J. C. Penney, a fixture of suburban shopping malls, started out as a small-town Main Street store that fused its founder’s interests in agriculture, retail business, religion, and philanthropy. David Kruger’s presentation will bring to light the little ...

Whitehall Lecture Series - "An Unlikely Titan of Commerce: J. C. Penney"

During a new search effort on Thursday, amateur DB Cooper investigators claim they found a flat sheet they believe was used by the escaped plane hijacker in 1971.

Amateur DB Cooper investigators reveal find from latest Vancouver search

Carolina Place mall owner Brookfield Properties defaulted on a $149 million loan debt, according to a CMBS report provided to The Charlotte Observer by commercial real estate research group CoSta r. CMBS is a commercial mortgage-backed security. The 90-acre mall property is at N.C. Hwy. 51 and Interstate 485 in Pineville.

What’s next for Carolina Place mall after it defaulted on a $149 million loan?

Meagan Waters has operated in downtown Plano since 2017. After working in retail for JC Penney and area boutiques, she launched her own clothing and gifts storefront — Lylas' in

Plano entrepreneur turns passion for fashion into downtown storefront

A former Forever 21 worker shared how he despised working at the retail store so much that he would go to work drunk.

'I drank whiskey out of my water bottle when I worked at JCPenney lmao'

A Walmart worker and prolific TikTok creator got fired from his job two weeks after considering quitting and documented the firing on video.

‘I finally feel free now’: Walmart worker says he feels ‘liberated’ after getting fired from job

The owner of Northwoods Mall in North Charleston has let go of another large South Carolina shopping center carrying tens of millions of dollars in debt.

SC mall sale marks a Palmetto State three-peat for the former owner

Threads Consignment Events, a pop-up paradise for shoppers, has returned to Central Virginia this time at the former JC Penney store at Regency Mall.

Pop-up paradise for consignment shoppers moves into former JC Penney at Regency Mall

Westgate Mall, built in 1975 on West Blackstock Road in Spartanburg, is for sale. The mall is the only enclosed mall in Spartanburg County. It was last renovated in 1996.

Spartanburg's WestGate Mall is up for sale

Jonathan Frankel, president of Aldo Product Services at the Aldo Group, told FN in an interview that the company has signed a new licensing agreement with Authentic to design, produce and distribute footwear for the firm’s newly acquired Roxy label.

Exclusive: Aldo Group Expands Relationship with Authentic, Adds Roxy Footwear License

J.C. Penney

jcpenney

With cryptocurrency becoming increasingly popular, small and large companies have started accepting various forms of crypto as payment. Currently, Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency and is of small-to-medium-sized businesses. accepted by around 36% According to new data, say they’d like to pay for everything with cryptocurrency. That might become a reality sooner than later. As of 2021, an overwhelming number of businesses accept cryptocurrency, including: 46 million consumers GameStop Gap JC Penney Dish Network AMC Quiznos 4Chan The Internet Archive Pizza Hut Twitch Subway Burger King KFC AT&T Microsoft Wikipedia And more For most consumers, using crypto is about remaining anonymous. For others, it’s an investment. For a handful, it’s both. Chances are, some of your customers would love the chance to pay for your goods or services with Bitcoin or another popular cryptocurrency. However, accepting crypto can complicate things if you’re not well organized. If you , you’re going to need the following organizational tools. choose to accept crypto 1. Financial Organization Financial organization is the foundation for every kind of success you could achieve. To start accepting crypto, you need to have your standard finances in order. Accepting crypto while you’re already disorganized will only add to the chaos. To stay organized, many businesses use platforms that automate workflows and keep teams connected. For years, Salesforce has been a leader in the industry and has an extended number of CRM services with a product called . FinancialForce FinancialForce unifies data across your entire enterprise, giving you visibility into all of your systems – most importantly, your sales and finances. Other CRM solutions you can use include HubSpot Sales, Pipedrive, and Insightly. All of these options will provide the visibility you need to stay organized. If you’re going to start accepting crypto, you’ll need as much visibility as you can get. 2. Financial Tracking Software Built for Crypto It’s one thing to know you must pay capital gains taxes on any crypto you hold in your business bank account, but tracking your crypto gains requires special software. It’s not easy to track your gains manually. There are plenty of you can get, which include Pionex, Kubera, Sharesight, Delta, and more. Research each one before committing to a tracker to make sure it meets all of your needs. crypto portfolio trackers 3. An Automatic Value Converter One of the biggest problems with accepting crypto is the . If you manually set your prices in Bitcoin today, you might lose money on your sales tomorrow or even the following week. value fluctuation You can stay ahead of the game by using software that automatically converts your crypto prices on your website to reflect a set dollar value. For example, you can set the price of an item as $100 USD, and the application will change the displayed Bitcoin price as the value of Bitcoin fluctuates. Check with your shopping cart application to see if there’s a plugin you can use to keep crypto prices current on your website. This is the only way to ensure you always get the correct value for your goods and services. 4. Immediate Digital Conversion After Sale The longer you hold onto any cryptocurrency, . To avoid increasing your tax bill, you need to convert your crypto as quickly as possible. The ideal solution is to convert crypto to currency immediately after receiving a payment. This way, your tax liability will be more predictable. the more taxes you’re likely to owe Most people use Coinbase Exchange to convert Bitcoin into dollars. However, be prepared to pay a small fee no matter what application you use. You can expect to pay between 1.49% to 2% per transaction. To avoid paying unnecessary fees, you might want to convert and transfer your funds once per week rather than every day. 5. An Accountant Who Knows Investments Since , you need an accountant who understands investments. You’ll need to pay capital gains taxes on every bit of crypto you receive. If your crypto gains value while you’re holding it, you’ll owe for gains. cryptocurrency is considered an investment While crypto is somewhat anonymous, you can’t escape paying taxes when you’re accepting crypto payments in exchange for goods and services. The fact that you’re accepting payments makes your transactions no longer anonymous. Besides, it’s never a good idea to avoid paying taxes because you can get hit with penalties and jail time for tax evasion. Accepting Cryptocurrency is a Wise Move The future of payments is certainly digital. Although many people argue over how long Bitcoin and other cryptos will hold up, it’s hard to see crypto disappearing for good. As long as crypto exists, people will want to use it to pay for goods and services. If you don’t accept crypto, you’re leaving money on the table. However, once you start accepting crypto, make sure your business stays financially organized to remain in compliance with various . crypto regulations

