Amazon Better Watch its Back

in

Wish is Coming for it. 

The irony about the ongoing Amazon narrative, however, is that it's not like there aren't companies gunning for it. Even the Jedi got hunted. It just takes an audacious foe. Or a well-financed one but lets not split hairs. Enter Wish. We have previously mentioned Wish here and here and, with a new round of funding valuing the company at $8 billion, the company is becoming VERY real. For those of you advising retailers, you might want to make sure they're watching their flanks and not just focusing solely on Amazon.

Platforms II (Used Clothing)

in

We've also previously noted how re-sale platforms are all the rage with the millennial demographic. At the time of this writing, in fact, four resale app platforms (Letgo, Poshmark, OfferUp, and Wish) are in the top 30 free apps in the Apple App Store. Sadly, this resale model doesn't appear to translate to brick-and-mortar. 2nd Time Around, a consignment retailer, appears to have shuttered its 40 boutiques in 12 states. The CEO is now, interestingly, a senior director at Alvarez & Marsal LLC. 

Chart of the Week (Platforms)

in

Hey look! The fastest rising commerce apps are all platforms. Shocker. Offerup is a local marketplace for used goods. Letgo is a, uh, local marketplace for used goods. Wish is a, hmmm, marketplace for used goods. Flipp is a platform linking brick-and-mortar ad circulars to end user consumers and Venmo is, obvi, a payment platform that you should've heard of by now (and owned by Ebay). If you're a restructuring professional and you don't yet understand the implications of platforms on retail, you might want to do some homework.

We recommend you start with: "Modern Monopolies" by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson. You can get it here.