Its loyalty program, the Neighbor’s Club, surpassed 30 million members last week, Lawton said. During the quarter, he said, Tractor Supply opened its ninth and largest distribution center, located in Navarre, Ohio.

Tractor Supply net sales for the fiscal Q1, which ended April 1, 2023, increased to $3.30 billion. That’s up 9.1% from $3.02 billion in the year-ago quarter. The retailer attributed the growth to its acquisition of Orscheln Farm and Home in the fall, new store openings and growth in comparable store sales.

Comparable store sales increased 2.1%, lower than the increase in the year-ago Q1 (5.2%). Tractor Supply attributed the smaller comparable sales growth to a 2.8% average ticket growth offset by a comparable average transaction count decrease (0.7%).

Tractor Supply ranks No. 102 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American online retailers by web sales.

Omnichannel focus at Tractor Supply

Tractor Supply fulfills 75% of ecommerce transactions through a store location, Digital Commerce 360 reported recently.

“A large percentage of our ecommerce orders — over half — are picked up either in the store or curbside,” said Letitia Webster, senior vice president of ecommerce, omnichannel and master data at Tractor Supply.

With nearly 2,100 store locations, Tractor Supply’s customer is increasingly a hybrid shopper that shops in store and orders online, Webster said.

Tractor Supply Co. earnings

In the fiscal first quarter ended April 1, 2023, Tractor Supply reported:

• Tractor Supply net sales increased to $3.30 billion. That’s up 9.1% from $3.02 billion in the year-ago quarter.
• Gross profit increased 10.7% to $1.17 billion from $1.06 billion in the prior year’s first quarter.
• Mobile app sales account for more than a fifth of digital sales.

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

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Samsung B2B expansion

In under two years, Samsung has launched more than 30 B2B online stores in various countries. In October 2021, Samsung launched stores in Australia, France, Turkey, the U.K. and the U.S. Since then, the service has vastly expanded throughout Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East in under a year and a half, the company says.

“The key elements to the remarkable expansion of B2B online stores are open accessibility, simple purchase process, and a variety of payment methods specialized for SMBs,” says Daniel Kang, Samsung executive vice president and head of the D2C Center. “As we see the growth potential in the online B2B business globally, Samsung will continue to expand and develop services to provide practical benefits and support for our SMB customers.”

Samsung’s latest launch is an ecommerce site in Germany, where business customers can purchase smartphones and service plans in addition to other appliances and electronics.

The ecommerce sites are geared for serving small to medium business companies. They offer tools and features such as installments and invoice payments, promotions, product and service discounts and technical support.

“Samsung has witnessed a growth in the average number of new sign-up members globally by 100% compared to the last year,” the company says. “Also, the sales via the B2B online stores have seen a jump of two times.”

Samsung does not break out B2B ecommerce metrics for its business units. It generated total global sales in 2022 of about $245.7 billion.

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The U.S. is mulling a ban of the short-form video app because of alleged national security risks. Concerned regulators worry TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, shares private user data with the Chinese government. A TikTok ban has been proposed before. In 2020, the Trump administration publicly mulled banning the Chinese app and banned it on many government devices. 

TikTok transformed into an ecommerce powerhouse

Since 2020, TikTok has become more popular among U.S. users. The app reached 150 million monthly active users in March 2023, up from 100 million in 2020. In that period, TikTok became a shopping platform for many users, prompting retailers to spend big on advertisements. TikTok was charging up to $2 million per day for ads taking over its homepage in 2021, Bloomberg reported. In 2022, TikTok rolled out a shopping feature in the U.S. and debuted plans for U.S. fulfillment centers, signaling plans to further cement its role in ecommerce.

A TikTok presence is particularly important for retailers looking for young consumers. In 2022, 83% of U.S. teens used TikTok at least monthly. 16- to 25-year-olds spend three times as much time on TikTok as on the next most popular social media website, according to September 2022 data from Measure Protocol.