5 Essential Tools to Start Accepting Crypto Payments

Transformation in the digital space has completely reshaped shopping, online experiences, and even customer expectations in physical stores. The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption has turned the industry upside down, bringing with it unparalleled technological innovations. It’s important to consider where these innovations are taking us next by identifying the technological trends that have guided us through 2020 and 2021 and will continue to pave the way for us in years to come. With our experience in software development, we have identified seven critical tech trends that will change the future of the retail industry for years to come. Trend #1: E-Commerce-Friendly POS Systems E-commerce has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic due to restrictions and fears surrounding in-person shopping. This has motivated business owners to optimize their e-commerce platforms in order to boost their online sales processes. Unfortunately, lockdowns and health risks generated by the pandemic have resulted in a record number of . Many of these closures, such as Microsoft Store and Pier 1, have been permanent. Others, like JCPenney and Macy’s and have temporarily closed locations or reduced the number of open locations. However, some retailers like Walmart and Target last year. retail closures in 2020 generated great earnings A SaaS provider of a cloud-based for retailers discusses the ever-growing demand for a fully integrated POS and e-commerce solution. Retailers need solutions that allow them to sell products online at the same level of efficiency, system integration, and customer satisfaction as in physical stores. ERP solution Simply having an online option and an in-person option may not be enough. Businesses will eventually need to synchronize these two domains with e-commerce and POS integration. This will allow them to best integrate online and offline transactions, inventory, and promotions across all in-person locations and online stores during and after the pandemic. Trend #2: Machine Learning for Demand Forecasting COVID-19 has greatly shifted customer demand in the retail space. Understanding how to predict and take advantage of these shifts is a vital component of staying on top of the industry. Data is essential to the demand forecasting process. By using machine learning, forecasting customer demand becomes substantially more accurate. These innovations improve automatic demand forecasting, inventory planning, relationship management for both customers and suppliers, logistics, manufacturing, and marketing. approaches are much more versatile and adaptive than their traditional counterparts. Since machine learning can be implemented much more quickly, it can better follow customer demand trends. ML-based demand forecasting By optimizing demand forecasting systems with NLP and cascade models, short-term POS data, and recent data from external resources (exchange rates, market states, economic factors, and others), it’s possible to enhance demand forecasting accuracy. That is what makes ML-powered demand forecasting become a valued contribution to smart retail, as it helps prevent overstocking, reduce warehouse and logistics expenses, also lowering negative environmental impact, and supporting . sustainable consumption and production Renowned companies like Amazon, American Eagle Outfitters, Asos, and Macy’s utilized machine learning in 2020 with great success. in particular takes advantage of machine learning’s potential for demand forecasting, using it to make their system and supply more efficient to meet shifts in demand. Amazon Demand forecasting will remain relevant even after the pandemic comes to a close. Since customer behaviors and relationships with new shopping technologies have changed dramatically over the course of 2020, analysts believe that the landscape of retail has changed for the foreseeable future. Trend #3: Virtual fitting rooms Gartner the rise of augmented reality to 100 million consumers by 2020 and were proven correct. In 2020, the customer conversion rate for AR engaged users . The potential of in the retail industry in 2021 cannot be ignored. predicted increased by 90% augmented reality Virtual fitting rooms are one of the most intriguing innovations in the retail industry that utilizes augmented reality. Since the “try-before-you-buy” approach is more difficult to manage while adhering to public health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, augmented reality is in a unique position to help customers make choices on products. Where many other retailers saw losses in the face of the pandemic, Sephora saw great gains with its use of augmented reality technology in 2020. By , customers could ‘try on’ their products like jewelry and cosmetics with their smartphones. Other retailers, such as Kendra Scott, and Etsy are also utilizing . using virtual fitting rooms virtual fitting room technology Since virtual shopping can be done on customers’ smartphones, is a vital part of building augmented reality apps in 2021. has made its way onto the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, meaning that more and more potential customers will have access to more advanced augmented reality experiences. ARKit Apple’s LiDAR scanner Trend #4: Data Science-Based Personal Interaction Personalization plays a critical role in the success of the retail industry, with and machine learning being powerful drivers. Powered by these technologies, personalization’s ability to automatically craft tailored suggestions to consumers is essential. data science Consumer desires are key to this technology trend in 2021. By using consumer purchase data to develop shopping profiles for certain types of customers, machine learning can adapt to each user to guide their shopping experience. Because of this, e-commerce stores have historically shown a greater degree of success with personalizing the shopping experience. However, brick-and-mortar stores are not far behind. Bluetooth Low Energy and RFID technologies use minimal amounts of power that can help drive data collection from consumers that can be used to enhance retail personalization experiences. With data collection, retail businesses must make sure to be aware of customer privacy. Treading carefully to stay in alignment with privacy protection laws can work in a business’s favor, as consumers may feel more comfortable trusting the company and be more likely to return. chatbots have proven to be a major boon to e-commerce websites by providing a personalized experience for visitors. With chatbots able to better communicate with visitors, provide deals, recommendations, website navigation, and order tracking, businesses can save a great deal. NLP-driven Trend #5: Staff-Free and Cashier-Less Stores With social distancing still relevant for protecting public health in 2021, cashierless and staff-free stores are an important retail trend to consider. Shekel Brainweigh Ltd, a provider of weighing technologies, surveyed consumers to find shifts in shopping trends due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the , 87% of customers preferred stores with contactless or self-checkout options. results To achieve this goal, RFID tags, computer vision systems, machine learning, IoT devices, and facial recognition can be utilized. Technologies like these were utilized in Amazon’s system, powered by their Amazon Go Grocery model. In particular, the project took advantage of computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. Amazon’s IoT network in the store tracks what consumers place into their cart. When the customer leaves the store, the store will automatically charge the credit card that the customer has on file. Just Walk Out In the future, health can be improved to reduce cross-contact in stores by reducing the use of touch by customers. Barcodes and QR codes can be scanned by consumers’ smartphones to gain additional information about items without having to touch them to inspect them. Trend #6: Voice Commerce Artificial intelligence and NLP continue to advance in 2021. With Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri as the main frontrunners of the consumer voice assistant market, various improvements have been made by each to better serve customers. Their usefulness has transcended what was previously possible due to the fact that they do not require a screen, they need only to be able to recognize your voice. With the United States to have more than 77 million homes with smart home devices in 2025, the voice commerce trend is proving to have serious potential for the retail industry. IoT devices in consumers’ homes, such as smart mirrors and smart displays can help deliver product content in non-intrusive and helpful ways. expected Screens may not even be necessary. With voice commerce, smart speakers only need to hear the consumer’s voice and respond accordingly. Voice commands can help customers find products or even make purchases. service is a perfect example of this technology in action. By asking smart speakers to add products to a cart, they can place orders entirely by voice. Those items can then be made available for pickup by Walmart’s workers. Walmart’s Voice Ordering Trend #7: Robots and Autonomous Vehicles Although traditionally in the realm of science fiction, robotics and autonomous technology have begun to show their relevance in the retail industry in 2021. Safeway, a supermarket chain, is pioneering a new service to deliver groceries to local residents. Serve Robotics, formerly called Postmates X, is also a delivery robot for Uber. is also getting ready to deploy fully autonomous trucks for delivery orders this year. driverless cart developing Walmart Verizon and UPS Flight Forward in January that they will be working together to bring contactless drone retail delivery starting in a Florida neighborhood called the Villages. One of the key components of the technology is 5G connectivity, which allows better air traffic control for the drones to keep them from colliding. announced Customer service robotics has also been improving this year. In January, a robot called DAL-e to a showroom in Seoul. DAL-e greets customers and helps them find the vehicle that’s right for them. DAL-e also can automatically detect when customers do not have face coverings and will advise that they wear a mask. Hyundai deployed Another application of robotics in the retail industry is inventory management. Computer vision and machine learning play a major role in machines like , which can identify misplaced items on shelves and notify staff when certain items are running low. SmartSight The Future of Retail: Opportunities in the New Normal COVID-19 has proven to be an incredible challenge for the retail industry, but technology has brought a great deal of progress and improvement over the course of 2020 and 2021. Tools like machine learning, data science, computer vision, augmented reality, and more have shown that 2020’s challenges have been an opportunity for improvement. If you’re ready to take on that opportunity and make your vision for bringing new value to your customers, MobiDev is the perfect fit for you with our . retail software development services "Problems can be seen as opportunities, and 2021’s challenges for the retail industry are no different. Companies must adapt and use retail technology innovations to succeed in the market. As technology advances, there are many new niches waiting to be monetized and opportunities to be taken. Digital transformation and data-centric cultures will continue to disrupt businesses that cannot adapt to rapidly changing customer preferences, new technologies, and supply chains. We must bring consumers experiences that they find engaging, accessible, and valuable. " - Alex Vasilchenko, Lead Solution Architect at MobiDev with 6+ years of experience in retail projects. Author - Liam Shotwell, Technology Enthusiast for MobiDev Previously published at https://mobidev.biz/blog/7-technology-trends-to-change-retail-industry

7 Tech Trends Reshaping the Retail Industry

“You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” — Warren Buffett Well, it is nice to start with a quote from none other than the great “Wizard of Omaha”, but maybe it is too egoistic? Hope by the end of the article I get to hear some of your thoughts about this, don’t forget to leave comments on quoting the legends like this. After this braggadocio it is pretty obvious where I am aiming with the difference between sales and business development — not to downplay any great salesman, I have nothing but admiration for successful salespeople but business development is a whole new ball game people. What I mean by that, well the business of selling is a great virtue of few and even greater persistence by most of the others. While I admire those who find this “something” inside them and successfully use it to actually make sales process an interesting piece of work, I usually deal with those that merely prey upon customers. And, to be honest, there is nothing wrong with that tactic, if it delivers — but is not the topic of this article, nor am I aiming to talk about sales pitches, tactics, etc. If you’re hoping to read about this, I believe there are plethora of other writers here that can teach you a lot about that topic, unfortunately, I am not one of them. On the other hand, if you wish to read more about business development I am glad to help. “Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” — James Cash Penney, founder, JC Penney (Photo by Hello I'm Nik 🇬🇧 on Unsplash ) Again, I have to agree on both of these — a quote from J.C. Penny and this interesting image from Unsplash. Good business development is never a result of a single force, but rather combination of forces working together on a common goal — but and here is a huge , in majority of cases, and by that, I mean successful cases, like the one you are trying to be, it is under the leadership of a single person. That single person should have the vision and the ability to develop a business. Maybe you’re thinking of a CEO, but in no way should those roles be confused — you should definitely have the support of your CEO but this steering wheel is given to the business development manager and it is his sole responsibility. BUT “Now we’re talking business” If I haven’t lost you by this page, I believe I have your full and undivided attention. I really hope because we can now feel the difference from the headline. Business development is not just a business of sales numbers going up, skyrocketing and huge egos — even though you’ll certainly see some of it. It is a responsibility, a huge one if you ask me — to deliver ? It is always about delivering results, but in the case of business development, it is more about delivering a perfectly sane business equation. Not just one, but 8 basic business equations. WHAT Total Assets = Liabilities + Equity Net Income = Revenues — Expenses Break-Even Point = (Sales — Fixed Costs — Variable Costs = $0 Profit) Cash Ratio = Cash ÷ Current Liabilities Profit Margin = Net Income ÷ Sales Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Liabilities ÷ Total Equity Cost of Goods Sold = Beginning Inventory + Cost of Purchasing New Inventory — Ending Inventory Retained Earnings = Beginning Retained Earnings + Net Income or Net Loss — Cash Dividends Each equation is harder than the next one. Not harder to grasp or to calculate but harder to achieve, and then to achieve in the long-term — but so is life. (Photo by Paulette Wooten on Unsplash ) We will break down each one of these equations, and believe me when I say, the easiest part is to figure out what is needed, but to actually get down and dirty and deliver what is needed — that is where great business developers shine. 1. Total Assets = Liabilities + Equity Meaning, all of the things your business owns (property, cash, inventory, acc. receivables and equipment) will, in the end, equate to the obligations you must pay (lease, merchant acc. fees, debts, etc.) plus the portion of the business that actually belongs to the owner or usually the stockholders. So-called “ ” equation. balance sheet 2. Net Income = Revenues — Expenses Looking at net income is basically deduction of your incurred costs of generating revenue from the revenue itself. At the end of the day it all that you’re left with — nothing more, nothing less. 3. Break-Even Point = (Sales — Fixed Costs — Variable Costs = $0 Profit) Break-even point, or the first sign that you are actually doing a good job, or at least going in a good direction. Meaning, all of your sales minus the fixed and variable costs of conducting that same business now leave you with nothing, zero, zip. and you will be happy about it, believe you me — it will make you more than happy. The first time your new business or your new business model reaches the break-even point you’ll feel invincible. It is a very strong feeling, very addictive feeling and I hope you feel it a lot and a lot of times throughout your career. 4. Cash Ratio = Cash ÷ Current Liabilities This should come naturally to most of you — it is an equation of how much money you have at your disposal. Take care of this number, always look after it — this will either save you or break you. 5. Profit Margin = Net Income ÷ Sales We talking more serious business now. Maybe the most important number for any business developer out there. Why? This equation tells you about your status in the world. At the end of the day, if I want to see how successful I am as a business developer — just take a look at my profit margin. My profit margin tells you the exact net income earned on each dollar of sales. This is where all these fine people from the sales department come in, and when they close their deals and drink their champagne all it matters is how much of that money is kept in. 6. Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Liabilities ÷ Total Equity This is a sneaky one, always keep eye out for this one — divide all of the costs to the outside parties (acc payable, principal payments, etc.) with how much of the company actually belongs to the owners and if what you get is high number — it shows you’d rather issue debt than stock. Depending on your situation it can impact you a very strong or little bit less — if you’re looking for an investor a high debt-to-equity ratio makes it more difficult. 7. Cost of Goods Sold = Beginning Inventory + Cost of Purchasing New Inventory — Ending Inventory Easy one, but easily overlooked until it is too late. This equation helps you determine how much you spent on manufacturing your goods. 8. Retained Earnings = Beginning Retained Earnings + Net Income or Net Loss — Cash Dividends One for the owners to calculate, but usually one that is sacred to you also :) (Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash ) If you came this far and enjoyed it — then follow me — because this will be one helluva ride for you. If this keeps you interested, motivated and makes your spider-senses tingle you’re made for the . world of business development Make sure you read the next part in the series, and until next time — best of luck in all of your adventures!

