Daily Consumer #30 - The Commerce World Is Grappling With Uncertainty
Will inflation taper? Will we head into a recession? Will performance marketing get fixed? Will supply chains clear up? Is ecommerce slowing temporarily or permanently? Many questions, few answers.
Unpacking the Industry
💁♀️ Consumer demand is always changing. Categories on the move:
🔼 Fast fashion is back. Inditex, which owns Zara, was Q1 revenue grow 36% YoY to €6.7B. “Inditex first-quarter results confirm that a reopening world has provided the ideal backdrop to the group’s affordable fashion offering.”
🔼 Colorful dresses are in. Farm Rio, a Brazilian brand in the category, has seen its US sales grow to $50M in 2021 up form $0 in 2019.
🔼 Dress sales overall are up 42% YoY and sport coat sales are up 32% YoY as formal events are making a comeback.
🔼 Lipstick and other lip makeup sales grew 48% in Q1 2022 over previous year, per NPD Group. This is more than 2x growth compared to other products in the beauty category.
🔼 Dupe makeup is seeing growing search volume. Per Google, global searches for the term “dupe” rose 40% YoY in June.
🔼 European electric bike sales crossed 5M units totaling €19.7B in 2021 representing 7.5% YoY growth.
🔼 Brands are fighting to become the Lululemon of pickleball, padel, rugby, boxing, and skiing.
🔼 Activewear continues to do well as a category. Nike saw FY2022 revenue grow 5% YoY to $46.7B of which 40% came from D2C channels. Lululemon meanwhile sale Q1 2022 revenue increase 32% YoY to $1.6B.
🔼 Ultimate frisbee is becoming a popular sport in China and is a “fashion sport” where players show off their personal style.
🔼 Cowboy boots are in. Tecovas plans to grow sales to $200M in 2022 and grew 70% in 2021.
🔼 Sriracha is seeing a significant shortage due to chili pepper supply issues.
🔼 Tampons are also in short supply due to production and logistics issues.
🔽 Wearables faced its first-ever decline in Q1 2022 as unit shipments totaled 105.3M units, down 3% YoY.
🤗 Mondelez acquires Clif Bar, a leading protein snack company that does $800M in annual revenue, for $2.9B. Sees the $16B global snack bar market growing 5% annually and protein segment 9%.
🤗 Unilever acquires Nutrafol, a provider of hair wellness products.
💵 Magic Spoon raises $85M from HighPost Capital for its keto-friendly, low carb cereals. Will expand nationally into Target.
💵 Sugar Cosmetics raises $50M from L Catterton for its India-focused beauty brand that is now in 40K stores.
💵 Rael raises $35M from Colopl Next for its period care brand featuring natural products made in South Korea.
💵 Fellow raises $30M from NextWorld Evergreen for its specialty coffee gear.
💵 Titan Casket raises $3.5M from Reformation Partners for its D2C caskets allowing customers to make the purchase online versus at the funeral home.
🌎 The macro environment plays a big role in demand.
Inflation is rampant at 9.1% in June. Grocery inflation specifically was 15.1% in June.
Consumers are spending more but bringing home less quantities of goods due to inflation per Fetch Rewards. In June, units per household fell 3.5% YoY while spending per household increased 9.2% YoY.
Per the Harris Poll, 84% of Americans plan to cut back spending as a result of price spikes.
But US retail sales are still up 9.5% YoY per Mastercard.
Bath & Body Works lowered its Q2 sales guidance by 6-7% citing a challenging macro climate.
Zalando cut its full-year adjusted earning guidance to €180-260M euros, well below previous guidance in May of €430-€510M and blamed worse-than-anticipated macroeconomic conditions.
RH now projects it will see its full-year sales decline by 2% to 5%. “With mortgage rates double last year’s levels, luxury home sales down 18% in the first quarter, and the Federal Reserve’s forecast for another 175 basis point increase to the Fed Funds Rate by year end, our expectation is that demand will continue to slow throughout the year.”
💎 Luxury continues to thrive.
Per Saks’ Luxury Pulse survey, 76% of respondents with an income of $200K or more said they plan to purchase the same or more luxury items in the next three months than they did in the past three months.
