Will holiday sales outrun inflation?

NRF forecast: 2022 holiday retail sales to rise 6-8%, slowing growth

The National Retail Federation’s forecast for the holiday season projects sales growth in 2022, despite inflation and more pressure on households. Yet NRF believes the year-over-year increase in spending will be lower than the last two years, when demand for goods was at its peak. Will it be a true uptick in demand or a byproduct of inflation? The answer lies in whether the growth in overall sales outpaces the price increases being felt across many categories.

Amazon, Lyft, Stripe buckle down, warn on economy

A new round of tech companies that build the infrastructure for ecommerce are pulling back in the face of economic headwinds this week. Amazon is freezing corporate hiring, while payment processor Stripe laid off 14% of its workforce. “We were much too optimistic about the internet economy’s near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown,” wrote Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. (Axios)

Disney+ and Netflix test new ways to buy what you stream

An ecommerce test from Disney+ shows how it could become easier than ever to buy an item straight out of a show or movie. Users scan a QR code from the streaming platform, which then takes them to a store with exclusive merchandise from Star Wars and Black Panther. It may be only the first step toward expanding Disney+ beyond content.

Inflation increases margin pressure on restaurants. Can data help?

An analysis from Lightspeed Commerce shows that price increases at restaurants are running below the pace of inflation, bringing further profitability challenges to an already low-margin business. In the face of this, digging deeper into the data to analyze individual menu items and staffing levels can yield unexpected ways to keep customers coming back, said Lightspeed GM of Hospitality Peter Dougherty.

Brian A. Wong on what China has to teach the US about e-commerce

“In America, ecommerce is the dessert, and in China, ecommerce is the main course,” Brian Wong, the first American employee of Alibaba, tells Retail Brew. With a new book being published on the Chinese ecommerce giant, Wong talks about the history of Alibaba’s Singles Day, which sounds a lot like Prime Day. (Retail Brew)

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