Walmart will turn its in-store and online buying teams into one group to create a more seamless experience for customers and make it easier for manufacturers to pitch new products. Under the old systems, product vendors had to pitch two teams of buyers to get their goods into both sales channels.
Amazon will open Amazon Go Grocery, its first full-size checkout-free grocery store, in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood today. The new store will have a much larger footprint and stock about five times more products than the Amazon Go convenience stores and, while shoppers won't have to stop to check out, the store will be staffed with employees to keep shelves stocked and providing customer service.
H.E. Butt Grocery and Wegmans joined Trader Joe's at the top of the supermarket category in the newest American Customer Satisfaction Index, which surveyed customer attitudes toward traditional and online retailers. Last year, Trader Joe's was alone at the top of the supermarket survey section, but Wegmans and H-E-B joined it this year with a score of 84 on a zero to 100 scale.
Some California Costco stores are restricting access to the retailer's food courts to members only, but the change isn't affecting any other Costco locations, a general manager in Minnesota said. Federal and state laws around the country also prohibit Costco from requiring a membership to purchase prescription drugs and liquor.
E.l.f. Cosmetics has bought independent clean beauty brand W3ll People for $27 million. It's the latest move in E.l.f.'s strategy shift that started last year when the brand shuttered its 22 standalone stores and focused more resources on retailer partnerships and influencer relationships.
Colgate is introducing the Zero line of oral care products, which is free from artificial ingredients such as color, sweeteners and preservatives. It includes toothpaste for children and adults, a mouthwash and a child's manual toothbrush.
Skin care products aimed at combating the effects of fatigue are expected to show a compound annual growth rate of around 4.4% in the coming decade, driven in part by the effects on skin of unhealthy lifestyles and increasing pollution. Moisturizers and creams containing natural and organic ingredients are likely to account for the bulk of the increase.
Clorox has collaborated with the agency Brand Synergy Group to create CLRX, a mystery artist who's gaining traction on YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify as well as notice from record companies with the songs "So Clean" and "Yeah, Bleach Does That." The millennial-targeted campaign includes a website, social media posts and visuals of the artist with her face partially hidden.
Pensa Systems, a Texas-based technology company, has debuted a drone specifically designed to help retailers with inventory control and on-shelf availability. In this Q&A, Pensa CEO Richard Schwartz discusses how the drone system was developed, how it stacks up to current inventory tech and what its future applications may be.
Leaders of consumer packaged goods companies expect the emerging coronavirus outbreak to hurt first-quarter sales, especially travel retail, noting some commerce is shifting online, write Jack Neff and Jessica Wohl. "I think this crisis will even strengthen the position of e-commerce players in China," said L'Oreal CEO Jean-Paul Agon at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference.
That GMDC has partnered with Nielsen to provide members with the GMDC/Nielsen GM Hierarchy, a tool that offers insights into product-level sales data in 18 major general merchandise categories. The tool gives retailers a single source for information on sales trends and channel activity. Learn more.
