah so we are coming up on time Rob there's one other topic I just wanted to touch on with you you know you you alluded to capacity concerns in pass holidays and of course you know we've talked a lot on the show about ship again um I'm kind of worried about a new thing this year. With the moat with this really prevalent version of discount chicken if a bunch of consumers are thinking they're going to wait till the very last minute. To get the best discount we have all the usual things in place we have like a fragile inventory that might start running out. But we also this year have lower labor levels like stores tried to hire less people and they weren't able to hire all the people they tried to hire UPS and FedEx didn't get all the people they want so I'm a little worried if consumers way too long that we you know might have another ship again in situation on our hands where there just isn't enough labor capacity to get all these orders out the last week of the year. Rob: [44:04] Yeah that's a super interesting point one that I haven't dove into very deep but I'm with you Jason that's going. Potentially be an issue I mean I'm a sample size of one but I see it any time I shop or any restaurant I go in there not taking reservations or they're not limiting reservations based on tables there. You know basically limiting it because of waitstaff and so, that's true too in the physical store when the associate is being asked to do so many things now right it's not just about scanning and bagging at the cash wrap, it's you know they're becoming social media managers that are fulfillment experts there live streamers so you're stretching them thin. Capacity gets issue by the way the other interesting thing that we didn't touch upon was returns we saw such an increase of returns heading into cyber week than we ever have in our thesis is that. People who bought product earlier in the season. Star the better discounts and we're doing price adjustments in way of returning a product and then buying it back, at the cheaper price so there may be earlier returns that are playing and usually that's not, a storyline that we talked about until you know January at NRF right but now it's actually happening more so add that to your Litany of things that will create capacity issues. Jason: [45:30] Oh my gosh know for sure and you know it's already a distant memory but with all those early sales that people tried to do one of the things that may have gone unnoticed is a lot of retailers also extended the return window because the fear was will never get people the holiday shop early if they don't think that gift recipients will be allowed to return the gifts so a bunch of these sales are on more liberal return policies, then ever before and again you know the economist are like come January we could be in stagflation and you know we don't know what returns might even look like in that kind of economic environment so it's, it's a concern for sure and that on that happy note Rob we've used up our allotted time. Because on top of everything else during this show I received about 1,000 emails from the Salesforce marketing cloud with even better deals than Cyber Monday so I'm gonna, after to go a little early so that I can get some more shopping. Rob: [46:28] Go for it please do shop on of course Salesforce Commerce Cloud websites if you may. Jason: [46:33] I didn't know there were other kinds. But in all seriousness Rob it's always a pleasure to talk to you about anything and for sure to talk about the the holiday sales loyal listeners will know the number one piece of feedback we get is they like to hear more from Kayla and from Michelle and I have to keep telling him that you always insist on coming. Rob: [46:54] Hey that will happen they are amazing I gotta say though before we go Jason Scott first of all as I mentioned before I love doing this like seriously this is. Highlight it's our Super Bowl or dare I stake a World Cup given where we are right now go us but you know. More than anything I just really appreciate your friendship it's so amazing to have friends like you and the retail industry and the amazing Community we have and I also love how humble you are in terms of you asking me these questions but the reality is you're so on top of what's Happening Now and in the future and I really value that so A big thank you all around. Scot: [47:34] Boom and you just secured yourself a fifth spot there you go Rob thanks for joining us on Twitter you are retail Rob Garf you're very active on LinkedIn I've noticed we will put a link to the hub of activity in the show notes thanks for joining us. Jason: [47:54] And until next time happy Commercing.

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Today in Fintech Friday we are diving into Durbin 2.0 and the credit card competition act We talk about - Durbin 1.0 and what the effects were who won and who lost. We talk about Durbin 2.0 and why it is not going to work. The time is now to write to your congress people and tell them to vote NO on this bill. This is going to help big companies and not help the average business. This bill will screw up the economy, consumers will pay higher interest rates, rewards programs will go away and prices at stores will not go down. We explain everything in a easy to understand format - don't be fooled that Durbin and congress are going to help people. This bill will do more harm than good! Carpe Diem

AP correspondent Shelley Adler reports on holiday shopping.

Big stories out of Disney, Target, and Walmart! These and plenty more broken down here on This Week in Finance. August 11 - August 18 #target #walmart #disney ----- 00:00 Intro 00:50 Disney & Dan Loeb 03:51 Target earnings 06:12 Walmart 11:15 Michael Burry 11:54 American Airlines buys Boom 13:38 Inflation Reduction Act 15:15 Challenger & Charger discontinued 16:50 Big Ten signs massive TV deal 18:40 Subscribe ----- Disney: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/15/loebs-third-point-takes-new-stake-in-disney-boosting-shares.html Target: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/17/target-tgt-q2-2022-earnings.html Walmart: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/16/walmart-wmt-earnings-q2-2023.html Walmart +: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/15/walmart-strikes-streaming-deal-with-paramount.html Michael Burry: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/michael-burrys-hedge-fund-added-174759561.html Scion 13F: https://13f.info/13f/000156761922015999-scion-asset-management-llc-q2-2022 American: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/16/american-airlines-agrees-to-buy-20-supersonic-planes-from-boom.html IRA: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/16/watch-live-biden-to-sign-inflation-reduction-act-into-law-setting-15percent-minimum-corporate-tax-rate.html Everything Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5d1fCW_MEU Dodge: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/15/dodge-challenger-charger-to-be-discontinued-in-2023.html Big10: https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-ten-tv-rights-11660829533?st=5oaq6in1npmziix&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink ----- Website- https://jemi.so/financialfriends

Episode 295 is a breakdown of Walmart and Target Q2 earnings, as well as the US Department of Commerce retail sales data for July. Episode 295 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday August 18, 2022. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show, this is episode 295 being recorded on Thursday August 18th 2022 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott showed listeners Jason how you doing how you been traveling a lot lately. Jason: [0:46] I have I have it's been interesting to spend so much time at the airport's they've been quite busy lately. Scot: [0:54] Yeah yep the there's cancellations it's total chaos at airports so hopefully now that we're in back-to-school season that'll slow down a little bit. Jason: [1:03] Knock on Woods October is a busy Commerce trade show month so I'll be on the road almost of October hopefully visiting some listeners but hopefully yeah travels a little smoother hopefully I can get some better seats on the airplane I'm a little bitter at the. Scot: [1:19] Yeah you have like 20 million miles and they're putting your life back in steerage. Jason: [1:24] That's a slightly milder version of that is true. Scot: [1:29] Cool and then I guess the big question is we've got two new series kicking off are you going to do Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings or both. Jason: [1:39] I'm super excited about both I'm actually some people know I had knee surgery earlier in the year I'm actually contemplating getting the surgery on my other knee so I have an excuse just stay at home for a while a month and watch them both. Scot: [1:55] Yeah and then let's see the well ready to jump into some news. Jason: [2:02] I'm super excited to. Scot: [2:03] Cool well it wouldn't be a Jason Scott show without. Jason: [2:08] Amazon news new your margin is there opportunity. Scot: [2:21] Yes there is some Amazon news I wanted to just chat about with youth the 16th of August Amazon surprised both Wall Street and a bit and third-party sellers a lot with their first-ever peak season surge pricing for fulfillment by Amazon are commonly known as FBA so the way this is going to work is they've put out the dates October 15th through January 14th of 23 third-party sellers that you use fbar going to have a new fee and I hope you're sitting down it is 35 cents per item. [2:57] Now you may be saying to yourself Scott that's pretty small is that going to really move the needle and one of our friends of the show Colin Sebastian he actually did the math on this. So it turns out that last holiday if you look at the third party sell units sold during that period you had two point seven two two point eight billion you have a midpoint of 2.75 billion. He took that approximated in 34 so that went through yeah if ba you multiply that out and you get about 700 million dollars just drops right out of that 35 cents. So that is the power of an Amazon scale is a seemingly tiny little. Surcharge can be a big number so it's going to be interesting and you know that will be pure profit because the Amazon is not doing anything differently really. And then in the press release they basically said our expenses are reaching New Heights and it's making it harder for the company to absorb cost and they have to pass some of those on. But we still love our third-party sellers did you would you think about this video. Jason: [4:01] Yeah well I'm guessing third-party Sellers and investors didn't react exactly the same to that news. Scot: [4:07] Yes investors were happy third-party sellers it's kind of one of those things it's kind of tricky because you can't complain too much because it feels like 35 cents but you know if you're a seller selling couple of thousand items a day through F be a it's going to be material and I think, at the end of the day all this gets passed on to the consumers and that causes inflation which we're going to talk about a good bit on Today Show. Jason: [4:30] Yeah it's a, it's interesting it's kind of a mixed bag because well I feel like it is true that Amazon hasn't charged a true surge charge before the you know they change their terms and conditions all the time and that you know they'll like they'll narrow the window under which you can keep stuff in, in the warehouse before you start getting extra fees they'll make you take more stuff back they'll take less stuff and those all kind of. Have the effect of making F be a more expensive for some sellers. Well the 35 cents probably isn't a deal-breaker it is a good reminder to all these third-party sellers that your your kind of a digital sharecropper in the Amazon Echo System and what you know the two things that I think are most interesting are this kicks in in October, strong rumors that Amazon's going to try a second prime day in October so this could be insult to injury. They could be asking third-party sellers to like, load up the inventory and get ready for a second prime day and be charging them more so this actually could end up being even a little bigger than, was forecasted than Colin forecasted have. [5:44] Prime day ends up being a meaningful thing and then if you also remember earlier in the year Amazon launched check out with prime which was kind of a. First move to making fulfillment by Amazon available to non Amazon sellers or at least sellers off of the Amazon platform and so it's kind of interesting. You know shortly after they they're trying to make F be a more available there they're making it more expensive. Scot: [6:14] Yeah yeah the they've struggled with that because every time they've opened it up to people not selling on Amazon they have a surge of some kind and they have to kind of like pair that program back it's happened like four or five times it's crazy. Jason: [6:28] And the flip side is of course the other carriers you'd be shipping through the other common carriers the holiday search these are quite common so this is not not going to feel like a typical or out of line when you compare it to UPS or FedEx. Scot: [6:43] Yin haven't most of them put on a fuel surcharge already like an even though fuel is going down there. Jason: [6:47] There are there are surcharges on top of surcharges and you know some people feel like they haven't turned off the surge charges for two years. Scot: [6:55] Yeah yeah so it's hard out there in e-commerce land from a cost perspective that's for sure was there any Amazon news you found interesting. Jason: [7:03] Yeah yeah I would actually bundle two pieces of news and column two sides of the coin, the interesting Amazon test was revealed this company that monitors the Amazon App found a new feature, it appears like it's only been deployed to Amazon employees at this point, but it's basically a picture and video stream in the app so this is like the way that this is described as sort of like a tick tock like feature. Inside of the Amazon app which is interesting. Obviously in China a lot of people shop in the Chinese version of Tik-Tok which is called do Hyun. A lot of people get interested in buying products through tick-tocking us they haven't necessarily like. Checked out on Tick Tock in huge quantities yet but it's super interesting the Amazons kind of approach to social commerce, is get content creators and influencers and sellers. To create social content on Amazon's platform so I'm twitch on Amazon live and now this new Tick-Tock feature it's like Amazon's not partnering with Tick-Tock Amazon's trying to be tick-tock. [8:20] And I said two sides of the same coin because I mentioned in earlier tests Amazon did was Amazon live where they tried to take really popular, content creators that are calmer sea and entice them to create content on the Amazon platform and they're they're paying anywhere from like two to nine thousand dollars a month plus the. The affiliate commissions to get people to produce content on Amazon live and it didn't seem like content creators were super happy with those results, they weren't making a lot of money they were there was a lot of churn and now a bunch of this content creators that have moved off the platform are now organizing a boycott of Amazon, because they feel like Amazon's not treating their employees the way they would like so it just reminds everyone that like man there's this really interesting opportunity and you know side of the business around social commerce and kind of you know letting influencers and content creators into your Echo System but then the flip side is they don't always behave in the ways you you like and even more so when they're they're not on the payroll. Scot: [9:30] Yeah yeah the influencers live by the influencer die by the influencer The Tick-Tock things interesting I don't know, I think it is reading a lot into it to call it Tick Tock but you know they're definitely trying to figure out live streaming one thing we haven't talked about on the show in my world of Collectibles this Marketplace is really splashed onto the scene called whatnot and it's a whole live stream for Collectibles and you know the I think they've raised money around a three to four billion dollar valuation which would imply there gmv is pretty substantial I haven't seen any reports but it's pretty pretty interesting it's kind of an entertainment livestream like we see out of China but applied to Collectibles and I feel like that's a pretty good category for for this format because you can do these Pack openings and all these kinds of things and I've experimented with it and it's pretty neat you can, the streamers that can run auctions right in there and they can have kind of a three formats going at once they can kind of have a claim show an auction and then like a little e-commerce slider store over on the side it's a pretty interesting platform that if you're interested in Collectibles go check it out get started with collectible toys like these little Funko pops and then it's moved into it's got a vibrant sports card non-sports card and then and I've seen a lot of activity around the comics category so that's kind of an interesting new approach ahead and seen out there. Jason: [10:59] Yeah you know the whole live streaming thing is super interesting and complicated the quick Reader's Digest version. In China live streaming is super popular and it was born on the e-commerce platform so taobao live which is like kind of the equivalent of Amazon or Ebay. [11:18] Like launched a livestream video platform and they built a huge Commerce business and these influencers, the Alibaba paid like we're starting to sell like huge quantities there's this dude Austin Lee who sells lipstick Who Sold over a billion dollars in a single day, and over time in China the live streaming has moved off of the Retailer's platforms onto the social media platforms like Dao Yuan and WeChat, and so you look at China and you go oh my God live streams huge it's the future it's how all this stuff is getting sold I want to say it's like 15 or 16 percent of all e-commerce sales in China, but then here in the US has been a mixed bag there's a bunch of use cases like you just described where it works really well there's a bunch of Ed C lies streamers there's a bunch of like small retail boutiques that live stream during the pandemic to great effect. They're doing really well you know Tick-Tock which is the same companies do you know. Announced that they were delaying their live streaming feature in the US so they. You know it's not they're not rushing it to Market Instagram had a live streaming Commerce feature which they just retired last week. We've seen Walmart do some experiments in live-streaming we've seen Nordstrom do some experiments in live streaming it's not clear. The. [12:39] There's a a mass-market huge opportunity for live streaming that the Amazon live streaming Pilots haven't worked very well and so they're both like there's a bunch of niches and use cases where consumers really like it and you could see it working. But it doesn't seem like a slam dunk for any of the really big Commerce players that they just need to turn on this feature in the customers will come running so the. Lot of debate amongst my clients at the moment you know is China just ahead of the US and does everybody have to get ready for live streaming or is the u.s. going to evolve differently than China as it often does. Scot: [13:16] Yeah or like is it going to be one of those things where like we call talked about chat Commerce forever and it never really jumped jumped over you know it even though Facebook tried really hard to put Commerce and messenger and they hired the PayPal dude it just never really really translated to the US who next. Jason: [13:34] I know exactly so I yeah I'm not convinced the main way us consumers are shopping is ever likely to be live streaming but I do think it is. An important solution to particular Discovery problems in the US so I think it's part of the mix but I don't think it's that like, magic Panacea that's going to replace traditional e-commerce for example. Scot: [13:55] Yeah well I know you are tingly all over and super excited because the US Department of Commerce data came out and you have done your number crunching and I know I'm eager to hear what you learned. Jason: [14:08] Oh my God this week is like my leap year because you know US Department of Commerce data comes out every month so we always get excited about that but every three months, the e-commerce data comes out so yesterday the the retail data came out and tomorrow the e-commerce data came out and you were like a should we wait till tomorrow and do one show and I might know there's too much goodness here we need to shows one, to talk about the retail data today and then we'll do another one to talk about the e-commerce data after after that comes out. Scot: [14:38] Yeah on Wall Street I think they have a double and a triple jinx this is kind of a triple witching I don't know why they call it with you. Jason: [14:45] I do yeah so July retail sales were up 8.2% versus 2021. So that's very healthy robust growth. We've been talking about such big growth and with all these anomalies going on that like we've gone kind of used to it but just a reminder normal retail growth year over year, for the last 30 years the median growth is 4.5% so 8.2% is almost twice as good as you'd. And even more to the point year-to-date growth so January through June growth retail is up 8.9% so wit early twice what you would normally expect. So that is super exciting the. Wrinkle here is our friend inflation like every time I talk about this huge growth. A bunch of people chime in and go yeah but it's all inflation and for the last two years that we've had this enormous growth because of the pandemic and changes in purchase patterns all the economic stimulus all that stuff. I keep looking at inflation and inflation is a small part of the growth but not a meaningful part and so I have to keep telling people yeah information is in there but it's not a huge deal well that changes this year, so I mentioned year-to-date growth for this year's 8.9% if you adjust for inflation your today growth is 0.5%. [16:13] So that basically means all the growth we're getting in 2022 so far is directly a result of inflation and that's super interesting because, 20:21 was like the biggest year of retail growth in my lifetime and I jokingly told a lot of my friends and clients you know they should think about retiring because comping against that. 20:21 is gonna suck and then so far this year we've been comping quite well but it turns out the reason we're comping well is not because, consumer spending is like super robust and continuing but rather inflation has kind of filled in where that, that consumer momentum is starting to wane so that is a big story that we need to watch for the rest of the year. Again the actual. [17:04] Hyper actor e-commerce. Broad version of e-commerce called non store sales so for July they were up 18 percent versus last year. The year-to-date there up about 12%, I'll be really interested to see what the quarterly number is tomorrow you know in kind of Q4 of last year there was all this exuberant some for spending in retail stores and e-commerce continued to grow, but it's rate of growth slowed down a lot so for one of the you know only times in my lifetime. Brick-and-mortar retail grew faster than e-commerce and I have a feeling that we're going to see Q2 of next year that's Q 2 of this year tomorrow that that's not going to be the case that we're gonna returning to the normal trend of e-commerce growing. Meaningfully faster than brick and mortar. Scot: [18:01] We're not going to no till tomorrow I can't wait all-nighter. Jason: [18:05] I will give you one other thing to tease based on the q1 data which came out three months ago we've seen that q1 data show up in a bunch of earnings calls and the most famous one is Shopify right so Shopify, right before their earnings call they laid off like 10% of their Workforce and they said like. Man you know there was all this e-commerce growth during the pandemic we hired all these people we got ready for all this stuff and then the e-commerce growth regressed to the mean. Which toy surprised us we thought it would be more persistent and so we've got to lay off a bunch of people and cut a bunch of cops and they show this, this famous graph of the quarterly e-commerce data showing this big spike the last couple months and it kind of Dipping back down to the trendline. And I see that graph everywhere and the one thing I like to remind people about is regressing to the mean doesn't mean e-commerce. Didn't grow it meant e-commerce grew as fast as it used to be growing which is quite fast so, well Shopify weight off 10% of their people like I was screaming in the background e-commerce has grown 61% from 2022 2022 and it added four hundred and twelve billion dollars a year in space it's not like it's not like there's not a ton of growth there it's just the growth that we're used to seeing. So it'll be interesting to see what tomorrow brings. Scot: [19:33] Yeah seems like a lot of the the inflation is really starting to Ripple through at this point and we've seen that show up at some retailers but it's interesting to see it can work into the day-to-day with your. Jason: [19:45] I know that that brings up a good point like we have several omni-channel retailers that reported earnings this this week and it's a really mixed bag about. The the. Inflation indicators in their earnings calls and you know probably the biggest one is Walmart reported earnings two days ago and people economists watch Walmart's earnings reports really closely in a challenging economic time because. They're kind of the Bellwether for the American Consumer right like that they have the biggest chunk of consumer spending and they kind of as Walmart goes like the American economy goes so. The as a reminder about a week before their earnings they low they significantly lowered their their earnings guidance for the rest of the year, they said that they expect that that they expected their profitability to be considerably lower than they had previously. [20:40] Giving guidance there earlier guidance was like zero to one percent growth. And they reduced it to they think earnings are going to be 11 to 13 percent lower this year than they were last year. Um so fast forward a week, to their earnings and everyone was kind of braced for it being kind of a brutal quarter and it was a beat beat reiterate like, they beat their earnings Target they beat the revenue Target and they stuck with their guidance that earnings are going to be a lot lower the second half of the year but. Investors actually took that as good news they actually expected that that Walmart might have a miss and so the fact that. Q2 sales and Q2 earnings were reasonably robust at Walmart was kind of positive news and to kind of put that in perspective. U.s. comp retail sales for Walmart last quarter grew 6.5 percent so again normal retail growth is 4.5% so 6.5 is good e-commerce grew 12% and you can compare that with, Amazon e-commerce grew seven percent the same quarter so obviously Walmart's a lot smaller than Amazon but they're the second largest e-commerce site, in the US and they're they're drilling meaningfully faster than Amazon which is impressive they did. You know we made a big deal about Amazon is breaking out their ad sales. [22:04] Walmart didn't quite go that far they said that their ad sales which is called Walmart connect grew 30% which is. [22:12] I'm not faster rate of growth and Amazon's ad sales are growing Amazon's growing about 18% Walmart is growing at 30 but they didn't tell us what the base was and and you know it's certainly a way smaller base than Amazon so I'm not sure. That growth on the much smaller base is huge news but it was interesting to see them talking about it Doug mcmillon and the CFO both John rainy both made. You know a big deal about Walmart connecting being a big part the CFO joked about not being used to businesses with this kind of crazy margins before and. Doug actually talked a lot about how Walmart connect is gaining huge traction internationally so they're they're able to sell the ads in in India and China and some of the other other markets that they plan. Scot: [23:00] They were getting a lot of like why surface it now I don't understand the so Amazon started revealing it because they've had to like the SEC said this has become a material part of your business you have to unpack it a bit but this seems like they, decided to do any Mini. Jason: [23:17] Yeah I think just because it's a good number 30 percent growth sounds like a good number. And it's a yeah when when most of your news is about your earnings really being challenged talking about a super high margin part of your business. Growing really fast I feel like just reflects well right like I'm not I'm not confident we're going to see them report that number every quarter by the way. Yeah so we'll have to see how that goes but like to kind of, summarize why they're saying profits are likely to be much lower for the full 2022 essentially what Walmart is saying is they are seeing consumers change Behavior because of the recession, and one of the big ways is they're seeing consumers still spend a lot with Walmart but they're shifting from. [24:06] Wants to needs so they're buying a lot less clothes and consumer electronics and a lot more food, and the food in the essentials that Walmart sells are much lower margin, then the home and apparel categories that they're selling less of so the mix it Walmart is changing. Um which is hurting their profitability but not necessarily their income, and in fact they called out 11 funny anomaly of the income is in this High inflationary time, a lot more High income consumer start shopping at Walmart so people that make over a hundred thousand dollars a year spend more at Walmart in a tough economy than they do in a, really bullish economy and so they feel like they captured extra customers because of that that would have shop somewhere else but they're buying this alone margin stuff, and John rainy the CFO he specifically talked about how they're seeing consumers make different purchase decisions that there. [25:12] He called it a pronounced customer shift that people are trading down and he gave the specific example that we're selling a lot less deli meats were selling a lot less beef and instead we're selling a lot more hot dogs chicken and tuna, and that you know even vegetable based proteins like beans are starting to sell a lot better in those are all signs of, you know distress consumer that's trying to make their food budget go further every week. [25:39] So I would call that a mixed bag I feel like investors were thrilled that their earnings call wasn't worse but you know. I don't I don't feel like people saw Walmart's earnings and said oh my gosh we're out of the woods on the economy and things are going to be great for the second half of the year. Scot: [25:57] Yeah. Jason: [25:58] So then we move to Target and and Target was kind of a Miss meat, maintain right they miss their earnings pretty meaningfully so they the guy their expectation when 72 cents a share they came in at 39 cents a share so that's a big, drop it's actually 90% less profit than they made this quarter last year, so a huge drop in profitability they exactly hit the revenue Target which was 26 billion and their guidance kind of stayed the same that they're expecting to grow. Kind of in there two to four percent, um growth rate which would be a typical year and they're expecting six percent margins which would be significantly up from the 1.2 percent margins they got this quarter. [26:50] Digital for them was up nine percent which is a lot slower growth rate than than Walmart and slower even than Amazon even though targets a lot smaller than then Amazon. But what is interesting is. Target basically talked about not seeing any inflationary changes to consumer spending they did not talk about their mixed changing dramatically they did not talk about like seeing their customer change a lot, what they talked about is. They had too much of the wrong inventory because of the supply chain disruptions last year and then being forced to deeply discount a lot of product and they took like a 1.5 billion dollar haircut on their inventory. Um which they had warned us they were going to do but so what they're saying is man we're just having to sell a lot of this stuff cheaper and that's it's not necessarily because of inflation but more because. We have the wrong stuff. Scot: [27:51] That yeah got you think they had this supply chain problem and ended up with the stuff they ordered a year ago gosh when I open this door is. Jason: [28:00] That for sure is true like they all ordered like Walmart you know said similar things that Walmart's I think said if we had a magic wand we would make 1.5 billion dollars worth of our inventory just disappear. Um and you know they all like. Beefed up their orders around holiday and they you know they all went to these extraordinary expenses to get inventory they got inventory much more via much more expensive means you know from more expensive suppliers with more expensive Freight. Um a lot of those costs are coming down right now freight costs are coming down shipping costs are coming down, but you know a lot of that inventory rolled in and it you know it was the clothes they hope to sell for Christmas that you know is less appealing now. I would argue people are also just buying less clothes right now like and I do think that's partly because of the economy and inflation. You know Target saying it's not Walmart saying it is it's possible they're both right it's you know Walmart has a lower income customer than Target and so it is possible that the. The typical Walmart customers more affected by inflation and their behavior is changing more dramatically in the more affluent customer that shops at Target and Amazon, um that their behavior is changing less as a result of inflation so I you know it's not outside the realm of possibility that they're both they're both right from their. Scot: [29:26] Nursing did in their warnings they both talked about apparel any more color on that. Jason: [29:33] I mean again the the they're seeing home slow down a lot which is interesting because you know people were overspending on home when they couldn't travel you you've seen this in your business but like. A lot of people are back to travel there's a lot of Revenge travel people are also restaurants are having a moment restaurants are crushing grocery stores at the moment, as you know everybody I'm not sure covid zup officially over but like everybody's mentally of it over covid rushing back to restaurants and fun fact. Inflation for restaurant food is much lower than inflation for grocery store food so it's actually a better deal right. So the food thing is weird the apparel thing is weird consumer electronics are really soft sales right now and they're they're actually. They have this weird counter effect like that's the one category that's having deflation TVs or less expensive this year than they were last year. And yet sales are still really soft I think Best Buy reports earnings tomorrow so that'll probably be a challenge for them. In the discretionary spending categories the one category that everyone has called out as an out performer is beauty. And I think that's this thing that we call affordable luxury that like you know when you're not feeling great about your finances but you want to treat yourself like what you do is you buy the premium whip. Instead of an expensive outfit or something like. Scot: [30:57] Nursing yeah kind of a can still feel good about yourself but you spent a lot less than a whole new. Jason: [31:03] Exactly I would argue that a better affordable luxuries to have someone do an amazing job detailing your car but that's just me. Scot: [31:09] Or a iced vanilla latte at Starbucks or 10. Jason: [31:15] Yeah yeah absolutely that's not that's not an affordable luxury Scott that's a necessity. Scot: [31:22] Were there any other omni-channel you want to cover because I had a. Jason: [31:26] Yeah yeah I think we probably spend enough time the Home Improvement guys did report it was kind of a in between Home Depot is decent their up 5.4% in their their comp sales which is kind of in between what we saw at Target and Walmart they talked about seeing their consumer business has slowed down and seeing their Pro businesses which is the contractors pick up so I do think consumer spending on their homes is slowing down I don't know where that pro-business is coming from at first glance so we'll have to dive into that deeper but the housing market is all topsy-turvy right now. Scot: [32:04] Yes I think that this kind of ties into the, bifurcation of the convenience already consumer in the more affluent and then the value of learning consumer that the pros being busy it was more Renovations are still going on at larger homes. Jason: [32:21] Yep that makes sense. Scot: [32:22] You know that that weird that like segment and maybe what's happening is you maybe you've outgrown your house you thought you get a new one interest rates went up are like well if I put that money into a expansion or something, you know that this may be a better use of proceeds than putting it towards paying the bank larger percentage I think that's probably what's going on there. Jason: [32:44] No that makes total sense I'll buy that yeah so then what's the last tranche of earnings we want to talk about Scott. Scot: [32:52] This was interesting because I was reading a couple articles and I saw you know Casper has a new CEO and and he came in and was basically saying, hey it's time to start stop losing money we need to be a profitable company, so then I started wondering you know he had that cluster of sa cluster in a positive way we had a grouping of companies go public that we talk a lot about that we're kind of in this, some of them were not 100% digitally native vertical Brands but in this kind of cohort over the last 18 months of IPOs, not 18 months calendar but with IPO windows open we had if you remember we had wish thread up Casper glossy a all birds. Warby and purple and a couple others go public. [33:39] So then I started poking around and it's basically a bloodbath out there for that cohort of companies so you know Casper's not doing very well. I'm thredup which you would think would do really well in recession because people would look at more Consignment type type of peril they had to do a pretty big layoff the 15% probably the most hit hard is wished which I've never 100% understood wished but you know far be it for me too to figure that out but you would think they would be doing well because they always had this super inexpensive stuff the trade-off was it took a while to get to you but if you needed like a phone little drone or I think one of their biggest sellers is hair extensions bridal gowns all kinds of stuff you wouldn't really expect for that value or to Consumer you think during recession that would do really well, their revenue is down 80 percent year over year so they are just basically coming unglued they did a Rebrand and their new brand is. Bargains made fund discovery made easy which to be hence that maybe Discovery was a problem and now they're trying to say hey we kind of. [34:47] You came to us before and you couldn't find what you're looking for but now we fix that kind of has that that kind of vibe to the new branding. One that's popular with the ladies in my house is glossy a they had to do a 33% layoffs and I can understand this because we went on a New York trip and that's one of the, places we make a trach tube and the store was closed and this is just like. [35:10] Four weeks ago so definitely post coded so that wasn't good and I think I know what's going on there, Albert's didn't 8% layoffs were be they had a weird mixed message they were doing some layoffs and talking about their losses mounting but then they announced their opening 40 stores and that they think it makes economic sense it's kind of like. Yeah I didn't feel like the best time to be doing that and they didn't really say anything other than we think that this is a good use of capital. We'll see and then you know so Casper is doing pretty poorly and then purple who's kind of a Casper clone if you will need to actually predate Casper's they wouldn't like that being called a butt yet another online mattress company their revenues down over 20% year-over-year I think during covid-19 we got new mattresses and now there's kind of a like a pull forward for that that that's a huge problem so that whole cohort is not doing well and kind of indexing much worse than kind of like what you saw in the data I want to ask you what if you think there's do you have a theory of what's going on with those guys. Jason: [36:14] I do like I think the whole direct-to-consumer model, I'm not saying it can't work but it's way more challenging than a lot of people. Um gave it credit for right like the fundamental problem with the direct-to-consumer model is customer acquisition right like there's 240 million households in the US and getting them to know about you and be aware of you and want to buy your product is, really hard right and if you're a direct-to-consumer company with no organic awareness and no reason for people to discover you the way you get people to find out about you is you buy ads right you buy that awareness and and all these d2c companies were. Using digital ads you know mainly on Facebook 22 by audiences and so one thing we know is customer acquisition costs have gone up because of, the Privacy changes in the less the lower efficacy of a lot of those those digital things. [37:17] You know even on the old pricing every subsequent customer gets more expensive than the last one like the first customers you can buy are the cheapest, but you know increasingly you have to bid higher and higher for an audience that's slightly a lower propensity to buy your stuff and so as you grow as you scale, it gets harder and harder to keep growing and so we've seen a ton of these d2c companies. Grow really fast from zero to something and then hit a plateau and slow way down and we were seeing that before the pandemic we were seeing it during the pandemic, some of these companies like we're partly aided by the pandemic and so maybe it gave them a little extra Runway some of these companies like. A way we're probably hurt by the pandemic and had less less Runway but I think what we're seeing is that. That the pure direct-to-consumer model without some other way of cup of consumers, cheaply making consumers aware of your products, is really challenging so you're seeing a bunch of these dtc's open their own stores that's the war be model you're seeing a bunch of these dtc's pivot to wholesale so glossy is moving into Ulta I think it is or it may be Sephora I apologize if I have it wrong, um but they're a bunch of these guys have moved into wholesale to get awareness. [38:43] And you know that changes the whole margin structure and does all these things I think there's a Warren Buffett quote, they're only when the tide goes out can you find out who's not wearing a bathing suit and I feel like that's that's kind of the situation we're in with these D disease is you know once we've come into a, challenging economic model Market the. The high cost of customer acquisition and the challenges with continuing the scale are really starting to be a parent for all these data see companies you buy that. Scot: [39:15] I do and a lot of them in our you know in our world we think about cackle TV and you kind of get in your head yeah it's you know I'm growing X percent macaque LTD is three or four and you feel like that's going to stay around forever right and then you hit recessionary period which apparently this isn't and hit some headwinds or some chop and suddenly you know that no one's buying that second mattress for that second pair of glasses or you know whatever it is and then, you know your whole economic model is built on this ratio of cacti LTD of three and suddenly it's one and a half and if you don't react quickly to that and if you don't have if all you have is paid mechanisms that are built on that that will ratio then you're in the horns of a dilemma where you're kind of like well I turn that off, the the acquisition spigot I can't grow Revenue but if I keep it on my my earnings are going to, go to heck in a hand basket because I'm effectively my cup my kak My overall economic side business have changed very dramatically and there's no way for me to. To deal with that and because these guys have such a big chunk of their you know their their revenue from Paid media it doesn't they don't have a lot of degrees to Pivot on so another way of saying what you said but I agree is the short route. Jason: [40:38] You know you reminded me one funny thing I think one of both of our favorite guests on the show Dan McCarthy. You know he talks about like every time he gets to look at the finances for one of these d2c companies that they they wildly underestimate their CAC and overestimate their LTV that like the math is also just flawed that like you know most most of these d2c companies feel like they're going to have like incredible retention and keep the these customers re spending every year for a long time that their data doesn't necessarily support so they they overestimate their ltvs because they don't account for enough turn and then you know they all just treat their ad costs as their total kak and you know it's customer acquisition cost it's all the costs to find that customer and get them to buy them and onboard it so all the customer service costs all the onboarding cost there's a lot of extra cost that should be in that cack number that a lot of first-time d2c CFOs don't don't tend to put in there so. I thought that was a funny observation as well. Scot: [41:44] Yeah and then a lot of times you know you'll be like let's say 20 million and you're just driving the business itself Google and you're like well this is amazing and but then Google Google searches are a pretty finite resource and at some point you kind of can get them all right so there's only so many people that are typing in mattress everything and then then you're like okay well I'll do you know I'll do Facebook I'll do this I'll do what not and then as you do you Whittle away Google is always one of the most effective advertising venues because the consumers given you their intent so they're at the bottom of the funnel, so then as you walk up the top of the funnel your cat goes way up and then you can have infinite spin there at the top of the funnel but. It doesn't really change the metrics Downstream so then that's that scaling problem so all these guys get to 100 million and then and it really Falls over because because they can't really get that incremental next dollar and if they do they're kak LTV ratio goes way up because they're spending so much more on, paid media LTD is stable so yeah it's a tough slog so I think reading between the lines when when were be says we want to open up stores that I think they're trying to you know cough ironically go from a pure online to being in foot traffic and getting people there which is you know what they're basically saying I think is that that may be cheaper than that next in Criminal online add-on. Jason: [43:11] 100% I wonder I when we're all retired and we look back on this market like I do think there's going to be a lot more d2c activity than we have today but I actually think most of it is going to look more like Nike it's going to look more like someone that was born as a wholesaler that created huge awareness affinity and love and eventually hit escape velocity where they didn't need that that wholesale model anymore and they were able to then go direct to Consumer and have a low customer acquisition cost and kind of growth hack and I'll bet you a lot more of the d2c brands that are dominant you know sort of 10 to 15 years down the road got there by starting wholesale and transitioning to d2c rather than being born D to C which is just I think a tough value. Scot that's a lot for one show and you know we've already teased people about a subsequent show on e-commerce so I feel like we should try to wrap up is there anything else we didn't cover that you were excited to talk about. Scot: [44:19] Not just want to give you good luck tomorrow I hope all your data flows or columns line up your Tableau is humming and I look forward to hearing your analysis on what comes out of the day tomorrow. Jason: [44:33] Awesome well my in-laws are visiting and they're commuting home tomorrow so they promised they're going to listen to Tonight Show in the car so I just want to give a shout-out sit to and Papa. Um and with that it's happen again we've used up our allotted time as always if this show for you some value if you're going to be a little smarter around the virtual water cooler tomorrow, the way you can repay us for this free show is you can jump on iTunes and leave us that five-star review that we so warmly deserve. [45:08] Happy commercing!

