“What are they hiring for?” Understanding the open roles for a CPG or Retailer can offer hints to where they are headed. Amazon has more open jobs for Voice (Alexa) engineers than open jobs at Google. That’s a great clue on where Amazon is headed.
A few years ago, we knew 84.51 was headed towards the media sales and agency model because of their open roles. Combining hiring data with earnings transcripts gets us even further strategically; Kroger talking about their data as a competitive advantage and moat leading into the KPM “reveal”.
Let’s walk through an example (with Walmart) and make some off-the-cuff inferences from it.
Walmart’s Q4 FY22 Earnings: We took a look at the earnings report and transcript. Walmart spoke both about the increases in revenue + sales and divestitures + consolidation efforts. Higher costs made an appearance, related to inflation and supply chain challenges. International markets, advertising and operations solutions, and the changing Walmart business model were both highlighted and drew a lot of questions from analysts.
So, we see Walmart speak to strong sales momentum, streamlining their operations, changing their business model, and tempered with consumer and pricing concerns. Walmart’s stock increased during the earnings release.
Walmart Job Openings: Next, we went to Walmart Careers. Even before diving into the actual jobs, we see something interesting being highlighted: Healthcare, Technology, and Fulfillment. 
We looked at Walmart and Sam’s Club jobs, totaling 69,200 jobs. Nearly 80% of those jobs are store associates. Taking out those jobs, we’re left with 31 job functions. We looked high level, then the most recent 125 job postings. The top 5 roles (83% of total roles) are below. We see a connection between the earnings report and this visual; Operations, digital, and technical roles are highlighted.
Diving into specific roles, the areas of responsibility include eCommerce, Last Mile, Advertising Operations, Walmart+ Benefits, Marketplace Ads, Corporate Affairs for Asia. So, we know that Walmart is only going to focus more heavily on fulfillment, making eCommerce profitable, further developing their advertising, operations, and loyalty solutions, and pushing growth for international markets.
If the earnings calls are the “what”, the open roles are the “how”. Often, the “how” can give clues to “what’s next”.
What could make your analysis better? Longitudinal, deep, and wide data. This article only looks at a small slice of time. Scraping the data over time would tell a more complete story. The same with understanding more nuance of the role—hiring for a brand-building marketer versus an ad operations marketer is quite different. And, understanding what other competitors are doing gives deeper insight into the advantages and gaps.
Here’s the top retail news of last week:
Old Spice spoofs ’80s action movies with deepfake ad
Much to my joy, the ’80s is having a moment as marketers are embracing retro in recent months to captivate consumers with emotional connections to the decade. Old Spice is the latest to dabble in the decade, resurrecting actor Dolph Lundgren’s ’80s movie persona in a series of over-the-top action flick parodies that depict the dangers of sweating too much.
Misfits Market Expands Across Lower 48
Charlie in the Box would be proud! E-grocer Misfits Market is now officially available in all of the lower 48 states with its expansion into Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Having started out in 2018 as a mystery box of organic produce hand-delivered by rented pickup trucks and ride-shares in Philadelphia, Delanco, N.J.-based Misfits Market is now a nationwide grocery retailer offering access to organic produce, high-quality meats and seafood, plant-based proteins, everyday pantry staples, and newly launched dairy, bakery and wine categories, at up to 40% off traditional grocery store prices.
SpartanNash reports 2021 performance above pre-COVID levels
- Fourth-quarter retail comparable sales up 16.9% on two-year stack
- climbing 7.3% year over year.
- Net sales in the 2021 fourth quarter totaled $1.03 billion.
- Fourth-quarter retail comparable sales up 16.9% on two-year stack
Target to add Starbucks orders and returns to their curbside service
I guess all the other retailers are really just playing for second place now, as Target is getting closer and closer to the retail unicorn for those who shop there. Now, you can handle returns via curbside service and get your Starbucks order while you wait.
