Tuesday, November 29, 2016

MAERSK MAY BUY HAMBURG-SUD

The biggest could get bigger.  What is the competitive impact?  What is the impact on BCOs and OTIs?


Maersk tipped to buy Hamburg Süd

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting Maersk Line is lining up a bid for the world’s seventh largest containerline, Hamburg Sud.
The owners of the German line are understood to be willing to sell the line amid massive consolidation seen this year in the container shipping sector. Hamburg Sud does not belong to any existing or future container alliance.
Hamburg Süd is part of the Oetker Group, a family-owned German conglomerate involved in shipping, banking, food and beverages.
Hamburg Süd has a fleet of around 130 boxships totaling some 600,000 teu in its fleet which VesselsValue estimates is worth $1.4bn.
Maersk has recently said it is after acquisitions rather than ordering new ships. Its last containerline acquisition was back in 2005 when it bought P&O Nedlloyd.
Both Hapag-Lloyd and Cosco have previously been linked with buying Hamburg Süd, a line with an especially strong presence in Latin America.

OMNICHANNEL / RETAIL DUALITY

Too many retailers fail to accept the duality of omnichannel and put stores ahead of e-commerce and ahead of the customer experience.




CHANGE VERSUS

When does Continuous Improvement conflict with Change?



Wednesday, November 23, 2016

HMM GETS SLOT EXCHANGES, NOT PARTNER ROLE, WTH 2M

HMM offered slot exchanges with Maersk and MSC

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Maersk Line says it and MSC are still trying to find a way to partner with Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) but the Korean line will not become a member of 2M, the vessel sharing alliance between Maersk and MSC.
In lieu of joining 2M as a member, Maersk Line said in a statement sent to Splash: “The parties are therefore discussing the possibility of HMM partnering with the 2M network through a slot exchange and purchase agreement.
“The partnership discussions are ongoing and include the possibility of Maersk Line taking over charters and operations of vessels currently chartered to HMM with the aim of deploying them in the 2M network.”
The discussions include how 2M can improve its products on the Pacific trade.
“There are many other and good ways to co-operate and we are sure that we will find a good model,” a Maersk spokesperson insisted.
Having been spurned from joining another container grouping, THE Alliance, HMM was desperate to join 2M. It had signed a memorandum of understanding with the 2M partners on joining, but this deal has since hit the skids.
An HMM official remained confident some deal would be struck with Maersk and MSC soon, telling Splash: “HMM joining 2M is under discussion in details and the discussion is likely to be concluded shortly. We go over the specifics in various forms and plan to make a formal agreement either in the end of November or early December.”
Alphaliner in its most recent weekly report warned: “The Korean shipping line is running out of time to either negotiate revised terms with the 2M, or to join a rival alliance prior to the April 2017 implementation of the new global ocean carrier groupings.”

PROBLEMS AT RICKMERS MARITIME

Rickmers Maritime warns trust could be wound up

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The trustee-manager of Rickmers Maritime warned last night that the trust could struggle to continue as a going concern as a default on an interest payment looms.
Rickmers Trust Management said the grace period of five business days from the November 15 due date on the S$4.26m interest has lapsed.
Rickmers Maritime is also in default under terms of the agreements of bank loans extended to the shipping trust and its subsidiaries.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

BATTLE OF BRAND NAMES AND RETAILERS


Online selling direct is logical retail transition for brand names. They must transform their Supply Chains for their omnichannel.

Department Stores’ Big Sales Are Getting Smaller

Retailers push discounting to attract customers, but Coach, Kors, Le Creuset, others say enough!

