蘑菇AV

Toast faces fierce competition in restaurant point-of-sale payments from Square, Shift4 Payments, and Fiserv-owned BentoBox, among others. It鈥檒l be tough to attract and retain clients as legacy providers, fintechs, and Big Tech firms like Amazon jostle for market position. The bigger picture: Toast can use partnerships with firms like FreedomPay to expand its payments ecosystem.

Inditex bounces back after a rainy summer dented sales growth: The Zara parent reported a strong start to Q3 as shoppers responded positively to its product assortment.

Net sales for Nordstrom Rack, Nordstrom鈥檚 off-price brand, increased 8.8% in Q2, with comparable sales increasing 4.1%. This growth is partially driven by Nordstrom鈥檚 expansion of Rack stores, opening 11 new locations year-to-date with 12 more planned ahead of the holidays.

Lego builds momentum: The company grew sales 13% in the first half of the year with strength across its portfolio.

Coresight Research projects sales from October through December will grow 4% YoY with Shein, Temu, and TikTok Shop grabbing share from domestic retailers. Our forecast is far more optimistic as we expect sales to rise 4.8% YoY in November and December, with ecommerce sales growing 9.5% YoY.

Online sales will also accelerate to close out 2024. Holiday ecommerce sales will rise 9.5% YoY, a pace not seen in the past two years, and total online sales for November and December will reach $266.89 billion.

One piece of a larger puzzle: Ikea spent the last few years evolving from a retailer that drove the vast majority of sales from massive stores located outside city centers to a dynamic merchant willing and eager to test, learn, and iterate, both offline and online.

US online sales grew 22% YoY in Q2, while weekly active customers grew 20%鈥攁 sign that, as with Amazon, the retailer鈥檚 investments in faster delivery, as well as its efforts to expand the selection on its marketplace, are encouraging more shoppers to order online, and order more often. That in turn is boosting its advertising business.

Walmart+ Week member participation rose thanks to popularity with wealthy shoppers: While Amazon鈥檚 Prime Day sale attracted twice as many participants, its lead is narrowing.

Two weeks have passed since Amazon鈥檚 Big Spring Sale, but its success is unclear. Amazon鈥檚 first-ever Big Spring Sale took place from March 20-25, offering discounts on seasonal items like spring fashion, fitness products, and cleaning and yard work essentials.

DoorDash is the latest delivery platform to turn to streaming to boost membership sign-ups: The company will offer DashPass subscribers free access to Max鈥檚 ad-supported tier in a bid to boost sign-ups and grow sales.

Amazon isn鈥檛 taking its Q2 miss lightly: The retailer aggressively pushes to drive growth by partnering with TikTok and Pinterest, testing a speedy delivery service, and courting Chinese sellers.

Net sales rose 13% year over year (YoY) to $16.4 billion, outpacing FactSet鈥檚 $16.2 billion estimate. Comparable sales grew 5%, again beating expectations of a 4.3% rise. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose 26% YoY to $1.12, in line with expectations. But the company鈥檚 guidance for Q1 and fiscal 2025 came in softer than analysts expected.

The conundrum: While October sales have cemented their place within the holiday retail season, events such as Target鈥檚 Circle Week or Amazon鈥檚 Big Deal Days don鈥檛 seem to have significantly shifted holiday spending into the month. The monthly share of digital spending in October has remained fairly stable since 2018 at 28% to 29%, per Comscore.

Procter & Gamble is determined to push through price hikes: Despite falling sales volumes and softening demand, the CPG giant plans to continue raising prices to cover its costs.

The RealReal and thredUP set their sights on premium shoppers: Both companies are targeting bigger spenders to improve margins and achieve profitability by next year.

How luxury brands can lean into partnerships to increase sales, reach, and tap audiences willing to spend. First, a brand should identify and establish partnership goals. Are you looking to increase traffic, revenues, conversion rate, or average order value? Perhaps you鈥檙e just looking to increase brand recognition in emerging markets.

The big takeaway: We expect US cosmetic and beauty sales to grow 7.6% this year, faster than any other category. Sales of luxury cosmetics and beauty products will grow more slowly at 5.5%, but still outpace total retail sales growth.

The news: On Running鈥檚 sales continued to soar in Q2. Net sales grew 52.3% year-over-year (YoY) to CHF 444.3 million ($465.32 million). On鈥檚 direct-to-consumer (D2C) business grew faster than wholesale revenues during the quarter and increased its share of overall sales. D2C revenues rose 54.7% YoY, while wholesale revenues grew 51%.

Target鈥檚 comparable sales rose for the first time in five quarters: While the retailer鈥檚 value-oriented focus hit the mark in Q2, Target took a 鈥渕easured approach鈥� with its outlook ahead.

鈥淐onsumers are being careful with their spend, trading down鈥�looking for deals,鈥� said Brian Olsavsky, CFO of Amazon, which missed quarterly sales expectations in Q2, despite hosting a series of smaller sales events to spur spending. 鈥淭hat continued into Q2, and we expect it to continue into Q3.鈥�.