From the Streets to the Stock Market. Every Tuesday we bring financial Empowerment to those who feel like they don't have the Power. We are Trailblazing our way to Wealth. Ride with me. History in the Making!! This weeks episode Trap breaks down Wal-Mart and the economy, what big investor, buys prison stock, Warren Buffet & Apple just for name a few. Let's Work:4:54 Introduction | Thank You for being here 6:30 Welcome to Tuesdays 8:15 Retirement or Close to it Retire in Peace 8:45 Speaking to the Trappers 11:44 Premeditated Wealth 12:34 Do you have Goals that are Authentic and Fulfilling? 13:59 Time Equity 16:42 Wallstreet Looks Like Us Now 17:42 Word on the Street | Dow Jones Up lead by Walmart. Dow Jones was down lead by 3M . S&P 500 was up lead by Bath and Body Works 20:57 Nasdaq is down today lead by EA Sports 21:51 The Big Short is Out | Michael Burry 24:21 Bear Market or Bull Market? 24:37: 4 Things to Pay Attention To 27:21 Headfunds & Cash 28:20 S&P 500 Index Investment (13% Apple & Microsoft) 30:50 Bear Market Rallys Happen 31:45 The .Com Bubble has 3 Rallys of 20-30% 33:11 Earnings Seasons | Home Depot Traphouse Jumping 35:32 Earnings Season | Walmart Traphouse Jumping 38:31 Storing up for Financial Troubles ahead 40:58 Walmart streaming with Paramount 41:38 Amazon changed the world - Lazy Trappin 43:30 Walmart/ Target vs Churches/Popeyes 45:03 The Heat Check | Trappers Anonymous 48:33 The Heat Check | Sector Performance 50:23 The Options Chain and its Importance on the Environment 52:23 The Certified Trapper of the Week | Row Brewer - CEO of Walgreens 56:30 Learning the Lingo | Trapper Apparel Inc 57:37 Learning the Lingo | Averaging Down 1:00:34 Breaking Down a Brick | Sanderson

What up Gods & Goddesses? Welcome back. You're rocking with the best. We've been busy with life. Ready for summer to be over with. It's enough. The heat. The bbq's. All of it. Hanging out is overrated. Inflation is at an all time high. Walmart & Target have decided to “rollback” prices on produce & food in order to reduce waste. Hot pockets & pizza bites for the hood. Fivio Foreign talked about his deal with Mase on Million Dollars Worth of Game. Stating he got $5K for a deal that he's still currently in. Another moment where we assessed the details of the music industry as we know it. Monkey Pox is on the rise. Let's make it plain… it seems like they're trying to make diseases hilarious. So will we. Monkey's have never not been funny. You want people to take it seriously, call it something else. We talked about the latest black panther installment, Wakanda Forever. No Chadwick Boseman this go round (Godbless the dead). This means that Shuri and the rest of the Dora Milaje will be supporting the legacy of the Black Panther. Anticipate a lot of memorialized images of King T'challa & the girl power aspects of Marvel's latest approach to entertainment. What we've been watching/listening to rounded out the Podcast. Washed moments mixed in. That's about it… Washed. Never Washed Up. Like. Subscribe. Share. Stay Black. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/washedgods/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/washedgods/support

It's been a LONG week, Alessandra and Vee are here to talk about what's having them down in the dumps. Alessandra talks about the relationship she's had with father, Vee juggles a new schedule with Vivi, and they reminisce on their life before 2020. They also laugh over Vee's love for Walmart gummy worms, the debate of Walmart/Target activities, and that Alessandra's neighbors MUST think she's crazy. This week on Spill The Tea For Therapy - Should I go to my friend's "No Kids" wedding? Thank you to our sponsors! Progressive: Visit progressive.com to get a quote today

Stocks are higher again today, a fifth-straight positive session for the Dow as it tries to stop an 8-week skid. We'll look at what it tells us about the Fed and the market's next move. Plus, retail is rallying hard today, with most of the S&P 500's biggest gainers being consumer names. Did the markets overreact to Walmart & Target results? We'll explore. And, while the retail picture is mixed, the housing picture is very clear. The real estate market is slowing fast, as low inventories and high prices persist. We'll get the latest on the state of housing.

Open a Gatsby Options Trading Account Sign Up For a WeBull Stock Market Trading Account Instagram @camboni11 and @kennycolin23 and @wincreaseteam Twitter @camboni11 and @kenndrickcolin and @wincreaseteam In this episode of Marathon Money, we talk about Alibaba and other stocks based in China, Walmart and Target, interest rates and more. MarathonMoneyPlus.com

@AviNMash and @AnthonyOhayon are joined by a new host @JoeySolitro former Motley Fool to introduce Season 4: *Shoutout to our sponsors Stocktwits* $QQQ (Bear market conundrums) $TSLA (Huge down week with brutal close on Friday, stocks down big since TWTR bid) $AAPL (Showing a lot of weakness this weak, doesn't look good for market) $BJ (Wholesaler had a nice pop after solid earnings) $TGT (Down huge after a miss on earnings) $WMT (Took a big hit after mixed earnings and lower guidance) $JMIA (Traded up 30% after a earnings beat)

Show from 5/20/22This week on Behind the Markets, Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel talks Walmart/ Target, GDP, money supply, and commodity prices. Then, what are the key issues for hedge funds? How should you manage your investments in this inflated environment? Host Jeremy Schwartz discusses hedging risks, how often to trade managed futures, long short strategies, and more with Founder of Dynamic Beta Andrew Beer.Guest:Andrew Beer – Founder and Managing member at Dynamic Beta InvestmentsFollow Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdbeer/For more on Dynamic Beta visit their website: https://www.dynamicbeta.com/ Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewdbeer1Follow WisdomTree on Twitter: @WisdomTreeETFsFollow Jeremy Schwartz on Twitter: @JeremyDSchwartz See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stocks storming back in the final hour of trading. The Dow was down 617 points at session lows, but ended the day in positive territory, although it did fall for the 8th straight week, the longest losing streak since the 1920s. Truist's Keith Lerner and JMP Securities' Mark Lehmann discuss whether the recent sell off is a tremendous buying opportunity for long-term investors. Doug Ostrover, the CEO of alternative asset manager Blue Owl, reveals where he sees opportunities in this volatile market. Fast Money trader Dan Nathan says he is buying the QQQ ETF to gain exposure to beaten down big tech stocks. Retail getting wrecked this week following disappointing earnings from Walmart & Target. Fmr. Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren explains why the current retail environment is one of the hardest he has ever seen in his career. And Kohl's activist investor Jonathan Duskin reacts to the retailer's disappointing earnings and explains why he is accusing the board of withholding material information from shareholders at its recent annual meeting.

大家週五愉快！ 快來看看超讚的付費訂閱用戶專屬福利: https://othewaytowork.com/pages/podcast 如何開啟Podcast訂閱服務: https://tinyurl.com/yerxluu8 Patreon訂閱往這邊走： https://www.patreon.com/onthewaytowork 通勤族日常大募集: https://forms.gle/ob6SDgWVCcdUerkC7 IG: @onthe_waytowork https://www.instagram.com/onthe_waytowork/ 日常生活IG: @onthe_way.daily Powered by Firstory Hosting

Walmart & Target Stock Tank After The Real Damage From Inflation / Supply Chain Shows. The stock market and investors are getting smacked in the face as retail numbers are coming out this week and it is ugly. The truth is coming out that the average consumer is getting squeezed huge by inflation and they are starting to contract spending which is the first sign of deflation. https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2xaY3dvMUM4S0NwdVRJRmgzejN5R01zLWRIZ3xBQ3Jtc0tucmpJbE1QSHZXNWx0QXU5dTM1T0R3eU1ZeFBXdXpQN3lZWEo0bXNZV2V6ZDctbmJmb3ZaeUtaU2dFeUxBc0o4U2VjQ1lvUWRqV2NuaXNrOHlXRmlzekd6Skh3Q1l1c3laQkg5UkZOT0UwbTBjOEl4MA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Ftargets-plunge-shows-inflations-risk-margins&v=1IvfSgKiPr8

Market Update Stocks Down Big As Walmart & Target Lead The Truth Of Inflation. All across the board the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are in the red. Subscribe to our website for more news and information: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbWc0Nm8tSHVkX2xCc0VuNHRzMGtYOFRwVHE5d3xBQ3Jtc0trVFpxQ3dvcHJDMXpjYkV1Y3JXQnNSWTRWc1ZOLVpxUHF2Ni0wemdjU0o4Z1RwN3k1eVEwT2EtVmt5TF9LakF0Uy0zYTNGOVo3dmgzSGpRc25icXdkb1FJRDNXR3I0ZlZiRWdscldvTjk5VTBkN2EtQQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Feconomicninja.org%2F&v=N1g0x8UrcXY

Hello...this is all by design! New press secretary without clue. Powell and resolve? Dollar integrity and your financial plan. Bill Clinton legacy. Depp, Heard and local elections. The Twitter saga rolls on. NATO expansion??

Head Line Mission Daily Report Nov 19, 2021 1. อัปเดตตัวเลขผู้ที่ได้รับการฉีดวัคซีน Covid-19 ในประเทศไทย 2. ราคาดัชนีตลาดหลักทรัพย์ / ราคาหุ้นต่างประเทศ / ราคาน้ำมันดิบ / ราคาทองคำ / ราคา Cryptocurrency 3. นักพัฒนาแอปฯที่อายุมากที่สุด 4. Walmart และ Target เปิดศึกทางการค้า 5. สหรัฐอาจไม่ส่งเจ้าหน้าที่รัฐบาลร่วมงานโอลิมปิกฤดูหนาว 2022 ที่ปักกิ่ง 6. เหรียญแบบใหม่ “สมเด็จคอยน์” 7. SCB 10X - Metaverse กับโอกาสใหม่ๆ ทางธุรกิจ 8. Starlink หารือกับรัฐบาลบราซิลเพื่อให้บริการอินเทอร์เน็ตในชนบท 9. นักเรียนเมียนมาคว่ำบาตรไม่ไปโรงเรียน 10. ‘รถบรรทุกทหาร' 3,700 คัน รอคำสั่งรัฐบาล หลังผู้ประกอบการรถบรรทุกขู่หยุดวิ่ง 11. สื่อใหญ่รัสเซีย เตรียมเปิดออฟฟิศในอวกาศ 12. อาลีบาบาเผยผลประกอบการไตรมาส 3 13. Apple กับการพัฒนาอุปกรณ์หลายบริการ

Upbeat numbers from some of the nation’s big retailers seems to counter some of the panic that’s been fueled by supply chain woes and inflation. Julia Coronado discusses the role of demand in all this during our markets overview. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy breaks down his plan for the embattled U.S. Postal Service as the holidays arrive. We ask for the thoughts of small businesses about paid family leave.

Upbeat numbers from some of the nation’s big retailers seems to counter some of the panic that’s been fueled by supply chain woes and inflation. Julia Coronado discusses the role of demand in all this during our markets overview. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy breaks down his plan for the embattled U.S. Postal Service as the holidays arrive. We ask for the thoughts of small businesses about paid family leave.

TOPICS by TIMECODE2:12 US Air Force says a plane evacuating Afghan refugees had 5 hijackers onboard. Biden is waiving anti-terrorist immigration prohibitions to keep some “refugees”4:46 Robo-Dogs Get Weapons as Waymo Cars Keep Getting Lost on Dead End Street. The future? What could possibly go wrong? What happens when humans in military are replaced by robots?15:33 FDA wants to get rid of salt (mandating reductions), DeBlasio gets rid of Thomas Jefferson statue25:33 Listener stuck in Italy writes of conditions there and in other EU countries30:20 “No Jab, No Job” is GLOBAL Policy — 10% to be FIRED Friday in Italy. As Italians take to the streets in fury, AP labels them neo-Fascists. Governments at war with their own people, creating Greater Depression and chaos39:21 Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski given massive fine but no jail45:52 Biden Offers “Retail Therapy” for Broken Supply Chain. Who's writing this imbecile's script? Walmart & Target are “essential” again. He offers them as a solution to SUPPLY shortages and SHIPPING disruptions.56:03 Biden's Mandate BLUFF: 3 Parts, One is a Bluff. Listener asks: “how is Biden Exec Order a bluff”? Which companies are being coerced, which ones are cooperating unnecessarily? What are the grounds for challenging? What is the best chance of getting an exemption? 1:09:17 Record 4.3 MILLION “Quit”. They're shutting down shipping to shut down supply lines. Southwest Airlines pilot writes. CEO is a WEF (Davos) club member and this is what he has heard about how many pilots are unvaxed and refusing. Also railroad employee on company's planned vax terminations. 1:19:32 Texans who've already been fired for being unvaxed ask “what about our jobs” as GoFundMe takes away funding for lawsuit appeal by RN fired in April by Houston hospital (first in country to start firings)1:28:36 Religious Exemption WINS — in NY! So NY Dept of Education works with Union to block further challenges1:37:44 Rogan vs Sanjay Gupta? An Amazing Revelation. Gupta's account makes it sound like he won — BUT the most amazing thing was NOT what was said or debated, but what happened before the show began 1:50:14 CovidGate: FDA Hides Data, Refuses FOIA. Dr. Peter McCullough, MD sues to get info FDA is hiding. Same things we've seen with ClimateGate.1:59:47 Maine Public Health Director tries to cover up that TrumpShots have a higher death rate than COVID2:06:48 Clot Shots End Professional Athletes Careers. Brandon Goodwin, Atlanta Hawks NBA. Vinny Curry, NY Jets NFL. (Curry had cut a pro-TrumpShot PSA)2:11:22 Pfizer forces entire Brazilian town to get jab because — they want a LONG TERM study. It's still experimental after a year2:21:05 UK health data shows 90-99% safety/efficacy — BUT, the footnote says they have NO data, NO studies to support it & LOW confidence in the numbers2:45:43 Greta Thunberg uses UN's “Rights of the Child” convention to get the UN to challenge countries over her climate fantasies.Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.comIf you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughZelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at:  $davidknightshowBTC to:  bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Mail: David Knight POB 1323 Elgin, TX 78621

TOPICS by TIMECODE 2:12 US Air Force says a plane evacuating Afghan refugees had 5 hijackers onboard.  Biden is waiving anti-terrorist immigration prohibitions to keep some “refugees” 4:46 Robo-Dogs Get Weapons as Waymo Cars Keep Getting Lost on Dead End Street. The future? What could possibly go wrong?  What happens when humans in military are replaced by robots? 15:33 FDA wants to get rid of salt (mandating reductions), DeBlasio gets rid of Thomas Jefferson statue 25:33 Listener stuck in Italy writes of conditions there and in other EU countries 30:20 “No Jab, No Job” is GLOBAL Policy — 10% to be FIRED Friday in Italy. As Italians take to the streets in fury, AP labels them neo-Fascists.  Governments at war with their own people, creating Greater Depression and chaos 39:21 Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski given massive fine but no jail 45:52 Biden Offers “Retail Therapy” for Broken Supply Chain. Who's writing this imbecile's script? Walmart & Target are “essential” again.  He offers them as a solution to SUPPLY shortages and SHIPPING disruptions. 56:03  Biden's Mandate BLUFF: 3 Parts, One is a Bluff. Listener asks: “how is Biden Exec Order a bluff”?  Which companies are being coerced, which ones are cooperating unnecessarily? What are the grounds for challenging? What is the best chance of getting an exemption?    1:09:17 Record 4.3 MILLION “Quit”. They're shutting down shipping to shut down supply lines. Southwest Airlines pilot writes.  CEO is a WEF (Davos) club member and this is what he has heard about how many pilots are unvaxed and refusing.  Also railroad employee on company's planned vax terminations. 1:19:32 Texans who've already been fired for being unvaxed ask “what about our jobs” as GoFundMe takes away funding for lawsuit appeal by RN fired in April by Houston hospital (first in country to start firings) 1:28:36 Religious Exemption WINS — in NY!  So NY Dept of Education works with Union to block further challenges 1:37:44 Rogan vs Sanjay Gupta? An Amazing Revelation. Gupta's account makes it sound like he won — BUT the most amazing thing was NOT what was said or debated, but what happened before the show began 1:50:14  CovidGate: FDA Hides Data, Refuses FOIA. Dr. Peter McCullough, MD sues to get info FDA is hiding.  Same things we've seen with ClimateGate. 1:59:47 Maine Public Health Director tries to cover up that TrumpShots have a higher death rate than COVID 2:06:48 Clot Shots End Professional Athletes Careers. Brandon Goodwin, Atlanta Hawks NBA.  Vinny Curry, NY Jets NFL. (Curry had cut a pro-TrumpShot PSA) 2:11:22 Pfizer forces entire Brazilian town to get jab because — they want a LONG TERM study.  It's still experimental after a year 2:21:05  UK health data shows 90-99% safety/efficacy — BUT, the footnote says they have NO data, NO studies to support it & LOW confidence in the numbers 2:45:43 Greta Thunberg uses UN's “Rights of the Child” convention to get the UN to challenge countries over her climate fantasies.

Its been quite the weekend for one of the Lords of Spaghetti Town. Alex retells us all about the violent sickness he had. Alex had also had a bout with some disrespectful birds. Jakub experiences a parenting a milestone. Cards are no longer being sold in store like Wal-Mart & Target. AT&T is merging with Discovery, what does that ultimately mean? Alex updates us on his Returnal progress. Alex pitches a gym. A guy pulls a dating scam. The US Government reveals they see UFO's every day but people don't seem to care.  Follow us on Twitter: @SpagPolicyPod and tell your friends! Follow us on Instagram: SpagPolicyPod We have merch on Teepublic (http://tee.pub/lic/3gpLBQovuAU) Send us an email/questions/comment and we will read it on the next episode at SpaghettiPolicyPodcast@gmail.com

In this grab bag episode: parking violation snitching, poo in the river, endangered affordable housing, Texas' convoluted property tax system, the City of Denton sues Ercot, Walmart/Target, and how to properly bag groceries.

This perspective was shared from the TRL EDGE Forum of T-Renaissance Inc. (www.t-renaissance.com ) upon a recent business news from “retail wire”. T-Renaissance Inc. is a full turnkey technologies solutions business connecting the world with China, with a focus serving the retail, telecoms, media sectors.

This Week: - Amazon Launches Amazon Pharmacy - NBC Universal Shoppable Content Deal - New features for Google Pay - Walmart/Target Bonkers Q3 Numbers - eCom IPOs: Affirm and Wish ___ John Suder (@johnsuder) Producer/Editor and Director of Marketing at SUMO Heavy https://twitter.com/johnsuder Bart Mroz (@bartmroz) CEO/Co-founder of SUMO Heavy https://twitter.com/bartmroz Brittany Blackman (@BrittanytB) Writer and Junior Marketing Coordinator at SUMO Heavy https://twitter.com/BrittanytB About the eCommerce Minute: The eCommerce Minute is a production of SUMO Heavy, a digital commerce and strategy firm located in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about SUMO Heavy: http://www.sumoheavy.com Follow Us: Newsletter: SUMO Heavy Weekly https://www.getrevue.co/profile/sumoheavy Twitter: @sumoheavy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ecommerceminute/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ecommerceminute/support

You arrive in your hotel room and realize your forgot your can of ginger ale in the car. You decide to take a can from the hotel fridge to settle your stomach. Can you replace it with a can you buy from the local Walmart/Target to save yourself $2? After all, you are replacing the can you took with the exact same can; the hotel is not losing! Or must you pay the hotel the $3 that they charge for a can of pop?

From Walmart and Target to Best Buy and GameStop, major retailers are releasing their Black Friday ads teasing the biggest deals of the year. Plus the Xbox series S/X officially launched plus more. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The is an entire episode in the format of our Good Time / Good Deal Section! Today and tomorrow Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon are having Black Friday-esque sales. All the deals mentioned are linked at TBTW.IN/86.  Today’s episode is brought to us by The Upper Room. Enjoy a free 30 day trial of their email or app service by visiting upperroom.org/welcome. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams. Our FB community is My Internet Besties. Join us.