Handbags on display at the Kate Spade boutique at a Macy's store earlier this year. Kate Spade products and those of more than two dozen other brands opted out of the retailer’s Friends & Family sales promotion last April.  ENLARGE
Handbags on display at the Kate Spade boutique at a Macy's store earlier this year. Kate Spade products and those of more than two dozen other brands opted out of the retailer’s Friends & Family sales promotion last April. Photo: Richard B. Levine/Zuma Press
As department stores gear up for the holiday shopping frenzy that unofficially gets under way this week, behind the scenes they have been locked in a battle with some big-name suppliers over rampant discounting.
More brands, including Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., Coach Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co., want to be excluded from storewide promotions such as “Friends & Family” sales. Their goal is to gain control of their pricing, even if it means shrinking sales.
“We’ve been watching this vicious cycle,” said Uri Minkoff, the chief executive of Rebecca Minkoff, the apparel and accessories brand designed by his sister that pulled out of all such promotions at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s this fall. “Discounting becomes a drug that is hard to get off, and it creates this basis for the consumer to not trust regular prices.”
Department stores say they want to curtail discounts, but worry about turning off deal-hungry shoppers. J.C. Penney Co. and Macy’s Inc. riled up loyal customers in the past when they sought to eliminate coupons.
Now, the issue is upending the delicate relationship between brands and retailers. Many brands got their nationwide starts after Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s or Nordstrom Inc. bet big on their labels. But today, these brands have retail stores of their own. Department-store executives say many of the brands demanding to be excluded from their promotions offer similar discounts in their own stores.
Diane Von Furstenberg is no longer sold at Bloomingdale’s, and Kate Spade is out at Saks Fifth Avenue after the parties were unable to agree about promotions and other issues, people familiar with the situation said.
Representatives from Diane Von Furstenberg, Kate Spade and Saks declined to comment. A Bloomingdale’s spokeswoman confirmed that Diane Von Furstenberg clothes and accessories are no longer sold at the retailer.
When you try to take these promotions away, people get upset.
—Mortimer Singer, retail consultant
Labels with strong sales and customer pull have more power to negotiate terms with retailers. But retailers also can swap those brands with weaker ones that have less pricing power. Frugal consumers have shown a willingness to jump from one brand to another based on price.
“When you try to take these promotions away, people get upset,” said Mortimer Singer, chief executive of retail consulting firm Marvin Traub Associates. “They still want the discounts, and will just find other brands.”
Initially, Friends & Family sales were restricted to friends and family members of store associates. But they have evolved to include all customers. Unlike end-of-season sales that clear excess merchandise, Friends & Family promotions typically offer 25% off current season goods that would normally sell for full price. While they vary by retailer, they normally occur several times a year.
Certain categories such as cosmetics have always been excluded. But in recent years, the number of individual brands opting out has soared. When Macy’s held its Friends & Family sale in April, more than 30 brands were excluded, including Fitbit, Kate Spade, Le Creuset and The North Face. During a similar sale in April 2011, only Louis Vuitton, Tempur-Pedic, Coach and Tag Heuer were excluded—with the last two opting out of online purchases only.
The key is to create [pricing] consistency so there is no confusion...
—Victor Luis, Coach CEO
John Idol, CEO of Michael Kors, in August blamed department-store discounts for “difficulties in our own retail channel, which is why you see our gross margins declining, because we’re really trying to meet certain pricing.” As a result, Michael Kors is removing itself from all department-store coupons and Friends & Family sales, Mr. Idol said.
Coach is pulling out of 250 department stores and reducing the amount of money it provides remaining locations to cover the cost of promotions. “The key is to create consistency so there is no confusion about why the price is different between one location and another,” Coach CEO Victor Luis said in an interview.
Both brands reported sharp declines in sales to North American department stores in their latest quarters, part of a deliberate attempt to reduce the amount of merchandise they sell to these stores in the hope that scarcity will boost prices.
Department stores are also taking steps to reduce inventory. But there are few signs that discounts are abating. The number of U.S. receipts that included promotions increased 69% in the three months to Nov. 15, compared with the same period a year ago, according to retail analytics provider DynamicAction Inc., which analyzed more than $8 billion in online transactions.
Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren learned how attached shoppers are to discounts in 2007, when the chain tried to cut back on coupons. “Customers stopped shopping, so we knew that was a bad idea,” Mr. Lundgren told The Wall Street Journal in 2013.
Penney lost more than $1 billion in sales in 2013 after prior management tried to do away with discounts. “We are very committed to being promotional,” Penney’s new CEO Marvin Ellison said last year. “I think if we learned anything from the failed strategy it is that this is a promotional space that we’re in and we’re going to have to compete.”
Department stores acknowledge they need to look at other strategies beyond just lowering prices to lure shoppers. Some chains are asking brands to create exclusive collections such as Vera Wang accessories embellished with Swarovski crystals available at Kohl’s Corp. this holiday season.
“We are never going to compete on price alone,” said Kevin Mansell, the chain’s chief executive.


Monday, November 21, 2016

HYUNDAI MERCHANT MARINE AND 2M

Are you in or are you out?



HMM denies it has been vetoed from 2M

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Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) sought to quell customer and investor concern over the weekend, denying reports in the Journal of Commerce (JOC) that claimed it had been barred access to the 2M alliance. 2M, made up of the world’s two largest container lines, Maersk and MSC, had signed a surprise MoU with HMM earlier this year on joining the alliance, after the Korean line had been spurned from joining THE Alliance, a new container grouping made up of lines from Japan, Taiwan and Germany.
Nevertheless, senior officials at both MSC and Maersk had in past months stressed that HMM’s entrance into 2M was not a given.
HMM, which has been through massive restructuring this year, has failed on its mission to pick up the best assets from fellow Korean liner, Hanjin, which sought court protection at the end of August. Ironically, MSC and Maersk both trumped HMM to charter some of Hanjin’s best assets, while in the past week it has lost out to Korea Line Corp in bidding for Hanjin’s assets.
JOC has reported the 2M members have now denied HMM full membership to the alliance, preferring instead to offer the Korean company slot sharing agreements.
HMM has since denied the news, telling the Korea Herald over the weekend: “Maersk Line apologised and pledged to request a correction from the JOC.” A spokesperson for HMM claimed the line is still in negotiations over details of the membership process with the 2M alliance. “The official membership contract will likely be wrapped up no later than early next month,” the HMM official claimed.
Regardless, HMM is expected to face a tough day on the local stock exchange on Monday trading.

