According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Black Friday fizzled compared to last year, as sales tumbled 11%. An estimated 6 million+ shoppers that were expected to hit the stores on Black Friday never showed up. There are a few reasons why sales tumbled. First, more consumers appear to not be in a rush to hit stores and deal with massive crowds. With Cyber Monday right around the corner, many consumers are more comfortable with waiting a few days and shopping from the comforts of their homes (I certainly received an amazing number of promotional emails throughout the day on Monday). Secondly, retailer were targeted by protesters who called on consumers to boycott Black Friday. The plan was to make a statement about recent police violence. The third reason is that consumers simply were not moved enough by the discounts retailers were offering. The big draw for Black Friday is the massive discounts. Consumers apparently did not find the discounts enticing enough to venture out to the malls. Whatever the reason, NRF is still confident that this will be a busy holiday season. According to NRF Chief Executive Officer Matthew Shay (via a conference call), “the holiday season and the weekend are a marathon, not a sprint. This is going to continue to be a very competitive season.”
And with that, on to this week’s news.
- C. H. Robinson acquires Freightquote
- Trucking Unlimited Acquires TruckDrivingJobs.com
- Cyber criminals targeting smartphone supply chains
- Congestion forced shippers into air freight (registration required)
- Amazon jumps into food delivery game
C.H Robinson, a logistics service provider, announced that it has reached a deal to acquire Freightquote.com for $365 million in cash. Freightquote is a privately-held freight broker providing services throughout North America. The acquisition plays well for C.H. Robinson’s freight services. C.H. Robinson is focused on mid-size and large customers, where Freightquote has a focus on the SMB. This will allow C.H. Robinson to expand its target market. The acquisition also aids the company’s advances in the e-commerce market. According to John Wiehoff, C.H. Robinson chairman and chief executive officer:
“E-commerce is going to be a bigger part of future supply chain services and Freightquote brings us a leading solution in our industry. Along with their track record of success, Freightquote has an established brand, a talented management team, excellent people, and a performance-based company culture.”
Speaking of acquisitions, Trucking Unlimited has acquired TruckDrivingJobs.com for $800,000. This acquisition is partly aimed at helping to relieve the ongoing shortage of truck driver in the United States. Trucking Unlimited was established in 2012 as a specialty job site for recruiting truck drivers to available vacancies in every state. By acquiring a niche site focused on more specialized and higher paying opportunities, the new Trucking Unlimited can reach a larger pool of applicants, as it is significantly more targeted than general job boards. It also helps to reach the newer demographic of truck drivers which are more tech and web savvy.
Cyber criminals have been attacking retailers and banking establishments, stealing credit card numbers, account information, and pin numbers. Now there is a new area of attack: the smartphone supply chain. A new mobile Trojan dubbed “DeathRing” is being pre-loaded on to smartphones somewhere in the supply chain, warn researchers at mobile security firm Lookout. DeathRing is a Trojan believed to be of Chinese origin that masquerades as a ringtone app, but can download SMS and browser content from its command and control server to the victim’s phone. DeathRing could use SMS content to phish a victim’s personal information, for example, using fake text messages requesting the data. Lookout researchers say the malicious app is impossible to remove because it is pre-installed in the system directory. Researchers said this signals a potential shift in cyber-criminal strategy towards distributing mobile malware through the supply chain.
The US West Coast port congestion has caused lots of headaches for shippers and retailers alike. And we have certainly followed the coverage here quite a bit. With fears of a complete shutdown looming, and accusations of a work slowdowns, the congestion has continued to get worse. Just how much worse? Recently it drove Asian shippers to abandon ocean shipping and resort to air freight. This ensured that shippers would have their goods on store shelves for the holiday season. The only problem: it was the worst possible time to ship via air freight. Air freight rates rose 17% during the month of October. Just another reason the shipping world as a whole would like to see a deal reached in the West Coast ports.
Amazon has quietly entered the food delivery game. While this may not sound like something new, we’re not talking about Amazon Fresh and grocery delivery. Instead, Amazon has launched a takeout and delivery feature to rival GrubHub. The still-unnamed service rolled out in Seattle with around 20 restaurants for delivery and around 110 for takeout orders that you pick up yourself. As with other Amazon services, the takeout and delivery service lets you charge everything to your existing Amazon account.
That’s all for this week. Enjoy the weekend and the song of the week (in honor of my son’s newfound obsession with the song), Get Lucky by Daft Punk.
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