In today’s top retail news, Rhode Island-based Hasbro said $100 million of products were ordered but undelivered in the third quarter, while UPS is focusing on expanding its volume of eCommerce packages from small and medium-sized business. Also, Amazon is allowing third-party sellers on its marketplace to offer a local pickup option for orders, and TikTok is prompting many, particularly in Generation Z, to pick up a book.
Hasbro Had $100M of Undelivered Product in Q3
Toy and entertainment company Hasbro, feeling the stress of supply chain delays, is relying heavily on its entertainment and digital gaming divisions as it continues to develop a contextual commerce strategy for many of its major brands. Officially, third-quarter revenues were up 11% year over year to $1.97 billion, with Hasbro’s entertainment segment up 76% and digital gaming revenue up 32%. Consumer products fell 3% in the quarter, which executives attributed to $100 million of products that had been ordered but weren’t delivered.
UPS Doubling Down on SMBs and eCommerce Ahead of Peak Holiday Season
Driven by sustained eCommerce tailwinds, global logistics giant UPS is focused on expanding its small and medium-sized businesses eCommerce package volume in response to changing consumer demand and commercial realities, CEO Carol Tomé said Tuesday. UPS reported that revenue rose 9.2% to $23.2 billion, and consolidated operating profit was up 23.4% to $3 billion.
Amazon Pushing More Aggressively to Develop Omnichannel Capabilities
Among the slew of announcements rolled out by Amazon at its Accelerate seller conference last week, one item stood out as a clear sign of the eCommerce giant’s omnichannel ambitions: a new set of services allowing retailers to offer in-store pickup to local customers. The introduction of Local Selling comes on the heels of reports that Amazon is planning to open department store-style physical retail locations, initially in Ohio and California, after years of ramping up in-store offerings of books, groceries and highly-rated merchandise.
TikTok Fueling ‘Reading Renaissance,’ Increased Sales of Physical Books
A community of bibliophiles on video-sharing app TikTok is boosting sales of certain trade paperback books from 50 or 100 copies per week to 10 times those amounts, prompting booksellers such as Barnes & Noble to try to make their stores a destination for social media creators and fans. Barnes & Noble has a dedicated page on its website that’s regularly updated with the most popular books on “BookTok,” and several local stores have worked with TikTok users to create videos.
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