It's the 19th Day of August and we've got these business news headlines for you...thanks for coming by! The Fed threw some cold water today; Oil prices flat, but could have been worse; New Trump Administration sanctions; Nearly 40% of Americans are nearly out of cash; Walmart & Target sales soar...but still worried; The Wall Street Report; Looking for a gig?  Amazon is hiring; Burger King gets creative and we talk about it. Thanks for coming by.

Join the Cons as they discuss their weeks and ask Walmart & Target; Where are the Toys? Follow The Cons on Instagram & Twitter; @NerdiconsPod Rate, Review, & Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

— 00:00:11 Notre Dame shuts down Presidential debate— 00:04:24 Technocrats panic & censor doctors & Trump tweet (for the 1st fime) over TRUTH that we have nothing to fear from the virus— 00:13:45 Walmart & Target shut down Thanksgiving Black Friday. How do they know that the virus will be raging in 4 months? It's NOT a plague, it's a plan— 00:16:39 Google will have employees work from home until summer 2021 as NYT brags mom/pop businesses in NYC that have survived for decades are being taken out— 00:27:22 NJ arrests gym owners defying unconstitutional edicts from Gov. Here's what's actually in the NJ constitution— 00:46:02 Fauci's Fatwa for Face Burkas and his “Veil of Immunity” vaccines— 00:55:57 This is what Google/Facebook/Twitter don't want you hear from the doctors at the “White Coat Summit”— 01:13:26 BBC pushes Gates' vaccine tattoos as a condition of travel, Google comes up with its own tech tattoo — SkinMarks— 01:31:55 The media & Fauci are lying about 30,000 people in Phase 3 test. Over 100 scientists, including 15 Nobel laureates, are demanding REAL Phase 3 tests as vaccine advocates— 01:37:33 Joel Skousen: The safest places to live and what you must do NOW to survive what's comingBANNED.VIDEO

He who has the gold sets price go shop someplace else

How to License to Walmart, Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. How to leverage the distribution channel of existing companies to get your products out there. I have coached over 100+ people through Invention licensing deal negotiation. Those that understand the distribution channels of companies are the ones that make the most money. Links https://www.inventtribe.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Invent-Tribe-Community-738613743208498 https://www.instagram.com/inventtribe/

Welcome!   Today there is a ton of stuff going on in the world of Technology and we are going to hit a number of topics from the dangers of Android phones to various scams involving hiring and Black Friday and some tips on staying safe -- so stay tuned. For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Reduce Vulnerabilities by Ditching Android Tackling Ransomware on Windows Cellular Throttling and Why it cost AT&T a Chunk of Change Big Data, Data Brokers and Your Information The hanging of an MSP “Shingle” and Your Business Security Hiring and Issues with Scam Online Applications Another “Pay--ment” System Introduced Hand in Hand On Black Friday --- Shopping and Privacy Imposter Retailers Outnumber Legitimate Ones --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Craig Peterson Hey, hello, everybody. Craig Peterson here on the air at WGAN and all over the world on podcasts. You can listen to me by just going to Craig peterson.com slash iTunes that'll bring up the 800-pound gorilla podcast site. You can also go to Craig Peterson dot com slash iTunes in and listen to my podcasts there, of course, and you can listen on right here to this station also on tune in radio. Additionally, listen to me when I'm on the air, three mornings a week now different stations different coverage. All of those end up on my podcast feed. I appreciate everybody who is going there and giving me a five-star rating. I know there are also a lot of people that are tuning in for the first time. Welcome. Welcome to all of you guys and gals. It is a wonderful, wonderful experience for me because we get new people, and I get to help teach you guys, help you to be able to understand the latest in technology. That's what I talk about every week. I have been in the technology business for many, many decades now. And I am still enjoying it. But you know, it's time for me to start giving back and start trying to help everybody understand what's going on. We spend a lot of time discussing security, what you should do for your home, what you should be doing for your Small Office/Home Office. Many of us, like me, work out of their houses now. That means you have different problems. When we catch China, Russia, and North Korea and then all of the criminal organizations all over the world. We've got all of those people trying to attack us. It gets very, very difficult to keep our data set. safe. And of course also, with all of the new technology, how do you use it? How do you make it work? Just this morning, we were on with a client, and they were meeting this is common, okay. But they were misusing the system that they have in place. They have a system that's in place to allow them to do diagrams, engineering diagrams. And unfortunately, the people they trusted to put it together to configure it, they did not do it anywhere near properly, nothing is SPECT, right, etc. And I know you'd think an engineering firm would understand that the specifications are there for a reason. They're there to be followed, right. And so the system has just been kind of, you know, hack together trying to make this thing work. And there ended up being an air coming up on their screen, and then the Good news, I guess for them is they had us be able to help them because I don't think there's anybody else out there. That is, you know, easy enough to find someone that could help them with this problem because the air looked like it was a licensing problem. The problem was that the database that they were using had lock records on it. Here's how they were using it. They have a database and applications that are running on this underpowered server. They were being accessed remotely by someone using a VPN on a laptop. And you know it all sounds pretty reasonable. The way they were doing it was running the application over on the laptop instead of on the server. So what they should have been doing is using either a virtual machine that that person could Connect remotely or use a terminal server that Microsoft provides. What happens is now he's running the app, the app is accessing the database via the VPN. So far, so good, right? Make sense? This virtual private network is letting his laptop think it's on the corporate network. This company has dozen-plus employees and a server with a database on it. The database is handling all the queries it's going through. Now, when you're talking about databases, I'm trying not to get too technical here, everybody. When you're talking about a database for a program, the database, hopefully, has what is called business rules in it. For instance, if you add a customer, you're not just putting one record in the database, you have a record that gives the basic information about the customer. It includes the name, maybe the address, and then you've got another record that's got the customer contact, who it is. Then there are also records about what they would buy for from us with totals, encounters, and things. It's called D normalizing a database. So all of these different records are created in different tables, maybe even different databases, but it's almost always one database. And so in order to keep all this information properly synchronized, because you don't want to have a record for the company, a business a client, and then have the, the your programs trying to access now how do I get ahold of this client and so it tries to go to the phone number database, so I'm just oversimplifying this slightly. Still, there's no record for the phone number database, you don't want that to happen. So what you do is you use a lock, and the lock helped to enforce these business rules to make sure Hey if I'm creating a new customer, I want to make sure I have their name, their address, the contact that we have. And so a contact record, and the type of company, maybe an inventory item, just in time stuff, whatever it might be, all of that needs to be there in the database. What happens is, there's what's called an atomic transaction. The database program, the software that you're running, identifies the customer contact and his records and returns the records for the company itself, the records for the inventory, and the shipping information records. And then it says, commit this all to the database. At that point, the database already has all of these records and reports it is ready to commit. Everything is there. What was happening with this client is they were on a VPN. And they were running the software over on the laptop. The software on the laptop was saying, Okay, so here's, here's the client we're dealing with, and we've got some new information for them. So let's insert this new information in the database. And so the database does a lock to hold. So we can get a customer number to generate all of this stuff in case somebody else is trying to do it. And then, the VPN connection goes away, or the laptop crashes. Something happens, right? Now, the application could crash crash, and if its on the server, the database could crash on the server, all of that stuff could happen. So when you get right down into it, there are tools to try and recover. But in this case, records were locked. They weren't lost. They were locked. So now when they went back in they were getting in an error message, they really couldn't understand what's going on here. Why? Why am I getting this error? We had to delve into it and contact the app developers and look at the databases, and then we had to remove the locks manually. Now, that's just great. We remove the locks. What that probably means they have a corrupted database, one that was corrupted silently, in a way that no one understands. And in some cases, if it's a real expensive application, it probably has stuff that does continuity checks and makes sure there's congruence between all the records. But that's not the case here. You know what it reminds me I saw the same thing at a doctor's office. They've been using the same software for many, many years. And the software uses a very, very basic database and This database, and I don't even know if I would call it a database, right? But I think of the old retrieve stuff if you're an old-timer like me, and what we used to do with those and which is great because it the beat trivalent, you put data out into files and then allows you to access it very, very quickly. But by today's standards, you would not consider that a database. So over the years, when they had a problem, they would just shut off the computer and then turn it back on, reboot, right. So now we're helping them win factory finish migration of all of their data from this very old it using 30-year-old technology, this ancient system for the doctors practice to a very modern one on Max, and it's cool the stuff they can do. You know, they can immediately while you're sitting there with the doctor, the doctor can check right away, what drugs you're on from other providers because the pharmacy that you use keeps all that information, it's all tied right in real-time. And the doctor can check for possible conflicts of some of these medications and immediately issue the prescription. So it's before you leave your consultation with the doctor. It's all done. It's just amazing for them, and they're having a hard time with some of these concepts. And I get that right. If you're using 30 old 30-year-old design software, which so many people are you know, some of these companies like Kronos, they have some new stuff, but they're selling some stuff that's just decades old. It's just been, you know, modified, modified. And so the basic concepts behind the software aren't there. So they had been turning off their computers. Off and on resetting control, alt, delete, right, all of those things that we've all done before. And their database was as corrupt as can be. And manual processes instead of automated processes to try and get their database up to snuff. So anyways, an engineering firm, we got it taken care of for them. Still, their databases almost certainly got corruptions in it, because they're not doing it as backed by the manufacturer. Right. And you'd think as I said, they know better. And we've got the doctor's office all up and running too. So that's good. So anyway, if you ever want to know a little bit about databases, you just learned it. When we come back. Hey, we're going to be talking about shopping Black Friday, Cyber Monday privacy. That's coming up today, and we're going to talk about Android again, and a whole lot more. Of course, you're listening to Craig Peterson online, Craig Peterson, calm and I'm WGAN Hello, everybody, Craig heater song here hopefully you're enjoying today's show so far. Let's give a little bit of a rundown of what's coming up. We've got our Black Friday, Cyber Monday shopping information coming right up here shopping and privacy on today's show the number of imposture retailers. It is crucial, and I'm going to help you understand these sites because they are the imposter websites is outnumbering the legitimate websites for retailers and we're getting caught all of the time. We're going to talk a little bit about the IM and MSP shingle to your business security. I saw this again, and some of these ms peas MSS peas are they break from shops is what we call them. In other words, you call them when you have a problem. They're not proactive. But it turns out now not only they're not good at security, but they are a massive target for hackers. We'll talk about how that's a problem for your business and some things you can do about that. Hiring issues. Right now. If you're looking for a job that some of this scam online application stuff with this going on will tell you more targeting and tackling here some ransomware on Windows, which is way way up. Big Data brokers and your information. We talked a little bit last week about what Google's doing with Project Nightingale, which is scary enough, but we're going to get into that. Facebook is introducing a new payment system. You might remember they were trying to launch this whole cryptocurrency, and it fell flat. Well, we'll talk a little bit about this Calibre wallet that's coming to our way, and cellular throttling and why it cost AT&T a chunk of change. If you use AT&T, you may be getting a check. You will have to fill out some forms. Then I discuss how you can reduce vulnerabilities by ditching Android. It is amazing. There's a study that just came out. And this is an article from Wired magazine that I have up on my website at Craig peterson.com. Android is not Android is not Android. Every manufacturer has a different version of Android. Now, some of the core modules are the same, but they have to add their device drivers. They typically add bloatware is what we call it to the phones, and of course bloatware, you also see in Windows computers a lot. And those are those ads that come up that lets you get all of these premium features. All you have to do is pay us extra. They're out there doing all of this. And so my warning has always been, if you are considering buying an Android phone, remember that it might only be good for six months. I'm not talking about the hardware; some of the equipment is great. When I say some of the phones only be suitable for six months. It's because the security patches that are going to be needed for your phone will no longer be available. And my accountant came by last week and he just bought a new Android phone I told him don't buy another Android get an apple get an iPhone. If you can't afford a new iPhone by you don't even have to buy us To buy a model or two older iPhone, you will be much much happier and you will be much, much safer. But he got another Android phone. Why did he ask me about or why did he bring up because he knows I'm not an Android fan, right? So. So when we're sitting down, he's, he's not going to be sitting there pulling his phone today, Greg, that's great. No android phone I have because he knows I'm going to be all right. And in this case, it was I bought this phone now a couple of months ago, and I can't get updates for it anymore. Two months, two months, he had that phone, and he couldn't get updates for his Android phone. So it's not even six months in some cases is a lot less than other cases it's longer. If you're going to make the mistake of buying an Android phone, make sure it is the number one model in volume in sales. That manufacturer right now is Samsung. And the goal with that, but here's this story. And I've got some stuff I wrote up about it. Every android phone is unique. Because the manufacturers can freely create applications, they've got to make changes to the device drivers, the interfaces, the carriers, which then upload their information into the cellular tables that are in it. They might have a different transmitter than was planned for they go for the cheapest, cheapest. And so they've got to rewrite that low part of the operating system completely. You're getting that right now. Well, here's what we have just found. Every Android has pre-installed as of today. Now, remember, I'm saying that some of these phones you can't get security updates after six months and only two months in some cases. Maybe it's a year. But there's a study out right now, that is saying that on average when you buy an Android phone, there are 146 vulnerabilities pre-installed on your phone. So these are bugs in the software that Google has already fixed. Some of these were zero-day attacks. Many of them weren't. But on average, your new Android phone, according to this study, already has 146 security vulnerabilities before you even open the box. Right. Now, does that make sense to you? Now, if you buy an iPhone, you're going to find that the first thing that you're gonna want to do is you set it up, you put in, your Apple account or you create one they're absolutely free. Apple does not harass you about any of this stuff. They give you iCloud backup automatically. But you're going to set up your iPhone. One of the very first things that it does is it updates itself. Apple, just with the most recent release of its operating system going to look this up right now. Age of an iPhone six, they just recently stopped supporting their newest operating system that doesn't mean patches for security problems. But their newest operating system does not support the straight-six. It supports the six s but not the straight-six. So I'm looking right now in Wikipedia, and it was released there we go in on 24 14. So right now, while we're talking, it is more than five years old. It's been over five years since it was released. So Apple provided full support soup to nuts support for the software on iPhone sixes for more than five years. And that's very typical for Apple and the iPhones. So if you buy, you can still purchase the six ass I would not personally because it's not going to be fully supported. The next time we come up with another phone, so you know next year or maybe early in 2020. If you are considering buying an iPhone and you want to save some money, you can still buy a seven, or you can always buy an iPhone eight. You can even buy the 10. My mom, who is well into her 80s now, wanted to replace her phone. I think she had an iPhone four and she just last week returned it. I said they go out and buy because she was confused. I said, go out and buy the iPhone XR. That iPhone 10 XR, which she did. It is a great deal. It is a fantastic phone. And it's going to last year another five years with full software support from Apple. So keep that in mind. You can open that brand new box with your Android phone with 146 security bugs in it before you even open it up, and it's not going to update itself to the latest patches. None of that's going to happen. Depending on the phone in the manufacturer. But get an iPhone right forget all of this stuff about Android. I do not sell iPhones I to make money off of iPhones. I do not work for Apple. Okay. My company, however, is a certified Apple authorized Support Center Hello, everybody, Craig Peterson, here on WGAN live online, you can find me at Craig peterson.com. I often have some of these free pop up pieces of training and I've been doing Facebook Lives lately and just trying to get the word out, helping people understand what is happening in technology today. And we're on show number 1037. Now, the way I number shows is that's actually week number 1037. We should have done some big deal when we hit show 1000 but I, I didn't I probably should have But anyhow, so that's 1037 weeks of being on the air every week, which is pretty amazing when you get down to it and it's thanks for You guys, I so appreciate what you guys do by listening and supporting the stations I'm on and of course listening to the podcast and and the easiest way, by the way if you are an avid listener, if you will, is to go to Craig Peterson comm slash iTunes. And if you wouldn't mind, give me a five-star review and, and let me know what you think of the show right there. And I do read those and a quick shout out to people on the air frequently. I do. Now, you know, I mentioned a little bit earlier than I do a lot of computer security. And it's a huge deal, and it's very, very difficult. I also mentioned these break-fix shops. Those are businesses that do computer support, but basically, you call them when there's a problem as opposed to them being proactive and taking care of issues for you. Which is what my company and I do alright, so there you go. That's what I do. Well, let's get into this whole MSP thing. I am an MSP RIR, and MSP managed security services provider. And I want to roll the clock back because I have something here that I remember pretty well. And then I want to talk about it because I have a cup of coffee in front of me. And it's sitting on a napkin. And so I want to tell you a little bit of background. And this has to do with experience, really, and knowledge if you're old enough to remember the whole y2k thing. And the biggest problem with y2k was, hey, and we've been writing software for years that rely on next year, being One year more than this year. Back then, we had to be very careful with all of our data and how much storage we were using. Instead of storing the year as we do now as 1975, we would save the year as just 75. Hey, it's not going to matter for another, what, 35 years. Y2k is going to cause the world to come to an end because nothing's going to work. That is, it had only been 50 years that this code. And we all know that there was a whole industry that developed to help companies make sure they are y2k compliant. Some people wrote software that reviewed other software to make sure that these mistakes weren't in it. And then y2k came and went with very, very few incidents. Now, the reason people were worried about was legitimate. If you had an older GPS this year, say one that was more than five years old, maybe ten years old, you might have noticed that it stopped working? Did you see that? And the reason these things stopped working was the same problem everybody was worried about and y2k while almost the same problem. And that is counters rolled over from the GPS satellites. If you didn't have a big enough counter on your GPS receiver, you were in big trouble. The satellites themselves were fine. It was your little GPS receiver that's built into your navigation system, right. Huge deal. You had to buy a new one. Well, it's a much bigger deal for the bank, but thinking what else was happening around the year 2000. I started building commercial internet properties as soon as it became legal because I'd been on the internet since the early 1980s. I've been designing and helping to design and implement internet solutions since the early 1980s. And I've been doing network work, and computer network works professionally since 1975. I've been doing security work, managed security for my clients since the early 1990s. There was a lot of work done out there. I go back now and think about the late 1990s. My coffee mug is sitting here on a napkin. And you know, you go to a coffee shop, the napkins are three by three inches square, give or take. And if you are getting a muffin, you might get a napkin that you could unroll, and that's maybe what eight and a half by 11. Give or take, right? It's pretty big. Well, in the mid to late '90s, people were going to specific coffee shops. I remember this so well out in Silicon Valley in California. They went to these p coffee shops because it was where angels hung out. Angels are people who if you don't know, invest money in early-stage startups, in other words, when a company is first going, and so if I were today to talk to an angel and say, Hey, I need some money, the angel would say, Okay, well, let's look at the business plan. We go through all the financials, I better have some customers already some sort of a proof of concept, minimum viable product that I can show them and say, yeah, look at this is looking really good. So I need 1,000,005 million to take this to the next level. Well, back then, in the late 90s. They would sit and have coffee with one of these angel investors. And they'd say, hey, I've got an idea for a business and they pull out a napkin. And they take a, pencil and they would sketch on the back of that napkin. What their idea why it's because it's going to be great. And the investors just based on that napkin, no product, no team, nothing but an idea. Based on that napkin, the investors were giving out five and $10 million checks to these people who, in my mind, were, were, fraudsters. You know, they convince themselves that they had the best idea in the world, and they were going to become the next billionaire. Maybe the first billionaire under 20 years old. A lot of these investors, Of course, we're a little older, and they didn't know how to deal with the internet. They didn't know much about it and very immature back in the late 90s. Although I'd already been on it for 30 years, well, you know, around it for 30 years and on for more than 20 then, so they were giving them crazy money just based on a napkin. So what does everybody do? Well, where's the money while the money is on the internet, and it's out in the Bay Area of San Francisco, San Jose. So I'm going to go out there. And some of these people, literally, I knew people that did this, they hopped on an airplane. They flew out to San Jose, with the intent of going to one of these coffee shops or about a half a dozen of them, that were known to be frequented by angel investors and venture capitalists. And it's kind of like somebody flying to LA Working Yeah, I'm an actor, and they're working in a coffee shop. And they're Bariza hoping to get spotted by that director to get their big break. A big problem. And because everybody saw that the internet was the place to be. Everybody hung up a shingle about the internet. So stick around. We're going to talk more about this. We're going to tie this into exactly what's happening today, to you to your business, when it comes to security. And so many of these firms that are out there right now trying to sell you stuff. So stick around. We'll be right back. You're listening to Craig Peterson, right here on WGAN and online pretty much everywhere and at Craig peterson.com stick around. We'll be right back. Hello, everybody, welcome back, Craig beater song here. Of course, we're on WGA. And we are online, Craig Peterson calm. And good news. I'm on pretty much every podcasting platform out there. And I've had more than 20 million podcast downloads since I started podcasting 15 years. The numbers are picking up. We just had got another 100,000 downloads recently. I'm pretty jazzed with that. It is all because of you guys. The more you are of you who subscribe to my podcast, the more it gets noticed, and the more people hear about it, and of course, then what that means is, we're able to help more people, and that's why I'm here. It is a labor of love. Alright, so let's get into the rest of the story from what I was talking about earlier, which is if you missed it, I talked a little bit about the history of the internet and internet investment. These companies that were spun up from a business plan that was nothing more than a rough sketch on the back of a napkin at a coffee shop. Okay. It's a big deal here. But we'll let's think about some of the biggest failures on the internet. And you've heard of some of these. You've probably heard of like pets.com let me just run through a few here. Ship raise 62 million dollars and failed. That's SHYPBP raised 149 million before they got wiped out. Juicer, all Yeah, that's a reasonably recent one 118.5 million pepper tap 51 million Sprague 56 million yak yak 73 million. And you can go online, look for some of these things. I found an article that had 323, startup failures, and post-mortems for all of them going back, just kind of way back. But, you know, back to 2014, which isn't the start of the internet, right. That's not the reach. The time we're talking. Okay. Timo meter, and this is a great one, by the way. Multiply $30 times one client times 24 months. Wow, we'll be rich. Okay. They got funding, right. Why didn't we get funding? Why didn't you get funding right with your great idea? So everybody started throwing their hat into the ring. They were going to these coffee shops out in Silicon Valley pitching and hopefully come with a good idea. Of course, the investors wanted to have a billion-dollar company. Hey, it's not so bad. I put, you know, 5 -10 million in and I'm able to take a billion dollars out with a big company that's got a 5 billion valuation right. Wow, we're all going to be rich. And of course, that is the extremely rare case. So let's fast forward to today. And talk a little bit about what's happening right now. I've got an article up on my website that we put together called "I am an MSP shingle and your business security." Think of that word shingle. We talked about all of these. I don't know what to call these people, because they were out trying to get money for their ideas and were quite convincing. They weren't thieves, necessarily, although some of them probably were. But they didn't know any better. They didn't know what they should have known. Today, of course, the internet's much more mature. It's still not fully mature. It's changing every day, the way things are sold and marketed and used, and everything on the internet is just constant change. But right now, what are we talked about on this show before when it comes to open jobs, we know that the economy pretty much has full employment. But for the past three years, I think ever started ever since I started running the webinars for the FBI info guard program, ever since I started running those. There's indeed been somewhere between one and a half and 3 million open cybersecurity jobs. So Let's get right down to the economics of all of this. And I, I was following some stuff, and I've been developing material carefully in the industry because this is kind of the industry that I'm in. And I found out something that I thought was just kind of a DA moment, right? That's when you hear something, and it's I should have thought of that. I don't know why I didn't think of that. Right. We all have those. And so I had this moment, which is, if you have been a break-fix shop of what you've been doing is you take a call from somebody, and you sell them a computer, or you g a call from somebody, and you go out, and you spend two hours with them and you charge them three or 400 bucks for that service call. First of all, I don't think that serves the customer very well because the customer is going to be worried about calling you and the poor person that's having the problem doesn't want the boss to get upset because they called you right? So that's not helping the business very much. And on the other side, if you're trying to sell hardware nowadays, you know, we'll sell someone at $3,000 $4,000. workstation for one of their employees to use not even a high end one. And our margin is like 50 bucks on it. Nowadays. It obviously depends on the manufacturer, but there's like no margin in that business anymore. So if you were faced with that, if you owned a company, that all they really did was they sold some computer hardware when there was a refresh. And you went out and you did some repairs and some telephone support. And what would you be thinking? Why are retailers closing on you're basically a retailer? That's the business you're in. You're competing against Amazon, you're competing against Dell online, you're competing against all these guys. So what I've noticed happening, and I've noticed it because my company is what's called a master managed security services provider. We're a master security services provider because we work with these smaller companies that don't have the security expertise, and they know it. Now there, there's a lot of people that don't know it. We just talked about all of these failures. Back in the boom days of the internet, hundreds of millions of dollars, billions just went down the drain. So some of these people think they know enough, but they don't. So they'll come to somebody like us, who is a master managed security services provider, and we'll be the people behind the scenes designing the networks and security infrastructure. They can meet