Today in retail, a startup is on a mission to ease delivery and thwart porch pirates, while Buyk launches private-label coffees, pastries, breads, candies and ice cream. Plus, new National Retail Federation Chair John Furner discusses the importance of creating customer loyalty.
Ultrafast Grocer Buyk Launches Private Label
Grocery service Buyk on Tuesday (Jan. 18) debuted a line of “high-quality, affordable private label products,” calling the product suite a first in the world of ultrafast grocery delivery.
Buyk’s new product line includes coffee, pastries, artisan bread, candy, chocolates and ice cream. Buyk introduced the new products last month and has been adding more every week. The company wants to have these new products making up 40% of its offerings by the end of the year.
To Win Grocery Shoppers’ Loyalty Today, Brands Must Think Brick-and-Mortar, Data Shows
A new PYMNTS study, Decoding Customer Affinity: The Customer Loyalty to Merchants Survey 2022, created in collaboration with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, which featured the results of a census-balanced survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers in late fall 2021, found that 82% of grocery shoppers’ most frequent purchasing method is still in-store shopping.
Our research also found that the features most likely to keep shoppers coming back are largely tied to this brick-and-mortar experience. Having friendly staff would boost the loyalty of 51% of shoppers and opening a store near the consumer’s home would mean increased loyalty for 45% of respondents, while online purchasing capability would only increase the loyalty of 23% of those who answered our survey.
Kohl’s Attacked by 2nd Activist Investor, Dept Store Blasted for Lack of Urgency, Wasted Year
Activist investor and Kohl’s shareholder Macellum Advisors wrote an open letter Tuesday (Jan. 18), saying company management has a lack of urgency after “another lost year at Kohl’s” that includes slumping stock prices.
Macellum called for “a meaningful director refresh” and said it will nominate a slate of new directors to carry out its plans to monetize $4 billion of the retailer’s real estate assets, a move it contends would lift the stock to $100 per share, or roughly double its present $6.6 billion valuation.
The company also echoed an eCommerce spin-off option similar to the one suggested last month by activist investor Engine Capital.
Walmart US Chief To NRF: ‘Loyalty in Retail is the Absence of Something Better’
Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner is the new chairman of the National Retail Federation (NRF), succeeding Qurate Retail, Inc. former president and CEO Mike George, who led the group through perhaps its most tumultuous two years in recent memory.
Customers, said Furner, are changing — echoing a common theme at the 2022 Big Show—and it is essential that retailers understand those changes and cater to them. Consumers love eCommerce in all its various forms, he said, but they also love going to the store. In fact, Walmart has reported increased store traffic in recent quarters.
D2Cs Eye Commercial Claim Center Delivery to Cut Costs, Thwart Porch Pirates
Via.Delivery founder and CEO Mitchell Nikitin told PYMNTS the new service, which combines commercial freight rates and claim center pickups rather than doorstep drop-off, is gaining traction with more than 2,000 merchants now offering it as a delivery option at checkout.
The convenience of doorstep delivery is ideal for consumers who live in a safe area and have a secure drop-off location, but that is not the case for everyone, meaning the option of picking up package(s) from a nearby location is a desirable alternative for many people and businesses, and up to 70% of package volume in Nikitin’s native Russia and Europe is delivered this way.
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