Amazon expands its online luxury fashion category, called Luxury Stores, to the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Bain & Company estimates that Q1 luxury retail sales rose 17-19% YoY and expects 10-15% YoY growth for the full year.
Kering outlined plans to increase annual sales of Gucci to €15B through increased traffic in stores, expanded store networks and higher prices. “Gucci’s profits increased nearly four-fold and its revenue almost trebled over the 2015-2019 period.”
Luxury watches are still in short supply. “A lot of what we are selling we can’t get enough of in the first place. The whole industry is characterized by more demand than supply.”"
Adidas is pushing into luxury after launching collabs with Gucci and Balenciaga. “The crumbling of formality and the re-contextualization of sportswear as culturally dominant forced luxury labels to reconsider that separation.”
🤗 Zalando acquires Highsnobiety, a blog-turned-ecommerce marketplace focused on all things luxury and streetwear.
💵 Neiman Marcus raises $200M from Farfetch and will use the capital to invest in technology. “Thee initial focus of the agreement will be on re-platforming the Bergdorf Goodman website and mobile application using Farfetch Platform Solutions.”
💵 Lusix raises $90M from LVMH Luxury Ventures and others for its lab-grown diamond startup.
🔔 Blue Nile files for an IPO via SPAC.
👷 Ecommerce is still broken…
Walmart expands Spanish search on Walmart.com. “We currently translate more than 600K of the most frequently searched items, and we’re adding more every day.”
Retail returns have risen to 16% this year, up from 10% in 2021. 58% of surveyed consumers said they would be willing to do "nearly anything" to avoid returning items.
Narvar partners with Rise.ai, a leading gift card and store credit solution for ecommerce, to enable online merchants to issue Rise.ai store credit as part of the Narvar returns process.
48% of survey respondents reported that videos increase confidence in their online purchase.
CommentSold launches Videeo, a white-labeled live shopping API that merchants can use to deliver engaging, branded live video commerce experiences on their own storefronts.
Amazon spent over $900M in 2021 combatting fraud and counterfeiting.
Amazon launches Virtual Try-On for Shoes. Features thousands of sneaker styles from brands like New Balance and adidas and allows users to see how the shoes look on their feet.
Ikea launches Kreative, a room-visualization tool to elevate the online furniture shopping.
🤗 Walmart acquires Memomi, a provider of virtual optical try-on technology that it had been using in 3.3K stores.
💵 Sanity raises capital from Shopify for its headless CMS product and will build Shopify-specific functionality.
💵 Zoovu raises $169M from FTV Capital for its software tools that normalize inconsistent and incomplete product data. Has over 2.5K customers.
💵 Nfinite raises $100M from Insight Partners for visual merchandising platform with tools for very simply creating 3D images for ecommerce. “The company grew 10X in ARR in the last year and was adopted by 3 of the world’s top 5 global retailers.”
💵 LincTex raises $100M from Hillhouse Capital for its virtual try-on technology for fashion retailers.
💵 Fonoa raises $60M from Coatue for its tax compliance software focused on Europe. Could be the Avalara of Europe?
💵 Okendo raises $26M from Base10 Partners for its reviews software used by over 5K brands including OpenStore to build trust and deeper customer relationships.
💵 Refundid raises $12M from Salesforce Ventures for its service that fronts the refund to the consumer before the return is made.
💵 Gander raises $4M from Harlem Capital and Crossbeam for it software which collects and embeds user-generated video content into retail sites so shoppers can see what a product looks like in real life.
🐢 … And ecommerce is showing some signs of slowing.
Ecommerce growth is slowing due to logistics issues and customer acquisition issues. “Ecommerce growth got overshadowed by sourcing, fulfillment, advertising, and other core pillars getting more expensive, slower, or less effective.”
Amazon overbuilt warehouse space expecting continued ecommerce growth and is now looking to sublease 10M square feet of space.
56% of consumers use restaurant aggregators to order food at least once a month, up 8% from April.
Doordash continues to dominate the US food delivery space with 57% market share.
40% of Nike’s $46.7B in 2022 revenue came from D2C channels. Ecommerce revenue specifically wasn’t broken out but the growth rate was at 18% YoY.
45% of Lululemon’s Q1 2022 revenue came from D2C channels, growing 32% YoY.
