2PM - Monday Letter: Shelf Space Engineering

Engineering Availability / Intro: As retailers face down a holiday season that will be impacted by a looming recession in the United States and ongoing global supply chain challenges, they’re doing everything that they can in order to get in front of potential inventory issues.

A lot rides on the holiday shopping season for retailers to meet their annual forecasts. And since the start of the pandemic, the holidays have become increasingly challenging to navigate. Big-box retailers like Target and Walmart are putting new measures in place in order to make sure they have what they need in stock from brand partners, and that their supply chains don’t break down when orders increase. (Read More...)

Walmart gets tough on suppliers with fines for late orders

Source No. 1 / Excerpt: "Walmart is telling suppliers that their shelf space will be reviewed more frequently than in the past, a person familiar said, and that vendors with persistent out of stocks could see their products quickly replaced. The retailer also is looking to capitalize on trends, including those sparked by social media, by quickly swapping items in and out."

Walmart is delivering for customers this holiday season

Source No. 2 / Excerpt: "Our supply chain is essential to how we serve customers during the holiday season, and we all know the challenges of the past year. This year, customers are facing new challenges like economic pressure from inflation. Additionally, global supply chains have improved – but not fully recovered – post-pandemic. We’re also seeing sustained shifts in consumer shopping behavior, with people doing their holiday shopping earlier than ever."

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TikTok said to be launching live shopping in the US

New Media / TechCrunch: According to a report from Financial Times, the short video app has been talking with California-based TalkShopLive to provide infrastructure for live shopping features on TikTok. This tech will allow creators and brands to sell goods through videos on the platform. TalkShopLive takes a 10% commission from sellers for providing its services, and TikTok is likely to cover that cost for the initial phase of the project.

Peloton will put bikes in every Hilton-owned hotel in the U.S.

Direct-to-Wholesale / CNBC: Peloton, which began as an exclusive, direct-to-consumer brand, has shifted gears to a broader mass-market approach. Last week, the company announced that its bikes, treadmills and other hardware would be sold in Dick’s Sporting Goods locations. Peloton previously launched nationwide bike rentals, certified preowned bikes and a sales partnership with Amazon.

Retail inventory glut means better deals for shoppers

Logistics / The Detroit News: The inventory glut that dragged down U.S. retailers over the past two quarters may only be getting worse. For shoppers, that means better deals. Inventory levels have increased sequentially and are at the highest level relative to sales since the start of the pandemic, UBS Group AG analysts led by Jay Sole said in a recent note.

Interesting Data: Distribution is everything, here are the top sixteen marketplaces globally. Good ole Walmart is now number six.

The U.S. is behind on mobile payments,but we're catching up

Fintech / How-to-Geek: Using a phone or watch to pay at a terminal is not new. iPhones and Android devices have both been able to do it for a long time. So why is the U.S. still lagging behind with mobile payments? In other parts of the world, such as China, nearly 90% of people use mobile payments.

How did a reservation become a drone delivery trailblazer?

Logistics / Freight Waves: Today, the Choctaw Nation testing ground is one of the largest of its kind in the world, attracting hundreds of companies from around the globe. But despite all that activity, Grimsley and the tribe have managed to keep the environmental impact nearly nonexistent. That’s because the program only uses about 35 acres of land for hangars and other facilities. 

On FedEx's response to Spencer Patton's attempt at contractor unity

Logistics / Insider: Nashville entrepreneur Spencer Patton rose to prominence in July when he publicly challenged FedEx. After he called for a better deal for FedEx contractors, FedEx sued Patton. Contractors and competitors are mixed on Patton's overall impact and true motives.

Editor's Note: here is how we introduced this story

Using AI, meta generates videos from text with 'make-a-video'

New Media / designboom: Facebook's Meta calls its new artificial intelligence system Make-A-Video state-of-the-art. It builds on the recent progress that text-to-image generation technology has undergone which uses descriptions to churn out moving images from the texts. Meta has taken the advancement under its wing as it joins the troupe and lets its audience create their own GIF or videos with just a few words or lines of text.