The Vtex software-as-a-service digital commerce platform processed orders worth $7.5 billion in “gross merchandise value” (GMV) for its online customers in 2020, nearly double its 2019 volume, said the company in an F-1 registration filing Friday at the SEC for an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The platform enables customers to deploy their e-commerce strategies, “including building online stores, integrating and managing orders across channels, and creating marketplaces to sell products from third-party vendors,” it said, claiming 2,000 customers in 32 countries, mostly “enterprise brands and retailers.” Brazilian company Vtex is “a leader in accelerating the digital commerce transformation in Latin America,” and is expanding globally, said the IPO. It drew 43% of its revenue last year from customers outside Brazil, up from 29% in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated e-commerce adoption when consumers increased their online spending “due to extensive stay at home orders,” it said. Global e-commerce GMV was an estimated $4 trillion in 2020, and is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2024, based on an 11% compound annual growth rate, it said: “As we continue to expand our platform offerings as well as our global reach, we expect to capture more of this GMV. We believe that our market will expand as consumers continue to shift purchases to online channels and brands and retailers adapt to evolving consumer preferences.”
BBC iPlayer is on ScreenHits TV in the U.K., said the streaming platform Friday: Its customers can access the service via desktop PCs, tablets, the iOS app and Amazon Fire TV sticks.
A spring survey of 500 event planners by Mediasite Events and BizBash indicated hybrid events will be a “new norm,” they said Thursday. Three-quarters of planners expect to replace in-person events with virtual equivalents in 2021 and beyond; 40% are planning for hybrid events combining both. That compares with a 2019 survey where 33% didn’t use any form of video for events. Challenges loom, said the study. After a year of videoconferencing calls, “screen fatigue is real,” said Mediasite. When asked to identify top areas of frustration with hybrid events, 61% of respondents said it's “lack of attendee engagement.”
Online grocery shopping trends born of pandemic are starting to wane, said ChaseDesign Thursday. About half of grocery shoppers began buying online and picking up in store during COVID-19, but only half of those plan to continue shopping that way in the future, it said. A survey on buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) fulfillment found 54% of grocery shoppers prefer to pick items in person, and 40% want the in-store shopping experience. Customers reported some frustration with BOPIS, citing product availability, quality, missing items from orders and extended wait times. The survey of 1,000 shoppers ages 18-54 was done at the end of April.
Amid antitrust and other scrutiny, Amazon touted Prime customers spending $1.9 billion on more than 70 million small business' products over the two-day Prime Day that wrapped up Tuesday. Small- and medium-sized firms that sold on Amazon grew revenue 100%, said the platform Wednesday. The $11 billion industrywide e-commerce spending during the event suggested a “pent up demand for online shopping as consumers look forward to a return to normalcy,” emailed Adobe Digital Insights Director Taylor Schreiner. Also Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee marked up legislation targeting tech companies including Amazon (see 2106230063).
Consumer confidence in the economy is rising, with one in four Americans believing the economy will fully rebound from the pandemic by August, 60% estimating November-February, reported Resonate Wednesday. Concerns over health and economic consequences fell 15% since May. In-store shopping grew 25% from the May report; curbside pickup was down 26% since January. Nearly 40% say they would shop in-store to avoid shipping costs. Some 27.8% say they would return to in-person shopping for electronics vs. 24.4% in late April. Nearly 60% say they're vaccinated. Nearly 24% say they're slightly or not at all likely to get such a vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 45.3% of the population as fully vaccinated through Tuesday, with 53.5% having received at least one dose. A quarter of Resonate respondents expect business travel to return to pre-pandemic levels by September, up a point from May, and half of respondents expect life to return to normal within six months.
Video streamers are “overwhelmed” by over-the-top streaming options, Horowitz Research reported: They feel the “pain” and fatigue of too many streaming services to choose from, as content fragments. Half of TV content viewers in a May survey of 2,183 consumers said there are too many streaming services. About 44% said they often have a hard time finding something to watch. The researcher Wednesday cited launches of Disney+, Apple TV+, BET+, HBO Max, Peacock and discovery+; the rebranding and relaunching of CBS All Access into Paramount+; the launches -- and shuttering -- of Quibi and TVision; and the exit of PlayStation Vue. It noted arrival of AT&T TV as the “latest iteration of DirecTV Now and AT&T TV Now: “Consumer perceptions of chaos and their continued retention of (and perhaps nostalgia for) managed MVPD services is … not surprising.” Of MVPD nonsubscribers, 36% cut the cord within the past two years, up from 23% in 2020; 16% cited COVID-19.
The pandemic forced most consumers globally into “reimagining” shopping values, basing purchase decisions on factors “beyond price and quality,” reported Accenture Wednesday. It canvassed 25,000 adults in 22 countries December to February, finding 57% of “reimagined consumers” vow to abandon retailers that don’t offer “new fast and flexible delivery options,” such as click-and-collect and curbside pickup. Half say they walked away from companies that “disappointed them by not providing enough support and understanding of their needs during challenging times.” As "the world reopens for business, the consumer we knew is no longer,” said Baiju Shah, Accenture Interactive chief strategy officer. “Today’s consumer desires a different relationship with a brand.”
The first day of Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day sales event spurred total U.S. e-commerce of $5.6 billion, up 8.7% over day one of Prime Day 2020 in October, Adobe Analytics emailed Tuesday. Sales were above Thanksgiving Day totals last year, which were under budget at $5.1 billion. 2020 Cyber Monday holds the e-commerce record at $10.8 billion.
Walmart had to “unlearn” how to serve customers, Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar told a National Retail Federation webinar Tuesday. Data and insights “became our lifelines,” he said. He cited machine learning and AI that “helped us make smart decisions a lot faster.” With the holiday sales season ahead, Kumar said the retailer “doubled down” on omnichannel shopping processes that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated. He cited machine learning, data, edge computing and augmented reality coming together in its app that's used by employees. Online volume scaled exponentially during the pandemic, and machine learning helped deploy stores as fulfillment hubs, said Kumar. Sam’s Club customers use computer vision to shop and check out using smartphones, without using bar codes. Voice technology will have an increasing role at Walmart, said Kumar. It's a natural extension of the user interface that’s more intuitive and efficient than typing, he said. “Voice is going to free us a lot further.”