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The Myth of the Great E-Commerce Acceleration
Description
“The future is already here, it's just not very distributed.”
- William Gibson
Ever since the pandemic began, the narrative of a great acceleration in online shopping has taken hold, with some even claiming that we experienced 10 years of e-commerce growth in a matter of months. While many markets did see a huge surge in e-commerce penetration during the height of physical store lockdowns, it turns out that facts are stubborn things. In reality we are almost exactly where we would have been had the Covid crisis not hit.
In this episode, with Michael weighing in from the SIAL conference in Montreal, we challenge yet another overly simplistic narrative that, had you bought into it, might have caused you to do precisely the opposite of what you should have done. We also learn that, contrary to popular belief, Steve is not a hype man for physical retail, but rather devoutly anti bullsh*t.
What's really going on with online shopping growth, why your mileage may vary, and why we often get so much wrong about e-commerce are at the heart of this deep dive.
But first we open up with the retail news that caught our attention this week, including Lululemon's 5-year plan to double their revenue, Uniqlo's plans to open 400-500 new stores in the continuing rejection of all the retail apocalypse nonsense, and what to make of the departure of Old Navy's CEO (and Gap's overall lack of remarkability). We also unpack the interesting trend of the D getting taken out of DTC as more disruptor brands choose to explore wholesale distribution. Plus, in our very popular everything old is new again segment: the return of print catalogs!
The McKinsey Article
The WSJ Article
The Pandemic Was Supposed To Push All Shopping Online. It Didn't.
Steve Recent Forbes Articles
The Myth of the Great E-Commerce Acceleration
What We Often Get Wrong About E-Commerce And Why It Matters
Past Podcast Episodes We Reference
The Store As Brand Hub w/ Target's Nancy King
The Great DTC v. Wholesale Debate w/ Simeon Siegel
Understanding Warby Parker and Customer-Based Valuation w/ Dan McCarthy
What We Get Wrong About E-commerce
Custom Fit Solutions w/ Indochino's Drew Green
About Us
Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. Y