Hey Friends,
What a week it has been…
Amazon announced new seller fulfilment fees to it’s Fulfilled by Amazon Program. A new inbound placement fee, effective March 1, requires sellers to pay to use the Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) bulk storage service. Merchants can avoid the fee when using the inbound placement service, but only if they opt to ship goods to at least four different warehouses, using their own resources. Fees will average 27 cents per unit for standard-sized products and $1.58 per unit for large bulky-sized products. A low-inventory-level fee, now applies for sellers who carry “consistently low” levels of inventory relative to unit sales. Sellers can avoid this fee by maintaining more than four weeks of inventory relative to sales, Amazon says. These fees will apply starting April 1. Merchants can also avoid the low-inventory fees by using the AWD service for long-term inventory storage. According to Seeking Alpha, Amazon's new merchant fees have the potential to add $5.2B in operating income.
Store closure news continues to make headlines as Dollar Tree announced it will close nearly 1,000 Family Dollar stores. Outdoor Voices announced that it was closing all of the companies physical locations nationwide. Outdoor Voice will remain online only.
On the flipside, Dollar General said on their latest earnings call that it plans to open 800 new stores, remodel 1,500 locations and relocate 85 stores this year. Other retailers announced additional store openings with Burlington continuing it’s plan of opening 100 stores each year (slightly missed in 2023 with 80 new locations) and Academy Sports + Outdoors stated a robust store expansion plan is key to it’s longterm growth, looking to open an additional 120-140 stores by 2027.
Allbirds will be getting a new CEO. Joe Vernachio will succeed co-founder Joey Zwillinger as CEO. Vernachio is the company’s current chief operating officer, will become its new chief executive and a board member starting Friday. In their latest earnings call, they reported that sales fell 14.7% in 2023 to $254.1 million, and net loss for the year rose to $152.5 million. Allbirds also shared that they will be closing 10-15 of their US retail stores.
Retail sales has a slight rebound in February, with a .6% increase last month.
According to Consumer Reports, Only 1% Of 270,000 Surveyed Retail Locations Have EV Charging. The study shows that retail offers a great way to quickly establish charging infrastructure, but unfortunately, big box stores, grocery stores, and fast food chains are severely lagging.
Oura ring has announced it will officially be available on Amazon. The wearable technology provider, originally launched it’s retail partnership with Best Buy over a year ago. Im 2023, Amazon decided to end it’s own wearable technology, the Halo Band, after only 3 years of it’s official launch.
After a successful Q4 and Fiscal Year 2023, Dick’s Sporting Goods is set to drastically expand its retail footprint in 2024, marking the largest expansion seen by the company in over 5 years. According to Retail Dive, DSG will start construction on 15 more experiential House of Sport locations this year. The company also plans to open 16 next-generation Dick’s stores and 10 Golf Galaxy Performance Centers. The company also announced it is continuing to invest in their supply chain and technology to enhance the customer experience.
Target has announced it is making changes to it’s loyalty program, Target Circle, to deliver an even easier and more personalized shopping and saving experience from start to finish. “The new Target Circle experience was designed to flex and grow with our guests to deliver more value and ease — no matter how they choose to shop with us — so every visit feels personal, rewarding and made just for you.” says Cara Sylvester, executive vice president and chief guest experience officer, Target. The most notable is a new paid membership, Target Circle 360, with free same-day delivery from Target’s same-day delivery service, Shipt, and it’s more than 100 retail partners. Best of all: It’s delivered in as little as an hour with no delivery fees. Members will also gain access to free 2-day shipping and the ability to deliver to your door.
As always, if you are enjoying reading This Week in Retail, feel free to like, comment or share!