E-COMM

Hold it

After the dental office where she worked (temporarily) closed its doors at the onset of Covid, Maria Juarez turned to selling face masks on Etsy. Business boomed, and today she runs CottonBoutique full time. Now, Juarez is eyeing another pandemic-driven product: vaccine card holders.

“I figured masks are not going to be the only thing. There's going to have to be other stuff out there that has to do with the pandemic that people are going to want and need,” Juarez told Retail Brew. 

CottonBoutique started selling vaccine card holders in June, priced between $2.99 and $6.99. 

• Orders quickly totaled about 100 a day, though traffic then tapered off to around 50–75.
• But as of the week ending July 31, Juarez said she’s selling 800 card holders a week—and expects that pace to continue as requiring proof of vaccination could become commonplace.

“Every time the president talks—whatever he says is increasing [business],” Juarez told us. “It's something you have to carry now in addition to your daily belongings.” 

Show your cards: Last week, New York City became the first jurisdiction to mandate that customers of restaurants, gyms, and other indoor facilities show proof of vaccination. 

• Los Angeles is considering requiring proof of vaccination at malls, restaurants, gyms, and indoor sporting events. 

Carry on

Kim Keim, owner of Etsy shop ThreadandPurls, also got in on the ground floor of card holder production. She started selling them for $8 in April; that’s when searches for “vaccine card holders” hit their record high, per Google Trends. 

• Business peaked in May, at ~200 purchases a day, then slowed in June. But Keim told us sales are now picking back up. 

Rewind: Keim began to make masks after Etsy sent an email telling sellers in the sewing community to drop everything for face coverings. She stopped after a month and a half, once major retailers got in the game. Will that happen again? Well...

“I think for them it just takes so long to have something get into production,” Keim told us.

“Once they get into it, we won’t need [card holders], maybe, or everybody who wants them will have them. By the time the bigger retailers got into [masks], everybody was kind of set.” 

Emily Gegg, marketing coordinator for Eric Scott Leathers, isn’t concerned either. “A lot of our face mask customers have also been vaccination passport holder customers,” she said. 

• Available on Etsy and Amazon, the company’s card holders also carry credit cards and actual passports. 
• Since its rollout less than three months ago, the company has sold almost 10,000 units. 

Fast track: Etsy sellers can often respond more nimbly than larger brands—and that gives them an edge when it comes to new trends, Inna Kuznetsova, CEO of 1010data, told us. 

• “Things that help express individuality and require a fast reaction and may not be that expensive in production, like masks or wallet cards, may get a good exposure.”—KM

DATA

Swipe right

E-comm is so yesterday. 2021 is all about M. According to eMarketer, mobile commerce sales (aka m-comm, aka all the stuff we buy on our phones) increased by 41.4% in 2020 and will grow another 15.2% this year, hitting $359.3 billion. 

“Smartphones have historically been primarily consumption devices, but they're becoming much better as transaction devices,” eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman told Retail Brew. 

• M-comm is expected to almost double its share of annual US retail sales by 2025, to 10.4%—or $728+ billion. 

Tap and buy: We shouldn’t be surprised. At this point, e-commerce is just...commerce. Soon, the same will be true for m-comm. 

During the pandemic, 56% of American consumers used apps or mobile websites to order food (up from 36%) and 51% ordered products for pickup (up from 31%).

• A 2021 Deloitte survey shows that 70% of 2,000+ US teens and adults will continue these habits post-Covid.

Future vision: Yes, we’re talking about social commerce. “Every major social media company is aggressively building out its commerce features—including AR try-on, livestream shopping, and streamlined checkout,” Lipsman said. ”Most of these transactions that result from this innovation will happen on mobile.”—JG

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TRAVEL

Come fly with me

There’s nothing quite like aimless airport shopping—for the plane snacks and beach reads you’ll probably just skim. Hudson, one of the biggest travel retailers in America, with 1,000+ stores, knows this, and now the company is expanding the experience.

Beyond basics: Evolve by Hudson, a new concept shop, aims to broaden brand and product selections. Think: sunglasses, electronics, skincare, and luggage—and those snacks and books, of course.

• So far, participating brands include Sunglass Hut, Apple, Burt’s Bees, and Tumi.

“The challenge in North American specialty retail has always been to get people across the threshold—with lower penetration the further down the concourse you went,” Hudson Deputy CEO and EVP Brian Quinn told Forbes. “Evolve uses the pulling power of convenience retail to draw passengers in. We then have the opportunity to move upmarket with the other brands that are present.” 

Quinn added that no airport has said no to the concept so far.

• The first store will open in Nashville International Airport this summer.
• Seven locations will follow, including at Dallas Love Field and Las Vegas McCarran International airports.

Zoom out: According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the travel sector lost $4.7 trillion in 2020, while its contribution to GDP dropped by 49.1% from 2019. Domestic travel spending decreased by 45%, and internationally, it plummeted 69.4%. 

Prior to the pandemic, however, business was booming, and airports were among the fastest growing channels for luxury retail. This store concept revamp could help get it back on track.—JG

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING…

• Cargill and Continental Grain have agreed to buy chicken giant Sanderson Farms for $4.5 billion. 
• Alibaba said it fired a manager accused of sexual assault. 
• Amazon will (again) require all its warehouse workers to wear masks. It’s also holding a lottery, offering big-ticket items like cars and vacations, to front-line employees who’ve gotten the Covid-19 vaccine, according to Bloomberg. 
• Sephora opened its first (of 200 by the end of 2021) shop-within-a-shop at Kohl’s. 
• Levi’s is leaving the Better Cotton Initiative, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads. 

Can it: Move over, hard seltzer. Ready-to-drink cocktails are ready for their close-up. (Modern Retail) 

Let’s trade: From Pokémon to Magic: The Gathering and more, inside the trading card boom. (Vox)

One star: How (some) Amazon sellers track down the people who leave negative reviews. (The Wall Street Journal) 

HOT TOPIC

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

As the competition for labor heats up, Walmart and Target recently made major upgrades to their benefits: Both retailers will now cover 100% of costs for college tuition and books for workers who attend select universities. 

• CVS plans to raise its minimum wage to $15/hour, investing $600 million over three years. 
• Walmart is also giving warehouse workers bonuses and pay bumps. 

You tell us: What’s the best way for retailers to attract and retain workers? Cast your vote here. 

Last week, we asked if buy now, pay later services will become the norm. 41.8% said yes, while a third (33.7%) don’t see it happening. The remaining quarter (24.5%) want to wait and see. 

FROM THE CREW

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ICYMI

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

• Newell Brands, the company behind Elmer’s and Sharpie, preps for a hands-on school year
• How ice cream chain Bruster’s is scooping up workers
• Amazon expands same-day delivery to six more cities