Express Checkout #6

Happy New Year!! I'd love to start off this issue with a video covering all the global problems we SOLVED in 2022 😁

This past year has brought the industry and myself so much change. Some good changes, some bad changes, and literally everything in between! I am excited for what 2023 will bring.

Here are a couple of things I think we'll see in 2023:

• More flavors inspired by less-explored world cuisines make their way into our pantries (shout out ZestyZ!)

• A continued push towards strengthening fundamentals, with brands taking a closer look at their cash flow and margins. Being profitable will be top of mind!

• Omnichannel will continue to thrive and grow

• Fewer brands seeking massive valuations and more brands focusing on growing where they're planted and scaling efficiently

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🔥 Big News of the week 🔥

• After over 40 years in business, the online shoe retailer Eastbay is shutting down in the spring of 2023

• Possible champagne shortages coming in 2023 as demand skyrocketed in 2022! 🍾

• Sazerac is moving its portfolio of spirits from RNDC to a bunch of new distributors around the country including Breakthru Beverage, Southern Glazers, and Reyes. This is huge, as RNDC is one of the largest distributors in the country and Sazerac owns hundreds of brands including Souther Comfort, Eagle rare, Buffalo trace, and Fireball

• Hershey sued for allegedly selling lead and cadmium-filled dark chocolate. Yikes 😬

News from the week (12/26 - 12/31)

🛍 Retail

• U.S. retail sales grew 7.6% in the holiday season (Nov - Dec) according to a recent Mastercard report

• For what feels like forever, retailers have been slowly removing plastic bags from their checkout lines. Walmart is the next major retailer to join the trend and will no longer provide shoppers with single-use plastic bags as of January 2023. In 2020 the massive retailer joined the “Beyond the Bag” initiative to help make more sustainable shopping bags

• Have you noticed retailers like Walmart, CVS, and Walgreen keeping more and more inventory behind a locked glass door? This effort is annoying yet apparently necessary as retail theft has been on the rise, becoming $100 billion problem for retailers

🛒 CPG & Consumer

• Boundary Layer has collected nearly $1 million worth of preorders for their new $60K personal water toy called Valo (see image below). The company this past spring raised $4.8M from Lower Carbon Capital, Fifty Years and Soma Capital and received $90M in pre-orders from ferry operators for their electric passenger & commercial vessel

• Ujjo, originally marketed as hot sauce for coffee, has rebranded as a hot sauce for beverages more broadly! Yes this is real, and yes it doesn’t taste half bad 🤷‍♂️

• Kraft Heinz has funded a two-year research project from Wyss Institute at Harvard that involves turning sugar into fiber in the gut. Apparently this reduces the amount of sugar absorbed into the bloodstream

• Non-alcoholic beer will continue to continue to grow in 2023. Check out Athletic Brewing CEO Bill Shufelt on CNBC discussing what's next for the category

🏭 Supply Chain

• Ford has filed a patent that could put drones over public roads. Spooky! What the patent outlines actually seems really cool. It describes a aerial highway of sorts above public roads and other properties that state governments can lease to drone delivery providers

• New subsidies from California’s Hybrid and Zero Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) will cut the cost of the Nikola hydrogen fuel cell truck by nearly 70%

💻 eCommerce

• Amazon is starting to make returns even easier by offering box-free returns for its customers. All customers have to do is show a QR code to staff at select Kohl’s, Whole Foods, and UPS locations

• According to the eCommerce giant, small businesses on Amazon sold more products than ever this holiday season. 3rd party partners account for nearly 60% of sales on the platform

• While lots of good things can be said about Amazon, cracks are starting to emerge in its eCommerce empire, Modern Retail breaks it down in their recent article

• Instacart has been having a tough time as of late, this week they cut their valuation for 4th time in 2022. They will apparently be ending the year down at a valuation of $10bn from $40bn at the start of 2022

💸 Funding, Exits, M&A, and VC

• Pernod Ricard took a majority stake in French RTD brand Cockorico. The ready-to-drink cocktail market is on the rise and Pernod is investing heavily - in November they threw $22M at its Fort Smith production facility with a focus on improving its RTD capabilities

• Lotus Bakeries’ capital venture fund FF2032 has acquired a minority stake in IQBAR, a better-for-you protein bar out of Boston

• Eastern Standard Provision has completed a $13.5M round of funding with participation from SnackFutures, Mondelēz International’s venture arm. They make frozen soft pretzel products that are absolutely delicious 😋

🧐 Interesting reads

• In 2023 Your Consumer Behavior Changed You Need to Change as Well (via Grocerant)

• What Blueland Can Do That CPG’s Can’t (via Shopify)

• How Bobbi Brown Created Her New Makeup Empire (via Shopify)

• How Gen Z helped galvanize a 2022 retail unionization movement (via Modern Retail)

• Why canned hard coffee hasn't capitalized on the buzz (via The Washington Post)

• Adidas is stuck with Yeezy sneakers worth more than $500 million after parting ways with Kanye West (via Business Insider)

• What’s Next for Hard Seltzer? (via First Key Consulting)

💡 Reports, research, and trends

• The Economics of Amazon (research paper out of the Florence School of Econ and Management)

• How Much Do Boycotts Affect a Company’s Bottom Line? (via Kellog School of Management)

• Anthony Cheung on LinkedIn made a FULL list of market outlooks for 2023 from the world's largest investment banks and asset managers

• The 12 most impactful retail acquisitions of 2022 (via Insider)

• What TikTok Told Us About the Economy in 2022 (via NYT)

• U.S. Inflation: How Much Have Prices Increased? (via Visual Capitalist)

• What Percentage of Americans Drink Alcohol? (via Galluop)

• The Modern Retail guide to what's in and what's out in 2023 (via Modern Retail)

  • Some things that are in: Profitability, Walmart, Pop-ups, Charging for Return shipping

  • Some things that are out: DTC, Miami, Target, Going Public, shop-in-shops

• The Glossy guide to what’s in and out for 2023 (via glossy)

  • Some things that are in: Messy, Nike Dunks, Short-form video, skinny jeans

  • Some things that are out: Yeezys, lifestyle brand, pleated pants, spa for pleasure

• Four Grocery Technology Trends to Watch in 2023 (via PYMNTS)

  • Smart checkout

  • Shift away from subscriptions

  • Smart campaigns and promos

  • Rise in delivery for remote workers

🐦 Interesting Tweets

• "22 thoughts from 2022 I'd like to take into 2023"

• Thread on Citrus Taxonomy 🍊🍋

• Dave Strickland's breakdown of his Friends & Family round

Thanks for reading! I'll be back next week with more commerce news straight to your inbox. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or stories or posts I missed, let me know!

2023 will be your year!

Nate :)