TikTok is ThredUp’s smallest social platform

Secondhand apparel marketplace ThredUp has an active TikTok account of nearly 31,000 followers. It regularly posts memes, videos describing the harms of fast fashion, and collaborations with influencers like Nava Rose, who has nearly 6 million followers. Over Valentine’s Day, ThredUp used Rose’s videos to direct viewers to the “Dump fast fashion” shop of items Rose curated. ThredUp uses AI to surface similar items to the ones Rose selected.

For Noelle Sandler, chief marketing officer at ThredUp, TikTok is just one avenue to reach customers.

“We have a nice collection of platforms and content that we’re sharing across,” including Instagram Reels and YouTube, she told Digital Commerce 360. Though ThredUp’s TikTok audience is engaged, she said, it’s the smallest of the retailer’s social networks. A TikTok ban would be a blow, but not a huge one.

“I’m hopeful that TikTok gets to stay,” she said.

But if it doesn’t, she said, she believes influencer content will continue to perform well on other platforms.

Shein benefitted from organic TikTok videos

Fast fashion retailer Shein is one of the brands most closely associated with TikTok, but global head of strategy and corporate affairs Peter Pernot-Day brushed off concerns about a possible ban.

Shein ranks No. 12 in Digital Commerce 360’s database of the top online retailers in Asia.

With the help of TikTok and the thousands of user-generated “Shein haul”  videos, the brand became the most-visited apparel retailer website in the world, according to SimilarWeb. Though TikTok deserves at least partial credit for making Shein a household name in the U.S., the company doesn’t view TikTok as more essential than any other advertising method.

“It wasn’t so much influencer strategy as it was organic,” he said, as users who weren’t paid influencers posted their Shein purchases online in hopes of gaining followings.

“We‘re a consumer of advertising platforms. We’re active on Snap, Meta, Google ads,” TikTok is just one more place to buy ads, Pernot-Day said. He compared it to Shein’s new billboards in the Paris subway, as another way to reach customers where they are. If TikTok is banned, though, Shein might lose some of that organic awareness cultivated online.

A TikTok ban would be disappointing for Pacsun

Clothing brand PacSun is active on TikTok, with 2 million followers. The retailer prides itself on being on the cutting edge of ecommerce technology, from working with virtual influencer Miquela to creating a shoppable Metaverse store in Roblox. PacSun was also one of a handful of retailers to test out in-app checkout in TikTok in the U.S., co-CEO Michael Relich said.

PacSun ranks No. 252 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American e-retailers.

Like Shein, PacSun initially saw TikTok as a venue for organic content made by users who just wanted to show off their purchases. By 2020, PacSun was promoting user-generated content with hashtag challenges.

“Wherever the customer is, we want to be there,” Relich said, stressing the importance of remaining relevant with Gen Z and Gen Alpha customers. For PacSun, that includes TikTok, and he would be “disappointed” in a ban. 

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The company is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial turbines and related products.

And most recently, Caterpillar, with 2022 sales and revenues of $59.4 billion and an iconic U.S. manufacturer in business for nearly 100 years, is going more mobile.

The all-new Caterpillar Cat Central app

Caterpillar’s new Cat Central app.

With the introduction of a new mobile app the company is calling Cat Central, Caterpillar is helping its customers to find, research and buy and order parts directly from the job site or any location.

The new app gives customers easier ordering of genuine Caterpillar verified parts, a QR code to instantly access verified-to-fit parts or save the asset for future needs and real-time access to parts support specialists.

Caterpillar’s Cat Central also gives customers multiple payment and delivery options, including:

• Free and flexible in-store pick up
• Support resources, including manuals and fault code descriptions
• Features for equipment management, financing, and customer loyalty rewards

Brent Steffen, director of ecommerce, Caterpillar

“Cat Central offers do-it-myself customers one central place for easy access to ordering parts and general support resources while providing a faster shopping and purchasing experience,” Caterpillar says. “This app enables customers to order on the go anywhere — freeing up the time to focus on the job at hand.”