3 SUPPLY CHAINS

There are 3 Supply Chains-- product, information, and finance.




Friday, November 18, 2016

HUDSON BAY AGILITY

Hudson Bay is fixing its existing warehouse to also handle #ecommerce orders. I wonder what Las Vegas says about the likelihood of success?  Doing both retail and online, both cases and eaches, in the same facility? Does this go beyond agility?




CONTAINER LINES AND THE SCIENCE OF LOSING MONEY

Have to like container lines. Losing big money. So they cut rates to get more volume--at a loss. Keep trying; it has to work.




CHINA AND RUSSIA PLAN TO SHIP THROUGH MELTED ICE AREAS OF THE ARCTIC

17 Nov 2016: Report

Full Speed Ahead: Shipping
Plans Grow as Arctic Ice Fades

Russia, China, and other nations are stepping up preparations for the day when large numbers of cargo ships will be traversing a once-icebound Arctic Ocean. But with vessels already plying these waters, experts say the time is now to prepare for the inevitable environmental fallout.

by ed struzik


Nordic Bulk Carriers
The Nordic Orion cargo ship carries a shipment of coal through the Arctic.
A year ago, it appeared that the once-promising and environmentally risky prospects for exploitation of new shipping routes through the Arctic Ocean were waning because of low oil prices, high insurance costs, and dangerous ice conditions that persist even though climate change is rapidly melting away sea ice.

Only 17 vessels sailed through Canada’s Northwest Passage in 2014, due in part to a short and very cold summer. Ships sailing through the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage — across the top of Russia and Siberia — fell from a high of 71 in 2013 to just 18 in 2015. The future fate of Arctic shipping suffered another setback with the closure of Canada’s only Arctic port at Churchill last summer.

“There was a flash of enthusiasm when shipping levels reached a peak in 2013, but they dropped from there because of low oil prices, as well as insurance and safety considerations,” says Hugh Stephens, an executive fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy who published a paper on Arctic shipping earlier this year.

It is now becoming clear that interest in Arctic shipping never really faded, as a host of countries— including Russia, China, Iceland, Canada, and the United States — continue to make preparations to turn the rapidly warming Arctic into a busy global shipping route.

“Having read the research reports and talked to shipping experts from Maersk and other big shipping companies, I was sure that a route through the Arctic was going nowhere,” says Rob Huebert, an associate political science professor at the University of Calgary and a former member of Canada’s Polar Commission. But Huebert said that after listening to the Chinese and other experts talking about the prospects at the fourth annual Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland last month, “I realized that Arctic shipping is coming, and that it is, in some ways, already here. The Chinese are taking the long view and they’re building ships, icebreakers, and ports to capitalize on the future, which may not be as far off as many think.”

The Chinese government and its state-run shipping company are touting trans-Arctic shipping routes as a pivotal development that will boost the country’s export-driven economy. At the Arctic Circle conference, the Chinese revealed that this summer five of their ships traveled along the Northern Sea Route through Arctic Russia. Ding Nong, executive vice president of the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) — which is state-run and owns 1,110 vessels — expressed confidence that many more transits through the Arctic will follow.

“As the climate becomes warmer and polar ice melts faster, the Northeast Passage has appeared as a new trunk route connecting Asia and Europe,” he said. “COSCO Shipping is optimistic about the future of the Northern Sea Route and Arctic shipping.”
An Arctic shipping boom could lead to a disaster such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, scientists contend.


Russia has created a single enterprise to oversee the country’s expanding economic activities in the Arctic Ocean. And in addition to longstanding Arctic ports such as Murmansk, Russia is building new Arctic shipping facilities, such as a liquid natural gas port at Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula. Russia now has 11 Arctic ports of varying sizes.

Iceland, in an attempt to capitalize on the traffic that might come to the polar regions, is completing a two-year feasibility study for a deepwater port at Finnafjörður on the northeastern tip of the country. And in the U.S., the state of Maine is working on plans to transform Portland into an Arctic hub.

“Commercial opportunities potentially abound,” says Sen. Angus King of Maine, who is one of the main drivers behind an Arctic port in Portland, the site of this year’s Arctic Council meeting — the first time it’s been staged outside of an Arctic country or Washington D.C. “It’s 10 days shorter from Asia to Europe through the Arctic than through the Panama Canal. And the first port on the [U.S.] East Coast for ships coming from Asia is Maine.”

