Inside Ecommerce

For March 01, 2024

These are today's top e-commerce news stories:

Lowe's revenue fell 17% in Q4 and e-commerce sales were flat.
Coupang's e-commerce revenue surged 21% YoY.
Salesforce beat quarterly expectations.

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Lowe's posted total sales of $18.6B in Q4, down 17% YoY. Sales were impacted by winter weather and a spending pullback among do-it-yourself (DIY) customers.

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Lowe's posted Q4 net earnings of $1.02B, up from $957M at the same time last year.
Comparable sales fell 6.2% YoY.
Online sales were flat compared to the year-ago period.
Improved e-commerce infrastructure led to increased conversion rates and fewer returns, CEO Marvin Ellison said.

Coupang reported Q4 revenue of $6.6B, up 23% YoY. The Korean e-commerce giant reported a record 21 million active customers, up 16% YoY.

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Adjusted EBITDA reached $294M in Q4, up 50 basis points YoY.
Net revenue rose 23% YoY to $6.6B.
Coupang's WoW subscription program reached 14 million paid subscribers, up 27% YoY.
In November, Coupang announced its second fulfillment center in Taiwan.
- It plans to open a third one this year.

Salesforce posted Q4 revenue of $9.29B, up 11% YoY. Shares fell 4% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company issued Q1 guidance that fell short of expectations.

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Salesforce's revenue beat expectations of $9.2B.
Net income stood at $1.45B, above expectations of $1.26B.
Diluted earnings per share stood at $1.47, beating expectations of $1.29.
Salesforce posted net income of $1.45B after reporting a loss of $98M at the same time a year earlier.
The company expects revenue between $9.12B and $9.17B for Q1.

Adidas plans to sell additional Yeezy inventory in the coming weeks. The items will only be available through the activewear brand's digital channels.

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Adidas partnered with rapper Ye to develop the Yeezy brand.
It ended its partnership with Ye after he made antisemitic remarks.
- The company first decided to sell some of its remaining Yeezy inventory in May 2023.
"Our task now is to limit the damage, get rid of the inventory," said CEO Bjørn Gulden in August.
Adidas' sales fell 6.4% to $6.4B (€6B) in Q3.

What the numbers say: Coupang had 7.6 million unique visitors in May 2023, the most of all shopping websites in South Korea. Gmarket came in second place with 5 million unique visitors.

Founded in 2010, Coupang has become the largest e-commerce store in South Korea by revenue. Like Amazon, Coupang operates its own retail business and serves as a platform for smaller sellers.

Coupang closed a deal in January to acquire the assets of U.K.-based luxury retailer Farfetch. The deal included Farfetch's online marketplace and e-commerce software platform. Coupang invested $500M to take control of Farfetch, which had $4B worth of gross merchandise value, according to Coupang founder and CEO Bom Kim.

The deal was opposed by a group of Farfetch investors holding over 50% of its convertible notes.

Alibaba will lower prices on over 100 cloud products by up to 55%. The e-commerce giant said it aims to support AI growth in China.

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Alibaba Cloud Intelligence implemented the cuts on Thursday.
The cloud unit generated $3.95B in Q4, up 3% YoY.
Alibaba is the largest cloud service provider in China.

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Rent the Runway appointed former Afterpay executive Natalie McGrath as its new chief marketing officer.
Books-A-Million partnered with Walmart's GoLocal platform to offer same-day deliveries across all of its stores.
Klarpay announced Entrepreneur Accounts, which are designed to offer financial solutions to founders, senior managers, and beneficial owners of businesses.
Apple attorneys met with the U.S. Justice Department in a bid to prevent an antitrust lawsuit over Apple's alleged effort to stymie competition by placing software and hardware limitations on its devices.
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Gregory Bridgman

Writer / Editor

Gregory Bridgman is a politics and e-commerce researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Master of Science from University College London and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or drop him an email at gregory@inside.com.