Daily QuickWit (2/11) – Top Retail News of the Day

DoorDash begins offering loans to restaurants

DoorDash makes another bet with a financial revenue stream in what feels like a fight for survival. DoorDash will let merchants “apply for financing to fund business operations such as purchasing equipment, paying rent, hiring, and payroll.” They appear to be taking pages out of the traditional retailer playbook – advertising comes to mind as another example.

Marketplace sellers worry about profit margins

Inflation is hitting margins across the board, including for third-party sellers (who often don’t have the same economies of scale, either). This particular article focuses on Amazon, who takes roughly 30% of the sale. Sellers could switch to other marketplaces, but they don’t have the same scale as Amazon, and could end up taking the same (or larger) cut. 

fairlife is newest billion dollar retail brand for Coke

Coke adds another billion brand to their portfolio. Fairlife took a decade to get there, and the pandemic pushed them across the $1B milestone. They lean heavily into good-for-you and high protein attributes within the brand’s portfolio, which increasingly matched consumer preferences during and post-pandemic.