Experts say that opening up the Arctic to shipping on a large scale could have profound environmental consequences. Scientists and indigenous communities contend that in the absence of good governance, detailed navigation charts, sufficient ports, effective oil spill cleanup technology, and timely search and rescue responses, an Arctic shipping boom could lead to a catastrophe such as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. That disaster continues to have environmental impacts more than a quarter of a century later, and experts note that cleaning up an oil spill in waters partially covered by ice would be more complex than cleaning up the Exxon Valdez. Scientists also worry that noise from Arctic ships could put marine mammals such as narwhal, beluga, bowheads, and polar bears in harm’s way or drive them off traditional hunting grounds.

Despite the environmental and logistical challenges, international cargo companies are watching with interest.

“China and Russia have been working hard to take advantage of Arctic shipping,” says Jared Vineyard of Los Angeles-based Universal Cargo, which specializes in international shipping and logistics. “The aspirations of these countries to control and monetize Arctic routes are clear. Between Russia using their geographical advantage to claim control of the entire Northern Sea Route portion of the Northeast Passage and China already cutting through ice to send commercial ships through the Arctic, the U.S. could quickly be on the outside looking in. We’re keeping an eye on how this is unfolding.”

Possible shipping routes through the Arctic Ocean. ENLARGE.
The Arctic Institute


Russia is farther ahead than any other country in exploiting Arctic shipping opportunities. It has more icebreakers by far than any other nation — 40 — and more Arctic ports. (Canada and the United States have no significant ports on the Arctic Ocean.)

To further boost the development of new shipping routes, Russia’s State Commission on Development of the Arctic Regions convened in Moscow last April to establish a single company that will oversee all logistical operations in the Arctic region and coordinate the activities of various levels of government.

Vladislav Inozemtsev, a Russian economist and director and founder of the Center for Post-Industrial Studies in Moscow, recently described Russian investment in the region as a “money-losing… Soviet-style undertaking” that will cost tens of billions of dollars in local infrastructure upgrades. He thinks it will ultimately fail because the Russians will have to charge exorbitant fees to transiting ships to recover costs of the icebreakers and port facilities, which could drive shipping traffic to routes outside of Russia’s territorial waters. These include the Northwest Passage across Arctic Canada and the Transpolar Route, which would take ships directly across the North Pole.

Says Scott Stephenson, a geographer at the University of Connecticut who has studied Arctic shipping, “I’d be interested to see how the Russians would react if the Transpolar Route became a viable one, as it might. This part of the Arctic belongs to no one. Ships that pass along this route would avoid having to pay those fees or follow the rules. Russia’s big investment in icebreakers, ports, and infrastructure would be threatened.”

In spite of all the speculation about sea ice retreat leading to a shipping boom in the Arctic, few researchers have pulled together the scientific evidence and climate modeling to determine where, and when, shipping companies could exploit the region on a large scale. Last year, Stephenson, in collaboration with geographer Laurence C. Smith of the University of California, Los Angeles, used 10 climate models — known to reasonably predict Arctic sea ice and weather — to assess shipping routes during two time periods: From 2011 to 2035, and 2036 to 2060.

“It was clear to us that the Northern Sea Route along the Russian coast will become accessible much sooner than the Northwest Passage,” says Stephenson. “But we were surprised to find that a couple of the models illustrated very clearly that the Northwest Passage would be accessible.”

Past and projected summer sea ice decline in the Arctic. ENLARGE
The Arctic Institute


The Northwest Passage has always been the most challenging route for shipping because the Canadian Arctic Archipelago shields sea ice from the summer breakup and the melting effects of wind and powerful currents. The route through the Northwest Passage is also shallow and poorly charted. Still, the Nordic Orion, a Danish bulk carrier, saved $200,000 and four days’ transit time by shipping 15,000 metric tons of coal from Vancouver to Finland via the Northwest Passage in 2013.

It is those kinds of savings in time and money that make the Northwest Passage so appealing to countries like China, which in April published a lengthy handbook, Guidance on Arctic Navigation on the Northwest Route. The guide was designed to assist Chinese shipping companies that could soon be using this northern route as a shortcut from the Pacific to Europe or the U.S. eastern seaboard.

When asked about the guidebook by the Canadian media, Liu Pengfei, a Chinese government spokesperson, said: “Once this route is commonly used, it will directly change global maritime transport and have a profound influence on international trade, the world economy, capital flow, and resource exploitation.”

From a geopolitical point of view, Stephenson believes the Transpolar Route is the one to watch. In 2012, the Chinese Icebreaker Snow Dragon successfully sailed this route across the central Arctic Ocean.

Both Canada and Russia are expected to charge shipping companies fees for icebreaking services and passage rights when they sail through the Northwest Passage or Northern Sea Route. Shipping companies will also be obliged to abide by the environmental regulations those countries have in place.

