Retail and e-commerce - MOU June 2019

27 June 2019

E-commerce sector in the EU and in Asia
After a 12% increase in turnover to €547 billion in 2018, European B2C e-commerce is forecasted to grow even further by close to 14% to €621 billion in 2019. This is one of the main outcomes of the European B2C Ecommerce Report 2019, jointly launched by Ecommerce Europe and EuroCommerce. The report outlines the main facts and figures on the ecommerce sector and provides detailed insights for each EU e-commerce market. You can download the light version of the report after registering. An infographic shows the highlights.
Euromonitor has unveiled a new white paper, ‘Digitalisation in Asia: How One Region is Shaping Worldwide Trends’, examining Asia Pacific’s digital retailing landscape. According to the research, Asia Pacific leads global e-commerce, accounting for 41% of spend worldwide in 2018. The report will be sent to you by e-mail after you have filled in your details.

Developments in home delivery – drones, robots and more
NL grocery home delivery service Picnic is rapidly overtaking Albert Heijn's (AholdDelhaize). Wherever Picnic has been active for a year or more, the delivery service has conquered half of the online market, according to research (in Dutch) by GfK commissioned by Distrifood.
DHL Express and EHang have jointly launched a fully automated and intelligent smart drone delivery solution to tackle the last-mile delivery challenges in the urban areas of China.
Carmaker Ford has teamed up with Agility Robotics and together created the walking robot Digit. Digit’s unique design allows it to tightly fold itself up for easy storage in the back of a self-driving vehicle until it’s called into action. Once a self-driving car arrives at its destination, Digit can be deployed to grab a package from the vehicle and carry out the final step in the delivery process into the home.
Walmart InHome Delivery is a new service that delivers groceries even when customers can’t be home. Online shopping is as usual, however at the time of delivery, associates will use smart entry technology and a proprietary, wearable camera – allowing customers to control access into their homes and giving them the ability to watch the deliveries remotely.

Ranking retail on inspiration: IKEA number 1
Interesting novel research from The Netherlands by Crossmarks and Synergie: their report “De Inspirerende 40” (in Dutch, 6.12 MB) uncovers what costumers find inspiring while shopping, which retailers actually succeed in inspiring them and how these successful retailers achieve this. IKEA (NVC member) ranks number one in the study.

Modern food moments for different generations
The new HAVI infographic Modern Food Moments gives a peek into what is important to different generations of consumers, from Generation Z to Baby Boomers. It also looks at how brands are meeting the consumer-driven desire for convenience, value, quality and a personalised experience, whether it is tech-driven like a mobile app or an attention-grabbing in-store banner. You can access the infographic after filling in your details.

Robots redefine retail work
Work in retail is shifting fast, as can be derived from a recent post about Amazon. There, five flow control specialists in one Amazon sortation center are managing inbound and outbound package volume and distribution. They rely on roughly 800 robotic drive units to do a lot of the heavy lifting. "We employ the same number of people now that we did before we had the robotics field. The robots just pick up the extra workload." You can watch how it works in a video.

NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411.