📲 The large internet businesses (Facebook, Google, Snap, etc.) are trying to make it easier for merchants to acquire customers…
Amazon is creating a new ad product for local advertising. As ecommerce growth slows, Amazon is seeing ads as a new business line with big growth potential.
Snap saw 13% revenue growth YoY to $1.1B in Q2 2022 as advertising demand slowed more than expected. Blamed the macro economy, Apple’s privacy update which hurts ad targeting, and competition from TikTok.
YouTube now sees 1.5B users for Shorts, its TikTok competitor and rolls out shoppable video ads.
YouTube partners with Shopify to enable creators to showcase the products they’re selling next to their content on the platform. Viewers can complete their purchases without leaving YouTube.
TikTok’s ad business is growing very quickly. Is on track to generate $12B revenue in 2022.
TikTok partners with Salesforce to make it easier for Salesforce Commerce Cloud merchants to share their products with the TikTok community.
TikTok is fostering new fashion trends at a faster rate including “coastal grandma” and “crochet products.” TikTok is also reinvigorating demand for books.
Pinterest releases a few ecommerce features including video in catalogs and product tagging on Pins.
Twitter partners with Shopify to launch a sales channel app that will be made available to all of Shopify’s US merchants through its app store. Will enable merchants to showcase products on their Twitter profiles.
Roku partners with Walmart to make shoppable ads instantly purchaseable.
Disney makes its ad inventory available on The Trade Desk, a demand-side ad platform.
Netflix will work with Microsoft to build its free, ad-supported plan. Meanwhile, the company has started to see subscriber count decline.
Hoka launched a connected TV marketing campaign and is seeing that 80% of the traffic on its site is from new users.
🤗 Pinterest acquires The Yes, an AI powered shopping platform for fashion that enables people to shop a personalized feed based on the user's active input on brand, style, and size.
🤝 … But acquiring customers is still expensive and inefficient.
66% of DTC companies and 54% of traditional retailers note increasing customer acquisition costs as their greatest challenge to achieving their 2022 goals.
🏬 … Which gives retail its place.
Wayfair is expanding into physical retail with its first store open and another launching this year.
Hudson is adopting Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology in its airport stores. Now has 2 stores live with the technology. Starbucks is also adopting this tech for its new pickup-only stores. Meanwhile 67% of shoppers in a recent survey said they’d experienced a failure at the self-checkout lane.
Circle K is adding Mashgin’s autonomous checkout technology to 7K stores in the next 3 years after a successful pilot in 500 stores. “80% of customers reported that this had become their preferred way to pay.”
Amazon launches Dash Cart, a physical shopping cart that lets people scan and pay for groceries as they shop and features real-time receipts and the ability to weigh produce directly in the cart’s basket.
Macy’s is opening up smaller stores in suburban, off-mall locations which offers discovery and convenience to its shoppers.
Dollar General is increasingly the only retailer left in America’s smallest towns.
Glossier’s new CEO plans to have the brand enter into retail partnerships in addition to opening more company-owned stores.
Grove Collaborative launches its products at Kohl’s, Giant Eagle and Meijer.
Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga is making its way to Gap’s stores.
💵 Hivery raises $30M from Tiger Global for its software that helps retailers make decisions about physical space and product displays.
📣 … And gives creators and influencers an important role to combine content and commerce.
Bazaarvoice launches the new Influenster app, an online home to 7M shoppers looking to discover new products and share their authentic experiences. Matches shoppers with brands seeking honest feedback on their products through authentic reviews, photos, and videos.
LTK, a leading affiliate provider, partners with Stripe to fuel instant payments to creators on the LTK Connect self-serve solution. “LTK said its creators drive more than $3B in retail sales annually across more than 6K global retail partners.”
Instagram launches a creator marketplace, a hub designed to help brands discover and reach out to creators about partnerships and campaigns, on an invite-only basis to brands in the US.
Kim Kardashian launches SKKN By Kim, her nine-product skincare line.
Derek Jeter launches Greatness Wins, a performance-focused activewear brand.
Raheem Sterling, Allyson Felix, Russell Westbrook, and other athletes are increasingly launching their own fashion brands.
Hailey Bieber launches her own skincare brand called Rhode.