Difference Between Sales and Business Development: 8 Business Metrics

Just look at these 2 names: Amazon private label brands Amazon’s private label brands Sounds pretty much similar, isn’t it? Trust me many sellers/retailers still get confused between these two terms although the only difference is of ( ). s Yet this one letter ( ) actually makes a huge difference. How? s In this article, we will do a deep analysis of what are Amazon private label brands and also know a bit about Amazon’s private label brands. You can also refer the post on how to . create a private label product for Amazon What is Amazon private label brand/products? Amazon private label brand can be your own brand or someones’ who want to sell his/her products exclusively on Amazon, with its own brand name or logo. Nowadays many retailers and sellers are shifting their business to private labeling on Amazon or starting their own online store or both (have an online store and selling on Amazon). Also with handy , managing inventory of these private label products has now become easier than ever. inventory management software It has been forecasted that brands will be expanding dramatically in the next four to five years says Matt Sargent, SVP Retail at Magid to . This is because retailers will recognize that store brands sell at a higher profit margin, offer points of differentiation and enhance customer loyalty. private label Food Navigator Amazon defines both its private-label brands (those owned by Amazon) and its exclusive brands (those owned by a third party but only sold on Amazon) as “ ” on its websites. Our Brands “Our Brands as the name says, it is Amazon’s Private Brands and Amazon curated brands, which are exclusively sold on Amazon” Amazon allows outside brand manufacturers to sell their product on Amazon by a tag ‘ only on Amazon’. Amazon also works with well-established brands to list and sell products as exclusively on Amazon. exclusive brands , in the fourth-quarter of 2018, there were and more than on Amazon’s retail sites around the world. According to the database of TJI 135 private-label brands 330 Amazon exclusive brands From that same database, Amazon has: More than 40 exclusive or private-label food and grocery brands More than 60 healthcare and beauty brands More than 20 household goods brands in the U.S. alone So let’s have a look at some of the Amazon private label brands. You may have bought items from the list below but unaware of the fact that they are — Amazon private label brand. List of some Amazon & Amazon’s Private Label Brand A brief on Amazon’s self-owned private label brands Amazon is selling more than 450 of its own brands or brands that are exclusively sold only on its platform. Since 2017, Amazon has launched over 70 new private-label retail brands, which now makes it’s total close to 130! Analysts at predict that of all online shopping in the US will be conducted on Amazon within the next couple of years. And this will allow Amazon to 2x its revenue from in-house brands (private label brands), reaching within the upcoming 4 years! SunTrust Robinson Humphrey 50 percent $25 billion Amazon’s private label brands benefit Amazon in many ways. They have varieties of product selection which gives Amazon better profit margins. Supply chain management becomes easier too. Other big brands cut down their profit margins on Amazon, to stay competitive with their private label brands. On Amazon’s the largest selling product category is of apparel and accessories. According to TJI, Amazon has more than 80 private-label and exclusive clothing, shoes and accessories brands in the U.S.. With new items ranging from casual shirts to jeans, leggings, and hoodies, Amazon Essentials (amazon’s private label) which sells apparel items — experienced more than a double sale of 400-items at the end of December, which was just 200 during September. Also, you can see in the above table that the percentage of apparel items were comparatively more than other product categories. Some well-known Amazon’s private label brands Amazon Basics Launched in 2009, AmazonBasics is the oldest and first ever launched Amazon’s private label brands. AmazonBasics is a full line collection of various electronic items, including USB cables, disposable batteries, tripods, laptop bags, computer mics/speakers and more. After a slow start, Amazon Basics saw exponential growth in their one product category in particular — batteries. Leveraging their own platform, and offering those private label batteries at discounted price AmazonBasics was able to gain nearly one-third of all online battery sales in just 3 years. Amazon Essentials Amazon Essentials — another private label of Amazon, which features extremely affordable items of clothing. Amazon Essentials looks like a fast-fashion version of labels such as Dockers, Old Navy, and JC Penney house brands like St. John’s Bay. Amazon Elements In previous years Amazon’s private label brand, Amazon Elements only used to sell baby wipes, after discontinuation of baby-diapers. Now Amazon Elements is moving beyond baby products and introduced its own line of vitamins and supplements under their own brand- Amazon Elements. Also, Amazon Elements vitamin and supplement cannot be bought by any shopper, he/she must be Amazon Prime member to order them. Conclusion Amazon first started its private label business in 2009, and now the company has over 120 of them. Amazon’s dominance in the e-commerce world has forced small as well as big brands to adopt an strategy, in order to remain relevant competitive. Amazon-first However, private label brands do have an unfair advantage over other sellers selling across Amazon. Because you can’t stop the one, who is letting you do business, on its own platform which is eventually — world’s giant ecommerce marketplace. Why?

