2PM - An Emerging Marketing Channel 💳

INTRO (🔓): Adding my drivers license to my Apple Wallet was revelational; the screen was less a convenience and more a necessity. Then it got me thinking: loyalty, visibility, transactional power, and identity. The Apple Wallet is one of the most significant pieces of digital real estate for brands – DTC, enterprise, and everything in between.

With the recent announcement that California residents will soon be able to add their driver’s licenses and state I.D.s (joining Arizona, Maryland, Colorado, Georgia, and Ohio) to Apple Wallet, the implications for both consumers and brands are profound. This move signals a shift towards a future where the Apple Wallet screen—especially the area above the fold—becomes an essential touchpoint for brands aiming to deepen their relationships with consumers. It becomes a loyalty play, an engine to allow them to remain top-of-mind. This space’s high visibility and frequent usage will make it invaluable for brand engagement, particularly among high-earners-not-rich-yet (H.E.N.R.Y.s) who are known for their discerning tastes and desire to signal brand affinity and status. 

Continue Reading: An Emerging Marketing Channel 

Driven by rewards, co-branded credit cards charge ahead

Traditional Credit Risk: Even as cards remain a top consumer payment choice, the rise of digital wallets risks burying an issuing bank’s brand identity. That’s where targeted marketing makes all the difference.

Affirm sees consumers step up BNPL usage amid economic challenges

Alternative Credit Risk: Affirm is seeing a significant rise in BNPL usage as consumers look for more flexible payment options amid economic challenges.

Buy-now-pay-later plans lead to rampant scams and bad debt across Southeast Asia

Alternative Credit Risk: From Thailand to Vietnam, a loophole in buy-now-pay-later schemes that allows users to get cash is raising concerns.

Supported Poll (n=229): The following data represents a survey among 229 of 2PM's Executive Members. This dataset provides valuable insights into the consumer attitudes that may impact your marketing, merchandising, or advertising decisions. It reveals key insights into consumer perceptions of emerging brands poised for success with co-branded credit cards. The survey reflects the informed opinions of industry professionals and brand enthusiasts who are highly engaged with the latest trends in commerce and brand development.

What lies ahead for Bonobos under new ownership

Fascinating: The DTC darling has changed hands several times over the past decade. Does that matter?

Meghan Markle invests in bag brand with just two employees

Fascinating: The Duchess of Sussex has been revealed as the first outside investor in an up-and-coming handbag brand.

The Psychedelic underground's future is in CPG

Forecasted: Let's not kid ourselves: medical access is merely a stepping stone to legality.

Memo: The Final Level of DTC Health

[Andrea Hernandez] illustrated the effortless transition that the category is making. The CPG industry is normalizing it (perhaps unknowingly), advocates and politicians are legalizing it, and therapists and other medical professionals are evangelizing it.

Why Instacart’s Future May Hinge on Uber

Forecasted: Simo said in May that Instacart had retained more than 70% market share for online delivery of grocery baskets of $75 or more, a larger and more profitable part of the grocery-delivery business than smaller baskets. Uber’s own grocery delivery business has not gained as much market share from Instacart "as anyone hoped," said Emil Michael, a former top Uber executive from 2013 to 2017.

The data from 1010Data shows that Instacart’s sales were up 4% over 12 months ending in June, while Sam’s Club’s eCommerce sales were up 5.5%, Costco’s were up 80.7% and HEB’s were up 9.3%. The sales figures themselves were not shared – which is to say that companies that entered the eCommerce game late are likely to see bigger gains than Instacart, which has been building up its eCommerce sales for years. 

Temu's parent company lost more than $50 billion in market value

Forecasted: PDD Holdings is still scaling incredibly, but growing competition and regulatory worries are clouding the company's outlook for future quarters.

While Temu’s entry into the US market as an Amazon competitor showcases the dynamism of global eCommerce, it also exemplifies the complexities and challenges of managing international digital trade. The allure of unbeatable prices must be weighed against the sustainability of such business models and the broader implications for consumer privacy, data security, and the integrity of the American retail landscape.

Latest Update (8/2), presented by Bold Metrics. All brands are updated with the secondary interest poll. The ninth update of 2024 sees some major movers:

800+ Brands Measured

Big eCom squeezing mom-and-pop Stores, India Minister Says

Enterprise: India’s trade minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the growth of big e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com Inc. risks putting about 100 million small mom-and-pop stores in the country out of business.

Netflix deepens ad tech ties with clean rooms

Enterprise: The world’s biggest streaming platform, which has been hard at work building out its ads platform, is partnering with cloud data platform Snowflake, data broker LiveRamp, and clean-room technology company InfoSum. 

NFL fans are next Target of olympic-tested ad tech

Enterprise: Trend Genius, an ad technology first deployed by X and Genius Sports during the Olympics to feed off hot topics, is being rolled out for NFL season.

As seen in the NATSEC Meets Commerce Dispatch No. 2. To receive the entire weekly dispatch, (1) join the Executive Membership and (2) reply "Opt-In" to your following member letter. Join this small, roundtable segment of interesting people.


China has perfected a model of state surveillance that is as pervasive as it is effective.

Dubbed the “Sentinel State” by The Diplomat, this system of preventive repression extends beyond traditional measures of control, embedding itself into every facet of life for the 1.4 billion people who call China home. From ubiquitous street cameras to data-driven policing that preempts dissent before it materializes, China’s surveillance apparatus is a formidable tool of social control. Through a combination of advanced technology and a deeply integrated party-state structure, this model ensures that every citizen is watched, every transaction is tracked, and even one’s future actions are subject to predictive scrutiny.

No nation on Earth has discovered a way to import the world’s goods and services while stopping foreign ideas at the border.

While the West, particularly the United States, often criticizes China’s approach as draconian and antithetical to democratic values, a closer examination reveals that we may not be as far removed from a similar reality as we like to believe. In America, the growth of digital surveillance—often driven by commerce and convenience—echoes some of the mechanisms at play in China.

Read

How the Shopify CEO started a debate about the start of the week

Industry: "The first day of the week is Monday. I lived in North America for 23 years but I'm going to die on this hill. Sunday as first day is crazy talk."

Seko Logistics and Loop Returns partner on returns management

Industry: End-to-end global logistics provider Seko Logistics is offering its customers a streamlined and efficient returns process thanks to a new partnership with post-purchase platform Loop Returns.Loop cu

ShipBob boosts de minimis fulfillment capabilities

Industry: Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930, known as the de minimis exemption, allows companies to avoid U.S. import duties and taxes for shipments with a retail value up to $800. Merchants leveraging it can reduce costs while speeding up delivery times, according to ShipBob.

Understand more of the context here: de minimis