The Week in Commerce Marketing — Retail, E-commerce and DTC: August 16, 2024 edition

Welcome to The Week in Commerce Marketing — Retail, E-commerce and DTC, a weekly roundup for marketers from Quad Insights. 

IKEA just announced its first-ever “Ready for College” bus tour, which will stop at 30 soon-to-be-announced college campuses across the country throughout the remainder of the summer and into the fall. To “capture vignettes of quintessential campus living,” the IKEA U.S. team created a customized, branded school bus with a walkable showroom featuring IKEA products, with a focus on the Swedish retailer’s “dorm-ready offerings,” per a brand statement. Each stop will include activations including the “Home Away from Home” showroom, a FRAKTA Bag Bar, plant giveaways and more.

Previously: “IKEA to debut The IKEA Sleepeasy pop-up to highlight new sleep solutions products,” from the Aug. 2 edition of The Week in Retail.

See also: “IKEA’s New Mattress Collection Will Help You Get the Bed of Your Dreams (on a Budget)” (Better Homes & Gardens)

That’s the share of shoppers who only made purchases on Amazon during its Prime Day sale in July, despite there being a bunch of other e-commerce sales events during the month designed to compete with Prime Day, according to a just-released report from Earnest Analytics.

More consumer-informed insights:

• “Value-Seeking Shoppers Boosted Sales in July: Report” (Progressive Grocer)
• “Consumers eye Labor Day for last-minute back-to-school discounts” (Chain Store Age)

Amid persistent inflation, both retailers and consumers are leaning into private-label brands. To determine which ones are performing best, Numerator examined sales data for the 12 months ending June 30, Retail Brew’s Erin Cabrey reports. The top-performing brands based on U.S. household penetration include:

1. Great Value (Walmart), 86%
2. Equate (Walmart), 75%
3. Mainstays (Walmart), 70%
4. Marketside (Walmart), 69%
5. Freshness Guaranteed (Walmart), 67%
6. Dollar Tree (Dollar Tree), 65%
7. Pen + Gear (Walmart), 47%
8. Aldi (Aldi), 45%
9. Up & Up (Target), 43%
10. Kirkland Signature (Costco), 43%

Previously: Research from PDG Insights reveals that 98% of U.S. households typically purchase private-label products from one or more categories, as we noted in a recent edition of “The Weekly 10: marketing, media and industry statistics to know now.”

More from Quad: “The store brands boom: 5 trends to watch now”

More private-label brand news:

• “Grocery Outlet Launches Private Label Assortment” (Store Brands)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art just released a capsule collection in collaboration with fashion travel company Sprayground, per Fashion Dive’s Lara Ewen. The 17-piece collection draws inspiration “from 5,000 years of art across the Met’s 19 diverse curatorial departments,” Ewen reports. Items include a handbag featuring a silicone head of Medusa, a tote with Vincent van Gogh’s “Self Portrait with a Straw Hat” and others — each containing an embedded QR code that links to information about the product and the artwork that inspired it. The limited-time collection ranges in price from $80 to $400 and is available for purchase via the Met’s New York retail store and webstore — with some items offered exclusively in-store — as well as on Sprayground’s website.

More fashion collabs:

• “Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s Lemme Teams Up With Haricot Vert on a Charm Necklace That Holds Vitamins” (BeautyInc)
• “Wrangler Aims to Re-create Barbie Magic with Hot Wheels” (Rivet)
• “Nike SB’s Official ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Collab Has a Hidden Ruby Red Slipper Layer” (Footwear News)
• “Pacsun and Reese Cooper partner on outerwear collection” (Fashion Dive)
• “Mad Beauty Unveils a Beetlejuice-Inspired Collection” (Trend Hunter)

“Obviously, sneakers should be comfortable. The difference is that there is a very refined, sophisticated visual language that Allbirds is known for. We don’t put our logo all over the shoe, and it’s not got this huge tech look. We see an opportunity for our clean, reductive aesthetic. We like to say it is the right amount of nothing.” 
 
—Kelly Olmstead, Chief Marketing Officer at footwear company Allbirds, speaking with Retail Insider’s Sarah Mahoney

DTC meal-kit company Home Chef just launched a collaboration with animated children’s TV series “PAW Patrol.” Beginning this week and running for four weeks, Home Chef will make a variety of “PAW Patrol”-inspired meals available to its customers, such as Chase’s Cheesy Turkey Quesadilla and Rubble’s No-Trouble Beef Bulgogi Burger. Orders arrive in a limited-edition box with a surprise “PAW Patrol” toy inside.

Previously: “Home Chef debuts family menu collaboration with children’s TV series ‘Bluey,’” from the March 29 edition of The Week in Direct-to-Consumer.

Other DTC insights:

• “Lands’ End wants to dethrone the L.L.Bean Boat and Tote” (Marketing Brew)
• “Like Nike before it, On plans to grow margins via DTC sales” (Retail Dive)

Streaming saw a dramatic increase in viewership during the Paris Summer Olympics, with viewers streaming 23.5 billion minutes of coverage — up 40% from all prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined, according to NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal’s DTC streaming platform Peacock led the way.

More retail/e-commerce/DTC news:

• “Primark Launches First U.S. Brand Campaign, Targeting 60 Stores in the States” (Women’s Wear Daily)
• “First Look: Banana Republic unveils lifestyle concept at Westfield Century City” (Chain Store Age)
• “eBay launches major search redesign” (Chain Store Age)
• “Amazon expands sustainable product offerings” (Retail Insight Network)
• “Amazon Teams with TikTok to Enable In-App Purchasing” (Sourcing Journal)
• “Neiman Marcus Spotlights ‘The Art of Fashion’ in Fall Campaign” (Women’s Wear Daily)