Amazon Monopoly. The Rise of Amazon Private Label Brands in 2019

The entire landscape of trade has transformed in the last two decades. It had long ago shifted from the grudging offline experience to the easier and comfortable e-commerce experience — where everything could be bought or sold by a click of button. I am quite certain that most of us are pretty much aware of that. It is also safe to assume that almost every one of us might have either heard of or used some of the services of the companies mentioned in this list. The eCommerce landscape is dominated by the worlds’ elite — Billionaire businessmen like Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, and others, are in a relentless race to dominate the eCommerce realm. After all, the eCommerce industry is without a doubt the most lucrative business of the 21st Century. Now, one might assume that he or she knows pretty much everything about the companies listed below, but I am pretty certain that you might not be aware of the secret sauce that made these companies so influential. Let’s shift our paradigms a little, and shed some light at these corporations from an entirely fresh and quirky perspective. The list is not all Western; and no, Alibaba is not the only Chinese success story: 1. Amazon Only if you are living under a rock or were in a Captain America sort of coma for a while, could be the case when you might not have heard about this giant-little bird. This Seattle based company (rather a country) is now the most valuable business in the universe. But this isn’t the only thing that makes headlines about Amazon. The now immortal CEO of Amazon is equally in the news, if not more. 2018 saw Mr. Bezos become the first centi-billionaire of the world. His net worth is estimated to be a whopping 137.1bn USD (meh!)as of 2019. So, what precisely goes inside the head of this gentleman? Read through this image of Amazons’ 1997 letter to shareholders, and you’ll get an impression of how this gentleman thinks. Amazon has been a constant with their purpose since its inception. In their annual letter to shareholders, they have always boasted the view of long term and valuing their customers more than anything. **The X-Factor:**Amazons’ 1997 letter to shareholders, gives us a pretty good insight into the way Jeff Bezos functions. The letter tells us about the unrelenting focus the famous founder has maintained through the years, along with some invaluable lessons for all who are pursuing organizational excellence. Here are a few highlights: Too many companies today are focused on maintaining slim profit margins, at the expense of keeping customers happy. Amazon, however, has always been laser-focused on providing value to their customers.“Since inception, our focus has been on offering our customers compelling value. We brought our customers’ much more selection than was ever possible in a physical store (our store would now occupy six football fields), and presenting it in a valuable, easy-to-browse, and easy-to-search format in a store which is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.”, explained Bezos.The fruits of this resolute mentality could be clearly seen 25 Years later. Focus on delivering value: **Customer First. ALWAYS. NO MATTER WHAT.**Amazon as a company has always strived to keep customers at the helm of their business. Amazon’s emphasis on the long-term, as shown by the image above, has made investment decisions in the light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions. There are swarms of people that don’t agree with this approach. But then again, not everyone can build a business like Amazon. Another critical reason why Amazon has rose-up to the top is their willingness to learn from their mistakes. In an interview, Bezos acknowledged the road ahead, ** **Every entrepreneur and businessperson should try and inculcate this in their business. Never Ever Stop Learning “We now understand vastly more about online commerce then when Amazon.com was formed, but we still have so much to learn. Though we are optimistic, we must remain sharp and maintain a sense of urgency.” Rather than eyeing short-term profitability, Bezos has always tried to focus on long term gains. Their refusal to compromise has given the company purpose and direction — and has transformed Amazon from an online bookseller to a global retail empire. Visualize the bigger picture 2. Walmart Walmart is not just the world’s largest retailer (but Amazon is closing in), it is also the world’s leading private employer. Walmart products are manufactured in more than 70 countries. At any given time, Walmart is managing an average of $46.18 billion in inventory (Q: Oct 2018) throughout its 11,695 stores operating in 28 countries. To top that, they have made several (Flipkart being the most notable one) to compete with Amazon in emerging markets like India. significant acquisitions Walmart’s influence has been so immense that its impact on communities and society as a whole has been a consistent topic of academic interest in a variety of areas. While Walmart is celebrating success, other major retailers are struggling. The X-Factor: , the nation’s second-largest department store, had its share price plummet. For fiscal 2017, the retailer is projecting a 3.2 to 4.3% decline in sales. Macy’s saw a 15.3% decline following its weak earnings report. J.C. Penney And , revered for its customer service practices, saw an 11.3 % drop, while Kohl’s slumped nearly 8% after disappointing financials. Nordstrom SO, why is Walmart winning when most of the retail markets are tanking? Two reasons: ” Despite its humongous size, the organization has never lost sight of its purpose. Even today, helping its customers save money and that is central to everything Walmart does. Their unwavering and laser-sharp focus makes them stand-out. Stay true to your purpose: Sam Walton started Walmart in 1962 with one simple goal: to “ help people save money so they could live better. **Execute your purpose:**Every employee of Walmart adheres to the vision of their late founder, Sam Walton, who believed, “Each Walmart store must reflect the values of its consumers and support the vision they hold for their community.”Everyone at Walmart is coherent with this vision. Every action Walmart takes at each and every level of the organization is to support the retailer’s purpose. From the no-frills corporate offices to its requirement that all employees, even executives, empty their own bins, every employee makes it a point of keeping its costs down, so it can sell products for less. This sheer resilience and the ability to execute its purpose is what distinguishes Walmart even now. 3. Alibaba Alibaba is hailed as “ ” because of its dominance in the worlds’ most populous country. Much like Amazon, the founder CEO of Alibaba boasts a big fan base and is touted as a global entrepreneur and visionary. the Amazon of China Alibaba has been killing it since the dawn of the 21st Century and is on its way to dwarf American stalwarts such as Walmart, Amazon, and eBay. It has already outperformed Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in key areas such as public cloud revenue growth. With entities almost everywhere, (movie production, music and movie streaming, online learning, micro-blogging, online maps, travel booking, mobile apps, and so much more), the Alibaba Group has shown the world that China is a force to be reckoned with. So what factors are accountable for this incredible growth in such a short span of time? Let’s take a look, The X-Factor: Alibaba doesn’t charge a single penny for admission and only charge for their services in marketing and technical support. This contributes to a significant and robust market-share made up of loyal customers. Alibaba’s profits mainly come through keyword bidding and advertisements, which represent 55% of its total profits.The second most important source of profit (amounting to almost 25%) comes from the technical services based on big data of the consumer behaviour.By eradicating intermediate fees and allowing sellers to register for free, Alibaba has been able to cultivate an online transaction habit among its customers. A loyal customer base Jack Ma has taken carpediem way too seriously. Alibaba has always excelled at identifying and seizing unique business opportunities and thus cleverly positioning itself as a leader in developing customer loyalty.For instance, The ‘ ’ festival falls on Nov 11, between Christmas and the Chinese National Day. Most consumers initially avoided shopping during that period, but Taobao (a subsidiary of Alibaba) has successfully transformed that day into an actual shopping festival. Being in the right place, at the right time Double 11 4. JD.com If anyone in this world can lock horns with the likes of Alibaba is this eCommerce giant — has started giving Alibaba a run-for-money by introducing advanced technologies and drone delivery systems. They have also announced that they are planning to build more than 150 drone launch centers to improve delivery capabilities for consumers in rural areas. JD.com Additionally, JD is in a strategic partnership with Walmart that was extended this year to further the integration of their resources, platforms, and supply chains within China. Strengthened by initial failures, Richard Liu Qiangdong, took risks that paid off heavily, mounting his startup JD.com into the ranks of Chinese e-commerce giants. “Within five years I’m 100 percent sure we will be the largest B2C [business to consumer] platform in China — we will surpass any competitor,” said Liu in a statement to Financial Times. The X-Factor: “The key reason for [JD’s] success is focus,” Liu, (Founder, JD.com) said in a speech at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. “For us, e-business is everything.” Focus: JD.com has established themselves at the helm of the newest technological innovations. Liu has even gone so far to predict his company won’t need any humans, and said, “I hope my company would be 100% automated someday…no human beings anymore, 100% operated by AI and robots.” Striving for innovation 5. Booking Holdings is the only travel fare aggregators that has made it to this list dominated by retail giants. But there is good enough reason to mention them here. Booking Holdings According to sources, Booking Holdings operates websites in about 40 languages and 200 countries. In 2017, consumers booked 673.1 million room nights of accommodation, 73 million rental car days, and 6.9 million airplane tickets using websites owned by Booking Holdings. Booking Holdings stocks touched an all-time high of $2,229 per share in the first quarter of 2018. Here’s Why We Believe Booking Holdings Is worth $2,229 per share, The X-Factor: Booking.com operates websites in about 40 languages and in 200 countries, which is quite a feat, considering the market they operate in. Booking.com had a total of roughly 29 million reported listings, of which 23 million were listings in hotels, motels, and resorts and almost 6 million were listings in homes, apartments, and other unique places to stay.Their plans to consistently grow its reported listings, expand its real estate on its online accommodation, booking website, and improve its technological capabilities help them lead the herd. Market Reach: Judging from my personal experience and from those of others, Booking Holdings reliable customer service and their competitive pricing with easy-to-use user interface draws repeat purchases. Their business model thrives on repeat purchases. They aim to provide a better holistic travel experience to their customer, which reaffirms its value in the market. Customer Service: Concluding View Source: acommerce.asia One of the several interesting ah-ha moments we had while preparing together this analysis, and which surprised us the most was the level of consolidation that is undergoing within retail. Major acquisition activities included purchases by private equities and retailers buying Internet companies and other eCommerce players. Like the recent acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart — Walmart outbid Amazon to buy a controlling stake in the Indian eCommerce giant. The acquisition is touted as the biggest eCommerce deals of recent times. This goes on to show that big-box retailers are eyeing emerging markets like India to strengthen their foothold across the globe and at the same time get an edge over their competitors. The sudden shift in focus from markets like the US, Canada, and the UK is due to the stagnancy that the developed markets are witnessing. (77% for $16bn)