It took Caterpillar less than a year to build the app, director of ecommerce Brent Steffen tells Digital Commerce 360.

“We understand what our customers want in the way of a better digital user experience,” he says. “And we look to them to guide our ecommerce goals and objectives.”

EnvisionB2B 2023

Steffen will be the kick-off keynote speaker for EnvisionB2B 2023 on Wednesday, June 21, 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Central in Chicago. His Keynote Address is How Caterpillar Pushes Innovation in B2B Ecommerce.

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Bad weather will spur an additional $13.5 billion in U.S. online spending this year, Adobe Inc. said in a report Wednesday. That’s up about 3% from last year. The study, the first of its kind by the software provider and its ecommerce research unit, is based on an assessment of past shopping patterns combined with data on rain, snow and wind compiled by The Weather Co., a unit of IBM Corp.

“A modestly rainy day can push more people to shop on their phones or computers,” Adobe said.

Using the findings to boost online sales further

The findings could help brands and retailers predict shopper behavior more accurately, Adobe says. The information could be a new tool as spending migrates online. The exact effects will depend on the exact weather conditions, and the impact is sprinkled throughout the year. But Adobe estimates the cumulative total of sales sparked by bad weather outweighs Cyber Monday, the largest online shopping day of the year, which generated $11.3 billion last year.

“We see this as having massive implications for brands across the country,” said Vivek Pandya, an analyst at Adobe. He added that reacting to weather can help companies fine tune their promotions and supply chains. “We always assume weather has some impact on spending levels and behavior. This has been really able to show the magnitude.”

Some of the gains occur when bad weather prompts shoppers to stay home, which has traditionally eroded brick-and-mortar stores’ revenue. But now, homebound consumers purchase goods with money they would have otherwise spent on services such as eating out, boosting ecommerce totals.

“It’s uncommon to see this kind of effect shine through the data so clearly,” said Costa Lasiy, another Adobe analyst.

Adobe concluded that:

• Rain provides the biggest online sales boost, accounting for $8.7 billion. The effect peaks when there’s rainfall of 0.8 to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters), which would typically mean three hours of heavy rain. And the shopping gains are particularly strong on weekends and in the fall.
• Wind is expected to lift online sales by $4.4 billion, but it only helps up to a point. Speeds of more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) an hour cause ecommerce to wane as the wind grabs people’s attention. There are also regional differences. Strong winds cause ecommerce to drop in Atlanta, while shoppers in Chicago keep spending through the same conditions.
• Snow accounts for a small boost, with geographic variations. In cities with low snow totals, such as Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, even a little drags down sales as consumers focus on the weather. In cities such as New York and Seattle, snow prompts people to stay home and shop more online.

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AB InBev is one of the world’s largest beer brewers by both volume and sales, generating $57.79 billion in 2022 revenue and operating more than 500 beer brands in 150 countries. The company says it generates more than half its revenue through its B2B digital platforms.

AB InBev also says its digital direct-to-consumer platform produced more than $450 million in online revenue and 69 million ecommerce orders last year.

AB InBev offers a portfolio of approximately 500 beer brands. They include global brands Budweiser, Corona, and Stella Artois; multi-country brands Beck’s, Hoegaarden, Leffe, and Michelob Ultra; and such local market brands Aguila, Antarctica, Bud Light, Brahma, Cass, Castle, Castle Lite, Cristal, Harbin, Jupiler, Modelo Especial, Quilmes, Victoria, Sedrin, and Skol.

Expanding digital connections with businesses and consumers

The company has Belgian beer-making roots going back to 1366. Its headquarters are in Leuven, Belgium. For the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, total 2022 sales for AB InBev increased by 11.2% to $57.79 billion from $54.30 billion in 2021.