Target is preparing a series of changes to make its curbside pickup service called Drive Up more appealing to consumers. The retailer announced on Wednesday it will begin testing an option that will allow customers to add Starbucks orders to their pickup as well as the ability to bring back items they want to return, among other changes.
The new additions are not yet available but instead are a part of a planned expansion of the Drive Up service in fall 2022 (Q3), Target said. When available, customers will see the new options appear with the Target mobile app, which today powers Target’s Drive Up service. Here, customers today can place orders for curbside pickup, then alert the store when they’re on their way. That real-time notification about the customer’s location could tie into the Starbucks ordering option, as the company will know when to begin preparing the drink orders.
Shipt announces partnership with Walgreens and 7-Eleven
The Shipt announcement marked a large expansion for the Target-owned delivery company that will increase the number of retail locations where its service is available by more than 40%.
The service will launch nationwide in more than 6,300 stores for the health and wellness retailer and nearly 6,450 of the convenience chain’s locations.
Shipt is bringing on the two retailers and growing its U.S. presence as rivals like Instacart diversify their retail offerings while gaining ground across the country.
Instacart to deliver DIY products via Lowe’s
Lowe’s and Instacart have joined forces to pilot same-day delivery for tens of thousands of home improvement products. In doing so, Lowe’s is making its mark as the first home improvement retailer featured on the grocery platform.
The two companies announced the partnership Wednesday to address a “growing consumer need as both home improvement product purchases and demand for online delivery continue,” Instacart said.
The partnership will first focus on delivering items in as fast as one hour in two markets before expanding to other areas in the coming months. Instacart users in Boston and Charlotte will be the first to get various items including small home appliances, building supplies, light fixtures, garden and outdoor essentials delivered to their door, Instacart announced.
Throughout the pandemic, home improvement retailers have had success as many people took on new projects and even moved into new homes. This newly established partnership will allow Instacart to capitalize on the success while giving Lowe’s another way to keep boosting its already strong sales.
Giant Co. drops online grocery pickup fees
Another major grocery retailer puts a stake in the ground as they make a play for online grocery orders, Giant Co. has eliminated the order minimum and pickup fees for GIANT Direct and MARTIN’S Direct customers who choose to pickup their groceries at a GIANT or MARTIN’S store.
“With today’s customers having more choices than ever before, it’s critical that we continue taking steps to differentiate our online shopping experience,” GIANT vice president of brand experience Matt Simon said. “Not only do these enhancements accelerate our omnichannel strategy, but they also provide our GIANT Direct and MARTIN’S Direct customers with greater convenience and value, uniquely positioning The GIANT Company as the online grocer of choice.”
The change announced on Thursday are the latest investments made by GIANT in support of its growing e-commerce business, according to the company. Last November, GIANT opened its new, state-of-the-art GIANT Direct e-commerce fulfillment center in Philadelphia to serve more customers in Philadelphia and, in a first for the company, in southern New Jersey.
The annual CONSUMER ANALYST GROUP OF NEW YORK conference started last week. Below are some thoughts from the presentations. Reach out to Peter on LinkedIn for a link to all of the presentations from today.
Key Highlights from Day One:
- General Mills highlights 1-to-1 consumer engagement platforms like Boxtops for Education and Fetch Rewards as critical to future growth.
- Unilever notes 44% eCommerce growth in 2021 and the establishment of 41 digital hubs with 1.7 billion digital consumer IDs.
- The Kraft Heinz Company focused on risk mitigation of private label challenges being substantially lower than pre-pandemic and innovation through its “Kraft-o-matic” insights generation platform.
- Altria identified the greatest source of new consumer awareness of tobacco products being the digital channel and is using significant research to develop and launch 2 new tobacco products in 2022.
- Sysco declares digital as its leading strategy for growth in 2022 by making it as easy as possible for customers to do business with them.
- The Coca-Cola Company revealed an agency marketing model designed to grow its consumer base.