The World’s Five Largest eCommerce Companies

The venture capitalists at Benchmark turned a public relations mess into a succession nightmare. Did they do the right thing? Uber’s former CEO, Travis Kalanick, thought he had everything under control. The legendary founder brought the company to $70 billion in market cap while it was still private. He had voting control. The board was in his pocket. It’s true there was a bit of a regulatory mess, and a few unhappy female employees, but those things come with the territory, right? Tell the board you’re putting in the right team and it’ll get fixed. Fire a few jerks. What’s not to love? Kalanick’s colossal miscalculation wasn’t about corporate governance. He was a serial entrepreneur who understood the value of a venture capital board of directors. They help raise money, introduce partners, and stay out of your business. At the pre IPO stage, they fall asleep soon after figuring out how many billions they’ve made from the latest funding round. During this period, a time bomb was ticking that no one heard, not Kalanick, not the board. It was the shadow side of social media’s awesome power to connect. It now has the power to upend the high and mighty with a single, well-placed post. It also is totally uninterested in any counterfactual claims, no ‘my side of the story’. There was a second matter. As German cleric Thomas ‘a Kempis, might have said, “boards propose and the CEO disposes.” Over the past 10 years, due to the Great Recession, politicians convinced the country that banks and therefore, all of business, was to blame for the chaos. Power abruptly down shifted, and today the only thing that matters is public opinion. When it does not like what it sees an alarm goes off, and hitting the snooze button just delays the wake up call. These two fundamental changes, social media backlash and an anti-bigness, anti-business bias, arrived at Uber’s doorstep at the same time. So Uber acted fast to put a diversion in place. Bring in a high paid consultant with progressive credentials like Eric Holder and then hold a firing squad for 20 people. In the old days that would have done the trick. But today, corporate crises don’t come in volleys like canon fire of the Revolutionary War. They gather and attack at once like a swarm of killer bees powered by a new Queen, social media. It overwhelmed the company’s immune system and Kalanick’s base of support withered. Employees, drivers, customers, and board of directors suddenly grew short memories. His value was judged by the most recent headline and he became the face of the company’s problem, the worst outcome of all. The board of directors had no choice but to take control, but it was clear they didn’t have a handle on things. That is one reason why the company is leaderless today and given the state of things at , may be for months to come. Uber The succession plan for the Uber board was a simple one: grow the company’s value and you’ll never need to contemplate one. It created its own cognitive bubble and when things went awry, it burst. The board’s succession plan turned out to be simply to succeed. In ancient days, this condition was called an , the holding period between kings. These scenarios often ended in disruption of empires such as the Roman or Ottoman or World Wars or both. interregnum This is why business leaders must start asking the right questions and evaluating if they have the right skills and if their board is on top of things so, unlike Uber, they will be better prepared for a long road ahead. “Our Core Competency Is Knowing We Don’t Know The Future.” — Charlie Munger, partner of Warren Buffett Uber’s Corporate Governance FAQs Why would she? What can they give her other than the title? The stars are in line in her current role as Mark Zuckerberg’s #2 and @Facebook COO. In five years she could run for President. People love the simplistic narrative of a savior CEO but just ask Ron Johnson at JC Penney and Marissa Mayer at Yahoo how well that worked out. ’s future due to the board’s precipitous actions is uncertain at present and it is an unhappy culture. Why take that on? Will Sheryl Sandberg become CEO of Uber Technologies? No. Uber The new sheriff in town has an iPhone in her holster. Uber’s mistakes were serious. But without social media, problems would be solved one at a time, instead of a swarm. Was social media the primary factor? Yes. Social media is a slot machine that induces people who are not ordinarily outspoken into making inflammatory statements (the bet) they would never voice in public. Groupthink impels others to follow (make side bets), media picks up (bells ringing), and turns into public display. Business leaders aren’t prepared, even those who should be. Mistakes at Volkswagen, British Petroleum Wells Fargo all demanded the CEO’s head. Perhaps it is society’s way of getting around a lack of criminal convictions for negligence. There is also an anti-authority mania going around. We used to hold CEOs in the same esteem as Generals, now we think of them as we do politicians. Does the leader have to pay for middle management mistakes? Yes. Jeff Bezos brought in a personal coach @Amazon to help him with interpersonal skills. Mark Zuckerberg talked up Universal Basic Income at Harvard. Keep smiling. Can a CEO get smarter about these things? Yes. This was a corporate governance failure. The devious way the board removed Kalanick reflected a lack of good relations at the board level, and they resorted to ‘behind his back’ scheming to pull it off. That will leave scars. Was firing Kalanick a sign of board dysfunction? Yes. Stubborn, aggressive founders like Jobs and Kalanick require some deference especially when the message is change or leave. What was lacking at the board level was a non executive chairman with a strong relationship, clout and influence with the CEO. Was it a Steve Jobs and John Sculley thing? Yes. . The Holder report (see full report below) shames the company when a few bad apples were the problem. It is injustice misapplied. The report itself is a boilerplate rehash of corporate governance recommendations that a legal intern could have written. A total waste of time and money (estimated at $10 million+). Was bringing in Eric Holder a good idea? No Board directors should refrain from any commentary during a crisis, including the one by , in a call with reporters, “put very simply, change starts at the top.” When boards go public with dirty laundry it only inflames those with an agenda to change the company for their own purposes. Did the board make this too public? Yes. Arianna Huffington Not for what the company became, an sumo sized startup with public company metrics. Given Uber’s size, this was a private company but in the . The famed architectural and design firms boasts no fewer than six former global chiefs, all hands on operators, familiar with the problems of large, complex enterprises. The Uber board ran it like a startup. In reality, it was already a very public company. Did the board have the right directors? No. mold of Bechtel According to Jeff Bezos: “A hierarchy isn’t responsive enough to change,” he said. “I’m still trying to get people to do occasionally what I ask. And if I was successful, maybe we wouldn’t have the right kind of company.” Was the company too decentralized? No. In an interview, the VC’s who fired Kalanick were quoted by Kara Swisher in Recode: Unfortunately, their five plus years weren’t super relevant to overseeing a company with Uber’s problems. Were the venture capitalists guilty of hubris? Yes. Benchmark “Not to toot our own horn, but being super relevant in your mid-30s and having five-plus years of venture investing is the dream scenario.” Call it the law of big numbers. If you run a company like Uber with that is growing as fast, you are likely to have a matrix of problem sets. Warren Buffett says Berkshire is as big as the City of Omaha, and there are crimes in Omaha every night. It follows, he points out, that just as surely someone among Berkshire’s 330,000 employees is also doing something wrong. Were Uber’s problems unique? No. If it were a $60 billion public company, the board would be composed of people who were more astute to complexity, social activists, and the issues that dog great companies. They would have changed CEOs earlier or had Kalanick’s back and forced him to change. Being private can delude managers into thinking their behavior is private too. Should the company have IPO’d sooner? Yes. This was a case of repeal and replace (the CEO) gone wrong. Eventually they had to replace but continued attempts at repeal only infected the C suite, lowered morale, and caused a rupture. Was the board guilty of incremental thinking? Yes. But one could also claim that had he stayed around, the news feed would have moved past this and the result would be the same, minus a lot of distraction and volatility. Will Kalanick’s exit help? Yes. I’m reaching a bit here with the suggestion he might return as CEO after wandering around the wilderness like Moses. But there are several scenarios that make it realistic: the IPO could force him back or if the organism rejects a weak successor. After all, Kalanick is staying on the board and has voting control. Is Kalanick the comeback kid? Yes. One of the smartest angel investors I know, , says, “Why not? Anything’s possible in the case of Uber.” Zach Coelius Very Jobsian.