“Our accelerated digital transformation is a key competitive advantage of our business, improving the way we connect with our ecosystem of two billion consumers and six million [business] customers,” the company says. “We are driving incremental growth through our digital products and expanding the beer category into more occasions. While we are energized by our progress, we believe we are likely only scratching the surface of what is possible.”

AB InBev drives much of its ecommerce from the mobile app and ecommerce platform the company calls BEES, at BEES.com. “BEES is live in 20 markets, with approximately 63% of our revenues now through B2B digital platforms,” the company says. “In FY22, BEES reached 3.1 million monthly active users and captured approximately 32 billion USD in gross merchandise value (GMV), growth of over 60% versus FY21.”

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Wayfair is No. 7 in the 2022 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000, Overstock is No. 33.

Overstock and Wayfair sales are down 

Wayfair and Overstock reported a decline in sales in 2022 across the quarter and year.

Wayfair’s total net revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 decreased 4.6% year over year to $151 million. The company also reported a net loss of $351 million, significantly higher than the net loss of $202 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. 

Net revenue at Wayfair was also down for the 2022 fiscal year, dropping 10.9% over 2021. The net loss over the year was $1.3 billion.

Overstock’s earnings report was even more grim. Net revenue decreased 34% in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 to $405 million, though the net loss was a comparatively small $16 million. 

Net revenue for the full year was $1.9 million, a 30% decrease year over year. Overstock reported a net loss of $35 million for 2022, with about half of that loss in the fourth quarter.

Active customers declined

Executives at both furniture retailers said they had fewer active customers making purchases. Wayfair reported 22.1 million active customers in the fourth quarter of 2022, a 19% year-over-year decrease. 

Overstock is a relatively smaller operation, with 5.2 million active shoppers in Q4, a 36% decline year over year.

This trend is in line with consumer data Digital Commerce 360 collected in an April 2022 survey of 1,113 online shoppers. Three-quarters of respondents said they planned to buy less than half of home goods online, compared to 59% answering that way in 2021.

Consumers planned to pare down their online home shopping. 42% said they would spend the same amount on home goods as they had the previous year. Another 41% said they would spend less. Respondents also said they would spend less on outdoor furnishings, new furniture and home office setups than in 2021, with appliance repairs the only section seeing a slight increase.

Overstock aims at increasing sales to younger customers 

Even as overall sales decreased, mobile orders were a bright spot for Overstock. Overstock’s app adoption is growing “rapidly,” CEO Jonathan Johnson told Digital Commerce 360 in a phone interview. It’s now the company’s fastest growing sales channel, making up 52% of fourth quarter sales. The company expects to see at least the same level of app growth in 2023.

Overstock’s typical customer skews “older and more affluent,” Johnson said. App users show higher loyalty, have higher conversion rates and are also younger than the average customer overall, he said, though he declined to share specifics.

Overstock’s other strategy for reaching younger buyers involves influencers, Johnson said, and Overstock is spending more than ever before on marketing. The website partnered with influencers and brand ambassadors with far reach on social media, including HGTV star Tarek El Moussa.

Wayfair focuses on cutting costs

As Overstock concentrates on drawing in new customers, Wayfair has cut costs as a strategy to get back in the black. 

The furniture retailer has taken several measures to cut unnecessary costs, CEO Niraj Shah told investors in a Feb. 23 call. Wayfair laid off 1,750 employees in January, totaling about 10% of its total workforce including 1,200 corporate employees. These cuts were on top of earlier layoffs of 900 corporate workers in August to “reduce redundancies and remove excess management layers,” Shah said at the time. 

The company has also had a hiring freeze in place since spring 2022, and has been reducing advertising budgets that had grown beyond the small tests that they were originally intended for, Shah said.

Both companies are hoping 2023 will turn things around for the online furniture industry. 2022 was a “year we will not forget nor repeat,” Overstock’s Johnson told investors. 

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Albert Nahmad, CEO, Watsco Inc.

The economy may be slowing, but a large distributor of heating, air conditioning and ventilation products is putting B2B ecommerce in the fast lane.

