Weekly Consumer News Update // April 11, 2023

Here's our weekly roundup of recent consumer and retail news. This week, Google Search will soon include Chat AI, Lacoste collaborates with Netflix, and more. 

 M&A and INVESTMENTS

• Fanatics, the sports platform, has acquired Italian sports merchandise company Epi CNBC
• Online vitamins retailer Sunday Natural is exploring a sale at a potential $655-$923M valuation Reuters
• Playtika Attracts Fresh Interest From Buyout Firms Bloomberg
• Cannabis producer Tilray to buy Hexo for $56 mln Reuters
• Food website Saveur acquired by investment group Axios

INDUSTRY NEWS

RETAIL

Ecommerce Inflation Easing, But Shoppers Still Shifting Spending Due To Prices

Online prices declined, on a year-over-year basis, for the 7th consecutive month in March, but persistent inflation in categories like groceries continues to impact discretionary spending on items like electronics, toys, and gifts. Forbes

How Did Hokas Become So Popular?

After infiltrating the fashion crowd, Hokas broke the billion dollar mark in 2022. NYT

Gen Z still loves Nike, American Eagle

In a survey of 5k U.S. teens, Nike was named the top clothing brand with 33% share, with American Eagle (7%) and Lululemon (6%) behind it, according to Piper Sandler’s 45th Semi-Annual Generation Z Survey. Retail Dive

Global Secondhand Market to Reach $350 Billion by 2027, ThredUp Says

Resale is hot, but is it set to sustain momentum against fast-fashion heavyweights? WWD

Poshmark Goes Live With Auction-Based Shopping

Posh Shows, a live shopping feature designed for resale, enables users to livestream on the Poshmark app for the first time to the 100 million user community. Yahoo

Walmart Plans to Add $130 Billion in Sales Over Five Years

Walmart has pivoted from a bread-and-butter bricks-and-mortar retailer in recent years to become a more forward-leaning Amazon competitor looking to layer in a lot more tech savvy. WWD

With suppliers still wary, Bed Bath & Beyond banks on $120M consignment deal

Bed Bath & Beyond unveiled a deal last week with ReStore Capital to create a vendor consignment program. Retail Dive

You Can Now Purchase Ikea Furniture ‘As Is’

Ikea is launching a new as-is online service that allows loyalty program members to shop and reserve gently used products online and purchase in store. Yahoo

Minibar Beauty: Hotels enter the beauty retail game

Hotels are upping the beauty ante by offering beauty products in the minibar, allowing consumers to purchase a lipstick, for example, along with the usual nuts and bottled water. Glossy

Care/of launches at Sam’s Club

DTC vitamin and supplement brand Care/of has launched an exclusive offering of its products within 308 Sam’s Club stores across the U.S. Retail Dive

Lacoste Teams With Netflix to Celebrate Popular TV Shows

Lacoste and Netflix are coming together to celebrate some of the streaming service’s most popular TV shows such as “Stranger Things,” “Bridgerton,” “Lupin,” “The Witcher,” “Money Heist". WWD

MARKETING

Metaverse Mania Cools for Many, but Not for Marketers

Marketing executives still say they will spend more on the metaverse this year even as some consumers and tech companies lose interest in the concept. WSJ

How Toys R Us Is Using Entertainment To Build Its Brand

Toys R Us is following in the footsteps of the biggest toy manufacturers and creating entertainment content to grow its brand. Forbes

‘Videos of things that never happened’ are dominating fashion marketing 

The AI campaign captivating the fashion community is the video of Jacquemus’s Le Bambino bag-shaped buses driving down the streets of Paris. Glossy

TECH

Expedia is integrating ChatGPT into its app to help users make travel plans

The chatbot conversations can give advice on where to go, where to stay, what to see, and what to do. Fast Company

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says Search to Include Chat AI

Advances in AI would supercharge Google’s ability to answer an array of search queries. WSJ

TikTok Struggles to Enlist U.S. Merchants for Shopping Service

Relatively few U.S. merchants are showing interest in signing up for the nascent service, both because they’re more focused on expanding in bricks and mortar and because they’re concerned the app could be banned. The Information

FOOD & BEV

Whole Foods Market Explores Building Off-Site Kitchens to Supply Food Bars

The move is a shift for the Amazon-owned supermarket operator, which has outsourced much of its food production to other companies after years ago closing its own kitchens to cut costs. WSJ

Campbell’s Enticing Future in Snacks

Now that soups are stabilized, snacks from Goldfish to Cape Cod chips could soon be Campbell’s biggest business. WSJ

Chipotle and Sweetgreen's short-lived beef over a chicken burrito bowl gets resolved

The salad chain told NPR it decided to rename its new chipotle chicken menu item, following its fellow fast casual restaurant's legal challenge over the previously named "Chipotle Chicken Burrito Bowl." NPR

The Sriracha shortage is back and Huy Fong Foods doesn’t know when it will end

Drought conditions in Mexico last year caused a shortage of red jalapeño peppers used to make Sriracha. USA

The $76 Billion Diet Industry Asks: What to Do About Ozempic?

Weight-loss businesses, which long pushed calorie-counting and willpower, are grappling with the surging popularity of new drugs. WSJ

Grocery startups are eyeing convenience stores and grab-and-go formats for growth

After targeting major grocery chains like Kroger, Whole Foods and Walmart, food and beverage startups now have their eyes set on the convenience channel. Modern Retail

Chipotle’s new restaurant to help halve its carbon footprint by 2030

More than 100 of the burrito chain’s new locations will use all-electric equipment and some additional elements from the new design. CNBC

Why luxury conglomerates like LVMH are ramping up their investment in Napa

From LVMH to Chanel, luxury brands are snapping up historic vineyards in Napa, as the region remains ripe with potential. Retail Brew

SPORTS

Big chains look to capitalize on pickleball craze

Americans continue to get hooked on pickleball and now two of the nation’s largest chains — Walmart and Subway — want in on the action. Axios

YouTube starts presales of NFL Sunday Ticket subscription

YouTube picked up the streaming rights for NFL Sunday Ticket last December in a deal that reportedly cost Google a whopping $2 billion per season. TechCrunch

COMINGS & GOINGS

• Dick’s Sporting Goods Names Chief E-Commerce Officer SGB
  
• Quiet Platforms President and American Eagle Chief Supply Chain Officer Shekar Natarajan To Exit Retail Dive
• Longtime Nike exec Nigel Powell retiring soon; KeJuan Wilkins taking reins Sports Business Journal
• Disney Elevates Hulu Chief to Run Its Streaming Business Bloomberg
• VF Corp. Names Jen McLaren President of Altra, Moves Todd Dalhausser to Dickies FN
• Tonal Appoints New CEO SGB

GOOD READS

• All Retail Is Local, Requiring Stores To Localize For Maximum Penetration, Like Sephora At Kohl’s Forbes
• April Is the Greenwashiest Month BoF
• Retail Theft – Its Impact Is Far Reaching And Very Costly Forbes

INSPIRATION