Uber Has a Long Road Ahead Thanks To The Board of Directors

Download a PDF of the “ Map of Amazon and its impact on Modern Marketing ” here to zoom in “Amazon is like pornography…everywhere, hard to define, but you always know it when you see it.” is changing. In a time of , incredible , imaginative canvases, and serious cultural and social conflicts, marketers, suppliers and agencies face increasing complexity and competition. While the industry is ripe with different “thought leadership” conversations about “what’s next” offering simple magic solutions, the one consistent thing is that sooner or later someone will mention . Marketing data abundance technology Amazon Since its incorporation in 1994 and via a close escape from being called “Cadabra”, Amazon.com Inc, the US-based retail giant, has grown to become the world’s largest internet retailer despite an explosion of competition. It is only the second company to exceed a market capitalisation of $1 trillion in intra-day trading. Indeed Amazon’s scale now seems to be its . only threat As Amazon adds new categories and new businesses, it has rapidly become both the enemy at the gates and the new hope for doing business. But what is Amazon? At we have been having many conversations and working sessions with clients and colleagues that touch upon Amazon and its impact upon marketing. What is fascinating is that whether you are an Amazon expert, a customer, a Marketplace seller or even a media insider, everyone has a different perspective. Amazon is so vast, with so many subsidiaries, brands, verticals and products that you are rapidly reminded of the infamous “ ” parable. Digitas blind men and the elephant In the marketing industry there is often a tendency to project partial knowledge as whole truth, and perhaps only God or Jeff Bezos can truly know Amazon, but based on conversations, many articles in the trade and mainstream press, detailed reports and even some (public) internal Amazon material, we sort to lay down a primer, the basic starter knowledge if you will, of how Amazon is changing marketing. The world needs less PowerPoint. Instead of writing another report or slide deck we combined research and sources into a Concept Map similar to our previous . Only a little bit bigger. Map of Modern Brand Building “With a concept map, a viewer can see both the forest and individual trees. The big picture is clear because all the ideas are presented on one surface. At the same time, it’s easy to dive in and see details and how they relate.” Four nodes began to appear in the map. What is Amazon, its pillars and how it creates value across the globe. The increasing competitive impact for marketers in CPG, Auto, Fashion, IoT, Electronics, Home Services and Entertainment (both from Amazon and from 3rd Parties on Marketplace including those causing “the China Crisis”). The behind how Amazon is affecting and transforming the Customer Journey in terms of customer expectations. 5 Convenience Principles The growing Amazon Advertising and Media services that brands and sellers can make use of to build their brands and reach new audiences. This “ ” does not claim to be exhaustive and only covers one and half of Amazon’s three primary pillars (Prime, Webservices, Marketplace). It does not go deep into AWS, healthcare, AI or Finance. Map of Amazon and its impact on Modern Marketin g And yet it reveals two competitive forces that Amazon’s has unleashed to transform the marketing value chain: and . customer obsession Experiential Competition Perceptual Competition Despite Amazon’s disruptive ways to distribute products and change customer relationships, it’s the “real world” activations that often make its competitors most worried is about new, practical ways of selling. This type of competition promotes customer experiences that replace others or reposition them within the customer journey. It is about offering accessibility, simplicity, service convenience, personalisation, purchase convenience, and channel flexibility to improve sales activation, fulfilment, useage and repeat purchase. It is not just about “time well saved” but expectations met or exceeded. Experiential Competition New, newsworthy ways to access the Amazon ecosystem open unexpected ways to cross promote products and gather data to improve the experience As Benedict Evans observed, new customer journeys lead to new kinds of decisions that change what gets bought and then further change how it is sold. Experiential Competition is driving these changes. This can lead to Amazon famously selling more private-label batteries than Duracell or 55% of US consumers starting online product searches on Amazon rather than Google. And it can lead to infamously rigid industries like Automotive being forced to reimagine the purchase experience more around people than dealers when Hyundai opens a in Amazon Vehicles. virtual showroom While there are many “magic bullet” tips and tactics out there promising marketers short cuts to delivering great experiences, too few channel the Amazon Experiential Competition lesson of “ ”. sell something the customer wants to buy, at a price the customer wants to pay, with the service the customer expects In the meantime Amazon, in a repeat of its famous externalisation strategy, is to drive these experiential customer journeys — on and off platform. It is poacher, gamekeeper and the person selling the bullets. offering marketers and agencies a new toolkit and APIs But if you solve a customer problem with technology and tactics alone you’ll own that solution until someone improves the technology. If you solve the problem with a brand story it is untouchable. This is where Amazon is most dangerous. This is the power of Prime and . Perceptual Competition The Power of Prime: Amazon’s most important product is not a product but a membership that’s grown from shipping and offers to events and innovations changes customer expectations. It means you set the bar regardless of whether your product or service competes in the category in question. Building on great customer experience it creates a meaningful and distinctive brand with cultural relevance, esteem and saliency. Occasionally it can involve . The result is greater mental availability for your brand, driven by broad reach, emotions and associations — effectiveness not just efficiency. Perceptual Competition the odd Super Bowl ad Amazon’s position as a dominant Perceptual Competitor is reflected in its $1,000,000,000,000 market value and a brand value of $207.6 billion. It is a result of selling not just low priced products with excellent customer service, but “ .” Perceptual Competition means competing on and Touchpoints ROI Tracker studies show that this is increasingly a better indicator of market share success than spend or share of voice. the thing it has always sold the most — to investors, customers, the media — excitement brand experience rather than CX, Making shopping frictionless: Innovative ways to gain attention, scare the competition and position them as inferior and old fashioned The key proposition that enables Amazon to bring its brand, many products, experiments and channels together is Amazon Prime. Bezos said “ ”, but it is more than good value — it is a brand experience flywheel. we want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member Prime’s ability to funnel new ideas to loyal customers drives growth and innovation. Amazon’s first forays into scalable grocery delivery via AmazonFresh and AmazonPantry were only available to Prime members as was its hyperlocal 1–2 hr delivery service Prime Now. Prime’s flywheel unites personalised, efficient discovery with rewards, these generate momentum with more shoppers (and sellers) which helps reduce prices while cross subsidising content, that then further builds traffic, which increases discovery and improves the rewards etc… Perceptions of trust enable Amazon to develop a growing range of own brands, with services to help customers enjoy them and new ways to pay for them. It helps them succeed and helps Amazon move on if they don’t. By combining an aura of innovation and novelty with a simple subscription Amazon can generate more customer, investor and media excitement than a . Costco membership Building on the trust created by the value and convenience of Amazon’s core shopping services with compelling digital content from Prime Video, Amazon Studios, Music Unlimited, Twitch or Audible then provides a competitive moat for the Amazon business, increasing ecosystem reach and audience lock in. “Amazon Studios is making original content for Prime Video…from a business point of view for us, we get to monetize this content in an unusual way. Winning a Golden Globe helps us sell more shoes and it does that in a very direct way…. We’ve monitored that Prime Video customers renew [Prime] at higher rates, and they convert from free trials at higher rates.” Entertainment moves Amazon out of “just” the shopping journey, increases lock-in and offers opportunities to improve the customer experience with data insight The continuing quest to increase the power of Prime led to what for many CPG and retail businesses was : the $13.7bn takeover of Whole Foods, the multichannel grocery retailer with over 470 stores. Structural change happens in a category when >20% goes online. Even Amazon don’t believe this will happen in grocery, but instead phsyical retail can have a structural impact on digital propositions. The Whole Foods takeover offers Prime members better prices, more omnichannel opportunities to buy and pick-up, a stronger health assortment and a last mile delivery boost. It also offers non-Prime customers a very prominent real-world demonstration of what they are missing. the tipping point of “Amazon Anxiety” Already Amazon has cut prices on high volume stables by up to 43%, installed Amazon lockers and introduced Prime savings and in-store benefits. However, while a new efficiency-first ideology has increased sales it has also caused a “ ”, with . culture clash greater centralisation and lay-offs The “destroyer of physical retail” is a bigger name in bricks-and-mortar than Sears and JCPenny with new opportunities to increase the value of Prime and reward members Ultimately the forces of and that Amazon has unleashed on marketing and its value chain have helped create an “expectation economy” that brands and businesses must navigate to survive. experiential perceptual competition We may need a bigger (boat) . map If you’d like to explore Amazon, the changing marketing value chain and how customer journeys are evolving further, or join one of our upcoming workshop sessions, or even if you’d like the wall-sized version of the map, then contact us: amazonmap@digitas.com — — — — Sources: , Datamonitor, Amazon Shareholder Letters, Amazon Media Group, Bloomberg, CNN, Digiday, Feedvisor, Mintel, The Drum, BCG, Publicis Media, Warc, Global Web Index, New York Times, Techcrunch, Adweek…and others. CB Insights

