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“Has Amazon made the right decision to close its retailer stores for “good””

As you may already know Amazon incorporated was founded by Jeff bezos in his garage in Washington in the mid 90s. Since then the company has expanded into “one of the most influential economic and cultural force in the world” and is considered one of the worlds most valuable brands. It now currently employees over a million employees worldwide. In a emerging marking Amazon has made the decision to shut down 68 retail stores across the United States and United Kingdom ending Amazon books, 4 star and pop up shops for good. Closure dates will vary by location and Amazon has publicly announced that they will help affected employees whose chose to stay find new positions else where within the company and those who will leave will be offered severance packages.

The reason behind the closure of these realtor stores is a direct correlation to a sales growth decline of its physical store units including Whole Foods and fresh outlets where sales were reported substantially lower in 2021 compared too 2018. The decision to cut physical retail footprints also has a lot to do with the fact that the organization has publicly recorded its slowest growth rate for any quarter since 2001. Untimely shares were down 8% this year thusfar and the stock was the worst overall performer in the big tech group last year. However in contrary an Amazon spokesperson explained “how the company remains committed to building long term physical retail concepts and technologies”. The physical store unit is currently overseen by Dilip Kumar who formally directly worked under Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Although it sounds like on paper that the organization is downsizing for closing over 68 stores worldwide and ending the original Amazon books segment that started the company, it is quite the opposite due to how the main focus on Amazon’s market post pandemic has been Amazon prime a paid subscription service that gives users access to additional services unavailable to other Amazon customers. This service includes discounted prices, movie and music rentals, ability to order online groceries and faster deliveries. I ultimately believe that Amazon is making the right decision by deciding to focus on the e-commerce market instead of the physical market for how the number of prime subscribers has continued to increase while the rest of the company has met maturity or decline in the industry.

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Will Lululemon’s plan to launch a trade in and resell program help shoppers grapple with inflation?

In correlation to fighting inflation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic the organization Lululemon Athletica has decided to create a in-house program that allows consumers to trade in and resell products bought originally from Lululemon retailers. Lululemon athletica is a athletic appeal company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and was founded in 1998. The organization originated as a retailer of yoga pants and other yoga wear before immensely expanding to personal care products, athletic wear, and lifestyle apparel accessories throughout the last two decades. The niche focus of the company combined with a consistent culture of new innovations has led the Canadian company to the top of the athleisure market.

The newly found household name, Lululemon, continues to expand its already found niche market by introducing its trade-in and resell program to consumers. This program includes gently worn leggings, tops, and jackets, all for the soul purpose to help combat rising inflation prices within its respected industry. This plan of action is self-titled “like new” and will allow consumers to exchange these gently used cloths for Lululemon athletica giftcards. The reason behind the start of this program is a direct result of increasing prices the company has been faced with due to supply chain issues. The way the Lululemon organization sees it is that they to wants to allow already established customers of a brand a new opportunity to still purchase there products as the world’s inflation prices continue to increase from inflation due to the pandemic.

I believe that this program is a great response to the inflation situation we as a whole consumer market have been recently faced. For it gives the company a great substitute advantage over other athleisure business’s and allows Lululemon athletica to continue expanding within its niche market and at the same time contribute to its growth segment within the product life cycle instead of maturing and declining like other company’s within its industry. The impact of COVID-19 has considerably affected the retail and apparel market and I entrust that Lululemon’s‘s “like new” program combats the adversity that the COVID-19 pandemic has faced its supply chain distribution.

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Should Netflix explore lower priced add supported plans?

Netflix incorporated is a subscription service and production company that was launched in the summer of 1997. As you may recall the organization originally started though digital versatile discs rentals through the mail for those who were subscribed to the service. Throughout the last 24 years the company has gone though rapid growth and has changed expendially in terms of transitioning to a full streaming service media platform as well as the development of in-house original programming which they label as “Netflix originals”. However for the duration of Netflix incorporation narrative one thing has stayed the same, something the company has prided itself since it’s birth, the fact that they are a advertisement free service.

Nonetheless after years of resisting an add supported business, CEO Reed Hastings in recent news has noted that he is “open” to explore lower priced ad-supported plans. He explains in a press conference how this option wouldn’t be available for a year or two and In his own terms explains that this an “effort to lure more subscribers since the fact that the company has increased its content spend in order to produce more Netflix originals they corporation was forced to once again increase the prices of its service.” Hastings ends the conversation saying “It’s pretty clear that it’s working for Hulu. Disney is doing it. HBO did i”, “I don’t think we have a lot of doubt that it works.”

Although it is obvious that Netflix is the powerhouse in terms of its competitors in the streaming global platform world, I imagine that creating a add supported plan will not help or hurt the company and will continue leaving the organization in a mature stagnant following the aftermath of the COVID-19 pendmenic. For I believe that what sets Netflix apart from its competitors is the fact that they have resisted a advertisement market for so long. Not that I think that they will lose current subscribers by offering a lower tier add supported plan but I do not think that they will gain any subscription users either. I think this is a bold attempt from CEO Reed Haskins to gain revenue but the question is will it backfire by taking away the one thing that separates the company from its competitors.