Watsco ecommerce sales

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, Miami-based Watsco Inc. reported a 5% increase in total sales to a record $1.58 billion. Net income was $157.1 million, up from $96.6 million a year earlier.

For the 12 months ended Dec. 31, Watsco reported sales of $7.274 billion, up 16% year over year from $6.280 billion. Net income was $703.7 million, versus $498.7 million a year earlier.

Ecommerce now represents about 32% of Watsco’s total sales. Its online channel grew 17% in 2022, the company says. Based on those metrics, Digital Commerce 360 projects that ecommerce sales grew year over year to $2.327 billion.

“We have an immense technology advantage, and we are investing to grow that advantage,” CEO  Watsco CEO Albert H. Nahmad told Wall Street analysts. “These technologies are increasing customer’s engagement, reducing attrition and creating sustainable market share gains.”

Watsco, which increased its spending on new technology to $49 million in 2022 also reported other digital metrics including:

Other digital metrics include:

• Watsco’s product information management (PIM) database now includes approximately 1.million SKUs. More than 350,000 contractors and technicians assess them on an annual basis.
• The number of HVAC contractors using Watsco’s commerce-enabled mobile app now has more than 51,000 users.
• Watsco’s digital sales platform that HVAC contractors use, and its companion consumer financing system, generated quotes to approximately 225,000 households. They also generated $963 million in gross merchandise value.

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“We have a Gen Z customer and she wants it, and she wants it now,” Hawkins says. “She is very tech savvy. She wants to check out quickly, and Bolt just lines up with that.”

Bolt refers to Forever 21’s checkout page provider Bolt Financial Inc. The merchant launched the technology in 2019 but has had a turbulent relationship with it. Authentic Brands Group, which owns Forever 21, sued Bolt in March 2022, alleging that Bolt failed to provide its promised technology. In July 2022, the case was settled, and Authentic Brands Group was awarded an undisclosed stake in Bolt.

In a February 2023 phone interview with both Forever 21 and Bolt, Hawkins says, “We have a good partnership right now. And that’s all in the past.” The Bolt spokesperson says, “They are only looking forward.”

In fact, the companies are now touting Forever 21’s positive results from using Bolt: A shopper who checks out with Bolt can complete checkout in 100 seconds, which is 43 seconds faster than the guest checkout on Forever21.com. And that’s “an eternity,” Hawkins says.

“No one wants to go a store and stand in line to check out. And on a website, no one wants to wait a long time,” Hawkins says.

And shoppers leave if it takes too long:

• The cart abandonment rate is 37% for shoppers who used Bolt to check out in 2022, compared with 60% for shoppers who use the guest checkout.
• Put another way: 63% of shoppers who start the checkout process using Bolt finish and make the purchase, compared with just 40% of shoppers who make it to completion using guest checkout.

“The longer time it takes, the fewer people make it through,” Hawkins says.

Digital Commerce 360 data also finds younger shoppers are more likely to abandon their carts compared with other online shoppers. 13% of shoppers ages 18-29 say they’ve abandoned their shopping cart specifically because the process was too long compared with 9% of all online shoppers in the survey, according to a Digital Commerce 360/Bizrate Insights survey of 1,060 online shoppers in January 2023.

Bolt is faster because there are fewer fields to fill out. When a shopper goes to check out on Forever21.com, she enters her email and phone number into the checkout page fields. If she is a previous Bolt shopper, the site recognizes her and sends her a one time pass code via SMS. The shopper enters this code on Forever21.com, her billing and shipping information is populated and she can hit purchase.

For all other shoppers, there are about five steps, including entering billing and shipping information and hitting confirm.

Bolt has “hundreds of online retail” clients that use its checkout service, and so if any shopper has previously checked out on one of those websites, she can check out with Bolt on Forever21.com. The payments vendor says more than 18 million unique shoppers have used its service, but it would not disclose how many active shoppers it has. Many of those accounts were created from shoppers checking out on a site that uses Bolt, and clicking a box to have their payment details saved for future purchases.