the DFARS requirements or ITAR or HIPAA or PCI or some of them, many, many TLA's and FLA's out there, right. TLA is is a three-letter acronym, and an FLA is a four-letter acronym. So in business, we all have those. But that's what they'll do. Now, I got to tell you, the vast majority and I'm going to say 99% from my personal experience. And so I don't know what the real numbers are. I don't think anybody has the actual numbers for this. But, and I'm going to say 99% because I have never seen an exception to this rule. But 99% of these companies out there don't know enough to make the right decisions or to help the customer make the right decisions when it comes to security. Now, this presents a huge problem for everybody. Because we have all of these people who were PC repairs and Windows support people, these companies relied on Windows coming out with a new version from Microsoft. And it will work on your old hardware because you need more memory, you need more space on your desk, you need to have a faster computer to run Windows eight, right? And then Windows 10 comes out. And a lot of people what they've done over the years is they say, you know, my machine is old, it's slow. It's cluttered. I could probably reload windows and get my speed back. But I just assumed by new computer, and that's what these people relied on for literally a couple of decades here. You are in the crosshairs of hackers if you're a business and even if you're just a regular home user. Oh my gosh, the problems you guys all have because now the hackers have figured out that these companies that call themselves managed services providers, but don't have enough knowledge about security, to protect even themselves adequately. These so-called managed services providers have now become a significant target for the hackers, including nation-state, think about it for a second. If you've hired a managed soft or managed services company of some sort, you've given them access to all of your computers, and they probably have your passwords, right? They have all of this stuff. There is an attack going on right now against Connect wise and directly against Ms. Peas. They've scanned the internet to find anybody that mentions MSP on their website, and then they start attacking them. Cause they have the keys to the kingdom, your kingdom. So here's the advice to minimize your risk. We had two weeks ago an attack that hit an IT services firm Everest, which is a subsidiary of NTT, one of the largest MSP is in Spain. They had to shut everything down, cut network links, try and figure out what happened. And in this case, it was ransomware. But they're also going straight for the data. It's happening every day. Okay, this is one of the largest, so yeah, my gosh, Here's what you have to do. You have to treat your managed security services provider as an insider risk. Just like any employee, you have your own IT staff. They are a risk to your business. They have access to All of your intellectual property, your client lists your employee records, right? They have access to all of it. So treat them like an insider. Understand the risks, do not let them keep your passwords or other information. And what we do for our clients is we never keep them. We cannot tell you what your password is, and we have to reset it. And we use specialized software, that when we access one of our client's computers, it keeps track of the right passwords and those are changed frequently and can be changed. Every time a technician connects, it is a huge deal, there you go. Some people are hanging out their shingle, saying I'm an MSP. Be very careful if you treat them like an insider, and mitigate your risks. All right, when we come back, by the way, in the next hour, we're going to be talking about online shopping. You're listening to print Peterson on WGAN. Hey, hello everybody, Craig Peterson here on WGAN online at Craig peterson.com. I appreciate everybody being with us today. We went through a bunch of stuff in the last hour. And we talked about, you know, MSP insider threats a little bit. I want to finish up the whole thing about insider threats. People have been asking if they should treat any managed services provider, break-fix shop, or any third party who is taking care of our computer equipment as an insider with a potential insider threat. So how do we treat insiders and this whole insider threat thing? Well, I should do a training on this up pop-up training. The veryfirst thing you have to do is figure out what is your most valuable asset in your business. Now, for most of us, it's our intellectual property. Frankly, those are our plans, our designs, our engineering diagrams, and it's our money, you know, bank account information, employee information, anything that could cause you to fail an audit. If you get audited, do you have all of the records? But if you are in a business that requires that you have security, what's going to happen when they come in and audit, okay, so any of that sort of data is information that you should protect. That means a lot of different things. I've taught some courses on this before, but it includes things like segmenting your networks so that people who don't need to get it at data can't get the data. In this day and age, for the truly paranoid, we see this more and more, it's called a zero-trust network. So people or machines can only get at things that you explicitly allow. So it isn't as though anyone in accounting can get to this, it's this person in the accounting can get to this. So all of your data is segmented. And again, don't let them keep your passwords. Try and do some of the administration stuff yourself, at least on the password side. Change the password and save it in an encrypted password manager to keep track of those passwords. Then when you have to call your managed services provider or your break-fix shop or, or your niece, whoever it is, who's taking care of your computers, you give them the password for that machine. They can get on and can do their thing. They get everything working, you watch them as they're working, which is another thing that we do. We're only on the machine when there's someone else watching, remotely. And we record all those sessions. By the way, anytime any one of our techs gets onto any machine, we have someone watching them. That is important. When the tech completes their work change the password. The whole idea here is that they don't need to have them. And as I mentioned before, we've seen a growing number of managed services providers from around the world being targeted and compromised by hackers, including the large ones. That goes to show again, and even the big guys aren't as concerned about security. Or maybe they don't know enough about security as they should be. I was out at a prospect's place just a couple of days ago. We're talking with them about their managed services provider that they had. I mentioned earlier, this 99% number, and this is my number. But I say 99% because I have yet to find a single managed services provider that is doing security reasonably well. I have yet to find one. And that's kind of bad news, frankly, when you get right down to it. And so that's why I say 99%, right, I give the 1%. Now, I know there are Managed Security Services Providers that know how to do it, but this is a challenging world. Bottom line, is if you can find someone that you trust 100% implicitly, they are not keeping your password, not getting into machines, without permission, then you have to trust them as an insider, basically, an employee that you kind of trust, but you don't absolutely imagine and make sure obviously, you keep those employees in line too. We're going to be coming up here in just very soon, actually another segment or two, with what you need to worry about for your holiday shopping. I want to start this whole thing off by talking about what you should be doing and how to verify a site and whether it's legitimate because it turns out there are three times more fake shopping sites than there are real ones out there. So be very, very careful of that. Now, before we get into that, let's do about these bogus hiring scams, it confuses me because when you get down to it, we have such high employment rates right now. It makes you wonder why the bogus ones are having such success out there. I don't know. Maybe people are just trying to look for a raise because there are so many great job opportunities. I don't know. Okay, employment is at an all-time high. With the economy buzzing like this, finding workers for seasonal part-time work is getting harder and harder. Think about what Black Friday means. Black Friday is when retailers finally become profitable or "in the black" as far as books go. It's not quite as true as it used to be. It used to be that most of the year retailers operated in the negative and it took until right around Thanksgiving before things turned around, because that's when people start shopping for the holidays. So these employers are now having to compete with the spam employment opportunities on top of it all. And the whole online application process is just fraught with opportunities for fishers to glean all the information they could need to impersonate you. So you've got to be very careful, and one of the things you can do, and this is the same thing if you're looking to purchase online, is verify that you did not end up on a scam site. So bottom line, if you're looking for a job, and most people are going to start their job search on Google, which is an okay place to start, and they might top in or type in seasonal opportunities. Just yesterday, I was sitting with my wife, and she did a download to the latest version of Microsoft PowerPoint. We subscribe to Office for all of our employees, including my wife, as she helps out with the business. Anyway, she did a Google search, and instead of "office," she typed "orifice," and you know slip up, and you know how it is when you kind of automatic type sometimes. She typed for Microsoft for this download, and we got results that were all scam websites. It was all set up to make you think that you were on the Microsoft Office website and that you were downloading legitimate Microsoft Office software. I was sitting right next to her. I suspect many of you might have clicked on some of that stuff, you never know what's going to happen? Because again, she was automatic typing, she didn't notice she had mistyped it. And she might not have seen these sites weren't a legitimate site. So you have to keep an eye on that. If you're looking for part-time jobs and they come up in the Google results, you might try typing in the website directly. So let's say you want to take a part-time job, but Walmart or Target or something, go to the Target.com website and make sure it's legit. How do you make sure it's legit? Well, we're going to talk about that a little later in this hour. We're going to talk about verifying the shopping sites, but if you go to their website, and if there are multiple pages on the website that all look legit like there's a real shopping cart, there's real stuff online, there's real privacy, disclaimers, etc. That's probably a real target site, and it's not a scam site. And then you can go ahead and fill out the Hiring information. I would be cautious about putting in things that are a little too personal. You want to give them your background and a way to contact you. But be careful with things like your social security number or bank account numbers. Many employers nowadays are asking for your social media account information. So it's one thing to say while you can go to twitter.com slash Craig Peterson and you'll see my Twitter feed. It's quite another to give them access to your Twitter account, and some of them are asking for that. They want your Twitter account username and password and your Facebook username and password. Because many times we are sending stuff using direct messages back channels, hidden channels that they're not going to see when they go to your public-facing Twitter page or Facebook page. And so Martin Employers are saying hey, listen, we want to have a good inside look at your social media account. So I would not give them any that sort of information. Remember if it is a scam, even if it's not a scam if they get hacked, which has happened before to target all of the TJ Maxx, guys, etc. that information could leak out. Alright, so I'll stick around when we come back we're going to talk about tackling ransomware and Windows. And we're going to also talk about a new payment system that's was announced and then we'll finish up with what you should be doing for the holidays. You're listening to Craig Peterson here on WGAN and online at Craig peterson.com. I am on pretty much every major podcast platform. Thanks for listening today. Stick around. I'll be right back. Hello, everybody, welcome back, Craig Peterson here listening to me on WGAN and online. Hey, if you enjoy the show, if you listen to podcasts at all, I encourage you to subscribe to your favorite podcast platform that helps get the show noticed and gets it out. And even better if you could share it with a friend and make sure you subscribe. I'd appreciate it. You know, we put a lot of work into these. I think we're giving great information. I get great feedback and emails. I had a couple over the last few weeks here actually two weeks that were saying that these were some of the best shows of mine they've ever heard. And I've done well over 1000 shows. So I think that's, that's an excellent thing, and I appreciate those types of messages that I get from you guys. So you can always email me, let me know what you think. What is it about Though the show that you liked, maybe you have some ideas or some topics that you want me to cover all of that stuff is just great and I would love to hear from you again. Me M-E at Craig peterson.com couldn't be much simpler than that could it. Let's get into this. We got a couple more quick security articles. Just general information here about Windows and Facebook, and then we're going to get into Black Friday scams, and of course it doesn't just go for Black Friday, this is throughout much of the holiday shopping season; actually, these all apply all year. Then we have these fake retailer sites I'll tell you about them how they're popping up and, and a little bit more about the signs. We covered that in that last segment a little bit when we were talking about the hiring scam, so stick with us today. We got a lot more to cover here before we're off the air, hard to believe two hours, can go by so fast. So let's start with windows here. Ransomware has been a problem for a long time. And for those that don't know, ransomware is where some software gets on your computer. There are a lot of mechanisms for nowadays, but it gets on your computer, it encrypts your files so that they become useless to you. And then it asks for money, the typical payment in Bitcoin, which is, by the way, attributed to be the number one reason Bitcoin Bitcoin has risen in price, and I can see that. There is a new study released. We've got more than 1 billion Windows operating system powered PCs in use in the world today. And that makes them a huge target for hackers. Now, just this morning, I was talking with one of our engineers, and I was saying how impressed I am with Microsoft recently. Since Balmer and Gates left, it has been a fantastic, amazing company. They've been able to maintain compatibility with older software right now for the most part while increasing their security, and they have turned a lump of coal into something that's, that's worthwhile, right? I still don't think it's anywhere near as good as something like Mac OS is on the apple side. But not everybody can run Mac OS, not everybody understands it. So major kudos to our friends over at Microsoft. It's amazing. But they are a big target, and they do have a large attack surface. In other words, there are a lot of things in Inside Microsoft Windows that can be and are currently under attack. You have to be kind of leery about some of these potentially unwanted applications that are on your machine. You might have heard me mentioned before some of the bloatware that gets installed by the computer sellers. And what they do is they load up all their programs. And they get paid. It's like five bucks. They'll get paid to load 50 different games, and you know, anti-spyware, software, and McAfee or Norton, all software that is practically useless to you. And then you have to spend hours removing that bloatware from your computer. But it's not just the bloatware that's out there. There are crypto coin miners installed on our computers, unbeknownst to us. There are all kinds of vulnerability exploits Trojans, and nowadays, ransomware and what's called file-less malware. Fileless malware is why 100% of the antivirus solutions that are out there today don't work anymore because it's a file, so it never hits the disk, so they don't have a chance to examine it. So having white label type of antivirus not white-labeled, but whitelist might be beneficial. But even in those cases, there's a lot for us consider. Now we're finding ransomware that's crypto locking, is growing, the number of attacks is growing. The number of successful computer accesses is growing. Now, to me, the most disappointing part of the numbers as I've looked through this in some detail, in this report that came out. The thing that disappoints me the most is much of the time. They are using exploits that have been around available for a couple of years or more. Many of these were patched by Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle years ago. These are the ones that upset me the absolute most. We see now, the most significant year-on-year increase of any malware in the ransomware community, almost 75% increase since last year. So if you know someone that has had ransomware and I bet you you do somewhere in your circle of acquaintances, I don't think he would have to go out too deep right. I think it is about a 75% increase. According to Bit Defender, the number of ransomware reports dropped in the first half of the year due to one big hacking group called Grandacrab, who throttled down their efforts due to ramped-up law enforcement efforts. Now, ransomware is rising again, as these new ransomware groups are emerging to fill the void left by Grandacrab. I'm not going to go through the names of all of this different type of ransomware. These profit-motivated cybercriminals and they're just spending a little bit of time and a little bit of money because the to buy this ransomware. Some of this stuff is even licensed now. Where they have to, they download it for free. They can try it out on so many people, and then they have to go to a registration site and buy a license to use the ransomware. And then off it goes in that can be just 100 bucks. It's incredible. Here but they're also saying that they're seeing reports of miners and Phylis malware out there too. So coin miners, those are where you go to a website, then you know how the site says, Hey, can we send you news updates and you say allow or disallow yes or no on that you've seen those before, right? Those are not all illegitimate. Many of them are, most of them are legitimate. But that's how the coin miners are working. And so they will embed some code in a website, a legal site, and the coin miner will then start using your web browser to mine for various types of like Bitcoin type currencies that are out there. Okay. So we see a lot more in the ransomware style. We've got to be very, very careful. And about 40% of the population of the 1 billion people that use Windows about 40% admit the They have not applied security patches even though they're available. So make sure you ask them nowadays you don't have to go out and spend a lot of money to buy a license for Windows, you can pay monthly. And you don't have to worry about Windows upgrades anymore, because included. That's what we do with all of our customers; we include everything. Okay, we try and make it very, very easy for them. This article, as well as all of the other ones I've talked about today, and a few others we're not going to be able to get to today are all up on my website at Craig peterson.com. Please visit me there, you'll learn about the pop-up pieces of training. I have some of the Facebook Lives. The themes for the week and all of that stuff. You know, I'm not going to spam you with marketing messages. I'm just trying to get this out the truth out, Craig Peterson dot com. Hey, stick around. We'll be right back here listening on WGAN and online as well. Hello, everybody, welcome back, Craig Peterson here on WGAN and online at Craig Peterson calm and on your favorite podcasting app. And please do spend a minute and subscribe if you haven't already. Well, we talked about cryptocurrencies, many, many times, when they first started coming out for started rising to prominence. I had set up a little mining operation to figure it out, and I had my wallet and everything and, and it was a little too late in the game to find Bitcoin, like right off the bat. That's why I stopped because I was only interested in finding out more about the technology. So you have to use it if you want to understand it. That's kind of the bottom line on it. And I looked at it as kind of a gimmick, and of course, we now know that the cybercriminals online found Bitcoin To be phenomenal when it comes to being able to get paid in a more or less, kind of a quiet way, right? Where people are not aware of where the money's coming or going. Now, remember that Bitcoin is not anonymous. None of this data is genuinely anonymous, bottom line, but it is kind of, you know, private, more or less. So they use it for pain ransoms. I attended an excellent briefing by the Secret Service about how they tracked down some of the bad guys that are using Bitcoin. And it was frankly fascinating, and how they've been successful at that. So don't think that you're going to somehow because you're using a cryptocurrency going to be out of the reach of the hands of the law because you're not going to be okay criminals will get caught. But we had another end enterprise, and I don't like it. Some people would probably call them a criminal enterprise called Facebook out there. And you might remember Facebook decided they were going to come up with this whole new network, they're going to do Libra and it was going to be a cryptocurrency. Now, cryptocurrencies are getting to be a serious business. You have, for instance, the government of China active in developing a cryptocurrency. China frankly, wants to be able to have a currency that they control that they can peer into the becomes the International Monetary standard, instead of the U.S. dollar. So China has been working on this for about five years, and frankly, next year, I think you can expect that China is going to have a state back state-sponsored cryptocurrency that they're going to be pushing all over the world. They are going to try and get oil valued in their cryptocurrency. I think that's a bit of a problem for us here in the U.S. and will be a challenge for our economy too. But when we look at somebody like Facebook, where they're trying to set up this network, called the Libra network, I was thinking good thoughts about it. I know you are wondering, wait a minute, is this the Craig I've grown to know over the years What's going on here? I was kind of happy about it, as it possible for anyone anywhere in the world to have a financial transaction with you. For instance, I know some ladies who are in Africa, and they're impoverished women and trying to make ends meet and just have not been able to earn $100 a month. And many of these women are brilliant. Some of them are entrepreneurs, and they want to get a business going. And this particular group of women is now making themselves available after a friend of mine trained them here been in some technology, how to use computers and how to be a virtual assistant system. They are making themselves available as a virtual assistant. What could be more accessible for these women, and for the people who might want to hire them, than to make their transactions a cryptocurrency of some sort? A currency that they could use at their home that we could use at home. A currency that we could trust to a high degree. Remember, coins like if you have a U.S. dollar bill that you want to spend, the only reason it's worth anything, is because it's considered to be Legal Tender backed by the United States government. Now it isn't supported by silver anymore or gold anymore but deemed to be reasonable, legitimate currency. Initially, the Facebook Libra network announced they had a dozen or more of the foremost financial institutions in the United States. They would all work together and cooperate in developing this currency. Now, several reasons got squashed, not the least of which is governments and wanting to tax them and not being able to track some of the transactions easily. But I'm sure Facebook would have provided the governments with all the transaction information they wanted. Okay. So frankly, it would make it even easier for governments to track transactions than it is now. But the thing I loved about it was thinking about these women that my friend trained over in one of the poorest countries in Africa and how it would change their lives. I don't know if you've watched those some of this stuff here on micro-investments or watch how they're working. There's one organization called Shanta (https://www.shantafoundation.org) that quite impresses me. They're working in Myanmar. Interesting what they're doing, but when the basic idea with micro-investments is that somebody like you, were I, we might put $1,000 into this. And you've got someone in some countries somewhere that wants to buy a cow for the milk, and they're going to sell the milk, or they want to buy a goat or for the milk or whatever it might be micro to us. And so they're lent $100 to start a business. And they go out, and they get that business going, and they repay the loan, and that money is just put right back into another loan to another person that wants to do it. I've been following these micro-investments, and am very, very impressed with what many of these places are doing. And that led me to notice something else, which was the presence of phones, just regular cell phones that can send text messages, not smartphones. But the presence of phones and cell service coming into these tiny, tiny villages. And how most women were taking these phones. And we're using them to create businesses to support themselves and their families. Just absolutely amazing and many of these women, in fact, I think almost all of the ones my friends been teaching our single women, they've been either abandoned by their husbands Or the kids, Father, whatever you might want to call them. And they have to do all of the support. And so they're spending a whole month's wages, they're spending $100 to go through this program, this one-month long program that my friend runs. And so she's been looking for donations of laptops, just regular windows laptops, to help these women out as well. But these women get these cell phones and just with the cell phone now, there is some technology out there right now we don't use it in this country. Still, in several other developing countries that they can send money to people and receive money to people just using text messages. So just using their cell phones brought them out of extreme poverty. Now you know, we have poverty in the U.S., but poverty in the new in the U.S. looks like somebody that's upper class in these countries does. Okay. We don't know what poverty is. What we call poverty isn't, you know,' it's just astounding to me. So I got excited when I saw this whole idea behind the Libra network and what Facebook was doing with Calibra wallet. So we got to go for break, and we're going to come back I'm going to finish this up because there's something new and exciting that's happening in this space now. And then we're going to get into our Black Friday scams, and some more fake retailer sites. If you want more details, you're going to have to go to my website at Craig Peterson dot com. I'm not going to be able to cover it entirely in either the radio show today here on WGAN or my podcasts. You can find my Podcasts on pretty much every podcasting platform or my website, Craig Peterson dot com stick around, more to come Hey, Craig Peterson, back here on WGAN. I can't believe it's been two hours since we've been together today. Man does time fly. So going back because I want to finish up our last topic here about the microtransactions and about what our friends at Facebook had been doing trying to put a cryptocurrency in place. It completely fell apart about a month ago. Facebook is planning to start rolling out something called Facebook Pay on messenger and on Facebook itself. Today, it's going to be initially available for fundraisers person to person payments, event tickets, in-game purchases, and from some pages and some businesses that are on the Facebook marketplace. And they're planning on bringing this to more people and more places. They're going to be adding not just messenger, but adding Instagram and WhatsApp to this. So basically, what they're trying to do now is use this technology to make it possible for people to pay each other no matter where they are. Now, you already know because you're just listening, you already know that I think that's a unique idea. And that is going to lift people out of poverty. Just like capitalism has, it's the best system the world has ever invented, to lift people out of poverty. And if Facebook successful this, they will save lives as well. And of course, there's the other side, Facebook's going to make a ton of money on this. Because they're going to, obviously they'll have some form of transaction fees, and they'll be making some money over that. Okay, so we got more stuff we're not going to get to today because I want to get to the Black Friday scams and the retail stuff. There either is a new secret consumer score that you have never heard of before. And I am not, unfortunately, to get time to do much. With that, I say now it's been out there for probably the better part of a decade. I found some information about it from the New York Times back in 2012, and the Wall Street Journal back in 2018. There is a scoring system that's keeping track of us, and one with which you are probably not familiar. So that's up on my website, Craig peterson.com and 18 T's and green to pay $16 million to settle a legal dispute over smart throttling smartphone plans. So they came to that agreement with the Federal Trade Commission. Okay, so now into Black Friday scams. These are happening all the time. They are souped-up during Black Friday and Cyber Monday when there's a lot of people buying stuff online, and I'll let's get into it here. This shopping fever lasts for about four days right now. Some sites like Walmart start on Wednesday, and others are ready underway here. But let's go into some of these top scams. Man, we've only got about 10 minutes left here. So number one, this is a great article. It's from Heimdal Security dot com. I've got it up on my website at Craig Peterson dot com. If the website insistently asks you to download its application. Now, we already probably have apps from merchants. I've got Amazon, for instance, there are apps from Walmart Target, Ollie Express, Rakuten, Barnes and Noble, and the little guys are having a hard time competing there, but they try nonetheless. Now, a lot of these websites are going to talk you into downloading their mobile apps. And there's nothing wrong with that. But remember that not all of these retailers are legit, and not all of the legitimate retailers the apps are legitimate because it's rare that they would be developing the app themselves. So they probably had a third party do it. Who knows, right? So don't just willy nilly install apps from retailers are going online number two, the website looks fishy. And of course, this is pH fishy. And what that means is you might be on a cloned site. Right now, there are I was saying three earlier, but I was wrong. According to research from Venafi, they were looking at what is called TLS certificates. These are SSL certificates used basically if the website says HTTPS, then they're using TL. So they examine these. And they found that there are four times more fake retailer sites than the real one. Okay? So there are typos, squatting domains. I mentioned one of them earlier in the show today that my wife accidentally typed orifice instead of office when she's trying to go to Michael lot. Microsoft Office site, okay, so be very, very careful, careful. It's, it's a terrible thing here. They found 109,000 certificates on lookalike domains, compared with almost 20,000 on authentic retail sites. That sounds like a five to one to me. Unfortunately, these bad guys are also using Let's Encrypt, and I use Let's Encrypt for a lot of my websites. I do it because it's just cheaper and more accessible than paying the extra money for one of these verified certificates. So keep an eye out for that too. Just remember, just because it's a Let's Encrypt certificate does not mean that it's not legitimate, I might suggest that they are cheap bastards like me, okay. Number three unrealistically low bargains. I've seen this many times. We were looking to replace my f 150. And so we went online. We did some searching we found a fantastic deal on a diesel truck that Ford made about ten years ago with an engine that I'