Miranda Lambert partners with Walmart on an exclusive home furnishings line called Wanda June Home.
Glossier will continue to hire celebrity ambassadors after partnering with Olivia Rodrigo earlier in the year.
‘Selling Sunset’ stars are driving demand for luxury goods.
Louis Vuitton is shifting from only dressing celebrities to including TikTok stars, Bollywood actresses, and other types of rising stars.
Nudestix is giving two of its influencer partners ownership stakes in the brand. “We also realized that, in order for an influencer to convert, they need to post about your product a minimum of 7-10 times to get their community engaged and get them to think, ‘Oh, you actually love this product — let me try it.’ We said, ‘OK, we need to find a strategy that’s a bit more authentic and find people that have a vested interest in the growth of the business, where it’s not just about this one-off deliverable.”
A case for “extreme” fashion partnerships between brands and influencers such as Kim Kardashian’s with Balenciaga. “Today, as a society, we look at brands on one side of the aisle and creators — aka influencers — on the other side. But in the future, we predict that there will just be companies.”
🤗 Authentic Brands Group acquires a 55% stake in DB Ventures, David Beckham’s global brand management firm.
💵 Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra invest in Perfect Moment, a luxury skiwear brand.
💵 Saysh raises $8M from IRIS and Athleta for its athletic footwear brand co-founded by Olympian Allyson Felix and her brother.
💵 Wooly raises $6M from Grix VC for its creator engagement platform that enables online retailers to leverage their customer community and turn them into brand ambassadors. Is used by On Running, Cotopaxi, and others.
🫶 … And is also motivating online merchants to drive traffic to one another.
99 Cents Only Stores partners with Swiftly to provide customers with enhanced mobile shopping experiences and generate new advertising revenue for the extreme-value retailer across its 382 stores. Retailers are trying to play a bigger role in dictating what sells in their stores.
Deliveroo launches Deliveroo Media and Ecommerce and will offer specific advertising opportunities for brands.
Tobi Lutke, the CEO of Shopify “see(s) Shopify putting together millions of small merchants. Collectively, the second-biggest retailer in the United States would be all Shopify stores, which is cool.” More on Shopify’s emerging flywheel here including the recent launch of Cash Boosts.
Nike is partnering with Fanatics and will allow Fanatics to make Nike-branded collegiate sports apparel while Nike focuses on producing the player-worn products.
Affiliate marketing spend is up 22% YoY. “It’s pay for performance. The model is inherently efficient. The return on ad spend is generally around 12-to-1 for affiliate. And because it’s so efficient, it can help offset the costs of other channels that are more expensive.”
🏛️ … And is benefitting large-scale marketplaces.
Amazon is beginning to pull previously hesitant brands into its universe after launching Buy With Prime on ecommerce platforms like Shopify. Harry’s, Caraway, and other brands have started to list their products on Amazon. “We consider Amazon to be the largest shopping mall in the world.”
Qurate Retail launches QVC+ and HSN+ on web and several streaming platforms. Offers live, on-demand and streaming-only content together in one fully shoppable app. “The streaming service combines QVC and HSN’s five linear channels (QVC, QVC2, QVC3, HSN and HSN2) with two digital-only linear channels (a third is slated to launch July 1) and approximately 20 original, streaming-only shows.”
Ebay launches eBay Live, a dedicated shopping platform that gives people a new way to browse and buy products in a live, interactive environment.
💵 WhatNot raises $260M from DST and CapitalG at a $3.7B valuation for its livestream shopping marketplace that allows buying and selling of collectibles.
💵 Flip raises $60M from WestCap at a $500M valuation for its social commerce platform that combines where users can discover and shop from videos posted by other users.
💵 Upway raises $25M from Exor and Sequoia Capital for its marketplace for secondhand, refurbished electric bikes.
☎️ Retaining customers is becoming more important by the day.
Braze launches Canvas Flow, a next generation journey orchestration tool that is designed to allow brands of any size to quickly build sophisticated customer experiences across their channels. Marketers can easily design, visualize, and launch customer journeys from a single drag-and-drop interface.
Attentive launches Concierge, a two-way conversational commerce experience at every stage of the SMS customer journey.