Forever 21 offers to save shopper information via Bolt so they can quickly check out for future purchases.

Forever 21’s mobile shoppers

This fast checkout page is especially nice for mobile shoppers, Hawkins says. Mobile sales are the “vast majority” of its online sales, he says without sharing more. Hawkins declined to share what percent of Forever 21’s sales are online, only that it’s a “healthy percent,” growing, and that it is poised to grow more within the next one to two years.

Digital Commerce 360 estimates that roughly 27% of Forever 21’s sales are online, and 75% of its web sales are mobile, according to Top500Guide.com. This mobile penetration is much higher than the median for all retailers ranked in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000, among which 58.0% of web sales are from mobile devices.

What’s more, Digital Commerce 360 estimates 41.9% of Forever 21’s online shoppers are ages 18-24, a higher share than the Top 1000, with a 15.5% median of shoppers ages 18-24, according to Top500Guide.com.

Other benefits to using Bolt are that it handles fraud prevention, and the technology has helped it acquire new customers, Hawkins says without sharing specifics.

Forever 21 in the metaverse

Besides a fast checkout, another way Forever 21 has catered to its Gen Z shoppers is by putting its brand in the metaverse.

Forever 21 has launched apparel collections within online gaming platform Roblox, where consumers can purchase Forever 21 apparel for their avatar.

For example, in June 2022, Forever 21 launched a collection with Mattel Inc.’s Barbie brand. Shoppers could buy Barbie-branded apparel for themselves online and in store, and buy 3D versions of that apparel for their avatars in the metaverse in the “Forever 21 Shop City” on Roblox.

It’s important for Forever 21 to market and engage its Gen Z audience in the areas where they spend they spend time, wherever that may be, Hawkins says.

“One of the areas they are spending their time is in the metaverse, and we want to be there and be connecting them, and having those authentic connections that are meaningful,” he says. “It’s a nice area of opportunity.”

Because of good traction on its metaverse products, Forever 21 designed a black beanie that said “Forever 21” on it specifically for the metaverse. The product “exploded” and it sold more than 1 million units digitally, Hawkins says. Because of its success, Forever 21 started selling the beanie physically in store and online in December 2022 and was happy with the results, he says.

“We’re really excited about what we are doing in the metaverse,” Hawkins says. The merchant is laying out a plan for 2023 of other metaverse initiatives, he says.

Forever 21 is No. 121 in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000.

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After three years of COVID-19, consumers continue to shop online with no signs of stopping. For the full year 2022, Digital Commerce 360 projects U.S. online retail sales will top $1 trillion for the first time, reaching $1.03 trillion. That would be a 7.7% increase over $960.44 billion in 2021.

But it was a tough year for online retail. Many retailers struggled to post year-over-year online sales gains, inflation hit record highs, surplus inventory levels soared and supply chain woes persisted.

But despite these challenging macroeconomic factors, online retailers continue to innovate and provide a top online shopping experience. Brands like L’Oreal used artificial intelligence to spot trends. A number of merchants committed to greater representation and continued support of the Black community. And retailers worked to make fulfillment more sustainable.

What’s more, online holiday sales may have been strong enough that merchants can put 2022 down in the win column. Over the Cyber 5 period (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) online sales reached $35.27 billion, a 4% year-over-year gain.

Below are more 2022 headlines, both news and in-depth features, that were the most popular on DigitalCommerce360.com.

Thank you for your readership in 2022. We look forward to another exciting year of online retail in 2023.

