What: An opinion piece on the performance of pure players in the US, which is less impressive than the one of traditional retailers learning fast.

Why it is important: Stores act as a billboard for a retailer’s website, while online-only rivals are forced to pour money into adversiting.

Coresight founder, Deborah Weinswig, reviews the performance of pure players in the US in 2020 and 2021 compared to the multichannel retailers’ one.

The latter had their online sales growing considerably faster than the biggest online-only rivals, including marketplaces. As a result, the online-only retail segment is losing aggregate share to the multichannel rivals:  the 10 biggest online retailers include now Best Buy, Home Depot, Kroger, Target and Walmart.

Coresight sees little reason for this pattern to change in the future, as customers will be probably keeping on looking for omnichannel services, including BOPI, curb side pickup and in-store returns.

Are digital-first retailers losing the battle for online shoppers?