EP193 - Hershey's CDO Doug Straton   Doug Straton, Chief Digital Officer at The Hershey Company.  In this broad-ranging interview, we discuss Hershey's digital footprint, the challenges of temperature-sensitive products, incumbents versus challenger brands, Amazon, Hershey's data strategy, and the future of digital grocery. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 193 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday September 17th, 2019, live from the Grocery Shop trade show in Las Vegas, NV. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded live from the grocery shop trade show in Las Vegas on Tuesday September 17th 2019 on your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and unfortunately Scott was unable to join us today so I am solo [0:41] but I'm making up for it by bringing you a great guest welcome Today Show Doug straighten he's the chief digital officer at the Hershey Company Doug welcome to the show. Doug I know there's probably no listeners that are not familiar with her she but I sometimes think you're, a broader company Than People realize can you give us the the elevator pitch for Hershey. Doug: [1:03] Yep shirt so first of all this years are 120 V birthday. And you know that's iconic I think we're number of reasons it it it's it's both accounting the fact that you got a brand that means so much to people, it's been around for this long and why they recognized as both being still hip and cool yet by the still being you know you know I'm kind of a legacy brand. Jason: [1:27] But you surpass the fat stage. Doug: [1:29] Yeah yeah so retro is cool again and you know so so you know her she's doing it's doing its part, so that I think the the other couple things about Hershey that I think I really really amazing so the first thing is, Milton Hershey to quit this entire Fortune to the Milton Hershey trust and the Milton Hershey Trust, funds the entire education housing I'll room and board frankly for disadvantaged kids so originally it was orphaned boys and Snell been expanded to disadvantage Shop Boys and Girls, it's an amazing School located in Hershey Pennsylvania for thousand students and the Milton Hershey trust is our biggest shareholder so in fact. We all work for a greater good Beyond just selling candy, and making a profit where are you never actually that money goes to a very very good cause, which I think is amazing and in terms of being brought her you know we have sister companies Hershey entertainment Resorts so we have a hotel we have an amusement park we have retail experiences, in addition we've been expanding into adjacent cat snack and categories so we've added Brands like skinny pop, Pirate's Booty crave, bark thins in a number of others so dark chocolate we are expanding into areas where we think we have the ability to win. Jason: [2:50] It's very cool and it's it's funny because I feel like these purpose base companies have become super trending now and everyone's I go Millennials only buy from these purple space companies it's it's clearly not anything you guys been doing it for a hundred 25 year. Doug: [3:03] Yeah like we have been doing it and it is interesting because it's it's it's both fun and maybe a little bit hilarious. To watch companies try to evolve a purpose when they've never been Purpose Driven and it's interesting to see who becomes who seems authentic in terms of the purpose of, and who doesn't and I don't think I think there's no question it went to review the story of Milton Hershey, how iconic and how amazing and how purpose-driven he was as an individual and how that manifests itself and what we do every single day so yeah it's it's it's very cool. Jason: [3:39] If it's if it's not authentic it's a pretty amazing ruse. Doug: [3:42] Yes exactly right yeah it's like a right. Jason: [3:44] Long Pond. The name names but it is funny cuz they're even other big confectionaries that have like recently tried to embrace. Doug: [3:52] Yes yes. Jason: [3:58] Baton at the end but this is not your first digital Rodeo the listeners are always really interested to know how you came to this position can you share a little bit. Doug: [4:11] Yeah you know that I've been. [4:14] Part of it was decisions I made part of his timing and you know not all the decision was based on I would say fully-formed back some of it was was you know, instinctual but in essence I started I started my career in Beauty and with some of the big Beauty players and then moved into luxury, is it a good luxury watches and then took a flyer in my early thirties to go to start up and help build run a startup which we've been sold to Unilever and it was exactly that experience which was most fundamental to the way I actually approach digital, it was a very agile organization you know look at the data too quickly don't overreact SAS on getting that data perfect, but take a look at direct me what's going on make a decision and move very quickly and so I brought that style along with kind of the bigger company professional chops and that lingo, to Unilever when I was acquired when the business was acquired. And and then essentially picked a couple couple consult internal consulting jobs that were interesting to me and digital always been interesting to me, I'm in technology and Generals kind of a coder geek when I was in high school and college and I used to take this at the classes for. [5:28] Music credits and so what I've been able to do in the last 7 years just going to reinvent my career, I'm beyond the traditional cpg and into a really interesting space and be successful at it so it's been yeah it's been an interesting ride I'd like to say it was all thought out but. [5:45] Some of it was and some of it wasn't. Jason: [5:47] It works it works best in hindsight which is totally fine and some of these times like we wouldn't take these gigs if we knew all the facts. I'm so sometimes ignorance is a good thing but I do feel like my sense from the outside is that you were really at Unilever while they were sort of inventing a digital cou which is sort of fool like you didn't necessarily inherit a Playbook from the last, last digital guy. Doug: [6:10] There there was none and so it was very much like the way I looked at it my wife asked me if I was nervous about it. [6:20] And I said well the good news is there's nothing really to compare it to so you know it's got you know the sky's the limit, and I think the one thing it was already obvious it was already growing as a very small business was always already growing double digits and the reason I felt confident about at least taking the business component, digital is that I actually haven't been in a business that's that's grown less than double digits for like 22 years. So the business the volatility in the high-speed of the business in the high growth rate really didn't bother me and make it in feeling comfortable about the ability to turn that growth rate into a a scalable and profitable model with him. The broader cpg space didn't warn me where it would probably would have worried other people. But I just kind of felt that why wouldn't why couldn't it be me that, that would do this as opposed to somebody else and I think it was a really wise choice I think you're the most that the career track at a Unilever was very much like go working Ron and be the general manager one of the categories, and I was taking a bath that actually my job would be more important than some of those jobs and I I felt that you know when I left that that position and join the Hershey Company, that it was actually the best job in the building and more people probably wanted to get into my my job that was initially shunned then. Then into the traditional role. Jason: [7:43] That's interesting in the traditional roles you probably would have had to like relocate to Brazil and also learn like. Share something in order to keep her progression. What are things that is interesting though is Unilever is pretty cool because of the portfolio brands. Pretty did you advance friends you got some you know in comments that are probably wait to digital with a lot of opportunity you bought at least one very well known to join native brand. Dollar Shave Club exactly and then you also owned some direct consumer Brands like Ben and Jerry's and others that owns a bunch of stores and stuff so you had somewhat like my Consulting role like you had some of that. In the portfolio so then you moved out of her she and you know her she's like mostly in the grocery space which is. Got a very brutal margins like we're just starting to get penetrated by digital like low average sales price is and then most of your stuff melts when you ship. So it seems like you you took the level of difficulty from Unilever and maybe even ratchet it up a notch coming to Hershey. Doug: [8:51] Yeah did you leave it as a beautiful portfolio nothing but good came out of you know getting that experience with Unilever the the beauty and, otherwise some some of the categories migrated online before other categories and so you have this disability to kind of learn in. And and food was the last to go but the interesting thing I didn't like most people would have thought like why would you join a company where your. Core portfolio is something that's going to melt in the summer, and how's that going to get delivered through e-commerce but you know what we'd already known is either you live is a big global company with a lot of insights from the grocery models over in and Europe in the UK and we knew how they were solving for those problems. And in fact something like an ice cream which melts over in Texas online. Jason: [9:38] I did my bullet does not. Doug: [9:40] It does not yet it but it is online and if that was like a big guy you know like a you know clouds are opening up and the god beings came down and we're shining on people that they couldn't believe that an e-commerce of all places that things are over index, but there's a component of you know hey it's going to be delivered. It's going to be protected in some way shape or form or it's me click and collect and it's going to be staged in the way that the product Integrity is going to be maintained, and as it turns out people may be more comfortable with buying ice cream that way and I was I was out I was going to head unit that fit and confection yeah we would have to solve for certain models, with an e-commerce I shipped to home model but some of the other models that there is actually the way that they were being addressed at the the meltability would not be an issue. And then in terms of you know average selling prices and whatnot that's just a matter of him playing your portfolio the right way across the different e-commerce models as opposed to just one portfolio for e-commerce Broadway, I want you to do some of that work you can you know you can make the economics workbook for you the customer and the consumer. Jason: [10:43] And so it's talk a little bit about Hershey's digital footprint I would assume. Bulk of it is not put cases of chocolate and coil packs and shipping will consumers home that the majority is, like digital influencer sales use peroxide pick up like all of the sort of new digital experience that retailers are now. Enjoying some success with that require fuel from you. Doug: [11:07] Yeah well the interesting thing is. You know we do just as well and kind of like those digitally native e-commerce jams after play channels as you would expect we would do in the offline and in it and some of the core parts of the the portfolio, which took a lot of work and I wasn't so sure that that that could be done you know it or there'll be some some other level of success we get there, what is a turns out there are ways to to make that happen so that was it that was actually a pleasant surprise and it was working the strategy and doing the foundation of work really really well. The flip is the the models Beyond ship to home is generally what my experience has been both from understanding what happened over in Europe, and then early raise from some of my Retail Partners for my experience with the last 7 years, is that online Shoppers overall over index and so what I would and you knows what I was hoping is that, in fact we would over-index online but the worry was is what component of that basket for example in physical grocery was impulse, and is that method or that that kind of thinking around impulse categories goes away will the. [12:23] Will the bigger online basket translating as it turns out it did, and if it wasn't for unexpected ways and so what we did is we just took a look at what what are the digital insights driving the behaviors, and we double down on those instead of taking a look at what happened what what works in physical and trying to do an analogy online I think that's maybe the fallacy of a lot of the categories in the physical spaces, are you the insights over here and some serve an allergy of an end cap and that's going to solve my my my issues online and that's not the case it's fundamentally different behaviors and if you can figure out what's driving those then you should be able to. You know basically replicate your business successfully online. Jason: [13:04] That is a super interesting because that that comes up a lot right like two of the church side pickup in particular there's a double-edged sword here right like there is, there's no impulse cash wrap in so like a lot of these unplanned purchases are harder to do once a consumer build a list they tend, repeat that last tour manager that was so it's tougher to get on or off that waist but then the flipside for your point like I talk to a bunch of Brands the buying behavior is very different and. I somewhat speculate that there's a slightly different Mission but for example I've talked to ice cream companies in there like yeah we saw a lot of courts in the store, a lot of gallons curbside which is funny to me cuz I'm assuming part of that is that customers don't want to push the gallon of ice cream around the store and Heather their neighbors see their ice creams and consumption habits. Doug: [13:56] Yeah for those plants are being consumed in the car before they get home one of the two. Jason: [13:59] Exactly one of each one when the go and one for show exactly. Into what I am free from your answer is your sort of Leaning into those those changes in consumer behavior and not necessarily trying to recreate analog impulse in the. Doug: [14:15] So the interesting get yaksha properly interesting things to pints vs. say gallons or half gallons so you know. But we're working on is yes get on the list but the pact that we get on that list might look very different from the pack and impulse and, you know it's interesting there's a there's an adage in the Inn in Hershey which is see Candy by candy candy. And then you know they never Pete's but they think about it within the context of an Impulse a like you and check out and you see it you buy it and then you eat it right away. And the bet that we've been trying to kind of or not too bad I would say but what we've been trying to figure out and maximize is well if I can get candy into a pantry more often because it's being it's being curated off of the list, where they're going to see the candy and eat the candy is at home and it's an expandable category people just eat it, I'm going to stay there and then it's time to list it's just going to come again so is there a magic that we can we can exploit in terms of bad behavior that fully mitigates maybe even improves upon what we have gotten from an Impulse perspective. [15:28] I mean so far I think the strategy of looking at things that way is working I think we can continue to refine it, I'm only be able to really truly refined it I think as the retailers continue to improve their overall capabilities because obviously we don't have soy, on the technology stack so I can help us drive that. Jason: [15:46] Sure in it that we may talk about this later but it still feels like sort of the first inning of of all of these. Doug: [15:51] Yeah yeah yeah absolutely. Jason: [15:52] It's funny one of the like traditional Shopper marketing, that you talk a lot about like the second purchase that way you'll really you haven't won until that consumer re buys your product from the shelf and you know it's a hypothesis with these digital list is. First purchase becomes much more important and so it's almost like it fundamentally changes your customer acquisition strategy and where you to mess your dollars because. Conquesting that first purchase and getting on that first list like it has so much more value attached to it than it did in the, in the traditional model but let's move forward a little bit like what are some of the digital tactics that you guys use at Hershey's that have been successful if you have any sort of specific examples you can chat. Doug: [16:40] I would love to give you some bright and shiny amazing miracle cure for being successful in e-commerce but Frank. Jason: [16:48] Chicory with blockchain in virtual reality. Doug: [16:49] Yeah yeah you can throw they are in there too so that the the real trick is and it's going to sound you know rudimentary right is. You have to have a clear strategy you have to understand exactly what you're what you want to do what you're going to expect to get out of that, and then you make need to make choices and priorities within that framework that you design and that overall Vision that you're you're trying to enable and then you just make choices. Really it comes down to just like anything that comes out of the fundamentals most of the time so you know people say well you know you going to need this technology platform in that technology platform you going to get this. To certain extent it's true you need a baseline of of Technologies but what you do with those Technologies and how you you know. The inputs that you provided those Technologies to get the right outputs is actually the critical piece so it comes down to having really Christian sites. [17:48] And then designing assets or whatever it might be for the experience you're trying to drive and there for the sale that you're trying to create, I'm in a way that's another really really effective and efficient and if you can figure out systematize that, you know that will probably do more for any part of your business frankly not just digital but it certainly will do more for your digital business and anyone technology, will do now technology still important and you need to keep an eye on what's new what's crashing and you know how the behavior is changing and so that doesn't mean you have to know from time to time look at your stack, upgrade button a lot of cases it really comes down to is how well can you get your company to execute against broader digital and not just think of it as a downstream activity but think of it as a full value chain activity from the start of innovation all the way through to go to market. Jason: [18:41] It's interesting cuz I mean it would be way more fun if you just like made a list of sexy baubles that. Doug: [18:47] Plug for Adobe AEM. Jason: [18:50] Did you not go wrong the shows not sponsored by. The. Doug: [18:59] It could be if we keep talking. Jason: [19:01] Yeah yeah we had lots of opportunities to monetize it but we love our audience so much that we we just we don't want to distract them from the amazing content we deliver, some of those unsexy things seem like they they have the opportunity to make a huge difference in the value of the business so I guess I've heard a lot like about. Things that you wouldn't think about but like Supply checking right and you got all these new demands signals from digital and in leveraging those for supply chain I know what Unilever you guys been a lot of times we're Reinventing the digital shelf like is the, is the confectionery digital shelf like where it needs to be or could you see that continuing to evolve. Doug: [19:42] What you obviously everyone you know who uses their experiences and what they've learned in previous roles to inform what they're doing and a new Rolls if if the roles are related. And for sure we took a look at you know what Unilever had done to drive the universe standards around you no hero images which I think you're referring to. And you know the interesting thing was is. Again you you would think it's a silver bullet but if you don't have the right insights you might draw the wrong conclusions and what we found was a version of a hero image does work for confection clearly but actually, what really drives the engagement and therefore the sale is slightly. [20:25] And then the other thing too is really really interesting is if you if you think about confection in the way infection is package, it actually allows for some really really interesting things in a physical world sense where you can much more accurately. Mirror the physical world in the digital world because you're dealing with luck lots of rectangles and lots of squares in your packaging and so then you can start to unify and harmonize a lot of the creative around pack. To make sure that it really is a seamless experience, where's the learning at Unilever was it you had to figure out what those cues were in the physical sense and then kind of replicate them in a new different interesting way so it was recognizable and a digital shell infections of a different, so I'd allows you you know some benefits just from the the core packaging itself. Jason: [21:17] You're totally ruining our whole scam and Consulting where we just say. Something's the best practice and everyone should know. Doug: [21:23] Yeah yeah yeah it is a best practice in terms of thinking how you're going to approach you know you should approaching the way I like it how am I going to maximize the the Shelf when people are engaging with my product. If you can if you can take it one step further cuz I really want to do that but it might be different for everybody competitors that something else might fire for them because they have slightly different product. Jason: [21:47] Types of we talked a little bit about packs and early on I made a joke about stuff melting and being tough like you you guys have some specific learning about how to ship these perishables can you talk a little bit about, how that came to be and what the solution is. Doug: [22:04] Yeah well the the the, the basic business problem to solve for was Hershey itself obviously is a chocolate company I mean we have broader Confections we have no candy mints and gum but chocolate is a big portion of our portfolio and it melts in the summer, and so we were never going to be able to realize from a digital Commerce perspective at least in some models. The sales that we would yield in a physical presence with the temperatures control. [22:34] And so we worked with a number of Partners one partner and specifically to come up with a way where we could ship these items very expensive, and it was really only be done within the context of D to cease a really really low volume unit volumes and transactions and also very high average sale prices for the for the units at retail so you have the ability to absorb bills cost in any conomic, but we had to work towards is. In terms of like you know what is the size of the prize overall for our category figure out what that is and then figure out something that between the months of with depends what part of the country but in general between May and then end of September. How can you disable something and make money and make sure that the customer experience in the Hood the consumer experience with the individual product would be what we would hope it to be which is not melt. Yeah so so we work with a couple Partners one in particular that has done really really good work and kind of really fine tuned to the degree where, they use different types of cooling mechanisms or packs depending on how far the product has to go, I'm so further reducing your costs and a couple other Nifty tricks, and they just kept refining that until we have the ability to to to literally deliver hundreds of thousands of packs in an economically efficient way during the summer months and and in a way that the consumers experience. Jason: [24:02] Nice and then you guys use that for your direct sales but you also make it available to your retail. Doug: [24:07] Yeah absolutely yeah so it's as if they have the same problem and this is one of those things where you at we work at the retailers they really didn't want to deal with that issue and but you know because it's not, a huge portion of business over ology is you take out you know basket composition but it's a big a big deal for us right so we said hey we can figure this out for you, we have a model that work, economically for your consumer economically for you and you cannot make way for us to make some choices and maybe leave some dollars on the table but but. Necessary to make sure the experience for the consumers I'm going. Jason: [24:43] I like it I noticed that you have a URL shop. Hershey. Com where your. Selling direct it's always interesting to me to talk to Brands about their direct efforts is that, a green eyeshade play to grab higher margins and cut the retailer out or is it a opportunity to get some insight from customers or what how do you think about the. Doug: [25:04] So if you went if a consumer wants to go to shop hersheys.com the portfolio is radically different from what they're going to see in one of our retailers and there's a reason for that you know of the week and the people that going to go there I really Hershey diehards. And what we are attempting to give them is something they couldn't find anywhere else something that's unique, and we charge you know it's been a very different threshold area average transactions is in the mid-60s, and it's not anything that would be a high-value mover at a retail store and so so the retail was really don't have any interest in it but they recognized it actually, what's generating that loyalty and that Equity is important both of us but but but obviously to them, and so we don't think there's any conflict nardwuar retailers ever bring it up as a conflict because we've said this is exactly what we're trying to do. So since we're loyalists do we make money on it yes we make money on it, but the real reason we do it actually is it to understand better who are loyalists are and what makes them tick and then we can use those insights in that data and apply that to other marketing efforts, both of you know it's why are individual marketing and media arms or actually even with the retailers themselves. Jason: [26:22] Yeah I was going to ask are there any examples where you like gathered an inside or or learn something that you didn't been able to use the benefit the retail account. Doug: [26:33] Yeah I think there's a couple I think you nothing more lies maybe we brought another conversation with her and brought her dad up so we've been able to take that data as well as data that were grabbing tomorrow our websites are brand.com so whether it's Reese's., Hershey's., Hershey kitchens, I'm take that information we've built out profiles we've done so we have, best video the way you look at it you got addressable known you know so you have an email address or phone number of those type of things and then we've got a dresser but unknown but still have the ability to attach attributes to either one of those and in some cases you can merge some of those together, and then we take that and because we have such good relationships with our retailers we even in some cases have the ability to gather inventory at a store level. And we can marry up our media, targeting activities to specific zip codes where we know that those stores are maybe I had a hard time getting the inventory off the shelf. And then we would lighten up and zip codes where we know the inventory is selling through appropriately so it's highly efficient for us to drive to media that way and it's also really great for the retail but that only comes when you have the appropriate kind of dad and son, a message to people in those zip codes. Jason: [27:49] And that's in that's amazing because that like that's a perfect example of these things that like we're not in the old cpg Playbook. Doug: [27:57] Yeah yeah totally. Jason: [27:58] The digital totally tables. Doug: [27:59] Yeah in the beauty of the beauty is too is people like they always they always focus on the the consumer one to one data and they're like consumer one-to-one consumer Wonderland. Yeah that's important but but actually what we're doing is actually using the profile smart first-party data store, some third-party data information that are sales people are gathering in funneling into our supply chain cuz we use those inventory the data points for other use cases within the business, that's where you're kind of like time consumer customer internal together in a really interesting new way and this was a use case it was fairly obvious to to some of the Geniuses we have in video we got some really sharp. But until they actually knew some of that data existed because we figured out the government's tube to marry things up and make things more transparent it would have never did it happen. Since it's a pretty interesting this case all the way around. Jason: [28:50] Yeah I know for sure. When did Jason and Scott show if we didn't talk about Amazon been so I know firsthand that I can get all my favorite Hershey product from Amazon I'm curious where you guys are in the Spectrum there's some people that are like, Amazon's amazing partner and they give us access to all these customers and sell all this and criminal stuff we would otherwise not sell and there are other people that are like gosh there a race to the bottom and they're they're taking all the margin out of our product and enjoy dinner places with a private label version. Doug: [29:21] One could argue that at any given point in time over the read the history of retail that other companies have actually been cited as driving those types of outcomes. Jason: [29:30] I feel like there's always been a retailer that was accused of driving that out. Doug: [29:31] There's there's always one driving that I can think of one action the physical space that people are very worried about it and it's not called Amazon, but it does have an A at the beginning of the of there their they're store shopping there and we have to figure it out the trick for us is how we make sure that they made make money and we make money, and the consumer for the mission that they're on is getting what they want so for us was a lot of insights work figuring out what people were really going to Amazon for, doing some work and having honest conversations both internally ourselves but also with Amazon around, why we might not want to have our entire assortment online is it I think that's a fallback position though a long tail and, but you cannot have it didn't make any sense so you know once you do those things and you you prove that those things are working, and you bring some insights to in this with you choose any retailer quite frankly whether it's Walmart Target or you know. [30:34] Dollar or convenience if you have a Christian site around the behavior, the cast that is interacting with that retailer and you proved it out and it works then it opens up the conversations to do more, and so while you know a lot of times people would say this is a really difficult customer to deal with I would say you know there's a lot of customers that are there difficult to deal with. You know but you know they're trying to make their model work and you're trying to make your model work so you have to figure out a way that makes it. [31:06] People and what I found is that if you can prove, success on Amazon in new and novel ways you get the same kind of dope I wouldn't you know it's a different type of openness maybe but that's different for every retailer to do a few different things and so we have to have the ability to influence, how they're bringing in product, you know giving them good dad of the back backup you know that they're leaving money on the table and we've also been able to be sharp around what's the portfolio you want to have on that retailer that doesn't leave the type of disruption, in the marketplace my pricing or whatever it might be and so it's a balancing act it's it's you're always going to be working on it in some way shape or form, but I think there are ways around it it just takes a lot of thinking and a lot of execution. Jason: [31:52] Yeah yeah it's it's funny because you know there's a lot of medicines that are good for us but don't taste very good, and then in some ways I think of Amazon is being a little bit of that affect that like you guys enjoy a ton of benefits from being the ultimate income then and owning the shell space in brick-and-mortar retail, and so you got this like for great moat around your legacy business that you know frankly is mostly thanks to your predecessors. On Amazon remote is a lot shallower, and so it's like in some ways it it forces better execution and in better development a new school skills and makes it easier for those income instead or those those sort of Challenger Brands to, that sort of them eating your business and infant survive you have to like learn new skills and build a new playbook which is. Doug: [32:45] Yeah totally right and I think you know the way the category at least in that ship to home model you know the core amazon.com out of now and not fresh not prime now or anything, you know is you know it looks really different from the physical world anyway right so the Dynamics of a different soap ensuring that you understand that your Dynamics going to be a little bit different is really key cuz you have to send the appropriate expectations, with your leadership and with your shareholders as to what you're going to get out of out of that retailer if they're concerned about it, I would say though that the most were shallow or 5 years ago than they are now so the, you know there's a lot of press right now around how Amazon has been changing their algorithms to favorite profitability so that means that to the degree that you can serve them with a portfolio that makes sense for the mission. And the consumer makes money for them and you. [33:41] That's a good thing and an MD it because you know if you think about the algorithm if you've got the probability thing kind of like mapped out appropriately then you should be in a good place you shouldn't worry about that too much the other thing is is Frank would they have paid search, and so paid search my mind is is you know it's like taking up, you know what I'm cap or you know it's it's it's different manifestation but actually the smaller Challenger Brands you know they don't have the scale or the ability on bass or maybe even the insides to actually. Do some of that work so I actually think that while 5 6 7 years ago that the motive and Shout I actually think it's deepening a to a certain degree and that actually is is actually good for us now there is always that the the Spectrum say I'm available but that's true anywhere. Jason: [34:30] So in an interesting point about the the paid media opportunities obviously it's it's become economically meaningful and Amazon the right the third largest advertising platform now it's over 10 billion dollars or whatever. Doug: [34:44] Disinterred but still. Jason: [34:45] Yeah and way better margin than their actual retail business. Like it's also becoming more important to every other retailer that's why pebble ate heavily economically challenged so we're like right now seeing every retail are double down on building their own media offers and new jeans and. Like replacing vendors with in-house teams and all these things. Manufacturers funding retailers marketing initiatives is not a new idea has been around for a hundred years like you know they've been all these Coop models and Merchandising and accrual model. Yeah but historically I would I would almost argue it was, sir the quid pro quo like you buy a million dollars of my stuff and you get one and a half percentage of that to invest in marketing and so do you want to put in a circular fine if you want to put it in in cab that's fine too, these new media opportunities what's interesting to me about them is. Feels more like Brands like you are investing those dollars based on an Roi model rather than it being, cost of doing business or I'll punch you are a part of that account management their months is that true or am I being overly optimistic. Doug: [36:00] No it would be true I think you know the. You have to do a lot of work with you is you're starting to engage with the retailers are doing that you have to do a lot of work up front in terms of the puts and takes, and the messaging that we've really been focused on and and Charlie Chaplin who's our head of media mentioned yesterday. [36:19] What has mentioned another conversations is if you're going to become a real media player that means you're competing with the big media players and so, you have to be able to prove that are alive you have to be to surgically more open with your data because what you're saying is if you want to access that pot of money. Then you need to be able to compete because what we're going to do is because. There are scenarios you think you like I'm going to have me invest in this new media platform but it's not going to yield what someone of these other platforms and he'll probably across the entire Marketplace, that would affect that said retailer in retail sense so while they might be getting more dollars in media if it's not if we're actually spending in the wrong place or not able to drive the appropriate amount of traffic, indosat retailer because they're not efficient and effective then both of us lose. [37:14] So a lot of the conversations are around like how do we make sure that we're taking all of those things into consideration, and ensuring that you know everybody wins as a post everybody loses the other than that we think about a lot is it yeah everybody's thinking about becoming a media partner but there's there's certain retailers are never going to be able to do that. They don't have any Rich at your they might be Regional players and so I think their point of differentiation becomes even more. I important and I think there's a couple details out that they are making you know they're like like we're not be able to play that game going to different chicken other ways and I think that's how they could possibly win mut most likely will, but not everybody can become a media player and they have to if they're going to become one they need to understand they're going to be competing with you know some real heavyweights. Jason: [38:01] Tell for sure but I think you're exactly right like every decision any of these companies May, why does a decision to move towards one choice and away from another into that other be creates a white space or someone else and so it's like even, is Amazon's monetizing search and they're selling those like top search results like I I was somewhere I might have been here yesterday Walmart was talking about like yeah we're monetizing our side but we will never, satellizer top search results because we think that's a customer experience thing and so it just it just creates opportunities. Doug: [38:31] Yeah totally and I think. Yeah it's really interesting, because I didn't you know my understanding of this is again this is so you know from the press and just reading over the past couple days is there was a lot of internal debate at Amazon around, do we want to put this attributed or algorithm and use that to drive some of the search results because they were so focused on, the consumer experience and my guess is you know up maybe it'll stick maybe it won't they're very smart they're going to test it out and if they get plaque in some way shape or form their very quick, to adjust but it is fascinating to watch a show to watch after the other thing that I think is fascinating is you know the media companies that are threatened by the retail companies in some way shape or form and how they're reacting, and now who they partner with us to make sure that they're getting their fair share of you don't some cases what is a major Revenue stream for them. Jason: [39:22] Yep no absolutely like it that you know that readers are kind of become media companies the media companies are trying to figure out how to. Doug: [39:27] How did yeah that's right. Jason: [39:29] It's it's funny all the old all the old Twin Lanes are breaking. Doug: [39:33] Stop breaking down. Jason: [39:34] I want Japanese grocery shop today and you just finished up a panel that was entitled connecting customer data points and first of all I heard of the moderator for that panel was amazing. Doug: [39:47] He wasn't credible. Jason: [39:48] Yeah I don't know who that guy was but the date they should get more. Doug: [39:51] Michigan Adventure could give him another go. Jason: [39:53] Exactly what are we taking off of probation can you tell listeners a little bit about like what you talked about in that panel what was. Doug: [40:01] Yeah I think we did a lot of it here in the podcast the you know the focus was on you know you know. Connecting customers and consumers in this case via data, and so we had Scott from Wakefern to talk about it more from a retail perspective and I think he really focusing on the individual consumers and how that relates to Wakefern as a retailer, my focus was a little bit different is you know we're very focused on the consumer as well, but from a broader data perspective where of the believe that being able to connect are both our internal data and our external data actually yields, some goodness with him in terms of the consumer experience that you can't get if they're they're disconnected in some way shape or form and and I was a little bit remiss action the conversation to to bring up, you know how does that impact consumer engagement if you're talking about internal information and I guess one of the one of the ways to kind of think about it is, we've we create a huge amount of content. All that continents are being digitized in some way shape or form if it is in a digital from you know. [41:14] And we have to categorize that organize that and pump that out into individual channels whether their retail channels or whether their media channels and other marketing channels to get to the right consumer so you threw the right create a have the right call to action to that right consumer. And that's very difficult to do in a in a world that's going towards you no more contextualisation and personalization that will have to be automated in some way shape or form. [41:40] Getting your dad and a good place allows us to actually run algorithms over that and they will categorize and organize that and eventually they will just spit out the right messages to the right people at the right time that's just a few years away and Technology really exist, it's how you get your data foundations in place to an able. Is actually more a job once while people talk about the other customer care the consumer experience and personalization and what not what they sometimes ignore is that if you need to systematize that, in a way that's scalable so you can still have the efficiency of a mass media but just do it in a new and different way then you can have to do this data Foundation, first and that's what I was kind of pushing at in the conversation around restraining things together in a way where, it's not isolated nothing takes the the examples I gave you earlier around using data that was being originally connected, or I take an an ingested into the organization to drive supply chain decisions is now being used to sit to do supply chain decisions but also to engage with consumers directly, customers and I find that fascinating so that's that's what we were trying to push on. Jason: [42:50] I like it and I think you're exactly right I got you know I work for a big Ad Agency in so there's a ton of 8 a bird in the air in that agency around Dynamic content what you were talking about in it exciting and people and work on it but for your point it's garbage in garbage out if you don't have the data governance right. The content will be dynamic but it won't be relevant to the right person and. Doug: [43:09] Yeah there's a there's a bit of a risk to in terms of you know when you're thinking through overall data strategy that you need more. I need more or you need to do and I think those things are super important I think they need to be thought about as part of your overall digital strap are digital and data strategy, but more specifically you need to understand what you already have and figure out if you're even exploiting that to the degree that you can and that might be more important and give you more kind of home then the sexy new data goes back to the shiny things. Jason: [43:43] That's a great Segway. Takeaways I thought was really useful from your panel you kind of talked about these three tracks and in data and, I'll let you explain it but like you and clients are asking for the like highest our Ally initiatives like it's it's almost never to get more data it's usually to get a smart person, to do something better with the day that you already have. Doug: [44:08] That's right so that the way we think about it is basically three tracks and you know it's it's. It's a version of people processing tools you know but the way we think about his data technology culture process would be within the culture Buckhead, and around a damn what we think about is you know what is the dad of the way I actually did goes back to what we just discussed a few minutes ago what do you really need and and and what do you need to keep and what do you need to bring and use them and just dispose, that's actually a thing to think about the most people down the second second thing there is the health the garbage in garbage out making sure that the health is there in that one edger harmonizing and merging data sets, and in the last pieces why do you make that even accessible to the organization because sometimes if you recycled it it's difficult to find out you might even have the data but you might not know it's there are, where to go to get it, I'm so sorry for that is really really Foundation important only then can you build your technology platforms on top of that and I'm a fan of simplifying that making it much more modular. Point Solutions and letting the marketplace dictate the Innovations and being a little bit last song. [45:22] And then around that you know there's you know the passwords route optimization and automation that they are buzzwords but they are also true so have the be joyful in the tools that you're going to bring on the platform you can you bring a gun while you're going to use them, obviously make sure that they can plug into the data but then as you're using them making sure you're optimizing them before you bringing out a new feature sets and what not and then to the degree that you can know a lemonade, repetitive process is a knot that scan your first step in automation as opposed to going for the Big Shiny thing, the to be really difficult to solve for the final piece of sculpture which I take you don't have to really think about that is, how do you make sure people are actually thinking digital and data first and thinking about how are they going to adopt the tools that you put in place with them as opposed to going back to their spreadsheets and everybody does a slightly different way, and then think about the types of people that you either need to train for you know the kind of the new roles you have to train for with the with the workforce that you have and then think about how you, recruit and bring a new new thinking and do Talent your digitally native town if you want to call it Dad or dad a native to. That's the way we think about it three tracks around the dad out the technology and then the culture get out and then there was no one here goes around those three years ago was around those and five-year goals around those. Jason: [46:42] I I love it. We are coming up on time I want to squeeze one more question if I can. If you put your crystal ball images I think I'm mixing metaphors so I got think you would. You wouldn't wear a crystal ball but if you get out your crystal ball do you have any sort of pod about how all this is going to continue to evolve over the next several years. Doug: [47:05] The first if you were to wear crystal ball you'll be Mysterio, that's true all right we can agree on that. Ok the I don't know to be frank so the most wanted right after the panel out of I had an analyst Piper jaffray ask me questions like what's going on I I I really doubt. What we do know though is you would have continued convergence or I would say metamorphosis or transformation retailers in the Media Partners I think that is happening already. And so the thing to watch will be out of the incumbent media players react. So that that's going to be a really interesting space I don't know exactly how they will. But I think got to be extinct the other thing at least in the US market is clear is that the the retailers are not Playing for Keeps in the groceries. Space rights in the last 2 years you you saw a massive increases in click-and-collect operations both at Walmart and Kroger Target making moves with Cher. I'm kind of the rise of instacart as you know what kind of about third-party solution for the retailers that maybe can't afford or don't want to go into those those areas themselves differentiating different ways and they do that to a third party. So I think I think that I think the the cards are out on the table now now it's a matter of. [48:26] How does everybody make money from that scenario you know because it is diluted at least and it's in the near-term and it's going to cause everybody to rethink how do they address things in a way where. Consumers are happy because they're getting what they want the customers are making money and the manufacturers are making money I think. That's going to be really fun space to to watch. Jason: [48:52] For sure I'd I couldn't agree more and that's going to be a great place to leave it because we've used up all our a lot of time Doug if there's one on contact you or are you somewhere on the interwebs are you. Doug: [49:02] Yes I keep a minimal footprint on LinkedIn so you'll find me know where else but LinkedIn. Jason: [49:09] I like it with the aggregate all your juice that there's nothing wrong with that and as always want to continue the conversation they're welcome to hit us up on Twitter or post a question on our Facebook page as always if you enjoyed the show the best way to assist a jump on iTunes and finally give us that five star review we've been desperately begging for Doug has been a real pleasure I appreciate you taking the time. Doug: [49:33] Thank you so much. Jason: [49:35] Until next time I'm happy you commercing.  