Most-read news stories in online retail

• Amazon plans Prime Day-like sales event in October
  The ecommerce giant will hold an October sales event similar to its annual Prime Day event, sources tell Digital Commerce 360.
• Lowe’s, Home Depot earnings show ecommerce growth, similar omnichannel paths
  Home Depot reported sales through its digital platforms grew approximately 6% for Q4 and approximately 9% for the year. That’s well below the 11.5% in Q4 and 18.4% for the fiscal year that Lowe’s reported.
• Coronavirus pandemic adds $219 billion to US ecommerce sales in 2020-2021
  The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated ecommerce growth years into the future. Other pandemic-caused shifts also have boosted ecommerce sales, such as inflation. Consumers paid $32 billion more online for the same amount of goods during the past two years, new data from Adobe finds.
• Inside the battle against ecommerce fraud
  Ecommerce fraud has gotten hard to detect and stop. More than half of fraud attempts against ecommerce retailers are now deemed “sophisticated.” That means professional criminals used state-of-the-art methods to circumvent anti-fraud systems.
• Toys R Us is opening shops in all Macy’s stores
  The in-store shops will range from as small as 1,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet for “flagship” locations in several cities. Since buying the Toys R Us brand in early 2021, WHP has worked to re-establish the brand’s physical and online presence.
• Amazon locates its warehouses near big cities
  Amazon has dramatically expanded its distribution network in the past decade, placing many new warehouses near population centers so it can deliver online orders quickly. Such major retail competitors as Walmart, Home Depot and Wayfair also have opened new distribution centers as they seek to match Amazon’s fast delivery options.
• Will Crocs Inc.’s acquisition of Hey Dude Shoes help it reach its $5 billion goal?
  A complementary union, Crocs looks to widen its reach beyond a loyal U.S. base by continuing to grow its ecommerce business worldwide with Hey Dude.

Most-read in-depth stories in 2022

The seven feature-length stories below received the most page views in 2022 on DigitalCommerce360.com. These articles, free to Digital Commerce 360 Strategy members, detail the topics our readers found most relevant this year. They include an in-depth piece on returns, how consumer brand manufactures need to remake their ecommerce playbook, True Religion’s path to profitability, how retailers can improve their marketing strategy on Amazon, how to manage customer data across platforms, the advantages of advertising on connected TV and how online retailers cater to their young, mobile shoppers.

• Retailers look for answers as returns grow more complex and costly
  Returns have become a major headache in ecommerce, cutting into profit and straining resources. The sheer volume of returns also puts additional pressure on an already overloaded supply chain pushing prices higher for shipping, warehousing and labor. Retailers are working hard to reduce the number of returns they receive. And they’re taking multiple approaches to doing so.
• What’s the state of the ecommerce market for consumer brand manufacturers?
  Brands were the fastest-growing merchant type in the Top 1000 last year. But the old playbook for digital natives isn’t producing the same explosive results as it has previously. With funding drying up as profitability takes center stage, digital natives will have to reassess their roadmap to compete.
• A peek inside True Religion’s plan to reach $250 million in ecommerce sales by 2025
  The iconic denim brand’s CEO and executive vice president of digital sit down with Digital Commerce 360 to discuss how it cut technology costs and overhauled its supply chain to get on the path to profitability. Now, it’s investing in digital tools to attract younger shoppers, such as a mobile app and buy now, pay later.
• Marketing on Amazon is all about keywords and presentation
  Retailers find different ways to stand out among competitors when selling on marketplaces.
• There is more than one way to manage customer data
  In an increasingly competitive ecommerce landscape, DTC retailers are figuring out how to reach new customers by linking up with larger merchants like Walmart or selling on marketplaces like Amazon — without losing too much control. The key is to take a step back and assess before diving into new ventures or technologies.
• The cord cutters: Retailers move to appeal to consumers on streaming devices
  As consumers cut the cord and stream entertainment, retailers are taking advantage of lower costs to reach an ever-expanding audience through CTV.
• How online retailers cater to their young, mobile shoppers
  Younger shoppers are on their phones and want to check out fast, with their preferred payment provider on-site or an app designed for their small screens. MVMT, Azazie and True Religion share how they fine tune their mobile shopping experience for young shoppers.

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