A Map of Amazon and Modern Marketing

Demystifying hundreds of pages of answers and fluff This April, Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress to address how Facebook handles your data. In May, Congress sent over 2000 follow-up questions, and earlier this month, Facebook released hundreds of pages of responses. I read through those answers, and in this article, I’ll present the biggest takeaways in the context of other recent news. What Facebook collects, from bad to WHAT?? Many of Congress’s questions related to what information Facebook collects on users in the first place. There’s the obvious stuff. The posts, the likes, the photos. But there’s a lot of information Facebook collects that people wouldn’t expect. Like many other companies, Facebook lets users sync their contacts. To Facebook, that means your call and text history. Creepy, sure, but Facebook promises it’s just to find your friends… right? Unclear. In their official responses to Congress, Facebook reveals they send information about your text messages and calls that for this feature (“Senate” 12). In fairness to Facebook, users need to actively click “okay” to share their call and text history. But there’s a lot that’s shared that you don’t have the chance to consent to. isn’t at all necessary Facebook grabs everything from your cell signal strength, to your battery level, to the plugins in your browser (93). Each of these traits is innocuous enough on its own, but taken together, , even if you’re not logged in. As clever as you may think you are switching to incognito mode, you’re still at 62% battery, and you’re not fooling anyone. they uniquely identify you on the internet Facebook also pays attention to the WiFi access points and Bluetooth devices you walk by as you go about your day (94). Doesn’t relate much to your experiences on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Oculus. The only use I can think of is . tracking where you are in the world They also track where you are on the web. There are 8.4 million websites that embed the Facebook Like button, allowing Facebook to record which websites you visit as you’re surfing the internet. Facebook admits to using this approximation of your browser history to run targeted ads if you’re logged in (159). They promise they don’t use this info to target you when you’re logged out, but they still store the websites your device visits. For some of you, the story may even be worse. Onavo is a user-friendly VPN app that Facebook bought in 2013. Normally, VPNs connote security, privacy, and protection, but Facebook transformed Onavo into a vehicle for spying on . In Facebook’s own words: “When you use our VPN, we collect the info that is sent to, and received from, your mobile device” (124). every byte sent and received from your phone If you were racing to the “continue” button, would you notice that Onavo was a Facebook product? Clearly, Facebook does a phenomenal job learning everything about your online presence. Unfortunately, that’s not nearly enough. Businesses send Facebook information about you that ordinarily only they would know, like how long you were playing Fortnite yesterday to which purse you bought at your local JCPenny’s last week (18). To put this in perspective, there are more than using Facebook. And yes, you read that correctly. Facebook knows about actions you take outside of the internet, and they receive this information from partners regardless of whether or not you have a Facebook account (18). 70 million businesses Tips and tricks to get even more data Facebook has a long relationship with data brokers, companies that buy and sell consumers’ personal data. Although they’ve taken to distance themselves from these brokers, Facebook has yet to provide any transparency into the data they collect from these mysterious, sketchy companies. Facebook’s to view the data they claim they have on you only shows a fraction of what they actually know (119). recent steps tool Most people haven’t heard of data brokers before, so let’s look at a fun example: LocationSmart. LocationSmart tracks the real-time location of every mobile device in the US. They work with major carriers like Verizon and AT&T to collect the data necessary to provide this service. All their customers need is your phone number to retrieve an accurate estimate of where you are. And last month, that LocationSmart had a vulnerability that allowed _any random person_ to submit a query and find your real-time location. It took , , Sprint, and T-Mobile over a month to decide to stop selling your location information to this irresponsible data broker. The worst part is there are many dozens of data brokers that deal with all categories of your sensitive personal information. news broke Verizon AT&T On a more positive note, the was a huge win for consumer privacy around the world. Unfortunately, upon its enforcement on May 25th, 2018, Facebook had to get users to agree to some policy changes, and that Facebook faked notifications so that users would agree more quickly. EU’s General Data Protection Regulation this formal complaint alleges Fakebook faking a notification to get you to skip reading a policy change faster. From the complaint: The only option for a user was therefore to accept the new terms and privacy policy, or to delete the account. There was no option to disagree, opt-out or say no in any other way, shape or form. Don’t let from Facebook’s CEO lower your guard. Even after Facebook promised to change for the better, it seems they’re still willing to do whatever it takes to get more of your data. vulnerable public apologies For instance, Facebook analyzes the content that your friends share, like photos and events, to infer information about . They know where photos were taken from their metadata, and they know which photos you’re in thanks to facial recognition (142–143, 222). Ergo, they might know where you are even if you didn’t tell them. you Who they share your data with Collecting data isn’t inherently evil. It’s unsettling for an organization to know so much about our lives, and LocationSmart showed us why centralizing data is terrifying, but we ought to give Facebook a chance. What do they do with our data? The data Facebook has on you helps them show you extremely relevant ads. They don’t need to share your data with any third parties to do this. They have your information, and they serve the ads. In a nutshell, this is what makes Facebook so much money. We can’t fault Facebook for doing this — they provide us a free service, and we agreed to their Data Policy when we signed up (even if we didn’t all read it). This much, people expect and understand. But of course, there’s always more. Facebook uses its data to do a lot of research, and I’m not talking about all the neat AI stuff that FAIR is up to. I mean controversial social experiments that toy with tens of millions of unsuspecting people’s lives (99). In 2012, Facebook wanted to , so they manipulated the news feed of every American user over the age of 18 that used Facebook on November 2, 2010. In total, their experiment involved more than 60 million people, and they demonstrated that they could measurably impact voter turnout by varying the content they showed to each user. experiment with voter turnout To be explicitly clear, these 60 million people did not consent to taking part in this political experiment. What if Facebook had innocently decided to experiment on Republicans and Democrats differently, not yet knowing what impact, if any, its platform would have on voters? What if Facebook had accidentally tipped the scale for congressional elections across the country? I’m not alleging that Facebook has ever used this gross power to manipulate elections in the past. I’m not even claiming that there is a risk that they ever will. I’m pointing out how dangerous it is for a centralized platform like Facebook to have so much control with so little active consent. Let’s take a look at another example from 2014: Facebook’s infamous . By changing the content of people’s news feeds and analyzing the sentiment of their statuses, Facebook tracked the impact they had on the positivity and negativity of people’s posts. If you were one of the nearly 700,000 people experimented on in this study, then Facebook may have been the reason you had a sadder week than normal on January 11–18, 2012. mood experiment But Facebook never asked for your permission, so there’s no way for you to know. By the way, Facebook told Congress there’s no way for you to opt out of these experiments (125). On the bright side, at least these researchers have good intentions. They’re not out to get you; they’re just pursuing knowledge at all costs and using the resources available to them. What about the other people Facebook shares your data with? By now, you’ve probably heard something about Cambridge Analytica, if only the name. Here’s the tl;dr: Facebook shares your data with the apps and games you use, and for a time, they also gave those apps your friends’ data. A company called GSR used this to collect data on up to 87 million Facebook users, including their private Facebook messages (24). They sold this data to third parties like Cambridge Analytica that used it for nefarious election purposes. The people directing GSR were Joseph Chancellor and Aleksandr Kogan. Here’s an odd fact: Facebook hired around the time they found out about the Cambridge Analytica fiasco (203). Joseph Chancellor Relatedly, there’s been a lot of talk about Russian advertising meddling with the 2016 election. The Russia-based IRA, who attempted to “deceive and manipulate people in the US” by using Facebook to mess with voter turnout, successfully reached up to 126 million Facebook users (205). In these cases, third parties — not Facebook — were the villains abusing you and your friends’ data. There’s no way to know how many other entities there are like this, but we can estimate. Since 2006, Facebook has “sent over 1,150 cease-and-desist letters to over 1,600 targets” and restricted or removed more than 300,000 apps for violating users’ privacy (129). Clearly, Facebook is hard at work auditing a ton of apps, but the fact that this is such a huge problem leaves me feeling uncomfortable. Parting thoughts It probably seems like Facebook is the bad guy, but having read their replies to Congress’s million questions — and many of their responses were total dodges, by the way — I don’t fault Facebook for too much. Facebook’s mission is just incompatible with charging its users; you can’t connect the whole world with a paid app. Maybe the users that afford to pay can cover the cost for those who can’t. But Facebook is a business, so they opt for the more straightforward solution. can Companies aren’t in the business of taking advantage of your privacy. They’re just stuck in a system in which the only business models that make sense are those that require them to monetize what they know about you. As the amount of data we produce increases, this problem will only grow in scope, so one way or another, through regulation, technology, or plain old transparency, something about the data ecosystem has got to change. [1] “Senate commerce committee questions for the record.” < >. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/... Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this article, clap it up and/or start a discussion in the comments below. Until next time!

Facebook Privacy: Lessons Learned from Congress’s 2000+ Follow-up Questions

Let’s face it: math has some serious issues. JavaScript Say your app is responsible for tracking transactions between users and vendors. One of those vendors is a floral distribution company, sending large units to stores all over America containing thousands of flowers. Let’s calculate how much the buyer should pay. Copy and paste the following code into your browser console or run it : here const flower = { price: 0.94 }; const calculateFlowersTotal = n => n * flower.price; let bundles = [ calculateFlowersTotal(5), calculateFlowersTotal(20), calculateFlowersTotal(100), calculateFlowersTotal(500) ]; let order = [7, 3, 0, 5]; let orderTotal = order.reduce((acc, quantity, i) =>acc += quantity * bundles[i], 0); console.log(‘Order subtotal: ‘, orderTotal + ‘\n’); let orderTotalWithTax = orderTotal * 1.0725; //should return 2616.14925 console.log(‘Should return true: ‘, orderTotalWithTax === 2616.14925); console.log(‘\nWhat gives? Let's have a look..\n’); console.log(‘calculated total with tax: ‘, orderTotalWithTax); As you can see, the total is not what we expect. The subtotal seems to have been accurately calculated, but there was an unexpected result in adding the tax. Can you spot the trend in the operations above which allowed for safe calculations, and how that broke down? Although integers and decimals are both classified as Numbers, and are technically both floats, they have slightly different behavior which may result in inaccurate calculations. Particularly when involving inaccurately represented values when two float numbers are assessed with any multiplication, division, or exponential operation. decimal “In JavaScript all numbers are IEEE 754 floating point numbers. Due to the binary nature of their encoding, some decimal numbers cannot be represented with perfect accuracy.” Josh Clanton The bit value of 0.1 is one of these cases, but the interpreter was safely assuming that the user does not want to see the inaccuracies by removing the trailing section. Let’s looks at some examples: 0.1*0.1; //evaluates to 0.010000000000000002 (0.1*0.1)/0.1 //evaluates to 0.10000000000000002 It seems as if in multiplying and dividing we are eliminating the removal assumption previously held that the trailing values should not be displayed. The full value is used in calculation, including the extra value necessary to represent them, leading to the interpreter believing that the full value is more likely the real value, and that removing the trailing value would decrease the ability of calculations to make calculations with any degree of accuracy. are some suggestions on how to best approach accurately calculating transactions. They involve converting decimals to integers, performing calculations, then converting back. However, these approaches can still break down when when an unexpected float is introduced, as seen in the flower sales tax example. Here Currently, the only foolproof solution for these inaccuracies would be to use libraries that provide precision functions. A discussion three major implementations, big.js, bignumber.js and decimal.js, can be found . here We can only hope that one day the ECMA team will take the solutions provided from these authors and implement them into the language’s native operators. Jacob

