Walmart

Walmart to Deliver Groceries Straight to Your Fridge

Written by adminJuly 18, 2019

In today’s marketing world, convenience is king. As the digital world is taken over, it is impacted a lot of industries and businesses that couldn’t compete with the more convenient technological advantage. Look at Blockbuster and how it went out of business once Netflix found its way into the American home. Why go to the video store when you could stream thousands of movies and TV shows right from your couch?

Once Amazon became a staple, we found we can order everything that we want online, including some groceries. Ordering online has become so convenient, that saved us time and money from going to the physical store to buy gifts and other products. It looked as if Amazon can completely destroy the age of the department store at Sears and other major retailers have gone out of business.

In fact, Amazon was even giving Walmart a run for its money is the number one retailer in the country. But Walmart decided that it wasn’t going to accept defeat. They decided they were going to go back to the drawing board and find a way to out convenience Amazon. They revamped their website in a strategic way that brought them back into the fight.

Now, Walmart is leveraging their stores in a way that Amazon cannot. Walmart already has a network of stores in nearly every community in the country. If you do not find it convenient to walk into a Walmart and go grocery shopping, they’ll bring the groceries to you. The best part is, they’ll do everything for you.

Convenience Wins

Going grocery shopping can be so inconvenient. It takes time and energy to shop for an entire family. Most people would rather be doing something else with that time. But last Friday, Walmart announced that they would now be allowing customers to order their groceries online. Not only can they or their groceries online, but Walmart worker will literally drive to their home and deliver that food to their homes.

Not only will Walmart workers drive and deliver groceries, they will put your groceries away into your fridge and cabinet. Food and groceries make up approximately half of all of Walmart’s sales. By offering this service, they do something Amazon cannot do as they simply do not have the network to do it.

Walmart spent the last five months piloting this program in New Jersey to see if it would work. They now decided to expand it and to other cities across the country, like Pittsburgh and Kansas City. There is a small fee for making grocery deliveries, but it is unknown as of yet exactly how much we would have to pay for direct in-home delivery.

It gets even better. If you made a purchase from Walmart and need to make a return, you can leave that return on your counter in the Walmart employee will take it back to the store with them so that you can receive your refund. So, while the battle of convenience rages on, we all win!

Written by adminJuly 8, 2019

Business

For the past few years, it would seem as if Amazon got all the great press. Every holiday season, they took a larger chunk out of the pockets of retail stores. They were winning the war and forcing several big names to decide to close their doors for good.

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen. They saw their own profits start to dwindle and decided to jump in the online market to compete. And compete they did!

One retail expert was quoted by Fox Business as saying that Walmart has finally put an end to Amazon’s dominance. Not just by revamping their ecommerce, but also through updating their stores.

We’ve previously reported that one of the main reasons why Amazon was able to put Toys ‘R Us out of business was because they weren’t able to catch up. Their stores were outdated and they had no online game. Walmart read the signs and decided to do something about it.

At the end of the day, Walmart has lower prices. When you can do the same thing as your competitors, but do it cheaper, you’re going to win. Simple as that.

Putting a heavy emphasis on its newer, better website, Walmart was able to bump sales up 33% in the first quarter of this year. They also acquired other online retailers, such as Jet.com and Flipkart, to help increase their visibility in countries like India.

It’s not just online sales that have been bolstered. Reports reveal that more Americans have been flocking to the stores with in-store sales rising 2.6% as well. According to Burt Flickinger, managing director at Strategic Resource Group, it’s all about American Patriotism. Walmart knows its customer base and is winning them over.

It’s All About Patriotism

“They are winning on patriotism. You’ve never seen so much patriotism in terms of action alley. There are U.S. flags on every shelf, every merchandising aisle. It stimulates pride and people. They are buying more and Walmart is laying waste to the rest of U.S. retail,” he said.

“Walmart is going to beat Amazon on land and with Flipkart and with Jet, Walmart’s going to start winning even more online.”

It remains to be seen how this will all play out. It was all but a sure thing that Amazon would eventually edge out all competitors and take the number one retail spot, but defeating Walmart won’t be that easy.

Now with Amazon raising the prices of Prime as much as 20%, even after recording record-high profits, it might just be enough to get people off the computer and back into brick-and-mortar…especially if the prices are right.

As we come off the July 4th holiday, you’d think of the fireworks, parades, and BBQs, but Walmart is also a part of that small-town community charm while Amazon is still just a website. Maybe there’s room for both to fight head-to-head, but Walmart certainly has come back from behind.

Written by adminAugust 13, 2018

Life Style

The economy is back, Jack! The dead malls and skittish buyers afraid to spend their money due to the economic downturn of just a years ago has reversed itself. Unemployment is down at record levels for Americans thanks to President Trump’s tax and regulation cuts. You can say what you want about the guy, but he has shown he knows how to get the economy going.

Even though not everyone is happy at this point, tariffs still threaten several industries. The average American is taking advantage of the current economic climate. They are spending money again, which is good news for the retail stores. 2/3 of our entire economy is spending via retail, so if you want a good indication at how we’re doing, just look at their health.

According to the Commerce Department, American spending was up 4% for the second quarter, with the early summer months showing significantly strong signs as well. Those reports will be coming out soon.

The next big hurdle to jump through to seal the deal on an amazing year of spending is predicting how the holiday season will shape up. As we edge into September, the spending blitz between Halloween and Christmas holidays is about to begin. Despite the big year so far, higher inflation could dampen holiday sales.

