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After a year of heightened e-commerce sales, PepsiCo's focus has shifted back to in-person sales. On Tuesday, PepsiCo announced second quarter net revenues were up 21% year-over-year to $19.2 billion. A return to in-person consumption and buying at bars and restaurants and big box and convenience stores, drove sales.
Walgreens' 17 million vaccinations drive a 12% revenue increase and a 9% boosts to filled prescriptions this quarter. Going forward, however, the brand will rethink its retail plan -- retail sales were relatively flat year-over-year -- and further invest in digitization and a VillageMD partnership to drive continued success.
On Tuesday, Chipotle announced that revenues increased 38% year over year in the second quarter of 2021 to $1.9 billion. To court employees this quarter, Chipotle raised its minimum wage, recruited via social media, invested in a mental health app for current employees and subsequently hired 5,000 new employees over the second quarter, up to 102,000 total workers at 2,850 restaurants.
As Nordstrom and Macy's are still struggling to return to 2019 sales levels, they are investing more in their off-price businesses to acquire new customers. Nordstrom is focused on driving more Nordstrom Rack sales with the help of its e-commerce business. Macy's meanwhile is opening more off-mall locations and store-in-store locations.
As first quarter earnings calls come to a close, department stores and apparel retailers report that dresses, handbags and activewear drove first quarter sales boosts, while footwear was a mixed bag. To get a better sense of what subcategories are driving success, and which categories are falling behind, Modern Retail rounded up recent earnings call comments from apparel retailers.
As Best Buy is mapping out its post-pandemic future, its store employees are becoming responsible for more than just selling product. Like many other retailers, Best Buy saw huge growth in fulfillment services like curbside pickup during the pandemic, so it's testing out how it can reformat its stores in order to fulfill more online orders as well as utilize its employees to better handle all the new daily requirements.
Nordstrom's sales are starting to inch closer to pre-pandemic levels, but the department store chain is still trying to figure out the right product mix going forward. During its first quarter earnings on Tuesday, Nordstrom reported year-over-year sales growth that was slower than the growth reported by Macy's and Kohl's during their respective first quarter earnings last week.
Kohl’s joins Macy’s and Dillard’s in revealing revenue increases and performance exceeding predicted expectations in the first quarter of 2021. Kohl’s attributes some of this success to optimized merchandizing strategies, returning consumer interest in the apparel category and increased foot traffic. However, the retailer is cautious in its predictions of future performance.
Last year, Home Depot and Lowe's reported huge sales gains on the backs of people spending more time -- and more of their money -- at home. Now, the question is whether or not these gains can continue into 2021. During their first quarter earnings calls this week, Home Depot and Lowe's laid out their respective strategies for retaining customers this year.
Coming off a strong 2020, Target’s latest earnings exceeded estimates. In its 2021 first quarter earnings report, the company recorded double digit growth and increased its market share. Target execs credited investment in store visits, pickup and delivery for the growth. But, the company said that private label lines were also a major driver of sales, reaching a record 36% in sales growth.
At its most recent earnings, Walmart reported 37% year-over-year growth in its e-commerce sales, a strong number from a company that is on the verge of being overtaken by Amazon in the retail sector -- and whose executives have expressed concerns about rising competition from Amazon and Instacart.
Amazon brought in $52.9 billion through its online stores in the first quarter of 2021, by far its largest category of revenue. But other sectors of its business -- including seller services, subscriptions, AWS and advertising -- have continued to see big surges. But competitors, including Facebook and Shopify, are also seeing big commerce gains.
Nike has managed to fend off significant sales losses during the pandemic, but that doesn't mean it was immune from any headwinds. The company reported during its fiscal third quarter earnings today hit net revenue of $10.4 billion, up 3% year-over-year, while e-commerce sales were up 59% year-over-year. However, that represents a slowdown compared to 9% revenue growth and 84% e-commerce growth during its second quarter.
During its fourth quarter earnings, Kohl's executives focused their remarks on how the company plans to bring shoppers back to store next year. The company reported today that during its fourth quarter, net sales were down 10% year-over-year, while online sales were up 22%. Kohl's still managed to report a profit of $343 million. Now, Kohl's is preparing for the launch of a new private label athleisure brand later this month, as well as the launch of new Sephora shop-in-shops in August, to try and drive customers back to stores.
After a year of significant e-commerce growth, Best Buy executives said the company is now focused on preparing for the shift to online shopping to remain permanent. During its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, Best Buy reported that e-commerce sales were up 90%, and now represent 43% of its total sales. CEO Corie Barry said that the company is projecting that next year, e-commerce will still make up roughly 40% of sales. In order to prepare for this shift, Best Buy is rethinking both how its stores look, and how it staffs those stores.
Every interaction a customer has with a brand is an opportunity to nurture the customer-brand relationship. This report highlights tactics that top brands are using to improve the customer experience.
While other states have had conflicting rulings over Amazon's liability risk -- a court in Texas last month said Amazon wasn’t on the hook for a battery sold by a third party, for instance -- the growing number of legal authorities who are holding Amazon accountable is a concerning sign for the company. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission lawsuit is only the latest.
Read MoreAt Modern Retail’s Livestream Commerce Trends, we’ll explore how the growth of livestream and video shopping trends are transforming how retailers, brands and marketing teams are engaging with consumers in-stream and live across social and owned-and-operated websites.
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