Meanwhile, as preparations for commercial shipping intensify, cruise ships — such as the Crystal Serenity, which sailed through the Northwest Passage this summer with 1,700 people aboard — are poised to exploit the world’s unending fascination with polar bears, beluga whales, sea birds, icebergs, and glaciers. The number or passengers sailing on Arctic cruise ships has risen rapidly over the past decade. In 2005, only 11 tourism ships carrying 1,045 passengers traveled in Arctic Canada, according to statistics compiled by the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. In 2015, 40 ships and more than 3,600 passengers made Canadian Arctic voyages.
Scientists worry black carbon emitted by combustion of the heavy oil used by big ships will accelerate sea ice retreat.


Frigg Jørgensen, executive director of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators, expects cruise traffic will also grow in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland. At the other end of the earth, in Antarctica, more than 36,000 tourists visited the continent in 2014-2015, nearly all on cruise ships. Some vessels have occasionally run aground or sunk in Antarctica, though so far without major oil spills or other environmental damage.

In addition to oil spills and impacts on marine mammals, scientists and environmentalists are concerned that the black carbon emitted by combustion of the heavy oil used by big ships will accelerate sea ice retreat, as the dark soot settles on ice and snow and absorbs heat.

Scott Highleyman, who oversees Arctic marine campaigns for The Pew Charitable Trusts, says that ice data, wildlife migration routes, wildlife habitat, and subsistence indigenous activities have yet to be incorporated into shipping corridor designs. Jackie Dawson, a geographer and environmental scientist at the University of Ottowa, is now working with Canadian Inuit communities to develop a digitized map that will identify marine environments that are both ecologically and culturally important. This could be used to develop “no go” or “slow go” zones for ships at different times of the year.

Vladimir Mednikov, president of the Russian Maritime Law Association, and Henry Huntington, senior officer and science director for Arctic Ocean projects at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said in a recent article that many of the pitfalls
Tar sands shipping route Arctic
With the Keystone XL and other pipeline projects running into stiff opposition, Alberta’s tar sands industry is facing growing pressure to find ways to get its oil to market. One option under consideration would be to ship the oil via an increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean.
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can be avoided if there is good governance and a better understanding of the impacts of Arctic shipping. What is needed, Huntington and Mednikov wrote, is sound planning, effective rules, and good communication among all involved parties. They say that the International Maritime Organization’s Polar Code, which goes into effect on January 1, 2017, is a good start. But they argue that the regulations relating to ship structure, stability, communications, and oil spill planning does not go far enough.

“There is the potential, as in any human endeavor, for things to go wrong in Arctic shipping,” Huntington said in an email exchange. “But there also is a great deal of incentive for things to go right. Good governance can reduce risks and create opportunities. If Arctic shipping expands with little oversight or coordination, business, environment, and local communities are all likely to suffer.”

POSTED ON 17 Nov 2016 IN Business & Innovation Business & Innovation Climate Energy Oceans Policy & Politics Antarctica and the Arctic Europe 

TARGET WITH PROGRAM TO SHIP ONLINE FROM STORES

Or does this spread chaos cross their supply chain and erode customer expectations with click and collect?


November 16, 2016, 5:20 PM

Target now ships online orders from more than 1,000 stores

In Q3, online sales increased 21% year over year and accounted for 3.5% of total sales. Fulfillment from stores and in-store pickup play a growing role in Target’s strategy, executives say.
Lead Photo
Target Corp.’s stores will play a bigger role than ever in fulfilling Target.com orders this holiday season.
The number of stores from which the retailer ships orders has more than doubled in the past year to more than 1,000, or at least 55%, of its 1,802 stores compared with 460 during the 2015 holiday shopping season, chief operating officer John Mulligan told analysts Wednesday on the retail chain’s third quarter fiscal 2016 earnings call.
“This [ship from store] capability reduces shipping times given the proximity of these stores to the vast majority of the U.S. population,” he told analysts, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “With that proximity to guests, we also save on shipping, helping to relieve the pressure from shipping growth in our P&L (profit and loss statement). It also allows us to balance our inventory across our store and network, maintaining in stock [goods] while reducing markdowns in store locations with heavy inventory.”
Target, No. 22 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, said online sales accounted for 3.5%, or $575.4 million, of sales during the fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 29, up 21.0% from $475.6 million during the same period last year, when online accounted for 2.7% of sales. E-commerce also accounted for 3.5% of Target’s total sales through the first nine months of fiscal 2016, or $1.708 billion, up 17.0% from $1.460 billion last year. This online sales growth comes during a quarterly and fiscal year-to-date period when Target’s overall sales slid more than 6%.
Shipping online orders from stores isn’t the only way Target’s retail locations will play a role in fulfilling online orders, however. The retail chain is placing a greater emphasis on buy online, pick up in store service this holiday season, remodeling 80 of its stores so they have a designated online order pickup section at the front of the store. The retail chain also will have employees assigned specifically to fulfill online orders in 325 of its stores. Those employees will wear white shirts that say “order pickup” on them so shoppers can distinguish them from regular Target store employees, who wear red shirts.
“During the peak period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, we expect our stores to fulfill more than half of our digital demand,” Mulligan said. “While this is the third holiday season in which we've offered order pickup in all of our stores, we're planning for volume to grow another 50% from a year ago.”
Target CEO Brian Cornell views those stores-as-fulfillment-centers as a competitive advantage as Target tries to win market share from Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1 in the Top 500).
“We want to make sure we continue to give our guests the choice of shopping any way they want, [including] the ease of shopping online and picking up in our store, which we think is going to be a very important factor during the fourth quarter,” he said.
For the third quarter ended Oct. 29, Target reported:
  • Sales of $16.441 billion, down 6.7% from $17.613 billion last year.
  • A comparable sales decline of 0.2%, compared with a 1.9% gain.
  • Net earnings of $608 million, up 10.7% from $549 million.
For the first nine months of 2016, Target reported:
  • Total sales of $48.805 billion, down 6.4% from $52.159 billion last year.
  • Flat comparable sales.
  • Net earnings of $1.920 billion, down 0.9% from $1.937 billion.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

