Walmart, Hermés, YouTube and Super Consumers – Sales Lead Digest
This week at the Sales Lead Digest we’re on and off vacation, but the wheels of commerce continue to grind. We found some interesting thoughts around Walmart launching an Amazon Prime competitor, how some retailers are trying to re-imagine the online experience, we check on the ever-expanding ad inventory in Youtube, and finish with a fancy slide deck from consultants to tech and media companies for some insights into B2B’s future. Good stuff to think about in the coming week. Enjoy your weekend!
Walmart’s Amazon Prime competitor will launch in July
“Amazon added a monthly payment option for Prime in 2016, a 45 percent Prime fee discount for those on government assistance in 2017, and ways for Prime customers to pay for orders with cash last year. While Walmart’s overall grocery business is larger than Amazon’s, one fear at the Bentonville, Arkansas, retailer is that top Walmart customers could eventually turn to Amazon for groceries as well, as they get sucked further into the Prime suite of perks.”
The Covid-19 crisis has forced a lot of change into a short period of time and Amazon keeps extending its lead. Walmart is digging around its assets and trying to compete, but this may be a bit late. There is a Prime van in my neighborhood every day so it seems like Walmart has a long way to go!
Hermés Men’s Spring-Summer 2021 collection
“The Spring-Summer 2021 collection created by Véronique Nichanian is presented in an unprecedented performance designed with the artistic collaboration of Cyril Teste.
Expressing lightness, simplicity and nonchalance, its clean silhouettes create a timelessly casual look.”
As Amazon and Walmart prepare for their epic showdown, this introduction of the new collection from high end fashion designer Hermés and its collection web page does something the “grid” display can’t do. Depending on where our brands compete, to hold on to our value we should be thinking of new and innovative ways to showcase product. Especially if the brick and mortar retail continues its steady decline.
YouTube Lowering Minimum Video Length For Mid-Roll Ads From 10 To 8 Minutes
“As part of the transition, YouTube says it is also turning on mid-roll ads by default for all eligible videos when the change goes live. This means that creators who have previously opted out of mid-roll ads will be opted back in (though there are ways to opt back out again), and any future uploads from monetizing channels will have mid-roll ads turned on by default. “Turning on auto mid-roll ads saves creators extra work while helping increase the monetization potential for new and existing content,” YouTube explained in its note to creators.”
This is probably good news for content creators and must say something about either shorter attention spans or more inventory opportunities. I think it’s interesting because I get bombarded continuously for the premium YouTube which is supposed to be ad free. Each time I click “not interested” I seem to see more ads. Pre-roll ads, post-roll ads, and now a lot more ads during a recorded webinar. Make sure it fits your brand because it’s going to be the default and content creators will need to opt out if it’s not a fit.
The Post-Covid-19 Agenda for Technology and Media Companies.
“The highest value Super Consumers are more likely to extend their purchases beyond today’s top eCommerce sites.”
At LGC we consider the business-to-consumer market to be a leading indicator of what business-to-business buyers are going to expect in the future. We were just talking to a chemicals wholesaler about this topic and he said, “I don’t see why buying chemicals can’t be as easy as using Amazon,” and he has a point. The interesting thing about this consulting group’s slide deck is the number of super consumers is growing. Their expectations will drift into B2B and we should be ready to meet them there.
