PAYMENTS

The Social Shopping Network

The following sentence is just a news item and definitely not the prompt for a “shots on shop” drinking game. Shop Pay, Shopify’s in-house payments platform, expanded its checkout option to Facebook and Instagram Shops. 

Receipt review: Shop Pay bundles reduced-click checkouts, installment payments, order tracking, and carbon offsets into one experience. 

• Purchase conversions are 1.72x higher where Shop Pay’s purple icon appears, Shopify said. It also claims to be 70% faster than other checkouts. (Fast would like a word.)

Back to the feed: Shopify chose Facebook for more than name repetition recognition. “Facebook continues to be one of our most popular sales and marketing channels for our merchants,” Carl Rivera, general manager of Shop, told Retail Brew. 

• Rivera noted that Shopify merchants’ marketing on Facebook and Instagram has steadily risen since an initial 36% increase between March and April last year.
• By integrating Shop Pay into FB and IG, merchants can ideally drive faster impulse purchases while shoppers scroll their feeds. 

To hack follower growth...

You’ve got to duet with everyone. While Rivera didn’t confirm whether Shop Pay will reach other platforms, “we can say there’s more to come and that we’re continuing to explore our partnership with Facebook,” he told us.

• This writer expects the home of feta pasta will eventually get involved. Shopify partnered with TikTok last fall to power shoppable ads, after all.

Even with partnerships, Shop Pay doesn’t have the highest engagement of all checkout options: That honor goes to PayPal, Forrester senior analyst Lily Varón told us last September. 

But all payments providers share the same struggle to transform their social plugs into meaningful checkouts. As we shared last Friday, only 9% of US adults regularly shop via social commerce, per an eMarketer survey. 

• We sent that stat to Rivera; he sent back results from Shopify’s Future of Commerce survey, which reported 28% of young consumers shop via social.
• They’re the cornerstone of Shopify’s investments: “We see social shopping as a growing area of commerce driven largely by a younger demographic who are more likely to use social media to discover new brands and shop,” Rivera told Retail Brew. 

BRANDS

Accelerating the Competition

From the 15 Percent Pledge to employee training, retailers have recently renewed their diversity and inclusion efforts after customer and employee demands. Sephora is now extending its commitment to early-stage brands, elevating BIPOC-owned beauty companies, including 54 Thrones and Topicals, in its relaunched incubator program. 

On the agenda: After the eight brands selected for Sephora Accelerate are onboarded to the retailer’s platform, they’ll...

• Attend a bootcamp with workshops focusing on marketing, omni strategy, product development, investment strategy, and supply chain management.
• Prepare a pitch to scale their brand before a group of industry experts, investors, and senior Sephora leadership at the end of May. 

Building on a promise: Sephora was the first retailer to take the 15 Percent Pledge, so the incubator is an extension of its commitments to help overlooked brands reach long-term growth. 

Zoom out: Brands can use accelerators to heighten their profile and ultimately raise money. Take Stitch Fix and Harlem’s Fashion Row, which created a grant program last year to support five Black-owned brands via mentorship and wholesale orders from Stitch Fix. 

SPONSORED BY SHOPTALK MEETUP FOR WOMEN

Connecting Women Working in Retail

Let’s talk shop.

Shoptalk Meetup for Women is an online meetings program that connects women in the retail community for new business opportunities, potential partnerships, professional development, and meaningful connections.

Read: serious business and career acceleration.

Providing an open and friendly environment for 1,000+ women to share experiences, learn from one another, and work together to lead change in retail, Shoptalk Meetup for Women focuses on facilitating impactful interactions. From meetings with peers to one-on-one discussions with Shoptalk’s curated list of experts on the most pressing topics, you’re not going to want to miss this Meetup.

Shoptalk Meetup for Women takes place online from May 11-13. Snag your ticket here before they go.

FAST FOOD

Kneel Before the King

Burger King’s subjects now have the opportunity to prove their fealty—quite literally. The fast food chain is rolling out a loyalty program in five US markets. 

Customers in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Miami can now earn rewards points on every dollar spent, which then can be used on the website or app. 

A whopper of a change: Burger King wants to pivot from using promotions to offer deals and expand its digital reach to boost sales. Sounds like its primary rival...

• McDonald’s entered the next phase of testing its US loyalty program ahead of a nationwide launch later this year. 
• As of last week, ~900 of 14,000 US McDonald’s locations are part of the test. 

Burger King is planning to launch its program to more markets throughout 2021, but isn’t yet committing to a nationwide launch—or even the current format. 

Zoom out: Beyond burgers, loyalty programs are driving customer acquisition across quick-service chains. Starbucks’s rewards program grew by 2.5 million people in its fiscal Q1, 15% higher than the same period a year ago. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Under Armour reported a surprise profit and expects sales will continue rising this year.
• Win Brands Group, a DTC house of brands, acquired the maker of the Gravity Blanket.
• Target is providing extra pay and free transportation to hourly employees who get a Covid-19 vaccine. 
• Caraway, the DTC cookware brand, entered its first store partnership with Crate & Barrel.
• LVMH and Rihanna are pausing operations at the Fenty apparel brand. Meanwhile, the Savage x Fenty lingerie line raised a $115 million Series B to expand into retail.  

SPONSORED BY MARKETERHIRE

How do you know that perfect marketing candidate isn’t just three bad marketers wearing a trenchcoat? MarketerHire connects businesses with a network of great marketing candidates who’ve been vetted by marketing experts. That way you know who actually has the experience you’re looking for. Meet fantastic, vetted, non-trenchcoat-wearing marketers here.

COMMUNITY

It’s time for our segment highlighting the best part of Retail Brew: you, the readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Submit your career highlights here. 

We know online grocery is a category, to say the least. So today, we’re chatting with one of the faces filling fridges around the US: Amazon Fresh Vendor Manager Kayla Ladis. 

Describe your job in a sentence: If you’ve ever ordered groceries from Amazon Fresh, I’m one of the people who helps the fresh vegetables get from the farm to your front door.

One thing we can't guess about your job from LinkedIn: I deal with mushrooms, herbs, squash, Brussels sprouts, celery, and more on the daily. Each commodity has its own unique qualities and challenges.

Favorite project you've worked on: I’ve loved working on growing Fresh during the pandemic. Helping people get access to fresh veggies is super meaningful to me, especially in a way that allows them to stay home and safe. 

Favorite retail account to follow: Pangaia! Sustainable and fashionable—who wouldn’t love?

Dream retail collab: Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods... oh wait, that already happened.

SWAPPING SKUS

Perils of online shopping range from receiving too-tight jeans (bad) to filling landfills with cast-off returns (worse). So today’s reads delve into the effects returns have on our environment, and how retailers are working to reduce returns in the first place. 

• 2.2 million tons of online returns in the United States end up in landfills every year. The pandemic has only exacerbated that problem. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 

• Virtual dressing rooms and shopper ratings are a couple of ways e-commerce retailers are attempting to tamp down returns. (The Wall Street Journal)

ICYMI

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

• With Face Masks Here to Stay, Brands Branch Out to Mask Accessories
• Simon Property Group Opposes Planned Ascena Store Closures
• Social Commerce Is Still a Sliver of US E-Commerce: Report