Natasha, Jenna & JJ debates on this week's episode about having an overnight work thot bag for long nights that doesn't lead back to the house. Do you go to the local Wal-Mart/ Target and get a fit OR do you pull up in the same clothes from yesterday? One thing we learned was that thot bags are IMPORTANT!! Natasha & @jobbingwithjas discuss the employment law of the week about Hairstyles and Discrimination laws in 2019 to stop discriminating against ethnic hairstyles. The thing black people have to do to cover their natural hair. Natasha & Jenna talks about projects and task being above your pay grade. Do you not do certain things because it's above you now? JJ brings the drug test story for this week with Reggie for a warehouse job and you know he got a post-accident drug test. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fckworkpodcast/message

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Delta Airlines makes flying with them even easier, Walmart & Target team up with Google to compete with Amazon, Facebook rolls out it’s version of PostMates, and we introduce some new segments including: “What is Amazon taking over this week?” & FTS Obituaries. Our main discussion revolves around the growing popularity and legitimacy of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the marketplace. We dive into some recent developments in the crypto world that are capturing the full attention of some very important entities and beg the question: Should you be investing?

EP0096 - Listener Questions Part 2, and News Amazon News Amazon now showing pics of delivered packages in app AU fulfilment center Amazon hiring day (50k new jobs) Lots of new FCs coming Sears to sell Kenmore on Amazon and build Alexa into products New Amazon Hub Lockers Forcing Free Returns on 3p Sellers New Amazon  handbag private label launched - The Fix (Prime exclusive) Stripe processing some Amazon orders Listener Questions Michelle Grant via Twitter: Do you think Nike is one of the few brands that have the leverage to get Amazon to remove 3P inventory? Steve White: Hey guys, when I talk to brands they have this sense that they are going to be 'pushed out' or off the platform as Amazon develops products in their respective categories- my sense is that Amazon has never acted like a bully in that regard, just adds additional competition- thoughts? Parker Block: Who is right, @retailgeek ? Are disruptive forces going to drive retail consolidation (per @debweinswig) or fragmentation (per @klobaugh)?   Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 96 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday August 3, 2017. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.  New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 96 being recorded on Thursday August 3rd 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners Jason you're you're at home the rear of the sign this is the first week this year you've been home so that's pretty exciting. Jason: [0:50] I am for those of you that are listening this would be a good time to up your investment in Chicago area Starbucks if it's possible the individual investor in the Starbucks branch. Scot: [1:01] Cool flowey, you wanted to start off at the top of the show and congratulate one of our friends of the show Peter Cobb he was our first guest and he's founder of ebags and he has just announced today that he is joining the board of DSW so congrats to Peter. Jason: [1:19] Yeah that's super exciting I had a nun confirm report that his primary qualification for that job was that he was the inaugural guest on the Jason and snot ship Jason and Scott show. Scot: [1:31] Oh yeah yeah I think it's definitely Resume Builder will have to see who the second guess was and see if they rise to Fame and Fortune as well as well. Jason: [1:39] Exactly. [1:41] Scot I feel like we didn't get to talk about it and I may have happened 2 weeks ago but they revealed all the information about the new Tesla and if I'm remembering right you have an option to buy one. Scot: [1:55] Yeah yeah I'm excited the actually the day they announced it I put into pre-orders so I was going to, use one and give away or if I couldn't find some of that wanted I was going to sell the second one and, it's exciting because they did just kind of update the website and show when they're going to be delivered. And I find it hard to believe so I'm taking this with a grain of salt but it shows that both of mine would be one is to give you a 3-month window and one is October, November December in the other one is November December January of, 1718 so I doubt that I will actually be that early but it's kind of fun to think like it could be possible. Jason: [2:38] Wow are you going to have time to expand your garage in time. Scot: [2:42] I don't know we will see. Jason: [2:47] That you talk about first world problems that is definitely a first world. [2:52] I don't know if I ever told you this but that turned out to be my inadvertent brush with greatness do did you follow that there was this light controversy someone asked you on musk if he was going to get the very first one, and he tweeted something about how know we have a strict policy that whoever fate pays. The full fare gets the first one and so that belongs to one of our investors who subsequently gave me the rights for my birthday did you. Did you see that story at all. Scot: [3:21] I did not know I missed it. Jason: [3:23] Yes it was like a internet thing for a day and a lot of people were questioning the veracity of that policy, and so it became a little controversy on stuff but what was funny about that is, the investors name is Ira iron price and that that sound really familiar to me, it turned out he was an intern for a VC firm that was when the investors and when the reefers companies I was a principal for and so I get to work with, I rather like the week he graduated from Stanford Business School and now he's giving Tesla's to Elon Musk. Scot: [3:58] Nice you should call him up and get on the list. Jason: [4:01] Yeah I don't feel like I would want to want to impose. Scot: [4:04] Yeah. Jason: [4:06] But I will share the story on the podcast for partial credit. Scot: [4:10] Cool actually I think it counts yet that is definitely a Forrest Gump kind of moment there. [4:15] Two on let's jump into it on this week show we're going to cover some news from the week and last week we had so many listener questions we were swimming and listener questions we're going to. Kind of swing back around at the. Back half of the show and pick up some of that we were not able to get to so we apologize to those listeners that were waited on listening it with bated breath last episode, we will do everything we can to get to the mall of this week so let's kick it off it would be a Jason Scott show without some Amazon news so here we go. [4:50] Amazon news your margin is their opportunity. Jason: [5:06] Yeah so the first thing is I had several colleagues send me pictures this week from there Amazon app where in the the order tracking, Amazon was uploading photos of the Amazon box being left at the customer's doorstep. Scot: [5:25] Yes the. You tag me in one of those tweets and I logged into my account one morning and had like 60 notifications that's like what the heck the only time that ever happens to me as if Marc Andreessen his stop tweeting but when he was he retweeted a couple things and I would wake up and have like. 500 followers so it felt like that is very exciting for me. [5:46] It's coming in a few I was kind of thinking through the logic there and so. Obviously one of the standard carriers is not going to do that so. So USPS so it's Amazon the bulk of crime goes through ups and then they leverage USPS in the needle little bit of FedEx so none of those three cares would do it. But they do have this Care Network called Flex that not many people know about this started when they launched Prime now it's an Uber Rush type service so uses 1099 drivers and a very similar Uber like system but for packages instead of people. And they developed this for Prime now so all the prime now products are delivered that way. And then what we're starting to see is more and more packages out of the Fulfillment centers they're running some algorithm that essentially kind of. Uses that same driver not work and I believe if people are close enough for the you can ommix work out that it's. Cost-effective compared to the other options, then they will get Flex drivers actually go to fulfillment center and deliver a package so it looked a lot like my guess was that that's what those package pictures were is the flex drivers like an Uber driver they have a very. [7:05] I'm very specific Amazon after the download to be a flex driver in there they can scan packages and take pictures so seems like that's the logical place where that would be happening. Jason: [7:15] Yeah and I think partial confirmation that you're right at the first person to send me that picture was a co-worker of mine Jeremy lockhorn, and he has a one of the Ring doorbells so after you you positive that theory that it probably wasn't a UPS driver Jeremy pulled the video from his ring doorbell and, sure enough it was a woman in a tank top that look like. Dropping off that that the box of the door. Sheer in Chicago because we're lucky enough to be really close to some fulfillment centers we get a lot of, same day delivery using those Flex drivers from the actual fulfillment center in Indiana and so it's my my building I have 12 Neighbors, it's in our condo building is pretty funny we get two waves of Amazon packages a day like our UPS guy comes at about 1 in the lobby fills up with Amazon packages, and then the Fulfillment center delivers All the Same Day deliveries at about 9 p.m. and are in our lobby refills up with Amazon boxes every night. Scot: [8:23] Wow you're just like Amazon sooner there. Jason: [8:26] Yeah there's a lot of good trend-spotting by just walking it with my neighbors order I will say I'm someone impressed by my neighbor's they they have some pretty eclectic e-commerce shopping witch. Which always makes me happy but I think people Basque. Scot: [8:42] You're a child the look in the box feature to see what they throwing. Jason: [8:45] I have it as you probably know it only works with your own order. Scot: [8:48] Yeah I know I try to. Jason: [8:49] Which means I can never say anything because it's my boxes are always from my wife so they should have a family family plan for that somehow. [9:00] Everyone on the plane Prime account you should be able to see or something but I think presumably the reason they're taking those pictures is to reduce fraud and you know false claims the packages when delivered that seems like that. [9:16] The primary reason. Scot: [9:18] Yes there are some of the on demand economy companies make it part of their user experience to kind of show the delivery one of the one of the New Generation Flower companies called Urban style mistake they actually film a little video of the product being delivered and they send it to the sender as kind of a nice little wait to see. [9:38] It's not as kind of boring as a package sitting on a porch. Jason: [9:41] Yeah it makes it makes the most sense in the world and you think about it it's it's kind of sad that the big flower companies can't do that cuz you would really like you never know what the product look like looks like that you purchased. Scot: [9:53] Yeah absolutely, a couple other kind of quick hit lightning round items on Amazon news these are all kind of in the area of filament so. [10:04] Amazon has long been rumored to be opening in Australia there was kind of definitive news that they have located a warehouse so that's interesting so their first fulfillment center in Australia has been located they've done a lot of PR around hiring for the holidays and they they did a job fair this week where they had, 50000 folks they were hiring and, moose articles I saw actually wear negative because there's so many people at these events the lines literally went on for, most people reporting waiting in the lines for eight nine hours it was interesting the financial press was kind of surprised because, if you look at the data that comes out from the government it looks like we're at effectively you know neutral employment where, almost everyone has it we have very low unemployment right now but then when you go to these events that they're hiring you know kind of. 10 $15 an hour kind of folks there are also a lot of people out there looking for working and they really would like to work on Amazon fulfillment center so that was really interesting in Amazon got a lot of, there's ton of press around it. A lot of it was negative not not really against Amazon just a line seem to be very long I'm the last one is we recovered Amazons. Q2 earnings last podcast but. [11:19] After we recorded some news came out that the CFO essentially said one of the reasons there was a lot of expenses kind of in the four projections was that 80% of the format centers are going to open this year will be in the, back half essentially and Amazon doesn't really open fulfillment centers in November December so back-half essentially means, July August September October so when I do the math on that it's kind of crazy it makes it seem like they're going to open. Teen 220 performance centers and it kind of comes out on the high side of that so that's give me something I'll be keeping a really close eye on it is kind of the reading the tea leaves there made me feel like there are a lot of a felmet centers coming in the next 3 or 4 months. Jason: [12:06] Yeah and that's feels like that's now going to just be an annual cycle for Amazon so it's it's funny of your investor you should almost like you know grow to expect Q3 to be a low profit quarter as they they have these huge expenses for opening these things. [12:22] Another interesting news bit do we didn't get to cover earlier is Sears announcement that they would now be selling Kenmore appliances on Amazon and that. It was interesting for a couple of reasons but in recent months we've talked about. [12:39] Honest to add previously said they would never sell on Amazon sewing on Amazon we talked about Nike that said Amazon wasn't right for the brand you know he's at least dabbling with some excuse on Amazon you know now we see Kenmore which is one of the you know. Few remaining valuable properties that Sears owns. [12:56] Moving to Amazon in every time one of those things happened like it had a derogatory fact on the rest of the industry and sure enough the other Appliance retailer stock went down. When Amazon announced that they were selling Kenmore so you know I think we're seeing this new trend that. Then Amazon can you know at least temporarily like materially affect the valuation of all their competitors just by issuing a press release which is. Pretty interesting in one other thing it was interesting about this Kim ordeal that I didn't see as much coverage on but Kenmore also announced that they would be integrating the Alexa in a bunch of their appliances. And so that's a you know another controversial one you know a lot of retailers aren't aren't big on Alexa being the default, artificial agent in all these kitchen appliances because it obviously is giving Amazon this huge leg up and you know now for Kenmore to do it as is, pretty big blow. Scot: [13:58] Yes I think it's you know that a lot of discussions about looks with colleagues and I kind of take it to this pretty extreme wear. I think Sears could actually do better if they would shut down a lot enough all but maybe I don't know 50 stores or something and sell the real estate and then become a house of brands that sell other places online not only Amazon but. Definitely Amazon good examples I think a really big mistake they made is they sold Craftsman for something like, 900 million dollars to I think a private Equity Firm note to Black & Decker and you know I think if they'd sold Craftsman on Amazon that would have been. That line is got to be I don't know what its revenue is but it's kind of be a. Billion dollar ear line is still quite popular out there with with tool folks so so it's interesting I don't know if this signals a change of that kind of thinking or if it's a last-ditch effort before they sell it or I don't know but it just to me it feels like. If you could have kept Craftsman. [14:59] Cheap Kenmore of the good couple other brands sell the stores and use the proceeds to go buy more brands in and I'm kind of a family of Brands there that may be a better future for Sears and kind of like what looks like this slow death that they've been barked on. Jason: [15:14] Yeah I know I certainly think you're right I suspect that some of the valuable Brands they've had to sell it been painful and I think they probably had to sell them because the stores are such a money sink that they just needed the cash and you know I think, you know financial hardship makes you make some some short-sighted decisions and and Craftsman might be a perfect example of that. Scot: [15:36] Another quick Logistics one Amazon announced a whole new product called the Hub. And this is a physical Locker it's a lot like Amazon lockers and even looks kind of like it but what's different is it's meant to go into residential location so at least case they talk a lot about is an apartment building, or like your building where you are Jason sounds like maybe have a doorman so the packages are secure but pretend you didn't have a dormant then, you would put this Hub there and you'll receive packages and, the returns in there that kind of thing just like an Amazon Locker the difference is it now has a new brand called the Hub and if you go to the hub. Amazon.com you'll see a picture one of these and other really interesting difference is it can be used by Third parties so a FedEx delivery person could come in and they enter a code, there's a sequence that they they can enter on the screen and say. I have a delivery for Jason Goldberg and it would open the door and then it would know okay Jason lives in apartment. Etsy and it would somebody would message you and I think you can set up, as a resident you can log into there some software you can log into and and set some preferences of how you want to be communicated with so you would get a text message that would say. Jason you got a package from FedEx tracking number X in the hub and then you would go get it and, and you can even put packages in there and summon UPS let's say for a pickup kind of thing so it's pretty resting and. [17:08] You know a lot of companies are working on these things and it just Amazon already is is kind of dislike their 5th generation attempted this it was interesting to see them taken more open approach which is kind of the closed public area Amazon Locker. Jason: [17:21] Yeah and I mean it feels really smart you you go to like the grocery stores that you know do the home delivery through a bunch of these services and what you now see is, a bunch of Amazon lockers for grocery delivery next to a bunch of instacart lockers for grocery delivery next to potentially some third service, and it's taking up a ton of real estate in it it just doesn't seem feasible and so you know you use scale that to these home buildings and it's not likely that FedEx ups and Amazon are all going to get, get the locker space, in the lobby City's building so it's it's pretty smart of Amazon to say hey wolf will do the landgrave pool get the space because we'll let you use it for everything. [18:03] And I do also you know obviously one of the things this is a dressing as just as as. You know we're being disrupted by e-commerce and so many of us are getting so many packages at home one of the real problems that's coming up is package theft and we're saying all kinds of. Interesting and Goofy Contraptions being invented to sort of mitigate that but these Walkers are obviously. [18:26] One of the best tool so so I suspect they'll get some success with that the next news item I saw. [18:36] Got some seller Amazon sellers and a little bit of a kerfuffle Amazon sent out a letter changing their their returns policy for three-piece sellers. All just read a little bit of the announcement dear seller Amazon is simplifying the returns process on items fulfilled by sellers. Starting October 2nd 2017. Returns of items that you fulfill and that fall within Amazon return policy will automatically be authorized customers will be able to print a prepaid return shipping label via the online return center instantly. [19:12] There's another paragraph where they announce another future which is we're also introducing returnless refunds a feature of the tire you requested by sellers. If you choose to do so you will now be able to set rules and automatically issue a refund without requiring an item to be shipped back to you. So as a request this because in many cases it allows you to save on both return shipping and processing costs so the gist of this. Is your three-piece seller on Amazon you're not using FBA. Customer wants to return a product used to go through a process and the seller would have to authorize that return and now they're just saying hey we're forcing all sellers to take returns no questions asked. [19:57] And there's a lot of small sellers then on the forums and on the the Amazon forums. I really outraged about this because you know you know they feel like they're getting getting cheated by by these nefarious buyers that buy stuff and then. Indiscriminately return it and I think it was even some confusion some sellers thought they'd be forced to use this this returnless refund. And that clearly isn't the case that's really designed for products where you know it's more expensive to ship the product back than it is to just throw it away or something like that and so you know they're giving that as an option to sellers but. I don't think this is news for anyone in FBA I don't think it's news for any of the big sellers but you know I do think it's. An interesting play I understand the sellers being upset by it but as a customer I think it makes a lot of sense when Amazon is doing. It's really confusing and complicated when the terms of service are different for every product you buy. Based on who sold it to you right so I buy 3 things they may have come from three Cellars. On Amazon I typically don't even notice that and so then if I want to return all three it's very odd that two of them are returned with no question to ask and one of them the return is denied so this seems like a. A step to force more consistency in a more customer-centric. Approach on Amazon and you know certainly at at some cost to Amazon sellers which I understand they they probably don't appreciate. Scot: [21:29] Yeah yeah a lot of small sellers view returns is kind like this. Battle Ground and they the Dig and dig their heels and have these stocking fees and all this kind of stuff they try to turn into a profit Center and I think the larger sellers of kind of said look please. Those days of Internet are over that's comic 1995 thinking let's returns are here to stay just got to make it in your modeling and that's not going to be the profit Center in whatever the cost is. Put it in your business model and go forward you can't just, can have that kind of thing and I agree with you it it's level sets to user experience that makes it a lot cleaner than than kind of the password to Congo reach every sellers return thing and go to the different rma's and all that stuff. Another Amazon news item is I think one day in the future will look back on 2017 and it'll be the year of Amazon private label because seems like a new private label is launching every week right now so this is your for long time you had a couple out there anchored with amazonbasics and, couple others pins on and and Stratford and things of that nature and then this year there's been like literally a new one is discovered, every month so this month so you know. Private label is called the fix and it's Prime exclusive so all these private labels are either Prime exclusive or not this one is a prime exclusive private label and its Footwear and Handbags so. [23:02] It's got kind of a very floral bright kind of a look to it so it'll be interesting to see how that does. Jason: [23:11] Yeah you know I think there's some possibility that Amazon you know has been the Nemesis of Peter Cub forever and so what a coincidence the day Peter goes to work for shoe company Amazon start selling shoes. [23:29] But yeah I do think it's going to be interesting obviously you know every industry looks at Amazon and then go oh man they're doing great and all these other Industries but, but our category is much more more complicated and you know I suspect a bunch of people at, a Vera Bradley in Michael Kors and you know all the other brands or you know waking up this morning and either. Being being concerned or or not but but they certainly probably should be based on the success of some of the other Amazon brands that they've been able to build. [23:58] And I just always like to remind everyone like we get in the habit of calling these private labels because they're their brands that are offered by the retailer but. You know my joke is Alexa probably doesn't feel like a private label to the the product managers for Bluetooth speakers at Sony. [24:17] Seems like they're full fledge brand. Scot: [24:20] Yeah and unlike kind of what I talk to other brands they kind of say well we've competed with private label for very long time which is true but it's. Different because you know these are frequently tagged. With Amazon Choice they're designed in such a way to be very diffi like mature Brands so it's not like Old Roy dog food where it's like clearly the the Walmart brand or something like that so there's a couple that are there's like wickedly Prime and amazonbasics obviously, but you know when they when they do these apparel ones they slip them in there and, you know it is as a consumer that's not familiar with every brand it is hard to tell so if you do a search for dress shirt or black dress and you will see I'm guarantee they'll be a strip of Brands up there and two of those are private label so it's kind of a I like to do this I go into a, like you I present a lot I'll go into a presentation and and pull that page up and say what's the private label and I would say almost understand the time people cannot a hundred percent gas at the, there's one that dough gas in it other one don't they will mess up so I think it's people should take these very seriously. Jason: [25:35] For sure and think about it like what the next likely plays are with all these brains right like Amazon guns going to use. All their data on selling Handbags and Footwear across all products, to identify the attributes that customers most want they're going to use the search results in the the non converting products and figure out where the gaps are in the market and so there, they're going to be able to use this huge amount of data that they have, dictate what you know how their product lines evolve which is a potentially big competitive Advantage now they're going to install cameras in a bunch of people's dressing rooms and take pictures of their outfits so now they're going to be able to help. Help no much more so than any other manufacturer, the exact fashion sense of all their customers and what products they tend to wear and how frequently they tend to use them so that's going to give him another big advantage over over the traditional Brands and then you know course they're going to roll all these products into, the Amazon wardrobe offering and you know send free trials to customers to let them keep them if they want them like they're just building so many pieces of. Ecosystem here and if your you know your attritional handbag manufacturer or footwear manufacturer that just makes products and tries to sell on you know. You know I think you really need to think about it like you're not just competing against another skew your complete competing against a whole new echo system that that. You know in the medium-term is likely to change how people shop for these products so that's going to be interesting to watch. [27:06] The next news item I had I'll be honest I'm not sure what to make of and you you had a particular interesting Theory, stripe made a press release in stripe as a, very popular payment Gateway particularly with smaller Sellers and marketplaces in they made an announcement that they were now. Providing an undisclosed conducting transactions for an undisclosed percent of Amazon sales. So Amazon is now using stripe for some of their payment processing. Scot: [27:46] Yeah this was a tricky one cuz it was reported everywhere and it was hard to chase down the. The source and its in a Bloomberg article will put it in the show notes and seems like the author saw Amazon's logo on their site and that was almost kind of the. The Germ of the whole article who's winning pieces you know how they became a unicorn not stuff which is great but then you know it is weird because so stripe is. Primarily used for mobile payments and I just got to imagine that core Amazon which one you think about amp. Mobile is the the Amazon app I find it hard to believe they would use stripe but the. Interesting thing about Amazon culturally, is every team is independent and so the cost of that is you don't get a lot of reuse of sometimes nowaday forestry used to the the cloud platform called AWS which is kind of how they saw some of that but I have seen teams at Amazon just kind of like me, their own kind of choices for things and dude. Copies of things like for example in Prime now launched it had a whole different set of product images and taxonomy and things than Corey Amazon and, traditional companies would say well why would you do that that's silly but Amazon favor speed over over efficiency so. So my guess my first guess was while there's a team in the Amazon that wanted to move quickly if for some reason they didn't really want to use Amazon payments per se so they probably just use stripe then I was kind of thinking what. [29:24] That be two ideas I had were, so the treasure truck is really starting to scale up an. You can imagine that that's going to be one of those scenarios where you're going to need to be out there, you're in the field with a point-of-sale system Amazon doesn't have anything quite like that and you're going to want to be. [29:44] Having an individual process payments kind of a sales rep kind of thing so that kind of struck me as potential area and then another one is maybe like some of the Amazon book stores or something like that maybe. Oster using has striping bedded and then you know the AWS team is kind of its own Rogue thing that I was thinking maybe they certainly are processing a lot of credit cards there maybe Stripes used on the B2B side there and some context, yeah or maybe there's some other Amazon app haven't really thought of this launch in the last year that that used to stripe to as as as payment processed I just went to really hard to believe that core Amazon is using stripe unless you know this is some precursor to an acquisition or. Did Solving some. [30:28] You know it could be maybe an international kind of think so sometimes you know you're going to Sonny's markets and the it would be too expensive to add support for payment Type X and maybe stripe party has it, those are kind of the things or maybe they wanted Amazon pay or Apple pay added to something and you know, Apple present keen on letting Amazon into that so they stripe give him coming arms-length way to have that those are kind of my thoughts on this I don't think it's kind of what, you know the kind of implied in that article. Jason: [31:05] Yeah I think any of those are possible like I greet with you unless it's a precursor to an acquisition it makes no sense then Amazon would just start using stripe as kind of a. 1/32 primer for people about payments like. If your small pair a small seller and you want to start taking credit cards you're likely going to pay a 2.9% fee for credit cards and that's the, the base price that striped charges to accept a credit card the more volume you get the better price you can negotiate. And so if you're a huge retailer. Only 10% of your sales are online so you're selling if you're Walmart you're selling 300 400 million dollars billion dollars. In stores you're selling 14 billion dollars online. You want to aggravate all of that sales together to get the absolute lowest credit card fee possible and that size you're actually going to install your own network and have a direct relationship with a bank. Either a little smaller than them you're going to use one of these Enterprise providers like cybersource or Chase payment. Amer maybe Braintree you know that these are all really common with the big Enterprise sellers. And where stripe is really fit is for smaller Sellers and newer sellers because what with stripe uniquely did is stripe said hey we're not going to try to offer features that appeal to the CFO making the decision. What service they're going to use we're going to offer features that appeal to the developer deciding what service to integrate. And said they they have much better api's and documentation and implementation guides and you know if you're a small startup and you want to add Payment Processing. [32:43] Million times easier to implement stripe then something one of the other payment providers I mentioned so they kind of grew viral RI some of those small companies have become quite large. But that's really historically been there Niche the big Enterprise company retailers haven't been using them in the biggest retailers for sure wouldn't use them because they would just agregate up all there. There their transactions so it makes very little sense for Amazon to take a small percentage of their revenue, pull it out of their deal with a bank send it to stripe where they would almost certainly have to pay higher interchange fees it just it just doesn't. Doesn't make sense unless there's something else going on like you you theorized. Scot: [33:23] Yeah and you just jog something for me one of stripes, biggest benefits therapy eyes is not only are they good at charging cards but they're good at disbursements that ends up being something you need if you're going to be a Marketplace so Airbnb is large customer of theirs and so imagine you rented your apartment out to you would want to collect from the renter and then you would want to receive payment and that disbursement part is is kind of tricky because, you as the person receiving the dispersement you may want it to an ACH on a credit card or who knows PayPal or something so then that makes me think, the newest Marketplace in Amazon is Amazon Home Services where, they are doing a lot of these you know installations of those kinds of things were there collecting frown when in and dispersing on the back end so that that's like another option I can think of is, strike could be the disbursement platform for that. Jason: [34:18] Yeah yeah that totally possible so that that is going to be interesting to watch. Scot: [34:22] Cool and non Amazon news just a couple of quick ones, Stitch fix has been widely reported to be close to following an IPO and then they actually have apparently file to confidential IPO. In the way this works is there is a jobs Acton before the jobs act you would minimally familiar with this process you would, you have to file your S one and then you would essentially put everything you're doing out there in the public so as you go back and forth with the SEC your documents are out there for everyone to see, and you maybe the market goes to a rough. And you want to pull the IPO you've already kind of revealed all of your deepest darkest secrets so what the jobs I did is it allowed for companies with a under billion dollars of Revenue to file confidentially so you get a period of time where you can file you know you have to tell anyone you have seems like they have chosen to tell people they filed but it gives you this kind of air cover where you can work with a cc, you can, you can even cut an update the documents over a quarter to and essentially get ready for my PO and then do the timing. Whatever works best for you can see how the market rolls out in it leaves alleviates kind of a lot of the risk and stress of the IPO process so a lot of. Series out there of why they're doing it now and I do think if it kind of the math they were reported to be at like a 800 million dollar run rate, I bet they were getting pretty close to the billion-dollar run-rate and you lose the ability to do this so you also see this kind of decision Point kind of at that billion-dollar run rate of your gosh we need if we're going to do this confidentially we can have to do it now. [36:05] So I think, I think that's to be really interesting to watch when they do take the covers off that US1 will report on it because a lot of people are very curious about what's going on under the hood there. Jason: [36:16] Yeah I hadn't even thought about that but then she'll risk that they go over the threshold that's that's super interesting the other. A news tidbit I had was an announcement from Walmart and JD in China and for those that don't know JD is the largest. Direct seller e-commerce site in China so you know we always talk about Alibaba which is Team all and tell about those are both marketplaces so jd.com is the largest kind of traditional. Reseller of other people's stuff online and they have announced a pretty interesting partnership with Walmart to, host a shopping Festival which here in the US would call a sale holiday on August 8th next year so that's that's going to be an interesting. New play from Walmart in JD and China to try to create their own shopping holiday to compete with alibaba's single day on November 11th. Scot: [37:16] Yeah freak will be interesting to see if they're going to call it like all each day or double 8 answer seems kind of can't call it singles day. Jason: [37:25] No but I suspect we're going to have a podcast to cover it next year. Scot: [37:30] Absolutely. Jason: [37:32] So was you mentioned upfront we did we did listen or questions last week which were great and very popular but we didn't get time to answer all the listeners question so it is once again time for. Scot: [37:53] Questionnaire questionnaire question love the echo did you you must have done that one at the Grand Canyon. Jason: [38:04] Exactly I give that sound effect was a little shorter we would have had time to get all the questions in last week. Scot: [38:09] I never know if it's ever going to totally stop, our first question this week comes from a longtime friend of the show Michelle Grant she's at euromonitor in this one was from Twitter and her question do you think Nike is one of the few brands that have the leverage to get Amazon to remove 3p inventory, and that's what they're calling Marketplace skating so what you think Jason. Jason: [38:37] Yes I do think they're one of the few but I think it's a combination of things right like I think I think you have to be a big desirable brand and I think in in Nikes case the levers they had is that they, we're not selling on the brand and they're one of the the most requested products on Amazon and Amazon you know didn't carry except through. Through a three-piece hours and so I. Like I do think that was interesting that they had the leverage to to clean up the the the marketplace by by draining Sales & Products Direct, I wouldn't surprise me if we see a couple more of those deals but I certainly don't think they're going to be commonplace I certainly think in general. Amazon's not going to be willing to do that and you know frankly as they knock down a couple of these top. Top brands they want they're just going to bless less future brands are going to have less leverage to cut the same deal that Nike cut. Scot: [39:33] Yeah I agree I think there's literally 5 to 10 brands that could get this kind of treatment things going really interesting is how will this relationship work so yeah you can paint a scenario where. Nike went into this genuinely wanting to sell more product and clean up the marketplace or you could say we'll maybe this was kind of a little bit of had faith in there like okay Amazon will sell some of our in Nike has a good better best will sell some of our good in a little bit of better but none of our best, and you're going to clean up the marketplace and then you know the other part were not privy to as what is the pricing relationship so. [40:13] Amazon hates it when they can't change the price of a product they will they will live up to map pricing. But if you see it cheaper somewhere else they really like the flexibility to lower price so you can see this relationship being a little twisted if. Couple scenarios so so let's say Nike has somehow negotiated Amazon can't do that that's going to drive Amazon crazy not being able to the price so that's one scenario where this relationship sours another scenario is where. You know. [40:44] Amazon goes and changes the prices like maybe Nike came in thinking we've got our pricing under control that's not a big deal fine change prices if you find it lower and it was on so good at that that that's a good may surprise it in my experience and I deal with their very surprised that, Amazon so aggressive with pricing and then be when they call him on it Amazon can provide like a detailed report that says here's why we lowered the price it was you had it at, in Iowa there was the store that had it in with a it was even cheaper per se but it came with a gift card and that's why we not to ten bucks off across the country so I think that could cause some friction and then, Amazon is forgoing some a lot of Revenue and a lot of margin and maybe a year into this it turns out that, 3p was more practical than Nike I I don't know what the outcome of that would be but I got imagine Amazon has some data there so it's kind of interesting to see how this relationships going to play out over time at I think I see more scenarios where it kind of sours and then they cut split up then. Baby come back together later or so we'll we'll see how it goes. Jason: [41:54] No I think you're exactly right and the 3p Marketplace is such an important part of Amazon success it just it seems like. Yeah that's to be a really compelling reason for them to do something that that negatively affects that. So the next question we got is from Steve White and, Steve is a co-worker of mine on the the Commerce team it sapientrazorfish so no Steve very well and he he sent the question hey guys when I talked to Brands they have a sense that they are going to be pushed out of the, platform is Amazon develops products in their respective categories and then he goes on to say my senses then Amazon has never acted like a bully in that regard just adds additional competition, thoughts so Scott is are they going to kick off all the shoe companies now that they have private label shoes. Scot: [42:45] No no I think you know they Amazon love a couple things today love fast free shipping they love Amazon Prime and the kind of loyalty it builds and Trust the things they love on top of that or selection and volume so there's this classic Amazon flywheel, Scot funny up and talk about this for 10 years now I run chose to flywheel, in and at the heart of the flywheel is selection and value and that's that's where, you know they don't really push Brands off so so I think, what I'm saying is this really interesting kind of hat trick where you'll have a name brand out there so let's say. I don't have Bob I was buying something that has buying some shorts so Columbia shorts are out there and they were like $80 maybe $60 for last year's kind of thing that was the name brand, men's shorts and then there was an Amazon Brandon there and then there was a Chinese brand so so I think they they like giving consumers that option to say hey here's here's a wide price range of things you decide, and they're all prime eligible and you decide what you like do you want, us to have a cop put our brand on something and call it the Amazon choice and the private label do you want to take a little bit more risk on quality and whatnot with a Chinese kind unbranded Cellar or do you want to buy from the name brand name brand that has you know it's more expensive and you're going to get you. Better fabrics and better this a together with that one so so I think I think. [44:21] That brand shouldn't worry about that now would they should worry about those the slice of the pie because even though they're still on there we weave there's stairs. Lots of case studies that we see everyday of these traditional Brands they don't really pay attention to their Amazon business, and I'm not real brand comes in and soaks up like 80% of the Amazon Market overnight and that's hard to fight against even if your name brand because just the way they Amazon machine works with SEO and sales rank in the ad system in FBA and all that it can be very hard for a traditional brand, did they have to make some really fast. Big decisions that big brands are not good at making to catch up to that sir so I think the risk is actually that they lose a slice the pie, and that's the entire Amazon Pie which is the very big pie. Jason: [45:10] Yeah once again I totally agree I think the. There's very few things are going to do to get kicked off the Amazon platform I mean you know violating terms and conditions. You know fake products stuff like that or, selling stuff that Amazon can't make a profit on you know if you know you can fall into that category and get kicked off the project the platform but, it certainly is unlikely they're going to kick you off the platform to preference their own Brands to your point. Like it can be harder to win the buy box when Amazon has products but I don't even think that they. Manually putting their finger on the scales in most cases. For those private Brands I think they just know how to score better in rank better in there and answer the result they're going to win the buy box more. And you know when those search results more. And therefore it is you say get get a bigger piece of the pie I would say the one place work like this still isn't getting kicked off but we're probably feels like it's getting kicked off it is. You know something like the echo is getting like so heavily promoted around holidays like Prime day and and Christmas and you know it could be. Pretty hard to elevate visibility for your competitive product you know if you're competing against one of those. Does core Amazon products but I don't think we're going to see that for all the private labels on Amazon. Scot: [46:44] Yeah and here is our last question this is from Parker block this one requires a little bit of setup so there were two articles recently out there another friend of the show who has been a guest Casey Low by he had an article out talking about kind of the fragmentation of retail so lots of Little Stores sign things and Brands going to react so, Lots in this big kind of. [47:08] Tons of choices for consumers at the same time a popular writer Deb weinzweig she used to be an analyst at Citi now she writes for Fung retail. Sheeran article that said know there's all these disruptive forces going on in retail and we're going to see massive. [47:28] Consolidation so essentially you're going to go from you know I don't know how many retailers but if you look at kind of Mulligan and you start tracking the number and they've been very good at. That tracking the number of store closures and then projected store closures and all that it's pretty easy to convince yourself there's going to be. Walmart Target and apparel company and, or two or three in a couple luxury ones some dollar stores some clubs and then that's kind of it so a lot of the retail is going to go away and we've seen enough more bankruptcies this year than we've had ever so, so that's a long set up so the question is and I'll let you tackle this one Jason, are disruptive forces going to drive retail consolidation which is Deb's argument. Or are we going to have fragmentation which is Casey does seem to be mutually exclusive outcomes so I'll I'll turn it over to you Jason to hear your thoughts. Jason: [48:22] That's very very clever I was actually hoping to hear your answer and then I was going to tell you whether you were right or not, but well they seem to be mutually exclusive I actually think they're not and so I think the answer is both but I'll I'll. Be a little more definitive than what I mean by that the. [48:42] I feel like we're going to definitely see a consolidation of people that are segregating other people's stuff and selling it. So traditional retailers that buy stuff from third parties mark it up and sell it I just think that's going to. Increasingly be a hard business to be in in differentiate yourself in and we're likely to only see a handful of those product aggregators, and you know obviously at this point though the one that that certainly seems to be winning as in North America is our friends in Amazon but at the same time. [49:15] That we're seeing a lot of product manufacturers have lower barriers to entry to sell direct to Consumer than ever before I mean 50 years ago if you invented a product the only way you could get it to Consumers was to get it on the Shelf at retail, and today it's it's much easier to sell that stuff to wrecked a consumer and increasingly. You you would want to go from a margin standpoint and from a customer intimacy standpoint and from a data standpoint, and you have to because that's, tell me what you can control your price and differentiate yourself and you know not not just be you know and see if 100 million products on Amazon and so I think what we're going to actually see is. [50:01] A fragmentation and sellers in the form of product manufacturers that are selling their products direct and we're going to see a consolidation of sellers in the form of aggregators that sell other people stuff. [50:16] So so Casey Deborah you're both right. Scot: [50:20] You unpacked the mutually exclusive arguing very well the aldila controversial and disagree with you to some extent so I'm going to go consolidation and. I put a star by that so let me come back to that in a second but let let me dress fragmentation night do you think it is interesting we talk a lot on the show about the digitally native vertical Brands but what's interesting if you kind of look at it. They haven't scaled as big as you would think they would right so so the splits pick on bonobos they've been on the show great brand love them love Andy's riding and all that stuff, but they sold the Walmart you know they didn't create kind of a 5 billion dollar brand and. I don't never disclose sales but I think they sold for 300 so if we give them kind of a 1x sales or maybe that was to set put some between 150 and 300 million. You would think with the vast audience online that they would have been able to just keep selling in Skilling online that I haven't opened stores but they ultimately had to open stores to get consumer awareness so. So I think there will be Brands willing to sell direct but it's going to be hard because it's very it's a weird customer experience to not have them aggregated in some way, and that's what traditional retailers have provided now back to my consolidation I think we're going to have consolidation but I pull astrix by it because I think the consolidator is going to be different than what we think they are, tell me the traditional folks like an Amazon a Walmart kind of department store kind of thing but I think what will happen is. [51:52] As these Brands want to get consumers to consolidation points will be where your attention is and. China is a really good example of this where you know you have WeChat has become itself it started out as an app. App for chatting it is become this portal or Channel now that people shot through so the app has become kind of the. What's the web essentially so it has the tire web inside of an app and that's. A form of consolidation so if it kind of project that Ford in the US I think what you'll have is you'll have some traditional retail points of consolidation but I think actually what will be bigger is going to be, it was some the platform consolidation so I think you actually will have a fair amount of sales going through Facebook it's hard you know and I. Put Facebook I put in stew and all that stuff inside of there and then also when you look at people where people are spending their time things like Snapchat Google and then maybe even at the device later maybe an apple or. [52:53] Yeah it's kind of nother kind of consolidation point so. That's how these brands are going to have to be able to get in front of consumers because they just can't do it through traditional channels and. [53:07] Part of my thinking on all this is that we go to a much higher percent of sales that are online and that's kind of what's happened in China as well to drive that behavior so so I think consolidation but not just retail consolidation but. No attention consolidation which may be a retail thing like Amazon but it could also be Facebook Twitter and yes those guys have tried all this but I think it comes back around in some form and that's the, platform for discovery that I am you're if you're not playing on those your you won't be found on the internet. Jason: [53:41] That's very interesting. I will totally buy that it can spend the fact that most of the platforms have had very little success today I I certainly agree that is going to be easier and easier to push the, the transaction out to the point of Discovery so if if they're in a new points of Discovery they could ask absolutely be consolidation points, so that that's a great call at Scott I'm going to Sweet Lee clarify my answer when I said, brand selling director going to you know therefore be a bunch of pregnant at Sellers I suspect the overwhelming majority of those Brands still will sail with the aggregator so I don't mean no exclusively sell Direct, but I think they'll they'll certainly you know do their best to earn as much of the direct businesses they can and you know particularly if you look at it through Scots timeline. The other thing that's going to happen is a lot of the buyers for this stuff are going to be computer chips are all agreed them's that are doing Auto replenishment in your home and. You know that the Samsung dishwasher is not going to care whether it buys your tide from Amazon or direct from Procter & Gamble and so you know I think that's going to. Create greater opportunity for for those direct Cellars in a bunch of those categories. To have a meaningful Direct business so would that said I have a follow-up question for you is a Marketplace. [55:02] Consolidation or fragmentation right so on Amazon where I've got you know a huge number of sellers but a single cart is that actually. Fragmentation of sellers or consolidation of carts. Scot: [55:16] I think it's consolidation because and I think their traditional way of thinking about. Consolidation is front doors so that's kind of the approach I'm taking his like you're going to how many please it offline metaphor how many physical front doors do you end up going through. That number will drop off line in offline I think now it's your counting the fragmentation is the number of buying entities or if sellers of record behind the front door. [55:48] I think that's kind of a nuanced kind of view of it but I see where you're going with it but yeah I think it's the front door is kind of how I am I'm answering the question. Jason: [55:58] Cool Scott we we meet at we got all the way through or listen or questions, and that is perfect because it is happen again we've wasted a perfectly good hour of our listeners time so we certainly would encourage listeners to continue the dialogue on our Facebook page if you love this episode we greatly appreciate a 5-star review on iTunes and feel free to use Twitter or Facebook to, send this new questions and we'll agregate a bunch of them and do another listener question show in the future. Scot: [56:31] Yeah thanks everyone for all the questions we really appreciate it. Jason: [56:34] So until next time happy commercing.  