STRONG Q3 U.S. E-COMMERCE SALES

Not all retailers have the supply chains to drive the customer experience and dynamic growth.


November 17, 2016, 10:36 AM

U.S. e-commerce sales grow 15.6% in Q3

This was just shy of Q2’s year-over-year increase, which was the highest growth posted for e-commerce in nearly two years. Factoring out the sale of products not normally conducted online, e-commerce accounted for 11.3% of retail sales during the period.
Lead Photo
The third quarter was another great one for e-commerce in the United States, as online retail sales reached $93.67 billion, a 15.6% increase compared with the same time last year, the U.S. Commerce Department reported this morning. This is only slightly behind the second quarter’s 15.9% year-over-year growth, which was the largest increase posted in nearly two years.
In comparison, total retail sales excluding foodservice (or sales in restaurants or bars) reached $1.22 trillion during the three months ended Sept. 30, a 2.3% increase. That’s a slight improvement over Q2, during which total retail sales grew 2.1% year over year. That means e-commerce accounted for 7.7% of total retail sales excluding foodservice, up from 7.5% in Q2 of this year, but in line with the same percentage in Q1.
When further excluding sales of automobiles and fuel—products not commonly bought online—InternetRetailer calculates that e-commerce accounted for approximately 11.3% of total non-adjusted retail sales during the quarter, up more than a full percentage point from 10.1% in the third quarter of last year.
Adjusted for seasonal variations, holiday and trading-day differences, the Commerce Department estimates Q3 web sales reached $101.25 billion, up 15.7% from $87.53 billion a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, e-commerce accounted for 12.0% of total Q3 retail sales excluding foodservice, automobiles and fuel, up from 10.7% in Q3 2015.
In August, when the Commerce Department reported a preliminary estimate for Q2 e-commerce sales, it reported that online retail sales increased 15.8% year-over-year. The agency has since revised that estimate, and now says e-commerce did a bit better than predicted—it grew 15.9% during the second quarter.
On Tuesday, the Commerce Department reported October nonstore sales increased 12.9% year over year, while total retail sales improved 4.3% for the month. Nonstore sales occur mainly on the web but also include categories of retail sales that are declining, such as mail and phone orders and door-to-door sales.

OMNICHANNEL AND RETAIL DUALITY

Omnichannel is not an either/or of stores vs online. It is retail duality. Driven by supply chain duality.




THE NUGGET FOR WALMART

Wal-Mart revenue fizzles as e-commerce, wage costs rise

Dive Brief:

  • Wal-Mart fell just short of expectations in the third quarter, with the acquisition of e-commerce startup Jet, improvements to stores and rising wages driving up expenses 9%, causing shares to tumble 2.8% in premarket trading after the retailer posted results Thursday.
  • Wal-Mart posted Q3 revenues of $118.2 billion, just shy of the Zack’s consensus estimate of $118.5 billion and same-store sales rose 1.2%, missing analysts’ expectation for 1.3%, though that was driven by a traffic increase of 0.7%. Neighborhood Market same-store sales increased approximately 5.2%.
  • Wal-Mart's e-commerce efforts seem to be paying off: Global Q3 e-commerce sales rose 20.6%, and the retailer boosted the low end of its fiscal year earnings forecast from $4.15 per share to between $4.20 and $4.35.