💵 ContentSquare raises $600M from Sixth Street Growth at a $5.6B valuation for its web and app analytics platform. Records user interactions in web pages and in apps and translates them to recommendations aimed at helping steer a company’s content decisions.
💵 Postscript raises $65M from 01 Advisors for its SMS-focused retention marketing platform. Has over 8.5K brands on the platform.
💵 Charles raises $20M from Salesforce Ventures for its software that enables merchants to sell to and support customers via channels like Whatsapp.
🧳 Selling them more products is worth exploring.
On Running, known for its athletic shoes, launches a sports bra line.
Lululemon, known for its athleisure apparel, continues to push into women’s sneakers. Launches Chargefeel, its 2nd sneaker launch in 4 months. Is also pushing into hiking gear and hijabs.
Vuori, known for its athleisure apparel, launches a women’s tennis apparel line.
🔁 Subscriptions and memberships continue to grow in popularity.
The average US consumer has 3.9 subscriptions in May 2022, down from 4.1 in March 2022 and 5.0 in October 2021.
Amazon hasn’t seen any growth in its Prime member base which stands at 172M as of June 30, 2022. The average Prime member spends $1.4K annually on the site.
Amazon secures the right to buy a 2% stake in Grubhub and will offer no-fee access to the service for a year to US Prime members.
Amazon’s annual Prime Day was another success with estimated sales of $11.9B, representing 8.5% growth over the 2021 event.
Chewy, the leading online pet retailer, saw Q1 2022 revenue increase 14% YoY to $2.4B, beating expectations. Auto-ship sales made up 72.2% of revenue, a record high for the company. Has 20.6M active customers.
Costco saw all-time high membership renewal rates. “The worldwide rate came in at 90% for the first time in company history, and that’s up 0.4% from what we reported at Q2 end.”
Instacart rebrands its membership service as Instacart+. Costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year and provides members free delivery on orders over $35, 5% credit back on all eligible pickup orders, reduced service fees, and the ability to share their subscription.
Ulta Beauty’s rewards program is going viral on TikTok and now has almost 38M members.
Walmart adds InHome Delivery Service to the Walmart+ membership program for an additional $7 per month.
General Mills launches Good Rewards in partnership with Fetch Rewards. “Good Rewards will be the first program of its kind for General Mills, and we are excited to bring our consumers a fun, easy opportunity to save on groceries, no matter where they shop, which of our brands they love or which they choose to put in their cart.”
On Running debuts its recyclable sneaker subscription called Cyclon. Costs $29.99 per month and lets consumers ship back pairs of the company’s bio-based shoes for a fresh, identical set. The returned shoes are melted down to raw materials to repeat the process.
Doordash hosts Summer of DashPass, a 5-week member-only event featuring deals like buy one, get one free at Chipotle.
💳 Customers today can choose between many types of payment methods to make transactions with.
Affirm is partnering with Stripe to make Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout available to Stripe users in the US. Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout tool uses the company’s smart decision engine to make a real-time underwriting decision and provide consumers with optimized bi-weekly and monthly installment options side by side.
BNPL is facing a crucible moment. At Affirm, 3.7% of loans were 30 or more days past due at the end of March 2022, up from 1.8% in June 2021.
Sephora partners with Afterpay to allow US shoppers access to BNPL.
Apple launches its own BNPL service.
Adyen becomes the first to widely distribute a new generation of Apple tap-to-pay services, which uses a merchant’s iPhone without additional hardware to accept customer card payments.
Instacart launches a co-branded Chase credit card that offers 5% back on Instacart orders.
Forage launches a Shopify app to make it easier for grocers to accept SNAP EBT (food stamps) payments online. “1 in 8 Americans receive government assistance to buy groceries. While more than 250K brick & mortar locations accept SNAP benefits via EBT in-store, only a fraction have been approved for online EBT.”
Airwallex launches a Shopify app to offer online merchants a streamlined integration for payment acceptance from customers around the world, especially in Asia-Pacific where there are many more payment methods.
💵 SumUp raises €590M from Bain Capital at an €8B valuation for its mobile point-of-sale platform that powers $3B in sales annually.
💵 Klarna raises $650M from Sequoia Capital at a $6.5B valuation for its BNPL service that was previously valued at $46B.
