Walmart ads go social; Etsy eyes growth in a downturn

Author

Stephen Babcock
September 21, 2022

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Etsy’s pandemic growth has proven resilient in recent quarters. Now it’s looking to keep that up in a downturn. Despite the tough consumer environment, the marketplace is making a big push to add customers during the holidays. "While a lot of other people might be pulling back, we think this is a great time to be leaning in and gaining share,” CEO Josh Silverman told Yahoo Finance.

Walmart is creating avenues for brands to advertise on platforms beyond its owned channels. A handful of new partnerships announced on Tuesday show that it’s testing on video-based platforms, including in-feed on TikTok and in shoppable streaming ads on Roku. The idea is to bring Walmart’s first-party data and measurement tools to the social spaces where potential customers gather.

Last week, Kanye West walked away from the Yeezy Gap partnership. This week, Gap Inc. became the latest retailer to make layoffs after a quarter of slumping sales, with offices in New York and San Francisco feeling the impact, the Wall Street Journal reported. It comes as the company is still searching for a new CEO after the exit of Sonia Syngal in July.

In this week’s ecommerce hiring roundup, Edgewell Personal Care, Estée Lauder and Walgreens are making structural changes to leadership teams, while C-suites are seeing departures at Williams-Sonoma and West Elm. Plus: Brunt Workwear brings on a handful of new directors, Quadpack gets a new CEO and PillPack’s cofounders depart Amazon.

Economic swings are making forecasting tricky for carriers like UPS and FedEx as they get ready to deliver packages during the holidays. Over the last two years, these carriers were inundated with demand as a result of ecommerce growth. This year, they could have too much capacity, posing the risk of overpaying on labor and vehicle costs, Reuters reports. But there's no consensus yet: UPS is sticking to a plan to hire 100,000 holiday workers, while FedEx is warning of a slowdown.

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