Wages have remained stagnant as prices in nearly every market are climbing higher. Gas, food, and the tariffs impact everything from soft drinks to cars and motorcycles.

A Second Beginning

Despite tempered expectations for the holidays, there is one mega-superstore making a comeback. It’s all due thanks to its new approach to ecommerce. No, we’re not talking about Walmart, but the nearly-defunct Macy’s.

In fact, Macy’s was the second-best performer behind Amazon on the S&P 500 so far this year, their shares up 60%! Shuttering several brick-and-mortar locations seems to be allowing Macy’s to do well.

Also: http://financialhelpers.com/trump-now-sets-his-sights-on-the-eu/

Walmart also seems to be attempting to challenge Amazon for online supremacy, but has revealed they’re not quite ready to reign supreme. Their digital sales have declined a bit as more Americans do appear to be shopping in-store as of late.

Other stores are competing well with Amazon, as Lowes and Home Depot don’t see much competition with the online retail leader. A lot of this extra money in people’s paychecks have been going towards rebuilding and remodeling their homes…an extravagance they couldn’t afford during the recession.

Most of the Americans who buy things like faucets, wood, paint, and other necessities for fixing things up would still rather go into the store and get it in the moment of need rather than purchasing online and waiting for delivery.

Overall, this is amazing news for every American. The economy is churning, more people have jobs, and the spending craze continues. That is more money getting poured into the economy, which often opens up even more jobs. The cycle continues. Here’s to a great, and profitable, holiday season.

Written by adminJuly 27, 2018

Life Style

After Toys-R-Us closed their doors, many companies rushed in to grab their share of the market left behind. We’ve covered Party City staking their claim within the toy industry. They plan to rent out the abandoned box stores left behind and sell toys during the holiday season.

Amazon has also stepped up their toy game by expanding their toy sales. A lot of ecommerce stores took advantage of Toys-R-Us’ closing by buying up the remaining clearance items as prices were slashed, and resold them on their sites at regular price.

Now, Walmart wants in on the fun. On Thursday, the Walmart website launched their new shopping designation specifically designed for babies and their needs. It’s been dramatically increasing their baby selections for the past year in preparation for the launch.

The website will allow you to design your own nursery so you can choose the right styles that match the look you’re going for. Over the course of the last year, Walmart added over 30,000 items related to all things baby, which has helped online searches for baby items grow over 40%.

This section of the market has allowed Walmart to remain competitive with Amazon and has been a part of the larger overall redesign of their website. Midsummer is also the time when most babies are born historically, so the release of this section of their website is perfectly timed to meet demand and spark interest.

“It also follows efforts to create a new in-store experience in the baby department in more than 2,000 stores across the country,” said Lauren Uppington, the vice president of Walmart’s baby division.

Other stores aren’t going to sit by idly and let Walmart steal all of the fun. Target and Amazon have been making waves themselves within this industry.

Target has been making moves to expand their own private-label brand Cloud Island and offered free gift bags to future moms if they register at their stores. Amazon took things several steps forward by famously throwing Kim Kardashian a baby shower earlier this year, who returned the favor by plugging Amazon to her over 70 million followers.

These are the moves Toys-R-Us and Babies-R-Us should’ve been making all along to stay competitive within their niche, but in their abrupt absence, has left their competitors all fighting for a piece of the market.

This also proves without a doubt how powerful online shopping has become, sucking in a larger portion of all shopping dollars spent with each passing year.

Written by adminJuly 5, 2018

Life Style

In 1992, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling that declared states couldn’t collect sales tax on purchases made outside of the state. They could only tax physical brick-and-mortar stores that were selling the item within the state it was being bought.

For example, if you lived in Iowa and bought something from a Sears catalog, Iowa couldn’t collect a sales tax on that item because it was most likely being shipped from out of state.

Fast forward nearly two decades and you’ll see that same law applied to all online purchases, including ecommerce. If you bought something on Amazon, sales tax wouldn’t be applied to the price.

Brick-and-mortar stores have felt this gave online companies a huge advantage over them. If you had to choose between buying a couch on Wayfair verses going to local vendor and paying extra for included sales tax, where would you shop?

Now, the Supreme Court has reversed its previous ruling. In a 5-4 decision, the highest court in the land has decided that states can collect sales from all online retailers.

While this will inevitably make online shopping more expensive for the everyday consumer, the court felt the previous law was outdated and allowed businesses to avoid having a physical presence in certain states.

In explaining his vote, retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “The Internet’s prevalence and power have changed the dynamics of the national economy. The expansion of e-commerce has also increased the revenue shortfall faced by States seeking to collect their sales and use taxes.”

Online retailers believe this is a bad deal for them, as it will push people to once again shop locally for items like electronics, furniture, and jewelry.

States, especially states that are cash-strapped and could use more tax revenue, are thrilled they get to tap into a $453 billion industry.

They saw their tax numbers dwindle as more people avoided the box stores in favor of online buying, literally taking money out of the state’s pockets. According to the Government Accountability Office, states have lost as much as $13.4 billion last year alone.

There’s still more they would have to do though, as a lot of states had different rules.

One big question online business owners have involves how this new law will handcuff smaller businesses. There are already laws on the books for bigger companies, but now that the doors are open for all businesses to get taxed, this ruling might completely kill smaller industries.

Companies like eBay and Overstock want the Congress to pass news laws that exempt small online businesses from being taxed to keep internet innovation strong.

It’s unknown if this ruling will change much, as most people choose to shop online for the convenience, but now that stores feel they are at an even playing field, we’ll see how the sales stack up this holiday shopping season and beyond

A Second Beginning

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