💵 Kushki raises $100M from Kaszek Ventures and Softbank at a $1.5B valuation for its Latam-focused payment processing service that allows merchants to accept payments globally and receive money in their local currency.
💵 Klar raises $70M from General Atlantic at a $500M valuation for its Mexico-focused neobank.
💵 X1 Card raises $25M from FPV Ventures for its modern credit card featuring several unique capabilities like virtual cards and higher limits.
💵 Tandym raises $10M in equity from Gradient Ventures to enable ecommerce businesses to provide consumers with private-label, store-branded credit cards.
🛒 Wholesale is still so complicated.
B2B marketplaces drove $56.5B GMV in 2021, up 131% YoY.
🤗 Emerald Holding acquires Bulletin, an online wholesale marketplace that connects 3K brands with independent boutiques.
💵 Tomorrow Health raises $60M from BOND for its B2B marketplace enabling home care providers to search 40K products from suppliers to find the right match for their patients.
💵 Dastgyr raises $37M from Veon for its Pakistan-focused one-stop platform that connects grocery stores and retailers with multiple suppliers.
💵 Nautical Commerce raises $30M from Drive Capital for its software that enables B2B businesses and brands of any size to build their own multi-vendor marketplace.
💵 Milk Moovement raises $20M from VMG Catalyst for leading cloud-based dairy supply chain software that allows dairy farmers and their distribution partners to track and route shipments in real-time, optimize delivery schedules, and decrease food waste.
💵 Bttn raises $20M from Tiger Global at a $110M valuation for its wholesale marketplace for healthcare supplies. “More than 1K orders were made on bttn.com in May.”
💵 Ghost raises $13M from USV for its marketplace enabling brands and retailers to buy, sell and price inventory in a discreet, efficient and sustainable way.
🚢 The logistics of moving products from factories to warehouses to consumers are still so expensive …
Amazon worries that it will run out of people who are willing to work at its warehouses by 2024. This labor shortage is why the global warehouse robotics market is estimated to be $5.7B by 2026. Amazon launched a new warehouse robot recently.
Walmart is launching 4 next-gen, highly automated warehouses.
American Eagle believes Quiet Logistics, the logistics business it acquired, can one day become more lucrative than its apparel business. “American Eagle wants to use that platform to build an ‘open marketplace’ where retailers share warehouse space, delivery trucks and more. By pooling resources, small and mid-sized businesses would pay less for logistics, making them more competitive with giants like Amazon and Walmart.”
Guess replaces Excel with Centric for its buying and merchandising operations. Has 25 product categories in over 100 countries with roughly 1K directly-operated stores worldwide and 1.6K stores in total as well as wholesale and ecommerce channels.
Shipbob, a fulfillment services company, is selling its WMS technology to retailers who manage their own warehouses.
🤗 Global-e acquires Borderfree, a cross-border ecommerce solutions business, for $100M.
🤗 Prologis acquires Duke Realty, which owns and operates 153M square feet of industrial real estate in 19 major US markets, for $26B.
🤗 UPS acquires Delivery Solutions, an end-to-end white-label solution that offers access to a network of same-day delivery providers including independent contractors as well as major parcel delivery services.
💵 Flexe raises $119M from BlackRock at a $1B valuation for its marketplace for fulfillment services.
💵 SupplyPike raises $25M from Frontier Growth for its CPG-focused software the ensures brands are compliant with retailer needs and able to more efficiently deliver products on time.
💵 Onfleet raises $23M from Kayne Partners for its last-mile delivery routing software that facilitates millions of deliveries per week for thousands of businesses, including Sweetgreen.
💵 Syrius raises $7M from Harvest Capital for autonomous driving bots that can maneuver narrow warehouse aisles and lift and put away parcels.
💵 Syrup Tech raises $6M from Gradient Ventures for its AI-powered predictive software platform for inventory excellence in commerce
🚚 ... But same-day delivery is expanding the ecommerce market.
66% of winning consumer goods companies plan to sell through food-delivery platforms (such as DashMart by DoorDash and Cornershop by Uber) within the next 12 months, compared with just 25% of their peers.
The economics of 15-minute grocery delivery don’t seem to work.
