The pandemic has upended the way people buy—online retail has soared as high-street shops and malls close. Brands are now racing to exploit one of the most important weapons in the battle for buyers: their customers’ data.
Read special report on the future of shopping here: https://econ.st/2Q8XQC2
Costco is one of the biggest and most successful retailers in the country. In this video, WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer dissects the wholesaler’s unique approach to doing business. Photo: Qian Weizhong/ZUMA Press
It’s well over a decade since Amazon launched its Prime delivery service; in fact it was 2007 when the company first introduced us to unlimited next-day shipping on what was at the time almost a million products.
But in 13 years, we have seen little change. That is, until recently. Many areas now offer same-day delivery, but behind closed doors Amazon had been working on an ambitious plan to realise almost instant delivery. The goal? Just 30 minutes, from the click of the ‘order now’ button to the tangible products, in our hands.
Every delivery company can agree that the final mile or so of a product’s journey is the most expensive. As it leaves a shipping container, and steps away from the lorry’s vessel, it enters the smallest vehicle yet – vans, and sometimes cars. Rather than carrying millions of products, a driver can now only carry a few dozen. Employing thousands of drivers comes at incredible cost to shipping companies.
Is cash still king? The coronavirus pandemic may cause a drastic decline in cash usage due to the risk of contamination. The unprecedented surge in the demand for contactless payment has also shown outstanding performances for major companies offering cashless payment methods, like Apple, Square and Paypal. Could covid-19 signal the end of cash in the United States and can the U.S. really function without physical currency?
For years, one of the biggest days of the holiday shopping season was Black Friday. But in 2020, that could change. The coronavirus pandemic is fast-tracking big changes in retail that were already underway, pushing consumers into a digital future.
Illustration: Jacob Reynolds/WSJ
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