EXPERIENCE

What's in a "+"?

Walmart called Walmart+, its membership program launching on September 15, the “ultimate life hack” in its big reveal yesterday. But really, Walmart+ is just a hyped-up rebrand of its existing Grocery Unlimited service. 

Walmart+ is launching with three basic perks for $98/year:

• Unlimited free delivery on groceries, household items, toys, and more items plucked from Walmart stores.
• Faster in-store checkout times with a contactless payment option in the Walmart app, and up to 5-cent/gallon discounts on gas at nearly 2,000 stations. 

Let’s compare notes

Put “paid subscription” in a sentence with “retail,” and it’s suddenly raining Amazon comparisons. And for good reason: Its Prime members display loyalty only rivaled by BTS fans. 

• 48% of Prime members surveyed by Feedvisor in 2019 said they made one or more purchases per week, and they spend more than twice as much as non-members on Amazon annually.
• Those members have scale: 66.4 million U.S. households paid for Prime membership last year, per Statista.  

History’s repeating. Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s chief customer officer, said beta members spent more and made more frequent visits. 

So if both programs can make customers reload their carts, what’s setting Walmart apart from Amazon in the loyalty sphere—or from other retailers generally?

What Walmart has: 4,700 stores close to its customers, which it can deploy for reliably quick last-mile deliveries. Amazon, shipping from fulfillment centers, is at the mercy of supply chain delays (like we saw this spring). Then there's the price: Walmart’s annual membership is slightly cheaper.

What Walmart’s missing: Selection, of the product and experience varieties. Walmart’s subscription only offers 160,000 items plucked directly from stores at launch, while Amazon stocks 10+ million Prime-eligible items. Walmart hasn’t yet shared forays into shoppable tech devices like Amazon—and I didn’t know about its streaming service, Vudu, until I wrote this story. 

Bottom line: Paid programs = loyalty, and conversion to Walmart+ will be a no brainer for current devotees. But to attract free agent customers, it’ll need to move beyond its table stakes offerings.

APPAREL

Nike's Latest Inclusivity Play

Nike is launching its first maternity apparel collection: Nike (M), due online September 17. 

• Nike (M) arrives after three years of development with input from employees, Nike athletes, and customers. 
• The four-piece collection includes features that expecting and postpartum mothers often can’t find in traditional activewear, like adjustable panels for nursing or pumping.

At first glance, Nike (M) is a pure audience play: It expands Nike’s presence in a resilient sector (athleisure) while addressing an underserved category (maternity). And there’s demand: U.S. maternity apparel sales have increased around 3.2% annually per GlobalData Retail, despite a stable birth rate.

But there’s more to it. Last year, athletes on Nike’s sponsorship roster said the brand financially penalized athletes who became pregnant. Nike revised its maternity payment policy following the backlash. 

The revelation was one of many gaffes at odds with Nike’s commercials championing social justice and inclusivity-minded expansions into other underserved categories, like plus. With the launch of Nike (M), the brand's still trying to signal that it stands for inclusivity—even if previous actions have fallen short. 

My takeaway: Product expansions may be consumer-facing, but they're a more lasting commitment than a 30-second ad.

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Shoptalk Meetup is an online meetings program connecting 2,500+ movers and shakers from all sorts of industries—retail brands, DTC startups, tech, real estate, you name it. You’ll have the chance to connect more deeply with peeps you know and meet the peeps you don’t.

This one-of-a-kind program includes:

• Peer tabletalks: 5-8 of your peers dish insights on personal and professional topics.
• Ask-an-expert sessions: Ask experts about anything from corporate political movements to AI’s capabilities to succulent-naming best practices.
• Media connections: Request interviews or announce products with 200+ journalists.

And there’s more where that came from, retail moguls.

Get a ticket to Shoptalk Meetup here.

TECH

The Giant Eagle Has Landed

The grocery industry’s war on checkout small talk landed another victory. Giant Eagle and tech firm Grabango opened their first cashierless store, a small-format grocer, in the Pittsburgh area yesterday. 

How it works: Shoppers with a Grabango app can enter the minimart and shop as usual. All the while, cameras record which items are picked up or replaced. To pay, shoppers scan their app at the exit.

• Giant Eagle’s planning to deploy Grabango tech in a full-size supermarket by 2021, with ambitions to expand to 400+ stores later.

Giant Eagle’s cashierless store is the latest in a string of register-free launches. Amazon leads the category with 25 Go stores and a side hustle selling its “Just Walk Out” tech to other retailers. AI firms including Standard Cognition and Zippin are also piloting cashierless experiences at some Circle K and Dunkin locations. 

Why it matters: This is more than a pandemic hygiene trend. By removing the register, retailers can...

• Improve customer experience. Long checkout lines were one of the biggest pain points for grocery shoppers in a 2018 Forrester Research study. 
• Boost efficiency. Cashierless tech tracks inventory by default, helping retailers manage restocks and reduce theft.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• McDonald's faces a lawsuit filed by 52 Black former franchisees, who say widespread discrimination set them up for failure. 
• Wish, the discount e-comm hub, confidentially filed to go public.  
• Macy’s is testing small-format stores that aren’t attached to malls.
• Yelp joined the 15 Percent Pledge.
• Old Navy will pay employees who serve as poll workers on Election Day.

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FROM THE CREW

If you’re reading this, you probably fall into one of the following buckets: 

1. Use an AI tool, like a chatbot or a pricing optimization algorithm 
2. Want to introduce AI tools into your retail life
3. Have no idea what AI actually is 
4. Are a proud Luddite    

Buckets 1-3, you’re in luck: Emerging Tech Brew just put together a comprehensive, accessible guide to all things AI, from defining the slippery topic to charting out the industries it’s reshaping. If you’re in the fourth bucket, there's still hope. 

What we’re trying to say is read the guide. If you’re the type that skims for stuff that matters to you, section four discusses how AI will impact retail-relevant spaces like manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce. You’re welcome.

NOW TRENDING

Exploding Topics tracks hockey-stick growth across industries before Big Media catches up. Let’s see if you can guess which emerging brand can boast the growth between 2016 and 2020 shown below.

Exploding Topics

Some hints: 

1. Sephora is its only U.S. retail partner.
2. It was acquired by Shiseido for $845 million last year, and Retail Brew covered it.

Keep scrolling for the answer.

SWAPPING SKUS

If you learned anything from today’s Retail Brew, it’s that loyalty’s only becoming more important. So here are two reads on the factors that make shoppers pledge allegiance to a brand. 

• 7,000+ Gen Zers have spoken: They’re more likely to shop at brands that support causes they care about. (Morning Consult)
• For luxury players, a bedazzled flagship store doesn’t shine if employees can’t tell the brand’s story or anticipate customers’ needs. (Jing Daily)

ICYMI

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed. 

• CVS Becomes a DTC Expansion Magnet
• Can PayPal Win the Buy Now, Pay Later Wars?
• Where Online Shopping Still Falls Short

NOW TRENDING ANSWER

Drunk Elephant. Check out this profile of founder Tiffany Masterson—you may pick up some explosive growth tips.