Understanding the Problem: JavaScript Maths

K Nearest Neighbor Predictive Classification Javascript implementation Utilizing D3 Visualizations At its heart, the k Nearest Neighbor technique treats the problems it receives as issues of pattern recognition in order to properly classify data. It does this by ‘learning’ the graphical space in which the different categories reside; implicit is the assumption that each classes will be clustered distinctly. Computers learn similarly to living things, based on as much previous data as is available, predictions are made in order to do work more efficiently. Typically, has not been thought of as a good language for the implementation of algorithms, and for good reason. When first developed, the language was incredibly inefficient and a misunderstanding of underlying concepts or blatant disregard for best practices led to a proliferation of terrible libraries and examples. Further, the community had been leaning towards OOP, but there has slowly been a movement to a more functional style. Over the years optimizations have been made, libraries have been refactored or newly created in ways that lend to performing complex processing, the underlying language implementation has had several iterations, and computing machines are also equipped with much greater processing capabilities. Javascript machine learning All of this leads to an interesting space in which we, as Javascript developers, find ourselves. On the cusp of a rapidly transforming widespread technology, the possible applications of which are expanding, we have the opportunity to contribute to and improve a technology which is becoming increasingly fundamental to our daily experience. D3 has been one of the libraries most widely used with the goal of data visualization, and is depended upon several widespread visualization tools today; this is what will be used to plot out k Nearest Neighbors algorithm. If you need an introduction to the library before applying it to something more involved, an introducing it might of use. earlier post of mine Now that we’re all excited about our role in this field, lets explore a simple implementation of arguably the most fundamental machine learning algorithm, k Nearest Neighbor. While on the less complex side of predictive computation algorithms, it is widely used in the data analysis industry, and is one of the best performing for several problems, one such example is the prediction of behavior between proteins, or protein-protein interaction (PPI): “In spite of its simplicity to implement, when a large data set or numerous features are used the computational cost and memory requirement grows rapidly. This method has been used (not widely) in PPI prediction problem.” - , 2013 Zahiri, Bozorgmehr, Masoudi-Nejad To illustrate this, lets explore the example pictured to the left, for which can be cloned down and explored, or you can play with it in ! Note that the dummy data is dumb; as should be inferred, they are not from a valid scientific study nor do the predictions represent a medical diagnosis in reality. It is loosely based on the findings of , and related published research outlining the correlation. which indicates that high levels of the proteins CA15–3 and CA27–29 could indicate the presence of a tumor in the breast; it should also be noted that these tracers also get spiked in cases of ovarian, liver, and other breast diseases. Units are calculated in units per milliliter of blood, with levels over 30U/mL considered high-risk. The training data can be changed in the source code, and the graph will handle the new data by fitting it to the graph as long as it is in the correct format: {x: num, y: num, neighbors: array, identity: num}. the repo this CodePen this medical study To create this graph, there will be a series of functional tasks to accomplish, each of which my be solved differently, and modularity may be implemented in the functions to various degrees or with a different opinions with regards to the ideal separation of concerns. The following is my own opinion on how to best organize the program. The pieces we will address as individual problems in the construction of our larger program include: Elements on the page: A board Training data points Input data points Classification functions: Calibrate(smooth) data to fit to graph Find k nearest neighbors Classify each datum Placement functions: Place training data Place input data OPTIONAL: place circle containing input’s k nearest neighbors To create the board, simply located the element on the page to which you want to append: var = 300;var = 300;var = d3.select(document.getElementById(‘body’)).append(“svg”).attr(“width”, w).attr(“height”, h); h w svgSelection Don’t forget to add a border: var = svgSelection.append(‘rect’).attr(‘x’, 0).attr(‘y’, 0).attr(‘height’, h).attr(‘width’, w).style(“stroke”, ‘black’).style(“fill”, “none”).style(“stroke-width”, 4); border At the top of the js page, include the following variables: and are the dimensions of the board, is an object which holds the highest values for the each of the training variables, into , each data point will be pushed it so that future inputs includes training and input data, and the correspond with the various possible states of classification. h w max addData riskColors To figure out where to place the points on the graph, we need to perform several operations in order to fit the data’s range within the size of the graph. The helper functions and will be utilized in our placement functions. Lets build those out: findMax smooth var = (data) => {var results = {x: 0, y: 0};data.map(datum => {let x = datum.x;let y = datum.y;x > results.x ? results.x = x : false;y > results.y ? results.y = y : false;});return results;} findMax var = (datum, max) => {datum.x = (datum.x/max.x) * h;datum.y = (datum.y/max.y) * h;return datum;} smooth Next, we need a function that will draw the points of data on the graph: var = [];//global container for training and input datavar = [‘mediumturquoise’, ‘crimson’, ‘rebeccapurple’];//indices of riskColors correspond with a classification allData riskColors var = (datum, encircle) => {svgSelection.append('circle').attr('cx', datum.x).attr('cy', datum.y).attr('r', 5).attr('fill', riskColors[datum.identity])encircle ? drawHalo(datum) : false;//draw halo implemented below!}var ;var = (data, adjust=true, encircle=false) => {max === undefined ? max = findMax(data) : max = max;data.map(datum => {allData.push(datum);adjust ? smooth(datum, max) : null;placeDatum(datum, encircle);});} placeDatum max populateGraph will be used set to true for input data, invoking in the , which draws a circle around the data point containing its nearest neighbors. At this point, all that will be on the screen is a blank rectangle. All this needs now is a set of training data and to be invoked. At the bottom of the file, place: Encircle drawHalo placeDatum k //this may be replaced with any data in which there are//identified objects with the three properties found below var = [{x: 32,y: 40, identity: 1},{x: 5,y: 27, identity: 0},{x: 17,y: 9, identity: 0},{x: 50, y: 29, identity: 1},{x: 22,y: 46, identity: 1},{x: 10,y: 27, identity: 0},{x: 5,y: 9, identity: 0}]; trainingData populateGraph(trainingData); The dummy data should now render to the page, clustered and colored. This is still pretty boring, to make it interesting some interface for user interactivity needs to be created. In the body of the HTML, we’ll be adding a form with the id which contains input bars for each of the variables: submitData <div id=”submitData”><form onsubmit=”handleSubmit(event)”><b>Add data:</b> <br/>x:<input id=”x” type=”text” placeholder=”CA15–3 in U/mL”/><br/>y:<input id=”y” type=”text” placeholder=”CA27–29 in U/mL”><button>Submit</button></form></div> The handler should prevent the page from re-rendering, get the inputs from the page, correctly format them to an object to then be passed into a drawing function as a data point: var = function(e) {e.preventDefault();var x = document.getElementById(‘x’).value;var y = document.getElementById(‘y’).value;var = {x: x,y: y,neighbors: [],identity: 0};classifyAndPlot([datum]);//classify and plot not yet defineddocument.getElementById(‘x’).value = ‘’;document.getElementById(‘y’).value = ‘’;//clear the input bars} handleSubmit datum The formatted data then is passed into a function to categorize them based on the points closest to them, which is calculated by looping through all of the data points, calculating distance using good old Pythagoras’s formula. Lets all say it together: “a squared plus b squared equals c squared.” Good! Except this time, it’ll be (xDiff²+yDiff²): √ var = function(data, k) {return data.map(datum => {allData.map(neighbor => {var xDiff = Math.abs(datum.x — neighbor.x);var yDiff = Math.abs(datum.y — neighbor.y);var distance = Math.sqrt(Math.pow(xDiff, 2) + Math.pow(yDiff, 2));var currentFartherNeighbor = datum.neighbors.find(dataNeighbor => dataNeighbor[0] > distance)datum.neighbors.length < k ?datum.neighbors.push([distance, neighbor.identity]) :currentFartherNeighbor ?datum.neighbors.splice(datum.neighbors.indexOf(currentFartherNeighbor), 1, [distance, neighbor.identity]) :false;datum.neighbors.sort((a, b) => b[0] — a[0]);return datum;});});} findNeighbors The above functions loops over the input data, and compares each datum to each of the array, pushing into the neighbors array if there are less then neighbors or if a comparison yields a distance smaller than any currently in the array. In the case of the latter, the farthest neighbor also needs to be spliced out. Then the datum is returned with the neighbors array populated as expected. However, one more component is necessary in order to paint them on the page. We have functions to do the later which may be reused, but before passing data into them to render onto the page, we should consider what the input looks like when this function is invoked, and how to format the input to be successfully accepted by the function. allData k populateGraph var = (data) => {//fit the data to the graph rangedata.map(datum => smooth(datum, max));//populate neighborsfindNeighbors(data, 3);var formattedData = data.map(datum => {var neighborsIdentity = datum.neighbors.reduce((acc, neighbor) => {acc[neighbor[1]] === undefined ? acc[neighbor[1]] = 1 :acc[neighbor[1]] = acc[neighbor[1]] + 1;return acc;}, []);var maximum = Math.max(…neighborsIdentity.filter(neighbor => neighbor));datum.identity = neighborsIdentity.indexOf(maximum);return datum;});populateGraph(formattedData, false, true);} classifyAndPlot That’s it! We have everything we need to train our algorithm and predict unclassified input results based on present clustering trends. While it has been noted that this is not the most efficient solution to most machine learning problems, but is useful in cases where there are discrete categories with clear distinctions. As someone interested in medicine and public health, I’ve learned that cancer diagnosis is one of those cases, in which you are assigned either a positive or negative diagnosis based on various biometric measures related to understood oncological trends. This is the idea that the example data is modeled after, but it can be modified for any training data in which each datum has been classified. What are some ideas for application that come to mind for you? Let me know below in the comments. Thanks for reading, now go make your own improved implementations! Jacob

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