Loblaw, Canada’s largest grocer, is partnering with Doordash to enable online delivery of grocery and convenience items in 30 minutes or less.
Big Lots partners with Shipt for same-day delivery from Big Lots’ 1K stores.
🤗 Zomato acquires Blinkit, an India-focused grocery delivery service, for $568M.
💵 Wonder raises $350M from Bain Capital Ventures for its mobile restaurant service that is available in 22 towns. Features vans that are retrofitted with full kitchens.
💵 Rohlik raises €220M from Sofina for its Europe-based grocery delivery service that booked revenues of almost €500 million in 2021.
💵 Super raises $70M from NEA for its Indonesia-based social commerce startup focused on small towns and rural areas and delivering goods in <24 hours.
💵 Yummy raises $47M from Anthos Capital for its Latam-focused on-demand delivery and transportation super app. Has 2.5M users, works with 8K merchants, and processes 800K monthly transactions.
💵 Kitabali raises $20M from Glade Brook Capital Partners for its Indonesia-based ecommerce service offering FMCG products.
☮️ Aligning commerce with social good (sustainability, social justice, equality) is becoming necessary.
Winmark, the parent company of resale businesses including Plato’s Closet, Play It Again Sports and Once Upon A Child, is a profitable and thriving offline resale business.
57% of US consumers resold apparel in 2021. Consumers are buying secondhand to save money, access higher-end brands, and find unique items.
Adidas is beginning to launch products made from regenerative fibers produced by textile partner Spinnova.
Nike launches its Re-Creation Program which turns locally collected vintage and dead stock pieces into newly designed and manufactured products.
Beauty brands are launching Pride-inspired products, making donations, and doing more advocacy work to avoid accusations of “Pride-washing”.
Consumers want beauty brands to become more action-oriented about social/political issues. “Brands cannot rely on posting alone to be seen as an ally in these times; without action, they read as empty.” A list of brands that were vocal about Roe vs Wade being overturned.
🔔 Grove Collaborative completes its IPO via SPAC and expects to be totally plastic-free by 2025.
🤗 Dia & Co acquires 11 Honoré, a marketplace for plus-sized luxury fashion.
💵 Meati Foods raises $150M from Revolution Growth for its brand of proteins made from mushroom root.
💵 Evolved By Nature raises $120M from TVG, Chanel, and others for its natural, silk-based protein that can replace harsh chemicals and fossil fuel-derived synthetics used for coating performance fabrics and leather.
💵 Cirkul raises $70M from SC Holdings at a $1B valuation for its beverage platform known for its patented flavor cartridges and single reusable water bottle.
💵 Circ raises $30M from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Inditex for its technology system that returns clothes to the raw materials from which they were made.
🔮 Is crypto/metaverse a solution trying to find a problem in commerce? Or the future of commerce?
Farfetch, Gucci, and Alo Yoga begin to accept cryptocurrency payments.
Meta is launching a digital clothing store to let users buy designer outfits for avatars that are unified across Meta properties. Participating brands include Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne.
Depop is partnering with The Sims to bring seller-designed virtual clothing to the in-game world and encourage secondhand shopping in the physical one.
Shopify sees promise in NFTs and is supporting them on the platform.
RTFKT is prepping Nike’s first digital apparel drop. “3D is the medium you and your community need to master for the future if you want to be relevant in the future, whether you are a brand or a persona.”
Byredo partners with RTFKT on a beauty-meets-Web3 launch. Will launch limited quantity customized fragrances, a combination of 26 ingredients that represent different emotions, with near-field communication tags that connect to NFTs.
Happy Nation, a Victoria’s Secret brand, launches a Roblox world. “It was really important to build Happy Nation with a digital-first mindset from the beginning.” Nars Cosmetics launches ‘Color Quest’ in Roblox.
Prada announces its second NFT collection tied to 50 physical pieces that will be available for 24 hours and will be part of a limited run of upcycled archival Prada designs.
🤗 Ebay acquires KnownOrigin, a leading NFT marketplace.
💵 Magic Eden raises $130M from Greylock at a $1.6B valuation for its Solana-based NFT marketplace. Mints over 50K Solana-based NFTs daily.
💵 Hang raises $16M from Paradigm for its Web3-powered platform that connects brands with members and uses NFTs as incentives.