Dive Insight:

The mild results reflect a pull-back from the previous quarter, when Wal-Mart reported its largest same-store sales increase in four years, but analysts see that as an expected short-term rise in expenses, which will later be bolstered by growth in sales and traffic to stores and online. 
“We take the view that profitability decline is a necessary evil over the short term if it allows Wal-Mart to retain its retail prominence,” Conlumino CEO Neil Saunders wrote in an email to Retail Dive. “Indeed, we contrast it to Amazon's acceptance of lower profits in order to drive growth.”
Q3 consolidated operating income decreased 10.4%, hit by human resources and technology investments and currency exchange rates, the company said. Excluding last year’s lease accounting benefit of $156 million, operating income decreased 7.9%. Year-to-date operating cash flow was $19.6 billion and free cash flow was $12.2 billion, both approximately $5 billion higher than last year, led by improved working capital management.
The retailer also reported impressive growth in online sales. Last quarter, e-commerce represented 3% of Wal-Mart's total revenue, according to data supplied to Retail Dive from eMarketer, which also showed that overall Q3 U.S. e-commerce sales were up 1%. While Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the U.S. in terms of total sales, Amazon continues to be the leader in e-commerce by a wide margin.
The rising success of Wal-Mart's online and its Neighborhood Market stores, in combination with its omnichannel efforts, are strengths that will help Wal-Mart maintain momentum in the coming months, Moody’s lead retail analyst Charlie O’Shea wrote in an email to Retail Dive.
“The focus on improving working capital is generating increasing levels of cash flow, with almost $20 million for the first nine months, and despite Wal-Mart’s myriad price reductions on top of a heavily-promotional quarter in many product categories, gross margin actually expanded by almost 50 basis points,” O’Shea said.
As the all-important holiday season creeps closer, O'Shea said Wal-Mart is set up for success. “For holiday and Q4, we expect Walmart to continue to excel on multiple fronts, particularly online where we expect sales to continue to accelerate on a percentage basis, with a growth rate approaching 30% likely as it leverages its store network to handle online orders, especially via its buy online/pick-up in-store capability, as well as increasing benefits from Jet.com.”

RETAILER SALES DROP IN APPAREL

How much retailer apparel sales drop reflects impact of discounters vs impact of Amazon who may soon be #1 retailer in clothing?




Wednesday, November 16, 2016

WHO IS READY FOR GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN REVOLUTION?

We are in the early stage of a global supply chain management revolution that is moving across markets and industries.  Who is less prepared--manufacturers or logistics providers / 3PLs?




TAIWAN HAS RESCUE PLAN FOR CONTAINER LINES

Is it too late for Yang Ming and/or Evergreen? Besides saving jobs, does money change or delay outcome?


Taipei outlines $17.6bn shipping rescue package

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The government in Taiwan is lining up a multi-billion dollar rescue package for the local shipping scene.
With intense consolidation happening across the container sector in particular, attention has turned in recent weeks to what will happen with the island’s main lines including Evergreen and Yang Ming.
Taipei has moved to ease fears about the island’s maritime firms with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications outlining yesterday a massive NT$560bn ($17.57bn) package.
“The nation relies on shipping firms to transport goods that come in large quantities, which is key to the nation’s economic development,” deputy minister of transportation and communications Wang Kwo-tsai said yesterday. “We have submitted the plan to the Executive Yuan [Taiwan’s parliament] for final approval so that it can be quickly implemented to help shipping firms battle the worldwide slump in the industry.”
“The bankruptcy of [South Korean firm] Hanjin Shipping [Co Ltd] in August has caused many of its ships, as well as the goods they carried, to be detained by port authorities around the world,” he said. “We see how people had to figure out ways to salvage their goods stranded at sea… The incident shows us that the government has to provide support to the industry before the damage becomes uncontrollable.”
Wang said that the industry is expected to recover within two years. He also spoke about the urgent need for the island’s box carriers to upgrade their near redundant panamax boxships to vessels larger than 10,000 teu.

RICKMERS MISSES INTEREST PAYMENT

Not good.


Rickmers misses interest payment, suspends shares

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Rickmers Trust Management, the trustee-manager of Rickmers Maritime, says it is unable to pay an interest payment of S$4.26m ($3m) due on its S$100m 8.45% notes.
Non-payment will put Rickmers in default and the company says this will affect its ability to continue as a growing concern.
The company is in the middle of negotiations to restructure the notes, having passed the plan through unit holders but falling short of getting the approval noteholders who failed to show up in large enough numbers to pass a resolution.
Rickmers has now suspended its shares until the matter is resolved, and is looking to reschedule the noteholders meeting over the coming weeks.
Approval of the restructuring of debt will help unlock financing for Rickmers, who will wind up the company if unsuccessful.