EP093 - Amazon Prime Day Hot Take Amazon Prime Day was July 11, 2017.  In this episode we give our hot take on this Amazon created sales holiday. Goals for Prime Day History of the Holiday Results for 2017 Prime Day Jason & Scot's conclusions from this years event Interview with Jamie Dooley Head of e-commerce at Dorel Juvenile Group to discuss their Prime Day experience Amazon Prime Day Recap press release Amazon Deep Dive EP24 Podcast Full interview wth Dorel Juvenille Group, Jamie Dooley - EP86 Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. A weekly podcast with the latest e-commerce news and events.  http://jasonandscot.com  Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 93 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday, July 12, 2017. New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show: Transcript Jason:  [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 93 being recorded on Wednesday July 12th 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot & Jamie:  [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners, well yesterday was the third annual Amazon Prime day and it's Day show we want to go over the highlights with a Jason and Scott exclusive Prime Day hot take. [1:09] Well Jason did you take advantage of Amazon Prime. Jason:  [1:12] I did not as voluminously as I might have thought I would but I found a few things to buy. Scot & Jamie:  [1:18] I think the problem with you and I as we're probably at at Peak Echo so it was, it's actually frustrating day when you're at pekic Echo and you paid no I think I paid north of like 18190 for my couple of my Echoes and to see it there at at a. Much lower prices it's almost got a negative effect in a weird way. Jason:  [1:41] I have that happen in a couple of ways like certainly with Amazon first party for like but they're also some some other products I purchase from Amazon recently that then went on on Prime Day deals that they gave me a little bit of buyer's remorse in, night my family frequently likes to remind me that I have a very short gap between desire and fulfillment so it's. You know I'm not good I'm not going to waiting for those deals. Scot & Jamie:  [2:08] Yeah next you need to create a prime day blackout for pretty much all of the spring so no shopping past me. Jason:  [2:16] Yeah yeah that that would be the smart thing to do I'm not committing to it. Scot & Jamie:  [2:21] So it's funny I probably like you I spending a lot of time for the day looking at the deals and, really funny one I don't know why it made me think of you but I did and it was this lunch box and it kind of started working its way up as a hot deal pretty quickly and I don't know how many they sold these things but it must have been, thousands of them but it's a it's a lunch box and the gag is it's this kind of white medical looking box and it's got an EMT tag on it and it says human organ for Trans, so you know imagine you see your colleague in the lunchroom and they're brought walk in today open this up and start eating stuff out of its kind of like. Zombie apocalypse lunch box that was a really strange when you know some of the strange ones that you see over the years are like The Yodeling pickle and those kinds of things with this was a new I had not seen this before I am and it was kind, at the same company makes fake take out boxes that for you to put your lunch in so that he's kind of like you know, strange-sounding stores in you they they look like Chinese take out and you put your lunch in there any doubt of it just kind of like throw people off that what you're doing. Jason:  [3:28] I got it that seems like a lot of thinking type stuff. Scot & Jamie:  [3:31] Yeah yeah it was kind of funny it's from a third-party seller where these guys I will have to have one of our interns look it up and get back to you. [3:43] But I thought it was pretty funny one to bring out for folks. Jason:  [3:47] Good luck with that with the interns I can't get those guys to do anything. [3:53] Scot before we jump into this year's Prime day maybe it's worth a setting the table a little bit and talking about the the history and context answer the first thing I was like to remind folks of, is the Amazon is not the originator and does not own the market on inventing their own sales holidays there's a, a great great tradition there but specifically in an e-commerce you know Cyber Monday which is been the biggest shopping online shopping day of the year in the u.s. for many years was really an invented Holiday by one of our former podcast guests and the original shop.org team. Scot & Jamie:  [4:37] Yeah yeah you know the what to pull up the episode but Scott sober in the, does that story goes they saw the trend in the kind named it so you know the back before we all had Broadband Sans fight 3G 4G 5G kind of connections you would go to work and you would use that nice juicy Broadband connections that's why that Monday took off and they decided to name it, that was the first created holiday and then another one we talked about a lot is singles day. Jason:  [5:07] Yeah absolutely in that and you know that the global people and or the Alibaba people that created singles day. [5:17] Would quickly point out that that the. It's it's become much bigger than Prime day or Cyber Monday are at the moment and so there's a lot of momentum there by the way the the Scott Silverman episode was episode 66 of any listeners want to go back in, and catch that up, so we have that Cyber Monday then we had Ollie Bob launching singles day where they took sort of a niche holiday and turned it into a huge shopping day and it's now you know by far the largest single online shopping day of the year globally in the end of course 2 years ago. Amazon 2015 Amazon launched the first Amazon Prime day. Scot & Jamie:  [5:59] Yeah and pretty quickly it has become their single largest day and that's a good segue thanks for a little history on that and before we dive into, a little bit more details on Prime day I think it's important to take a little bit of a step back and say why does Amazon do this I think the common. The surface level is to sell more stuff you know if you can take a month like July and make it into a put a peek day in there that that actually helps right and maybe pull forward some holiday things, and it also helps with Q3 you know Q3 is kind of slow or time. And summer is kind of, little bit boring any Commerce there's a lot of extra capacity in the system but but I think you know as we go to the episode, I think that you have to peel the onion on this to really understand, the first child refer listeners to the Amazon deep dive which was very early in our podcast and career which was episode 24 shame on you if you have not made it through that episode, but for those of you that the didn't which I know is very small part of our audience what are the keys to Amazon success is the prime program. Jeff Bezos has a fun crew out there that you're a lot he kind of says we want to put so much value into Prime that you would be effectively irresponsible not to join. And right before Prime day there's this, This research company called consumer intelligence research and they they they tend to have the highest approximation of prime users and it came out at 85 million Prime users. [7:34] I think that's their Us number most other people are in kind of the 65 to 70 million range and, the other thing that is common about prime is it when someone's on Prime, they spend at least twice some surveys show twice as much and some show three times as much I believe is more towards the three times, as much so I believe the prime numbers a little bit lower than that you 5 million but I think the actual usage and the multipliers higher if that makes sense so, so I believe there's five reasons that Amazon created Prime day number one is to create a generate more sales or what we would call and Industry gmv gross merchandise value I like that term because it encapsulate Stu 1p in 3p, transactional volume a little bit clearer and that's too deep for this episode but again hours for you to that deep dive, the number to is prime adoption so again people spend more money on their own Prime and if they can get people to, try Prime data shows that, dead again this is from survey data so take it with a grain of salt this is not Amazon releasing this but as people there's nothing surveys out there I think you get a pretty clear picture that once someone enters a Prime trial 73% become paid numbers, flip side of that is 27% of people probably just join Prime for the 30 day, trial. And then turn out but 73% stick which is when you look at online trial rates is actually pretty high usually they're kind of been to tend to 15% stick on Amazon 73%. [9:09] Then if people stay a year then the retention rate goes up to to greater than 90% so if they is kinda like the roach motel once you check in to prime your chances of checking out are pretty slim and Amazon's got a lot of devious things. Genius depending on which side you look at it for forgetting you deeper into Prime and accessing one of the many kind of spokes on the Hub, the third reason for this is an Amazon has an increasing we talked about this a lot on the show portfolio devices so getting more devices out to you and in your house, creates more stickiness in all those devices are tied to Prime Lenny's flywheels overlap each other the 4th when is prime day, drives engagement of the Prime offering and adds value so so it's kind of foreign five together so by driving engagement of saying okay I'm using and maybe you're enjoying today shutting will try video, Prime music try Prime Pantry Prime here's some exclusive deals Prime now try, Echo deals that are for Prime members only try some of our private labels that are prime exclusives, the more they can get you to activate inside of the Prime family and offerings and ecosystem the more kind of stuck you are in the web and, you're the fifth one is that that making sure that you're reminded every year that there is a big benefit in this annual sale is one of those many benefits that exist, Nordstrom's is kind of famous for their loyalty program they have their annual sale and giving people today's exclusives or something like that to go shop. [10:43] Sets on the surface it feels like it's a reason to sell stuff but in reality I think the real reason and benefit of prime day is to drive Prime sign ups and add to the value prop in the seals are really just the icing on the cake. Jason:  [10:58] Yeah I would totally agree like of those five benefits the the sales while like certainly valuable and important as probably the least important of those five reasons so they. They recognize all those opportunities they launched the first Prime Day in 2015, and serve remind people how that went you know it was generally viewed as pretty smart and favorable that they had created their own holiday so I think they got like a good vibe and there was some Buzz coming out of, that first year but it was not what I would call a home run right like so there was a lot of the narratives from 2015 where. The man the deal sold out super quick and so a lot of people weren't able to take advantage of the deals and and we're somewhat upset, there were some actual you know customer-facing technical problems and so this hashtag emerged on Twitter Prime day fail and folks were complaining because. The card didn't work and they weren't able to take advantage of the lightning deal and then the deal expired and they missed out and they were upset there were some. [12:06] Vin deals in in the prime day so they were there some kind of. Products with they were underwhelming that you know not very many people are interested in and or the deals weren't very good it was a little confusing to even find the deals. And you're going back to one of your subjects. You don't half of Amazon essentially is is that that 3p Marketplace and those guys really weren't included in the first Prime day it was almost exclusively for Amazon products and for 1p products in so that you know both was bad for customers cuz so many of the things that customers buy from Amazon or 3p, no certainly bad for all the 3p Sellers and then you know wow Amazon paid lip service to it being sort of a global holiday and being in all of the Amazon markets, from the volume standpoint you know it really only was meaningful in the u.s. in the UK. [13:01] So in spite of all those challenges like you know I think the big win for that first year is you know that they were able to say that they added hundreds of thousands of prime users in that one day so regardless of those challenges, that alone would have made 2015 a success. Scot & Jamie:  [13:18] Yeah yeah it was it was definitely rough riding and on the 3-piece side I think they were so secretive about it, that didn't tell anyone about it literally until about 24 hours before they just had told us you know maybe like 3 days before that there was going to be something happening in to get the servers ready, so that was kind of funny and you know. [13:38] It's only two years ago which is which is crazy but Amazon had some candles that line was getting kind of old and tired, they're the tablet's they had where did really didn't find kind of the niche that they have found now that's kind of like you know this value kind of tablet they were there still kind of, premium tablets and they just come off the failure of the fire phone you and I are the only two people that think in the globe the have them, and so there was a lot of that that device stuff that they could sell in 15 so then 16 came along and you know what how I would characterize that is typical Amazon fashion they learned a lot from 15 and in 16 they are they. They righted the ship in and fix a lot of the wrongs the deals were more aggressive they they now had Echo to kind of go out there and push. Call you and I bought a couple that multipacks tobacco so I think we bought some three packs of. Some of those kinds of things so if you are kind of, early adopter it helps you kind of get echo in your whole house which was nice. The spread the deals to the day so instead of having them all at launch and then it won't come through them they they were much more well distributed they open the valve a little bit for 3p and, then when the dust settled they announced that it was as big as Cyber Monday so they had actually created a day that was kind of into that top 5 kind of a day, two or three day for them dad and more countries so they expanded it they were in, nine countries and 15 Inderal and 10 in 16 but I would say they they got more serious about it and we're countries and in 2015 it was probably United say 80% attention was US 20 UK and then like. [15:18] Almost nothing in other countries and then 16 they realize they could create more of a global push so there's a lot of push special an Indian and then. Again with the dust settled at Amazon announced that the sales were up over 300% from the previous year so 16 it feels like this really got a lot of traction. One thing to highlight is the top 10 deals from last year so I think that's kind of interesting as we can look at what, sold this year something to this quickly so the number one was this air vent cell phone holder, number two was an Amazon gift card so it's like a $50 card with $5 off which is effectively 10% off anything you want to buy from Amazon some in the ear headphones noise-canceling from pose a USB thumb drive that worked on both USB C and normal us, Echo was number 5 fire TV stick was number 6 fire 7 tablet was number 7 pressure cooker was number 8 and, one of those 5-port Chargers was an Amazon Basics 1, number nine and then one of those power Banks or or a movie like charger but it wasn't the movie was the 10th largest so. So that was really the the kinda the Highlight there from 2016 feels like they had addressed a lot of the technical issues and in really kind of, started to get their sea legs on the Steal. Jason:  [16:38] Yep and then when it came time to talk about prime this year Amazon made some, some pretty significant changes to the program so one of the biggest ones is it's no longer Prime day it's Prime dazed. Because they've extant extended the deals to 30 hours so it actually started the evening of the 10th and ran all the way through the 11th. [17:04] So you got six more hours they really sort of. Try to prime the pump and get more people using their Alexa to do shopping and so they actually started offering deals. Alexa users that were willing to use voice two hours earlier so that started at 4 p.m. eastern time and that was a clever way to to get people to start doing a voice Commerce the. [17:30] They greatly expanded the the number of deals that greatly expanded the the opportunities for three peas to have deals globally they added China India Mexico. They. For the first time they now had so many deals that they had to offer some some filtering so that you could filter deals by category and a little bit by price point so they started giving you some some basic tools to. Turn call through all the deals and find the ones that you're interested in they had a lot of exclusive deals to the Alexa platform. And they even had some International deals where you could do some cross-border shipping for some things in some markets. Scot & Jamie:  [18:18] Yeah and then so that was kind of lead up and then when the deals went live again we're talking about this year, I always think it's interesting to kind of see what they highlight on the homepage is kind of like those that is really kind of priority deals that they're launching and I think it helps you read the tea leaves on what's their priority for that Prime day, so there was the you're obviously echos a really big push so the. Was 34.99 versus 4999 so that's like a, that's a really low entry point to get into the family at like now at 3499 did is some interesting bundles with the. I saw him bundling it with the whole Sony speaker, that little Sony speaker only added like $15 so that was interesting, the main line Echo was 89.99 or his 179 sets half off which is very aggressive and I think I think. I think it 179 they're probably making a little bit of margin on the hardware I think it 90 they're losing money so they must see you know some some, data from putting these devices out there there must the razor razor blade thing must be working for them or I don't think they would be selling a, prices you and I both know did it was funny that they had a really good deal on Oculus where is effectively $100 off of via an Amazon gift card, another really big seen this year was home automation so they were really pushing folks like yourself and I that have already kind of, flushed out the The Echoes in the house should really try to do more home automation I took advantage of some of those but so some of the things like the higher-end Philips hue light bulbs kits were rather. [19:49] Attractive price some of the plug automations I don't do the locks but I saw those were pretty aggressively priced so you can tell that that was a really big scene was was getting people to activate home automation in connection with the echo, another one that's really interesting I saw was some of these ancillary parts of the Prime mucosa. [20:09] So they have Prime now which is same-day free 2-hour delivery and paid 1 hour delivery that's in about 45 markets now most of the stuff on Prime now was 25 to 35% off, plus they had this $10 off coupon that if you hadn't used the service before you could use on your first two orders, there's a program called Amazon restaurants which competes with Uber Eats. Push mates in all those kind of food delivery companies and in cities I don't have that where I am but where you are in Chicago they were pushing, people pretty hard on that Music Unlimited, Prime Pantry so those programs we've talked about on the show had pretty substantial discounts Prime Pantry with 35% off your first use, and then a lot of the private labels that was talked about on the show everything from apparel to amazonbasics and whatnot those were very aggressively priced up to 50% off. So heading into the day internet retailer magazine projected that for 2017 that they would have their first billion-dollar Prime day. And they were kind of saying it would be about a 20% increase. [21:20] Zach that's kind of lead up to the day and when it first launched and here we are the day after and now have some early kind of hot take results that we can walk you through, Jason you want to take a stab at some of those. Jason:  [21:31] Yeah so you know. Amazon has issued some press releases of their own most of the stuff that they give us is sort of a relative number so how things did this year versus last year and then you know there's some third parties that do their own estimates based on surveys and things like that, so one of the the Amazon. [21:53] Claims was that they sold 7 times as many Echo devices this year as they did last year so and I would have argued they sold the awful lot of echo devices last year so selling 7X. Is pretty impressive I think they mentioned that 50 of the top 100 sellers on the platform ran. Ran promotions and I think you know some of the Animas have said that this probably ended up being about a billion dollar day for them instead of put that in perspective. A normal Q3 day for Amazon's about 444 million dollars in Revenue so it's a little more than than twice a normal day as a result of of this pig sale. Scot & Jamie:  [22:39] Yeah I know that equates to when you start doing the math it's like you know between one and 2% so this you know I think people, you hear about these things that are like wow this is going to increase Amazon's overall sales 30% or something and certainly for the day it does but in the the overall vast sea of GMB that is Amazon actually. Doesn't move the needle that much but if they can add 10 20 30 million Prime users into a subscription into a trial period and and like I said at the top of the show 75% stick. That's huge when because those guys were are now in the ecosystem now they have to come like moving to the next up witches get them you get them loving 2-day Prime shipping and then get them using something else and then Delp Delp stay around forever, what are the interesting themes you and I have talked about a lot of the last year is Bran's really waking up to the Amazon opportunity and one of the guys we had on this show on episode 73 or the Wall Street analyst Omar Asad, he had a note out today and in his take away was. Did there was just this crazy level of participation from softline Brands this is topical because we had a lot of news here lately where we've had Nike coming onto the platform and and whatnot. So so you kind of rated the different brands and and how they did and. Let me kind of pursue this in the Brand's he saw take, Shakira advantage of prime day would I would imagine this is kind of a. [24:12] We're going have a guest on later that will kind of walk us through how they think about it but you have kind of the foundation is you know you have to have product Prime eligible that's important which means they need to be fbar you can use self Rafael Prime and then. That's that's the platform then you need to offer deals into the different deal platforms Amazon has been kind of another dial you can turn as a brand of selling 1p, and even 3p most of these that is we'll talk about her one piece Amazon gives you quite a bit big of the big ad platform so they have AMG which is display ads and Ms which is search ads. So the highest levels participation in the softlines category coined Omar were awarded to Calvin Klein Hanes Carter's Lee and Wrangler VF Corp Levi's Puma. I feel like this is a who's who's list of who's gone the show fossil guess and Skechers the ones that kind of underperformed or really didn't, dissipate are let me see if I can get this right Gap American Eagle Lululemon Vans and and Nike I need to make sense I think. You a lot of those guys kind of proceed themselves beat up, so some of them are on the platform very aggressively it all a lot of them view themselves to be kind of a premier or luxury brand a lot of her new the platform like a Nike so Nike just started selling no literally. Days ago right it's been kind of formalized I don't know if they're late actively selling very much so I think next year will be a year for that so it's interesting his takeaway was this is kind of the year for four Prime day that Brands really woke up and participated in the end of material weigh. Jason:  [25:53] Yeah and I then I kind of think you know there's Brands they were very clearly playing defense. [25:58] And you know they're on their and they're they're they're doing some participation but they're being really careful not to sort of poison. There other channels and in markets with promotions and then they were brands are playing offense and we're saying like Hey we're going to take advantage of this day when we have huge incremental traffic with my intent and try to sell as much stuff as possible. [26:21] So the like looking at the official Amazon announcements they said Revenue was up 60% year-over-year. Which is obviously very good it's not as good as last year which was sort of in the area of 300% up but obviously. You know now they have a bigger base they said 3p was up more like he wasn't very helpful statistic, they said that they were a record number of new Prime members tens of millions in a 50% more customers this year than last year, more folks joined Prime yesterday than any other day in history and the number one product sold was the Amazon Echo. Scot & Jamie:  [27:08] Yeah and another one they highlighted a lot is they've gotten they worked with the manufacturer and I can't remember who it is but they made this TV maybe it's the element I believe it is and it's 55 inches and it's Alexa enabled, and I haven't seen one but I talked to a lady there and it is pretty wild you you can say the whole experience is through, everything you can do on a remote you can do to the Lexus so they've built this skill and you just going to say Alexa you know go to Channel 5 or Alexa find, you know the two men then whatever your favorite show is fine Star Trek next Generation or whatever and it will it will do all that stuff, so that's a relatively new product that was announced earlier this year and they promoted it very heavy another big element of. Prime Day this year is Nate they ran a lot of TV deals which I took his kind of putting a bit of a bull's-eye on on Best Buy and this TV day, they hiked it a lot going into they had a lot of them in his to be aggressive and actually sold out in 2 or 3 hours which means at to get this deal really over performed what they are expecting. They did put out a list of best sellers by country I want kind of take it went to that for once I wanted to just chat about quickly, pretty much an every country there was a private label offering so if Riggs ample in Mexico the number one seller was an Amazon basic, Cable in Japan happy but happy belly pure bottled water was a top seller that's a private label brand that they have for cpg there's. [28:40] What other Canada the double a batteries the Amazon basic double a batteries were a top seller so what what's interesting is, private label seem to do very well this year I saw him pushing it very hard and in the u.s. deals also is a bunch of accessories so whenever someone buys that TV I'm sure then you get on Amazon basic HDMI cable, I'm so that was interesting to see a lot of private label push they didn't put any other stats out on that the other stat that was interesting is they said, stop base which means you're using the Amazon app on on your smartphone those orders doubled so if the whole day, orders grew 60% and does effectively doubled between hundred percent they really over indexed which means desktop Ryland group. [29:23] Percentage when you're 30% Amazon does a lot of things where you can always see the deals and track them you know that the app experience is truly better than the desktop experience they said they sold 3.5 million toys again, it's a nursing number but I have does a lot of reference. [29:41] Another one that's kind of interesting is this this voice Commerce so they're so aggressive with the Alexa deals and pushing those early, I looked at them they're pretty good too had a 3D printer on there that was normally $600 for like 250 or something like that and, that's some really interesting deals on there they had Greenies that were more than half off there's a PR firm kind of pushing stats that say, before Prime day 19% people had purchased using voice in a 33% additional intend to if we kind of when the dust settles on Prime day I think we're going to see. You know 30 to 50% of folks, either having use that for Prime day or will it with their new Echoes they will be ordering something online so so that's pretty interesting Callen came out the survey also right before Prime day that said, they believe 13% of us households have echoes, and you know if if it's since we have this Echo. As the top seller and eyemagine the normal Echo was up there these TVs it's going to nursing you know I think, by the end of this year with holiday and Prime day maybe we start to see 20% of households, that's pretty interesting because you know Amazon is on their lap of this thing and and the rest of competition is really kind of stuck on the starting blocks. Jason:  [31:01] Yeah absolutely that that's one where it felt like they came in the prime day with a commanding lead and then for that to be the the biggest seller and 7 times more than last year, they're absolutely lapping the field in terms of a penetration there so if they can turn your point they probably did make a bunch of money on any of those devices so the magic question is going to be vacant. They can turn that into customer value over time. Scot & Jamie:  [31:26] Yes sir so let's wrap up this segment with kind of what what were your your big takeaways from Prime Day this year. Jason:  [31:34] Yeah what's it looking at the day in aggregate I definitely feel it was a big win for the 3p sellers there we saw a lot more 3p sellers participating, there as a result doing a lot more deals in a lot of the Amazon advertising Vehicles which can be very effective. In addition to making some nice revenue for Amazon where vailable the three-piece hours for the first time so so definitely. A win on the 3-piece side of the fence. On the one piece out of the fence why we don't have real data I strongly suspect that by far the biggest win we're first-party Amazon products and so that's. You know certainly that the echo family that we've talked about but also the Kindles and all the new private label stuff. [32:24] That they're starting to push and that really leaves me too. To my biggest takeaway from this whole thing which is to me the big winner and Prime day is the Amazon Echo System way more so than sales like almost everything we've discussed up till now. Was Amazon using prime day as a tool. To get people more addicted to the rest of Amazon so using more of their services discovering more of their services. And you know getting more value for that Prime membership and just making Amazon more sticky and increasing the customer lifetime value of all those Prime members and you know wow. I think that's in stark contrast to singles day. Which is really just a day to buy stuff like we really haven't seen Ali Baba turn singles day into this powerful flywheel for Ollie Baba. For the rest of the year like you know maybe they that use singles day a little bit to get new international brands on the platform but it really is. [33:28] Kind of a one-day Wonder for Alibaba and to me the Amazon approach is almost the exact opposite it's way less about you know Dublin sales that one day and way more about. [33:40] Making Amazon much stickier and making it in a much more difficult for consumers to choose to buy stuff. [33:47] Elsewhere after they get addicted to all the stuff that they were encouraged to try for the first time on on Friday so in that way I think. [33:55] Prime days a home run for Amazon in this year only sort of the extended that when I will say you know they're still things that aren't perfect as a result of having way more deals. [34:07] You need to give users way better way to filter those deals and find the deals that are relevant to them and you know while they added some super rudimentary tools in the mobile app. [34:17] I would I would say they were very deficient and so I like to say that they had a signal-to-noise problem this year that it was probably harder than ever before for consumers to find the deals. [34:28] That would have gotten them excited and so I suspect that something will see Amazon work on and in years to come I mean you and I used to joke about. [34:37] You know there being no search in the in the Echo skills go to store and in that same way like you know there's actually is no search. [34:44] For for Prime Day deals for example you know I'm curious I think it depended a lot on category but in a lot of these categories. [34:54] I'm not sure that the prime Day deals are necessarily the best deals of the year. [34:59] So it's a promotional day but but not necessarily A deeply promotional day for everything you know I do chuckle. [35:08] The reason Amazon doesn't give you any hard numbers for for any of these things are obviously they don't want to but they don't have to because this whole day is not financially material to them right in so you know what ones are reminder. Yeah they do no more than double sales from 450 billion to 2 a billion but that's still not a meaningful. [35:31] Bump in the in the overall Amazon Echo System so while they brag about the day a lot it's really not about that that. [35:40] Financial stuff and then I guess my last. [35:43] Big takeaway is that by far the biggest winner of all is the the echo echo system or the echo platform. [35:53] Is a quickly lead to hit mute on on my device in the room. Scot & Jamie:  [36:00] 8 devices in your house just woke up. Jason:  [36:02] Exact side note for people that haven't listened to all the previous episode shame on you but my sister-in-law is actually named Alexis so all the devices in my house have to answer to Echo not to Alexa. But I do think. There there is a a holy war going on to win that that end home intelligent agent every other retailer in in the world has huge reasons to root for anyone but Amazon winning it. And you know we we in our CES recap this year we talked about all the products at CES that had Amazon built into him you know they certainly have the Lions. Market share and then they're the only one that have a huge promotional event like this so it just it feels like. Despite the fact that you know a lot of people have a lot of reasons for to not see Amazon win in this category it's getting hard to imagine anyone anyone really catching them at this point. Scot & Jamie:  [37:01] Yeah I think voice Converses the big wind and. Not only is it just the device lead that they have but Google is stuck in this weird place where, yeah because they don't control a consumer experience for ordering anything with with exception of Google Express, you know it's this really it's hard to build that so if you say to Google Voice you know order me an air filter for my house they've got some Partnerships with eBay and that kind of thing and but you know, what are they going to do like shop that order out to Home Depot and Lowe's are you going to have to go and set a preference for everything you want to do it. [37:39] Is that becomes an important part of this this home assistant, it's kind of game over for Amazon and then you know let's say Google does go solved that how are they going to monetize it their whole business is Mata, monetized off ads and you know a lot of the Google things the music and all has all these ads in it and it's like a really terrible user experience compared to that, now more more people are coming out with these assistance to Apple's it hasn't hit the market yet but they're already announced one Samsung has one coming out in Alibaba analyst 1, forgiveness cost at T Mall in the name so you everyone's working hard to catch up but I think Amazon has this inherent kind of. [38:18] Advantage not only with the device penetration but with the use case of ordering stuff now you know you could argue home automation is a lot more level playing around, but again if they can get to 20% kind of out there and US households and it's clear from the deals that are running they want you to do more home automation they're already kind of got a commanding lead and and again if that kind of starts to become your standard and you start to use that, ecosystem are locked into it it's going to be heavy sliding for these other guys trying to compete, voice Commerce is kind of really interesting one to watch this year I mentioned the brand thing earlier, and I'll refute one of your points a little bit you kind of talked about it not being in material sales day and I agree but it is financially material because of the Prime Subs so if they get 20 million Prime subscribers the average Prime users. Spends about $1,200 to make math easy let's say they spend $1,000 a year, well on the day it's not a significant impact that's a 20 billion dollar add to the Top Line and that's like it oh that's like Walmart's entire online business. Doing the math right so so there is a long-term Financial impact by those Prime subscribers and then, the more they can keep them and you let say the number is 85 million if they don't want to turn in those folks so if they can get you to use another spoke on that benefit and lock you in even longer again it's kind, but huge win and it keeps you from going to other retailers. Jason:  [39:46] For sure and and I guess I meant to sort of lump the Prime Membership into that. Thing one of the powerful drivers in that ecosystem versus talking about the revenue. [39:57] I would make just one other point that you so reminded me of on the how commanding this this voice, sweet is and how problematic it is. [40:08] You know. More more products are going to be built with voice in them and if all the manufacturers have to build Alexa and because that's the strong consumer preference think would that means to every other retailer like you can go buy a bunch of Samsung refrigerators in Best Buy right now, and those refrigerators I'll have Alexa in them and so guess who's shopping list, when you are you're using with that product you bought from Best Buy is enabling you to shop at Amazon right and you know it's not exactly Apples to Apples but Walmart selling a bunch of Samsung phones that have the Amazon app in bedded in it and so you know you can tell how commanding this Echo System advantages when your competitors are forced to sell products that are, that are sort of gateways to your echo system. Scot & Jamie:  [40:54] Yeah yeah one other aspect of it we talked about it a little bit on the show but I want to kind of bring it up again, as I mentioned the report on Brands and one of the levers brands have to pull is, the advertising so so I'm pretty convinced I'm hearing more and more when I talk to brands that they are spending more and more ad dollars on Amazon and there's two platforms and so folks are interested in. We had, we had Melissa Burdick and Andrea on and they talk a lot about these platforms we don't have time to go into it today, but I'm convinced this is going to be not the next billion-dollar business for Amazon but it could be 30 or 40 could be the next. [41:38] Cloud computing for Amazon because bran just can't get enough of these ad dollars into efficacy is super high we see a lot of people moving money out of, Facebooking Google into Amazon's add platforms and this day another win for this day was getting all these Brands to activate and get into those things you know, I ate when the if we could speak inside the Amazon curtain I think maybe the biggest Chunk on margin probably came from Those ads would be interesting and then, the huge long-term win is now they got a Brands kind of activated on those platforms AMG and Anna's I think that is is a huge huge. 10 20 30 billion dollar opportunity forum. Jason:  [42:21] Yeah I totally agree. Scot & Jamie:  [42:23] Well that's our view of what we saw for Amazon Prime day but we wanted to bring in a live first-party and third-party seller to understand what they saw from the frontlines of this exciting e-commerce holiday. Jason join me in welcoming back to the Jason Scott show Jamie Dooley. As a refresher for everyone Jamie is the head of e-commerce a dorel juvenile group we did a full episode with Jamie and one of his colleagues and that is episode 86 so, hi if you want to learn more about what they're up to as regards Amazon listen to that episode and tonight we're really here to get a fresh hot take about, Amazon Prime Day Jamie welcome back to the show xcaret. Jason:  [43:09] Hey Jamie thanks very much for doing this we totally appreciate it so obviously the the biggest and most important question how were your Prime Day sales. Scot & Jamie:  [43:20] They were very strong so it to remind everyone wear a hybrid so we we sell both. [43:27] Directly to Amazon as 1T and we're a Marketplace seller or three-piece all as well. [43:33] The data for Marketplace sales comes their way real time so we know that we had. Fantastic day on over the third over the course of 30 hours. As a Marketplace our sales were up 600% year-over-year and it was the second biggest day we've ever had on the market place II only Cyber Monday last. [43:56] So it was it was certainly a very very good day for us on the market side on the one piece side that the data takes usually at least two days to get to work. And we're recording it's now only day after Prime day so we're still waiting for the final sales data to come but as far as we've we've seen we had a record-setting day. On Prime day again for even the one piece eyewear. Almost 100% of our lighting deals fold-out many of them in the first 30 minutes and then where is subscriber to one quick retail and they were able to give us. Intraday reads as well as a final estimation of what our sales were no looks like we beat all of our forecast. Jason:  [44:41] Well congratulations. Scot & Jamie:  [44:45] Yes 600% is amazing because Amazon announced they were up 60% so you over indexed by a factor of 10 which is which is pretty awesome set that leads me to ask you mention Lightning Deals, and you know this is. Did you guys participate in 15 where are was second last year so then been doing it for 3 years was last year when you really get serious about it or we actually was 15 kind of when you started. [45:11] I'd say we we really got serious about it last year. But this year we we we took it to another level as well. [45:26] So what what were some of the things that work well for you I know a lot of of both 1p and 3p people that are using what I would call different platform so different deal that they, they got a different deal for mats that I hadn't been in before also more people are in other parts that you go system like maybe Alexa deals Prime now, Pantry that there's kind of a wide range of things what were some of the platforms you guys utilize this year to get such a great result. [45:56] Sure sure to remind everybody we're baby Products company so we sell strollers and car seats and Hardline items that really aren't. They don't play very well into a pantry or even to Echo there they require a lot of a lot of kind of stuff a lot of. Merchandising online and there is there's a lot of there's a lot of consideration that's required but what we we use the combination of of a mass and. We had a number of Lightning Deals as well as what it called Chianti's or or Prime member promotions that were on the. On the Friday deal page when when the customer. Navigated there and then we had aggressive pricing on on our everyday items as well I'd say on the one piece side we had a very good combination of. Traditional TNT's and Lightning Deals as well in in combination with. Advertising that we we we bought through Amazon as well as using social media and other external traffic drivers to drive even more traffic back to those promotions on Amazon. Jason:  [47:08] This great Jimmy a couple of follow-ups was that would you say it was a pretty similar promotional strategy to your 2016 so like when you look at that 600% comp is that mostly because. Prime day was more successful for three peas or. [47:26] Or because you know you also got got more sophisticated in your in your marketing. Scot & Jamie:  [47:33] I think we on the marketplace side if I had to say what what drove the 600% year-over-year growth. Definitely one part was we have more items overpriced and obviously that that's that's really the name of the game on Prime day so that that certainly helped. We did you ever tizing much more aggressively this year and. On the marketplace side there were a lot more opportunities for 3-piece hours to to take part and Prime day so for one example to work really well for us with headline, search ads were available to Mark play for this year they weren't last year it's actually I think it's still in beta right now we were fortunate to be part of the beta program. We we watch that drive to some good sales growth. And I think we that come in combination with just many more items aggressively priced and and Prime dad's I think that that was the key to success of the marketplace. Jason:  [48:34] Got it and that that seems consistent with the general Trend that we've heard and talked about for this year that. Prime prime day was just much more accessible the two three piece sales so the fact that you're you were able to get many more products badge than you had a bigger palette of marketing tactics available to you that that all makes perfect sense that you'd blow it up with with 3p, that might imply that while I'm sure your 1p will be way up this year it may not be proportionately up as high as three peas that is that a affair guess. Scot & Jamie:  [49:08] I think so yeah we are we have obviously had a much bigger base of sales to the cop from last year's Prime day. [49:17] So yeah we're not going to say I would expect us not to see 600% your growth if we do then I expect to be a CEO somewhere next year. Even if we even if we see no 104 just under 100% urea go that's going to be a huge win for us. Jason:  [49:35] The promise if you do 600% 1p growth this year your current CEO is going to take credit. Scot & Jamie:  [49:43] That's good. Jason:  [49:46] Totally fair a related question in your category or or specifically do you like how aggressive do you have to get on promotions are we I mean are we talking like. 20% 10% 30% like is it is there a is it similar to other promotions you do through the year do you have to get more aggressive what's the general. Promotional philosophy. Scot & Jamie:  [50:09] It's it's. It's not great it's it depends depends on the category and then it depends on the level of competition so in general what I saw in a lot of categories was, it only took 20 20 to 30% discounts to do some significant damage one of our biggest competitors. Most of their deals were running at about 20 to 25% off and I know they did I'm pretty sure they did extremely well most of our promotions hovered around the the 20 to 30% range and we sold out of our inventory for, lighting deals in in sickness and in a very quick amount of time. My takes away from this Prime day and it builds on last year as well as that you don't need to. To be at 70% off I need a robot aggressive deals out there that call them loss leaders or attention getters. We found we had some of those too but in general we focus on profitability too and we didn't feel like we needed to. [51:16] Start a race to the bottom in our categories and I feel like. In general what we saw across our categories and other categories was the same you didn't see every deal required to be 60% or more. Jason:  [51:30] That definitely mirrors with what I sort of informally saw it felt like people were a little conservative with deals in their core products and maybe a little more aggressive with with some of the the West core products if you will. Scot & Jamie:  [51:46] I think we saw that and some of the day that one quick retail gave us too so we know that Amazon sales were up 60% but there was a 114%. Lifting promo count according to down so you thought many more deals but I did was there they weren't quite as aggressive and then I've seen reports. I'm all over the media where they're saying conversion rate was actually down for Prime day so I'm curious to see if that's at validated but that would all imply that. Progressive deals potentially across the board but not deeper so. What will then you and I are were chatting about is one of the interesting things is on on some of the non lightning deal deals you know they utilize that feature we had to add it to cart to see the price, why do you think that is what's going on there so I know that I've talked about this. I felt like that was sort of like burying the we we had and we had an item that was priced $50 off and the customer really had a, went and searched to see that they were getting a 30% discount on one of our top items and that was really consistent with with, with a lot more deals at work and keys throughout the deal. [53:11] My opinion is that it allowed them to prevent Walmart and other competitors from price matching them as easily. I know that said you know what this Amazon ever going to come out and say that they're only really too big categories of a promotions that you can have to get onto the prime. Hyundai page deals of the day does he the Lightning Deals are pmt's and Amazon official word to us. Can keys are designed to allow you to be on that page with slightly less aggressive discounts so that would be widened Art discount, pricing is a set-up but I do think it helps avoid price-matching and we saw that in our category there was just a lot less price matching from Amazon's top competitors, on our deal because they were they were pmt's and they were harder to describe. Jason:  [54:07] But I guess one of the ironies there and tell me if it's different in your category but you know they sort of hurt the customer experience a little bit by bearing a lot of the deals in the, the carts to avoid letting our competitors price match but it kind of felt like most of their competitors unlike last year sort of sat out this year so it almost seemed like, like they had no intention of sort of aggressively. Trying to ride on the prime Day coattails this year at least I didn't see big indications of that did you. Scot & Jamie:  [54:41] No I didn't either so I I was actually that was one of my surprising observations would this last year. Competitors like Walmart even, they took a shot anyway I didn't see that I saw most of most of Amazon's direct competitors almost in feet, day in the week to Diamond maybe they'll plan something for later in July but any Amazon on that day and they only. Jason:  [55:09] Yeah I think eBay obviously did some like pretty serious National advertising that was sort of counter Prime programming and let you know they did a special deal with the Google home but the, you're right that the sort of traditional omni-channel retailers Walmart Target like really didn't see any indication that they were trying to make any head of the day. Scot & Jamie:  [55:31] Amazon credited manufactured this Holiday Inn is they've done a great job with us. Jason:  [55:38] Absolutely any promotions you saw from others that really surprised you. Scot & Jamie:  [55:44] Well I think one of the ones that I was surprised didn't happen as it was it was also not just Prime day with national blueberry. Muffin day and there were no blueberry muffin promotion so that was that was my biggest surprise I couldn't find any promotions to get me a cheaper blueberry muffin delivered. But I think the some of the ones that I thought we were actually our kind of our we talked about the last. Discounted just kind of product but it seems like in our category somewhere I competitors took some really big shots with with some deep discounts. One of our biggest competitor to deal with a day which they have some fairly aggressive discontent what was interesting was that they had some new merchandising that we've never seen before. With the car completely custom land and gauges on mobile and desktop that they were very interesting so it looks like they spent on a significant amount of money to make that happen and it'll be interesting to see whether. What are the sales actually paid off for those. Jason:  [56:47] Interesting I definitely agree with you I think there's a huge mess on the blueberry muffins I myself actually missed Prime day because I was spending all day at the Muffin Shop. Scot & Jamie:  [56:59] The morning was completely shot. How many muffins in the morning your teeth were blue all day. [57:10] Cool Jamie really appreciate you coming on and you know we record this show late at night cuz we both have, allegedly have day job so I appreciate you taking time one last question so based on what you know and I know it's early what, what did Vice would you give to both Brands 1 p.m. 3 payout there for next year. [57:34] The things I say were one plan it out as early as you possibly can. Some of the some of the issues we saw this year had to do with just operations and Terriers not being able to pick our ship and saw. [57:48] To deliver them to Amazon DC's or two-and-a-half 3 weeks out from Prime day so. In retrospect next year I'd advise our is get your product into Amazon DC's as early as you can. [58:04] And I think just in general planning in advance probably needs to start in Q4 or earlier for the next prime day is depending on the items that you want to promote. I'm already in existence today I already have sales history today already have product reviews if they don't you need to build all that up before Amazon even going to consider them for a major deal and then even want you to get those approved. [58:31] They're going to need it before casted in depending on whether you're Lee X or. Your 90 days or 120 days or six months to have them into fakturert and shipped here you're talking about potentially you're 9 months in advance that you need to start thinking about your promotional strategy for. Prime day so far in advance based on your company's Lee X is number 1 number 2 is is expected the things are going to go wrong. [58:59] We did a lot of contingency planning with what we. [59:03] Is it going to go on call of a dead and we had a whole team of of of of e-commerce professionals from is to Ops 2 merchandising and sales all. [59:14] Call pretty much working off and on The Whole30 hours and you'll eat we did have a lot of things go wrong on our end and it on Amazon so I think having a good contingency plan is is it real. [59:28] Yeah I think. [59:30] Third is just making sure that you know your competition and and having a good understanding of what's going to go on with pricing I think a lot of the deals we've heard. Other sellers just they lose they lose out on the light and gillikins cancelled a few days prior to. Prime day that's a very common thing and we were fortunate not to have that happen so the more that you can understand your your channel strategy and they make sure that the pricing that you have set up for for Prime day is going to hold out for the day that's. Jason:  [1:00:06] Wow what Jamie that is terrific advice, and that is going to be a great place for us to land because it has happened again Wii U, used up all our allotted time so certainly like to remind listeners that if you enjoyed this episode we love to continue the dialogue on our Facebook page and if you really enjoy the episode we'd sure appreciate a review on iTunes. [1:00:31] So until next time happy commercing!

