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A few weeks ago, we talked about Section4’s DELTA framework – a capability assessment for data and analytics. It was a great start. The RetailWit crew thought it could be improved. We took a broad look of firms across industries, firms like Kroger, DataRobot, AirBNB, Google, and others, and landed on six variables—variables that separate the top data and analytics firms from the rest.
We’re calling it FIRST-R:
- First Class Citizen – data, data-related roles, and data literacy treated as core to organization’s operations.
- Innovation – the firm leads the industry in innovation on data practices, use, and engineering.
- Responsibility – proper governance and responsible practices around data: breaches, transparency, and customer policy.
- Strategy – data, analytics, and data science are core to the success of the firm’s strategy.
- Talent – significant investment in data and analytical talent versus the competition.
- Revenue – the data is directly monetized, resulting in additional revenue for the firm.
Stay tuned—the next iteration will introduce how we grade companies (plus a case study) on each FIRST-R variable. And, we’d love your feedback. Leave a comment below.
Until then, here’s the top retail news from last week:
Walmart adds high-tech fulfillment center
Earlier this year, we heard Walmart talk about adding additional supply chain capacity; last week, they announced a 925,000 square-foot automated fulfillment center in Tennessee. The facility will store millions of items to be shipped directly to customers as soon as next-day. The new fulfillment center will be manned by a unique combination of associates, AI-software, and automated robots that work together to ship orders to customers even faster – the fleet of automated robots will navigate a compact storage system to retrieve products and bring them to associates.
Kroger to add customer fulfillment center in North Carolina
Kroger said it will expand its grocery delivery capabilities in North Carolina with the construction of a new customer fulfillment center (CFC) in the state. The new CFC will be powered by Kroger partner the Ocado Group. The North Carolina CFC, measuring 200,000 square feet, is expected to become operational within 24 months after the site breaks ground and will employ up to 700 associates over the next five years.
Kantar Releases PoweRanking® 2021: A Generation of Transformation
Kantar’s annual industry benchmarking report PoweRanking 2021 identifies retailers and suppliers that set the standard of performance, ranked by their trading partners. They provided a sneak peek into the report; interesting changes – Target and Kroger swap places and Apple and KraftHeinz enter the top 5!
AWS outage has far reaching impact
AWS (Amazon Web Services) had a serious outage from 11 a.m to almost 6:30 p.m. last Tuesday. Among the services that reported issues as a result of the outage were Disney’s streaming subscription service, Disney+, Netflix, Slack, Ticketmaster, stock trading app Robinhood, and Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S.
The outage also brought down critical tools used inside Amazon. Warehouse and delivery workers, along with drivers for Amazon’s Flex service, reported on Reddit that they couldn’t access the Flex app or the AtoZ app, making it impossible to scan packages or access delivery routes.
A union has won the right to represent US Starbucks workers for the first time. While this represents a single store in Buffalo NY, it could represent a potential swing for the Coffee Giant.
Starbucks downplayed the significance of its loss, referring to the votes at the three stores as a “split decision.” But the effort to organize Starbucks employees had been closely watched nationally. The company put a major effort into convincing employees that they were better off without a union, but at least in the case of one of the stores, it failed to make its case.
Jet founder to open the “Netflix of Cooked Meals”
“It’s really a one-stop shop for all cooked food, and we think there’s a real chance to have a winner-take-all in this market. … You don’t really need another app.” Strong words from Marc Lore as he looks to push Wonder, an on-demand food truck, and Envoy, a meal courier. All we can say here is to get ready for another disruption in the meal delivery world.
Publix is expanding their presence in Kentucky
After announcing their first store in Kentucky in September, Publix is making a move to open a second store in the Bluegrass state. While neither store is set to open until late 2023 / early 2024, it is interesting to see that Publix chose Louisville for the first stores. Kroger is making some headway in Florida, and Publix is pushing into northern Kentucky – a mere 100 miles from Kroger HQ. I am sure it’s just a coincidence.
Jack in the Box acquires Del Taco
Really interesting to see these two join forces, as they both find themselves looking up at their competition. “This is a natural combination of two like-minded, challenger brands with outstanding growth opportunities,” Jack in the Box CEO Darin Harris said in a statement. “Together, Jack in the Box and Del Taco will benefit from a stronger financial model, gaining greater scale to invest in digital and technology capabilities and unit growth for both brands.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves, looking forward to see what happens in 2022.
U.S. – U.K. Joint Statement on Deepening the Data Partnership
Today, the United States Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo and the U.K. Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Nadine Dorries issued a statement on their governments’ shared commitment to deepening the UK-U.S. data partnership to “realize a more peaceful and prosperous future by promoting the trustworthy use and exchange of data across borders”. While this isn’t entirely retail related the fact that ‘data is the new oil’ and with the increases in data breaches and cyber attacks governments are getting more deeply involved themselves as well as across boarders it is something we all need to be aware of.
“The challenges facing cross-border data flows are increasingly global and require solutions that work across multiple jurisdictions. We recognize the negative trends that risk closing off international data flows. In response, we seek to shape a global data ecosystem in a manner that promotes and advances interoperability between different data protection frameworks, facilitating cross-border data flows while maintaining high standards of data protection and trust. We are committed to open and inclusive engagement with international partners, industry, civil society, and consumer and privacy rights groups.”
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