CHINA E-COMMERCE KEEPS GROWING

How China’s mobile retail spending will just keep ringing up

There are over 1.3 billion mobile subscribers in China, and the country’s mobile commerce industry is expected to be worth US$1.41 trillion by 2019
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 November, 2016, 3:18pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 November, 2016, 10:17pm
China’s retail sector is leading the world in digitisation as its shoppers rapidly shift from bricks-and-mortar stores to online and mobile.
But some analysts suggest the surge in digital payments has also sparked growing fears over data security.
Online retail sales in the country surged 25.1 per cent in the first three quarters of the year, with total sales rising 26.1 per cent to 3.47 trillion yuan (HK$3.95 trillion) compared with the same period last year.
As China has grown into a global e-commerce centre, its online spending volume has ballooned from US$1.4 billion in 2010 to US$25.3 billion last year, according to Euromonitor International.
With the integration of smartphone usage into people’s lives, Chinese consumers are increasingly opting for online and mobile shopping options for ease and accessibility, price comparison, and affordability.
There’s a lot of different motivations driving consumers to purchase online, but in China we definitely see a much higher penetration of e-commerce and particularly using mobile
Jessie Qian, head of consumer markets, KPMG China
Around 62 per cent of Chinese people shop from their computers and phones out of convenience, with 36 per cent doing so because it is cheaper, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey showed.
“There’s a lot of different motivations driving consumers to purchase online, but in China we definitely see a much higher penetration of e-commerce and particularly using mobile,” Jessie Qian, head of consumer markets for KPMG China, told the Post.
With various third-party payment options available at the touch of a button, 65 per cent of Chinese people surveyed by PwC shop on their phones at least monthly, versus 28 per cent globally.
The data shows “a continuing willingness on the part of Chinese consumers to become early adopters of cutting-edge shopping habits such as mobile buying”, the PwC report said.
“Some people are no longer carrying wallets when go out,” said David Ji, head of research for greater China at Knight Frank. “It’s a way of life now.”
HKT’s Tap ‘n Go digital wallet brand. Photo: SCMP

Mobile subscribers in China exceeded 1.3 billion at the end of last year, and their purchases made up almost half of retail e-commerce sales, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). By 2019, Chinese shoppers will spend US$1.41 trillion on mobile commerce, making up almost one quarter of all retail sales.
“Mobile payment is really easy for people,” Yuqing Guo, financial service consulting partner for Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in China, said to the Post.
“You don’t even have to really be at home, you can be on the subway or somewhere, and you can pay.”
The recent Singles’ Day e-commerce shopping bonanza – seen as the benchmark for Chinese retail
on par with Boxing Day and Black Friday – saw a record US$17.9 billion spent, with 82 per cent of purchases made via mobile, according to data from Alibaba, owner of South China Morning Post.
Mobile payment is really easy for people. You don’t even have to really be at home, you can be on the subway or somewhere, and you can pay
Yuqing Guo, financial service consulting partner, PwC
Last year, mobile sales during Singles’ Day represented 68.7 per cent of total purchases.
Third-party mobile payment services include the pervasive WeChat app from tech conglomerate Tencent, now with over 300 million user credit cards attached to it, and Alibaba’s equivalent, Alipay.
But the widespread adoption of e-commerce platforms have raised inevitable security concerns.
Over 60 per cent of people report being worried that hackers could access their personal information as a result of their mobile phone use, the PwC survey found.
As a result, the government has encouraged safeguards such as password verification, fingerprint identification, and retail platforms engage a range of technologies for security, including biometric technologies such as fingerprint and facial recognition.
Signage for Ant Financial Services Group's Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba Group. Photo: Bloomberg

Third-party payment platforms also “widely employ” Near Field Communication (NFC), a communication protocol between two separate devices, as well as QR codes, or a machine-readable barcode label, the PwC report said.
But Chinese consumers are more willing to prioritise convenience over privacy, Guo said.
“People are more willing to try new things, not too worried about privacy,” she said.
Additionally, Chinese consumers work longer hours, making them more inclined to favour convenience, according to Veronica Wang, associate partner of London-based OC&C Strategy Consultants.
The average Chinese worker puts in 2,000 to 2,200 hours each year, the Wall Street Journal reported, versus the average in the UK of 1,677 hours per year.
A customer has a barcode on her Apple iPhone smartphone scanned by a cashier for payment through Alipay, at a supermarket in Hangzhou. Photo: Imaginechina
For retailers now, the path ahead is to adopt e-commerce strategies that look beyond basic shopping functions, and instead aim to provide a seamless consumer experience from making a purchase to accepting a delivery to sharing feedback online, according to Qian.
This includes sophisticated omni-channel strategies to tie together online and offline platforms, she said.
“They have to have a very holistic approach,” Wang added, pointing to different marketing approaches for e-commerce and physical stores.
While China’s retail sector as a whole has seen a slowdown in growth, with the top 50 domestic retailers seeing sales drop 1.9 per cent in the first nine months of the year, the weakness is largely in physical stores and outlets, Guo said.
But the desire to interact with physical products will never disappear, Qian said.
“The bricks-and-mortar malls will never become dinosaurs,” she said.