E-COMM

You never forget your first Prime Day

Reports that Amazon Prime Day would return to the summer first surfaced in April. After scanning the headlines, Hero Cosmetics cofounder and CEO Ju Rhyu knew her team needed a promotion plan for Prime Day—the first to grace Hero’s calendar.

Before: Hero started selling its acne patches and skincare treatments on Amazon in 2017, the same year the brand was founded. Each year, Hero sat out Prime Day because it “naturally benefited us without an offer,” Rhyu said. 

• Roughly 50% of Hero’s annual sales come from Amazon, making the e-comm giant Hero’s biggest non-DTC sales channel. (Hero declined to share revenue figures.) 
• Day-of sales increased on Prime Day by 54% in 2020 versus the trailing 30-day sales average, and by 50% in 2019, according to the brand.

Marking down Hero’s acne patches ($12.99 for a 36-pack) and moisturizers ($12.99/bottle) didn’t strike Rhyu as necessary with all that organic sales lift. Rhyu also worried heavy promos would cheapen Hero’s value to shoppers: “As a brand, sale is a four-letter word,” she said. 

Katie Moro, global head of managed service at Productsup, a commerce platform, understands the hesitation. But “the potential reward of participating,” she told Retail Brew, “far outweighs the risk of a diminished brand image.” 

• Third-party sellers generated $3.5+ billion during Prime Day 2020, and Moro expects this year’s numbers to fall in line. 

And after: Rhyu hopes that’s the case. She’s concerned about spend moving offline as things reopen: Growth on Amazon has slowed recently, the CEO said, while sales with in-store partners are picking up. A trend that bolstered Hero’s sales last year—"maskne" (or mask acne) prevention—is in limbo in a post-pandemic world (along with the entire face mask market). 

“To continue to show year-over-year growth, we're starting to look at things we haven't done before, like participating in Prime Day,” Rhyu told us on May 26. By June 7, Hero had confirmed its Prime Day plans. 

What’s in store for Hero? Click here to read the full game plan, with insights from Rhyu and VP of Marketing Amy Calhoun.—HL

LABOR

Reality check

Last week, Retail Brew reported on how the pandemic forever changed worker responsibilities. Now, we’re digging into what the labor force looks like. 

For starters...retail workers are more likely to be young, women, POC, and lower-income. Here’s a snapshot, per a US Census report released in September. 

In 2018, 9.8 million people—or 6.3% of the total labor force—worked in retail:

• More than 50% were between 16 and 34, and ~56.5% were women. 
• Black people made up 12.5% of the retail workforce, but held 11.4% of jobs overall. Hispanic people represented 18.7% of the retail workforce, but held 17.5% of overall jobs.
• 10.1% of retail workers lived in poverty, compared to 6% of all workers. 

Now consider that these were the workers disproportionately affected by the pandemic. 

• POC were 1.3x more likely to lose their jobs, Vivek Sharma, CEO of InStride, told Retail Brew. Women were 4x more likely to be laid off. 

Pay attention: Looking at wages, workers across the board aren’t properly compensated in relation to their labor input, Jenny Weissbourd, associate director of the Workforce Strategies Initiative at the Aspen Institute, previously told Retail Brew. 

"Too often, the frontline retail roles disproportionately held by women and BIPOC workers do not provide economic stability or a path to mobility," Weissbourd said. 

• Per the Census report, full-time cashiers earned a median of $22,109 a year. That figure was less than half of the $48,565 earned by the broader labor force. 

Pay rates have come into focus over the past year, particularly as companies struggle to fill retail and restaurant jobs amid a labor crunch (and are boosting wages as a result). 

Executive decision: The diversity we see on the floor isn’t reflected in management. In 2019, women held only 14% of executive positions at retail and consumer companies, per McKinsey. It’s crucial that changes—and quickly, Sharma said, since exec decisions affect the staff. 

• Amazon, for example, instituted new diversity targets for 2021 that include hiring 30% more women in senior technical jobs and doubling high-level Black employees. (Though Amazon’s Black employees say its HR department is falling short.) 
• Gap and Walmart have also made promises to improve representation within their ranks. 

Zoom out: Throughout the pandemic, frontline workers have been put in the precarious position of rule enforcers. Gap, Dick’s, H&M, American Eagle, and more have joined a campaign to prevent customer mistreatment of floor staff and sales associates, who are often POC.—KM 

SPONSORED BY LISTRAK

Hit the Road, Stack

Retailers and brands, the time has come to send your old marketing stack a-packin’. We know it’s a tough decision, and that finding a new tech partner might feel like online dating all over again, but YOU GOT THIS.

In fact, allow us to introduce you to a friend of ours who can help: Listrak.

Listrak is a leading digital marketing platform trusted by 1,000+ retailers and brands—so they know all the dos and don’ts when it comes to making an upgrade.

Their latest guide is designed to help you avoid making the wrong decision on your next stack—something that can happen prettttyy easily if you don’t ask the right questions.

See how brands like 7 for All Mankind, Kate Somerville, Academy Sports, and Vineyard Vines go about picking the right tech partner.

Download Listrak’s guide today.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING…

• Glossier is returning to IRL retail after saying last summer it would permanently shutter stores. 
• PetSmart and DoorDash team up on same-day delivery. 
• Staples CEO J. Alexander Douglas resigned and will be replaced by the board chair.
• Kroger says hourly rates with benefits will reach $21 by year’s end. 

SPONSORED BY FOUNDER'S JOURNAL

Who’s worth fighting for? Every. Single. Customer. That’s the topic on this episode of Founder’s Journal, the podcast hosted by Morning Brew cofounder and executive chairman Alex Lieberman. Alex breaks down why startups need to focus on customers just as much as the big biz behemoths do. And as he’s helped build a community of millions, it’s a topic he’s extremely well versed in. Listen to Founder's Journal here. 

SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads. 

Secret sauce: Victoria’s Secret dropped its Angels in hopes of attracting new women to the struggling brand. (NYT)

Whatever works: Online brands are using methods old and new to stand out within the crowded e-comm ecosystem. (WSJ)

Where this flower blooms: New DTC flower brand Pomp is entering an extremely competitive market, but thinks it can challenge 1-800-Flowers. (Modern Retail)

FRIEND OR FAUX?

For Father’s Day, consider buying Dad one of the many strange products we’ve come across here—because who wouldn’t want a Miller Lite x New Balance shoe-koozie? 

Now, can you spot the fake story below?

1. Apple is considering launching a subscription-based healthcare service. 
2. Thousands have signed a petition banning Jeff Bezos from Earth after his space vacation. 
3. White Castle and Puma are collabing on a shoe for the burger chain’s 100th birthday. 
4. REI gave a customer a $50,000 check after he climbed Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, in their boots. 

Keep reading for the answer.

ICYMI

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

• The employee influencer program checklist
• FedEx test-drives Nuro for delivery drop-offs 
• NRF Retail Converge 2021: What to watch

FRIEND OR FAUX? ANSWER

No, REI isn’t giving out checks for climbing mountains.