The coronavirus had a strong impact on Disney for the first three months of this year, with falling overall revenue that largely stemmed from its closed theme parks. The pandemic also hit other parts of the firm’s media empire, including its movie segment. And in retail, Nordstrom and Lord & Taylor are dampening...
Retail reopening efforts continued to bring in light foot traffic, as Florida joined Texas in letting nonessential stores reopen. In online shopping, returns are the bane of eCommerce existence in the best of times, and they have become even more complicated with varying return policies due to COVID-19....
Policymakers, economists and epidemiologists have been modeling the cost/benefit of reopening the economy, and consumers have been making their own calculations. In retail, Macy’s and Simon Property Group are heading up the list of reopenings. And in health, COVID-19 is showing the vulnerability of some parts of the healthcare system. All this, Today in...
The coronavirus pandemic has brought about a massive shift to digital commerce. Consumers who are under stay-at-home orders are going online to manage their professional and personal lives, and the rise in the demand for digital will likely extend much longer than the pandemic itself. But...
eBay’s Q1 earnings results detailed a series of crosscurrents in different businesses, which added up to some modest gains. Its core business was down in the U.S., with an increase in the last two weeks of the quarter as shelter-in-place orders came into effect throughout the world....
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings are well on their way to challenging credit cards as the payment method of choice for younger consumers. Millennials, for their part, carry two fewer credit cards than their Generation X contemporaries. And in payments localization, merchants need to tailor...
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are engaging in philanthropic activism to offer help amid the coronavirus crisis. DHVANI, in one case, aims to provide a free mask to Americans to help slow the pandemic’s spread after rolling out an earlier initiative to support reforestation efforts in Australia. And brands are finding...
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans are viewed not only as a “must-have” to navigate the current challenges – they are also seen as tools that can position SMBs in a post-pandemic world. And apps that have been “nice to have” have become lifelines to commerce in many cases,...
Rent is due again, and revenue is marginal for nonessential retail, but landlords appear to be making accommodations even as they feel the pressure amid the pandemic. And retailers are taking reopening guidelines into their own hands in the absence of clear federal government direction, with Kroger sharing a COVID-19 reopening...