- Mondelēz International’s entire presentation focuses on EMEA with no reference to North America operations. It noted that in India, 3% of revenue sourced from eCommerce.
- Lastly, like in the prior year’s presentation, The J.M. Smucker Co. focused entirely on its brick & mortar business, making absolutely no references on slides to eCommerce or digital consumer engagement.
Family Dollar to close 400+ stores because of rats
This is kind of your worst nightmare when you think of these massive warehouses and all of the products, food items and clothing that was stored there. It’s safe to guess this infestation is not as cute as our featured image, but we just couldn’t stomach any real pictures of rats…so maybe we can just pretend? Family Dollar is doing all the right things now (too little, too late), but this is going to be a real image problem for a long time.
The New York Times reports that Family Dollar had to temporarily close “more than 400 stores after the discovery of a rodent infestation and other unsanitary conditions at a distribution center in Arkansas touched off a far-reaching recall of food, dietary supplements, cosmetics and other products.
“A recent Food and Drug Administration inspection of the facility, in West Memphis, Arkansas, found live and dead rodents ‘in various states of decay,’ rodent droppings, evidence of gnawing and nesting, and products stored in conditions that did not protect against these unsanitary conditions, the agency said in a statement Friday.
There is a recall that covers products that were stored at the distribution center from the beginning of 2021 to the present.
Aldi ranked worst for online order substitutions
While this story is based on data from the UK, it certainly has relevance for shoppers everywhere. The online substitution process is difficult for retailers to manage and can be a tough experience for shoppers. Getting this right for your shoppers, and more importantly for the end consumers, has never been more scrutinized than it is now.
The consumer group asked over 1,300 shoppers whether they had received a substitution with their latest grocery order, covering nine retailers. It found that overall, two in five had received a replacement item.
Aldi, which has a Click and Collect service and was also recently named by Which? as the UK’s cheapest supermarket, was, by a narrow margin, the most likely of the nine retailers to put substitutions in customer orders, with 49% of its customers saying they had received a replacement item in their most recent shop.
Amazon Fresh customers were amongst the least likely to receive a substitution, with 26% of shoppers affected.
Ele Clark, Which? Retail Editor, says: “While product substitutions in your online shopping can sometimes be genuinely helpful, our research has shown that they can also be downright ridiculous.”
“You do have the right to reject substitutions at the point of delivery, or you could opt out of receiving substitutions altogether – though this can result in a real headache if the key ingredient for your dinner that night is missing.”
Walmart continues to up their fashion game
Coming off a fantastic quarter and a great year, Walmart keeps pushing to “premiumize” their product offerings. They called out apparel as a key category for growth, and here they are continuing to increase their product selection and offerings. Other retailers have taken note, but it’s going to be hard to stop the retail freight train that is Walmart.
Walmart is debuting the first spring collections from Brandon Maxwell, the fashion designer it hired as creative director for two of its elevated apparel brands, Free Assembly and Scoop. The new clothing and accessories collections are part of an effort by Walmart to become a destination for affordable fashion — not just the purveyor of socks, T-shirts and other basics.
Aldi unveils pizza vending machine
Every time I think we are running out of things to get out of a vending machine, someone comes out of nowhere with something new. Too bad it’s only in Australia for now, hoping it is successful so we can see it here in the U.S.
Aldi has launched a robotic vending machine called a “Pizzabot” which serves up restaurant-style pizza at its store in North Sydney. The vending machine is a new concept for the discount supermarket and claims to serve fresh pizza in under two minutes, with prices starting from $8.99.
The Pizzabot was designed in collaboration with Placer Robotics and is the first pizza vending machine to be manufactured in Australia. The technology is available exclusively in North Sydney’s store as part of a trial, for a limited time.
The pizza maker has the capacity to cook 450 pizzas per day, or about 17 pizzas per hour and features a glass exterior so customers can see the food being cooked and packaged.
