François Maingret

Tag: ecommerce (Page 4 of 10)

What is the New Amazon SKU Economics Report and Why it Can Help You

April 7, 2024 /

You can often read on Amazon Seller forums, on Reddit, or other online boards about new entrepreneurs selling on Amazon who can’t figure out why they aren’t making as much money as expected, or even why they are losing money. After all, they buy widgets for $3 in China that they resell for $15; how are they not making bank?

The world of business, e-commerce, and Amazon can sometimes be rough on beginners. And, to be fair, Amazon can make it even more challenging to understand where your money goes. The fees change every year, new fees appear while others disappear. Some are even challenging to keep track of due to their convoluted structure (Hello, low-inventory fee).

Fortunately, Amazon has released an interesting feature: the new SKU Economics Report, designed to help sellers evaluate their costs and profitability per item. So let’s take a look at this new tool and how it can assist you.

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Ecommerce and Social Media are Fueling the Ultra-Fast-Fashion Machine – Can the Same Technologies Also Save Us From it?

April 5, 2024 /

In a previous article, I wrote about ultra-fast fashion, specifically on how France is trying to limit its impact on the environment with new regulations. We’ve seen how unsustainable fast fashion can be, with Americans tossing out a whopping 34 billion pounds of used clothes each year—that’s over 100 pounds per person!

What can be done about Shein? Let’s be realistic, Shein is the target of France’s proposed regulations. Bans or taxes sound good on paper, but they don’t completely eliminate the problem and tend to frustrate customers. Making local brands cheaper so they can compete with Shein (through new processes, innovation, or worse, lower taxes or subsidies) may help local economies, but this wouldn’t do much in terms of sustainability. Greenwashing and shaming customers isn’t ideal either, and won’t win any fans.

Are we stuck in a never-ending cycle of buying and trashing clothes, until we drown in used t-shirts? Thousands of new designs are released every day, and Shein sales are supercharged by influencers and social media. However, I believe we shouldn’t throw in the towel just yet. Ecommerce has come a long way in the last 20 years, and there are some impressive innovations that could help us shop smarter and more sustainably. So let’s see what our options are, and how some successful entrepreneurs are already addressing the fast-fashion problem by offering solid alternatives.

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Chewy is Losing Customers : Can the Ecommerce Giant Surprising Strategic Move Help Them?

March 29, 2024 /

When I moved to Texas from France, I was surprised to see this many dogs when walking around. I thought every other person had a dog. I wasn’t too far off: 66% of U.S. households (86.9 million homes) own a pet, with dogs being the most popular pet (65.1 million U.S. households own a dog).

As a result, the pet care market is huge, $246.66 billion worldwide in 2023 and is projected to grow to $259.37 billion in 2024. Of course, this market is very competitive, and even the largest companies have to constantly innovate to grow.

The e-commerce giant Chewy announced surprising plans to expand, and I’d like to discuss whether other retailers should emulate them.

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France Taxes Fast Fashion : Will We See Similar Regulations Expand to Other Countries and Industries?

March 25, 2024 /

Do you feel guilty ordering clothes from Shein? If so, you’re not alone. Thousands of social media users are voicing their concerns about the impact on the environment and the labor practices of the Chinese giant, criticizing influencers’ “Shein hauls.”

Yet, Shein is more popular than ever, with over 250 million app downloads in 2023. The sheer volume of clothing sold and the resulting waste are reasons why some consumers are becoming concerned. But consumers are not the only ones worried: businesses and the government seem to be taking the threat seriously, with France’s parliament backing measures to make fast fashion less attractive to buyers.

Of course, governments say they want to support more sustainable practices. But is saving the environment the only reason behind these potential new regulations? Following the massive success of China-based shopping apps, could we see similar regulations expand to industries beyond just fast fashion?

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Let’s Put Our Tinfoil Hats On and Explore the Potential Dark Side of Amazon’s Generative AI

March 17, 2024 /

Generative AI has been all the rage for a while now. How many marketers use Chat-GPT to generate engaging copy for their product pages? Here’s some major news for those who do: Amazon is launching generative AI features to help sellers create product listing content.

“Yay, even less work!” some might say. And yes, it will make life easier for some sellers. But I can see some potential negative consequences for third-party sellers. These new features could also be a very smart move from Amazon to gain market share on the global ecommerce sales, and help them compete with Temu and Shein.

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Why Are Amazon Third-Party Sellers Furious? Analyzing the New Inventory Placement Fee and How to Reduce it

March 12, 2024 /

When Amazon initially announced their new fee structures for 2024, sellers were expecting to see an increase in how much they’d pay. But now that the fees are implemented, there is a lot of outcry across Amazon seller forums, Reddit, LinkedIn, and social media. The object of all this rage: Amazon’s new inventory placement fees. Beyond the Change.org petition to get this fee removed, this made so much noise that the FTC is now investigating it. The agency’s interest followed Fortune’s recent article on how sellers feel about this new fee.

Today, I want us to review what this fee is, explain why sellers are furious and how it may impact your business. Finally, we will see if every company is impacted equally and investigate potential strategies to mitigate the impact of this fee.

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Customers Want Omnichannel Coupons : How Realistic is That?

March 5, 2024 /

Not too long ago, omnichannel was the center of attention in the ecommerce world, before AI and new sales channels became a thing. However, a solid omnichannel strategy is still important for retailers and is expected from shoppers who seek a consistent brand experience. According to a recent PYMNTS Intelligence study, 75% of U.S. shoppers expect digital coupons to be available for both in-store and online shopping.

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Is Walmart Marketplace Catching Up on Amazon? A Short Case Study on a Specific Category

March 1, 2024 /

If you missed the big news about Walmart this month, here it is: their earnings surpassed expectations, and the company hit a major ecommerce milestone with $100 billion in sales last year.

This announcement prompted many ecommerce managers and executives (I certainly did) to reflect on their strategy regarding Walmart.com and if their plan was appropriate. 

It is true that overlooking Walmart is easy these days. Amazon is still the king in the ecommerce realm, and flashy new entrants like Temu or Shein are being extremely aggressive in their marketing. And Walmart is in this awkward space where its ecommerce operations are too big to be completely ignored, but too small to be a company’s main focus (I get approached by Amazon agencies every day, but they very rarely mention Walmart). 

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