解锁成功：美国品牌与零售商的盈利路径

Executive Summary Achieving sustainable and profitable growth requires any business toovercome multiple challenges. In this report, we aim to understand keyprofitability challenges across selected business functions. Leveragingfindings from a Coresight Research survey of US-based brands and retailers,we closely examine how brands and retailers perceive the role of technologywhen solving these challenges and how they are prioritizing investments. Market Scale and Opportunity •E-commerce has continued to grow at a steady rate in the US: Onlineretail sales increased by 8.7% year over year in 2024, taking the onlinemarket to over $1.1 trillion, Coresight Research estimates. •Looking ahead through 2028, we expect positive, high-single-digitgrowth in annual online retail sales to continue (though moderate)followed by a slight drop-off in 2029. Over the next five years,e-commerce penetration (online sales as a share of total retail sales)will increase, reaching 27.0% in 2029. •We expect the growing e-commerce market to be a big driver oftechnology investments as retailers focus on optimizing operations.This presents a huge underlying opportunity for technology companiesto help brands and retailers effectively optimize their overall operations. Coresight Research Analysis Profitability Challenges •While many large, legacy brands and retailers are achieving margin expansion, some small andmedium-sized brands and retailers (less than $10 billion in total sales) are struggling to meetprofitability goals. Our March 2024 survey of brands and retailers found that both brands andretailers are challenged across business functions in driving profitability: On average,60% ofbrands and retailers are challenged in driving profitabilityacross selected business functions. •Retailers:Retail media(creating technology infrastructure and selling advertisingto brands)and managing returns(having efficient data flows between all customertouchpoints online and in-store, customer experience and cost control), are themost challenging business functions for retailers in driving profitability, with 67% ofsurveyed retailers reporting that they experience challenges in these areas. of brands and retailersare challenged in drivingprofitability •Brands:Product content optimization(e.g., product detail pages, reviews and brand protection)is the biggest challenge among brands in driving profitability, cited by 67%. We attribute thischallenge to rising customer expectations and limitations of existing technology infrastructure. Understanding Challenges Within Business Functions: Retailers •Brand partnership and onboarding (56% challenged):Among the surveyed retailers thatare challenged in driving profitability with brand partnerships and onboarding,limitedtransparency across the supply chainemerged as the biggest challenge (cited by 77%of respondents as among their top five challenges). Limited transparency across thesupply chain can have serious implications for retailers as it takes away from the control ofoperational planning and can cause inventory shortages and price mismanagement. •Product assortment (53% challenged):Among the surveyed retailers that are challengedin driving profitability with managing product assortment, aninability to timely respondto market shiftsemerged as the most widespread challenge (with 65% of respondentsciting it among their top five challenges). Untimely responses to market shifts and changesin consumer demand can adversely impact a retailer’s bottom line and brand image. cited limitedtransparency across thesupply chain as amongtheir top five challenges •Retail media (67% challenged):The retail media market in the US represents a huge opportunityand is a high-margin revenue stream. Among the surveyed retailers that are challengedin driving profitability with retail media (creating technology infrastructure and sellingadvertising to brands),a lack of advertiser trust on reporting metricsemerged as the mostwidespread challenge (cited by 65% of respondents as among their top five challenges). •Product delivery (56% challenged):Among the surveyed retailers that are challenged in drivingprofitability in product delivery,complicated and multiple sources of inventoryis the mostwidespread (cited by 68% of respondents as among their top five challenges). Multiple inventorysources can often create confusion and lead to a blurry understanding of whether productsare in stock and at which locations. Showing products that are unavailable to ship or collectin-store can translate to poor customer experiences and negatively impact brand image. Complicated and multiplesources of inventoryemerged as the biggest challengeamong retailers challenged inboth product delivery and returnsmanagement •Returns management (67% challenged):Among the surveyed retailers that are challenged inmanaging returns,complicated and multiple sources of inventoryemerged as the biggestchallenge (cited by 84% of respondents as among their