TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #003 - Kick China’s Retail Butt in 2020

Kick China’s Retail Butt in 2020, FedEx (finally) Gets Serious, and more.

January 08, 2019

Hello -

Hello from the crack research team here at TaskHusky and welcome to 2019!

There is a TON of news, but here are our five favorite articles and updates from last week. They’re all MUST-READ for eCommerce entrepreneurs like us, but the articles on

m-Commerce, FedEx, and China’s coming shipping challenges

are top priority.

Let’s get right to it.

1. e-Commerce is Becoming m-Commerce (duh!)

In our last email just before Christmas we posted stats about Apple’s share of the retail pie. Well, preliminary results for the season are in and mobile has become THE driver of online sales. According to Adobe stats, mobile devices accounted for 40% of retail revenue and

58% of traffic

. That means that even if customers ultimately purchased on desktops pcs, they “found” the sites on mobile first. This is HUGE! Is your site optimized for mobile and for speed? Let us know if you need help.

.

2. 3 E-commerce Trends You Must Prepare for in 2019 – Entrepreneur Magazine

Tiffany Delmore of Entrepreneur Magazine reports on what she sees as the top three eCommerce trends for 2019. But she did NOT tie the idea together. Here’s a hint: all her trends revolve around “

omnichannel

” commerce. So, is it three things or just one? Doesn’t matter. If you’re a retailer online you need to pay attention.

.

3. FedEx Wants a (Bigger) Piece of the eCommerce Shipping Action

UPS and USPS (Postal service) currently get a lion’s share of the eCommerce delivery pie.

FedEx has woken u

p and wants a seat at the table. Although it launched WAY too late for the 2018 holiday season, in mid-December FedEx announced an expanded hours delivery option to serve retail customers better. For those of us in the retail sector, shipping and delivery are still the biggest headaches, so we’re glad for the competition.

.

4. How a Dying 150-Year-Old Treaty Means You Can Kick China’s Butt Next Year

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Universal Postal Union Treaty (UPU) is a BIG deal to North American eCommerce retailers. The treaty – signed in 1874 – gave special discounted shipping to mail and parcel deliveries coming from China. But the archaic rules of that treaty meant that sometimes it was cheaper to mail a 1-pound parcel from Shanghai to Toledo than it was from Dayton – with

local shippers actually subsidizing Chinese competition

. This gave a HUGE added pricing advantage to Asian suppliers. If they’re drop-shipping for you, that’s a problem coming up. If you are competing with them, you’re going to do better in 2020. Either way, you need to know what’s going on.

.

5. Retail Report Card for 2018: From Walmart to Tiffany’s

The Wall Street Journal came out with this piece. Here’s the breakdown – half of the biggest, baddest retail chains on the planet still suck at adapting to the current eCommerce trends and consumer preferences. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and

a few billion-dollar companies are puppy chow

.

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Know someone who should read this email? Share it with them.

Happy Selling,

Zachary