Month: August 2018

Online furniture retailer is touting its owned technology as a competitive advantage.

The company announced in an earnings call on August 2 that for the second quarter of 2018, its direct retail net revenue consisting of sales generated from its websites, grew 49 percent year over year to $1.6 billion. It’s attributing its growth to advantages to building out a logistics and tech infrastructure in-house, a way to undercut competitors who are armed with scale and a network of physical locations.

The company’s CEO Niraj Shah told investors that its success is the result of investments in its proprietary logistics network, its efforts to expand to Canadian and European markets and its new hires to build out products and services. He added that by owning the product routing process from supplier to customer, it’s able to lower its reliance on third-party companies, reduce damage to goods, and improve customer satisfaction. Key to this is being responsible for moving products from the manufacturer to the warehouses, which can be costly for suppliers — it’s a way to free up suppliers to focus on product development. Initiatives currently in development include a supply chain visibility platform, a technology-based solution to track orders that were previously done on paper; and supply chain consolidation in China, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which lets Wayfair pack a greater diversity of goods in containers. The company has also acquired shipping licences in the U.S., Canada and China.

Wayfair’s proprietary distribution network gives it an edge over competitors with faster delivery, but threats from Amazon and other retailers will get stronger as they make investments in better systems. At Amazon, for example, there has been significant growth with “Fulfilled by Amazon,” which also shortens delivery times.

“Although Wayfair may be a bit faster on deliveries at the current time, we expect this is an effort all competitors are focused on, going to head to head with Amazon for speed to end user, and we don’t think Wayfair will be differentiated by the shortened delivery times it can currently offer over the long term,” wrote Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz, in a recent report.

Wayfair also plans to open its first physical store this fall.

 

The post Wayfair invests in technology in-house, sees direct revenue rise to $1.6b appeared first on Digiday.

Omnicom said Thursday it had acquired Credera, a small management and technology consulting firm with offices in Denver, Dallas and Houston. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Credera works with Fortune 500 companies including Southwest Airlines, Chili’s and The Container Store to build consumer tech platforms, integrate mar tech systems and consult on organizing… Continue reading »

The post Omnicom Acquires Consulting Firm Credera appeared first on AdExchanger.

A new report by the Video Advertising Bureau shows TV is the go-to source for two-thirds or more of American voters regardless of party affiliation, occupation or demographic skew.

Tom Rogers, who as head of NBC Cable ushered in the era of vertical news channels that have contributed to the political polarization of news programming and audiences, this morning used one of his
progeny — MSNBC — to call out the media industry for failing to defend threats to their First Amendment rights from the Trump Administration. “I think the entire media industry has to be called out
here,” said Rogers, now executive chairman of WinView, on a segment of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that began by discussing a new wave of Russian disinformation attacks on digital media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Reddit, Tumblr, 4Chan, etc., implying that mainstream news media outlets are equally as complicit in their negligence, or maybe even worse.

Facebook Thursday unveiled a collection of resources aimed at helping young people get the most out of digital technology and stay safe while doing it. The social network teamed up with the Youth and Media team at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University on the Digital Literacy Library, which makes…

This week, to mark the final episode with our dear social editor and podcast co-host, Miss Sami Main, we decided to devote the show to all things social. But first–a heartfelt goodbye to an amazing co-host and friend. We miss you already, Sami! On this week’s episode of the Adweek podcast Yeah, That’s Probably an…

Omnicom has acquired Credera, which is being aligned with CRM unit Omnicom Precision Marketing, now run by Luke Taylor.

One of the most fascinating tech demos I saw at this year’s Cannes Lions was unfortunately also one I wasn’t allowed to talk about–until today. Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam has launched an augmented-reality platform that blends art and music, creating 3-D animations that hover over a vinyl record and correspond with the specific track that’s…

That said, overall media time for all adults is rising. For advertisers, there would seem to be a big opportunity. But as we all know, media users seek more ad-avoidance efforts across all platforms.

Google’s development of a censor-friendly mobile search app sent shares of China’s dominant search engine plunging, but analysts cautioned Google still faces hurdles in regaining reentry to the country.