Today's post and Podcast episode comes from email subscriber, Joe. In his email, Joe asked if I could compare the Amazon associates affiliate program to the Walmart affiliate program, which I did and I also threw in eBay, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and most recently, Etsy and Wayfair as well! If you do happen ... Read more The post Amazon, Walmart, Target and Other Affiliate Programs Compared appeared first on Niche Site Tools.

"Rob Black & Your Money" - Radio Show February 19 - KDOW 1220am (7a-9a) TheStreet.com's Director of Research Jack Mohr talks Walmart & Target. Other topics include: Exxon, .com bubble, retirement, gold, Oscars, McDonalds, self-driving cars, Amazon & more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Rob Black & Your Money" - Radio Show February 19 - KDOW 1220am (7a-9a) TheStreet.com's Director of Research Jack Mohr talks Walmart & Target. Other topics include: Exxon, .com bubble, retirement, gold, Oscars, McDonalds, self-driving cars, Amazon & more.

Wal-Mart Target and other companies see radio-frequency identification (RFID) as a technology that will usher in the next revolution in the world of retailing. How real is this revolution? And what does it mean for retailers and customers? Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that RFID is a potentially powerful technology that is on the brink of having a big impact. Still several hurdles remain that make it hard to predict whether its benefits will be immediate or spread out years into the future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.