3 Ecommerce Logistics Trends that are Changing Retail Right Now

The ecommerce industry has experienced rapid growth in recent years, with global sales reaching an estimated $5.8 trillion in 2023, according to research by Statista. The same study suggests this trend is only expected to continue: by 2027, the global retail ecommerce market is projected to grow by 39% and surpass the $8 trillion mark. As the ecommerce industry continues to expand, optimized logistics becomes an increasingly vital consideration for today’s retail leaders.

Nordstrom Shares Fall 10% As Retailer Warns of Potential Sales Declines

A great summary of this article on Nordstrom was provided by Scott Friend at Bain Capital Ventures…”Buried in Nordstrom’s Q4 earnings report was the news that they plan to launch an online marketplace on nordstrom.com in April — joining the ranks of Mirakl customers like Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and many other US retail leaders. Melissa Repko said it best: “Marketplaces tend to be more profitable for retailers, since the company does not take on the risk of buying inventory that customers may not like and get stuck with marking it down.” Macy’s saw 145% QoQ growth on marketplace in Q4, and CFO Adrian Mitchell shared in their last earnings call that with marketplace, they’re tailoring profitability down to the SKU level.”

Mercari eliminates selling fees, heightening competition with ThredUp & Poshmark

Online marketplace Mercari is offering zero selling fees starting Wednesday in an attempt to attract more sellers to its platform. The company previously had a 10% flat commission for every sale made on the platform. Now, Mercari is choosing to eliminate that fee entirely for sellers while offering a return policy to consumers for the first time in an escalation of competition with marketplaces like ThredUp and Poshmark.

E-Commerce Returns’ Billion-Dollar Burden on Business and the Planet

Online shopping returns cost retailers billions of dollars, pump tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and dump billions of pounds of waste into landfills, according to a global plastics cleanup company report. According to a recent returns survey by returns management company goTRG conducted with more than 500 U.S.-based retailers, 49% of retailers now find returns to be a severe problem, especially during the holiday season. “This sentiment has grown by a whopping nearly 3,000% since September 2022, when about only 2% of retailers indicated this was a severe issue,” said goTRG CEO Sender Shamiss.

Q4 Earnings Outperformers: Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) And The Rest Of The Online Marketplace Stocks

As online marketplace stocks’ Q4 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers, including Robinhood and its peers. Online marketplaces aggregate large customer bases, which attracts commission-paying sellers, generating flywheel scale effects that feed back into further customer acquisition. The 12 online marketplace stocks that were tracked reported a slower Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 1.2%…

Best Places to Sell Your Used Electronics for 2024

It may surprise you to read this, but you don’t need to keep all of your unused gadgets. Before you toss an unused phone or Xbox controller in that drawer to be forgotten forever, you should check to see how much you can get paid for that hardware. In a nod to one of the circular economy’s earliest successes, CNET has created a list of the top places for consumers to sell their used electronics. While this does include some trade-in programs, the list includes online marketplaces such as Swappa and Decluttr.