Tag Archives: wmt

AT&T Expands Cricket Store Reach In Prepaid Battle Vs. T-Mobile

AT&T ( T ) has again expanded the retail reach of it Cricket brand, with distribution deals at Best Buy ( BBY ) and Aaron’s ( AAN ), as it battles T-Mobile US ( TMUS ) in the prepaid wireless market. AT&T acquired Leap Wireless and its Cricket brand for $1.2 billion in 2014. Since then, AT&T has stepped up Cricket advertising while opening more retail stores. T-Mobile acquired prepaid specialist MetroPCS in 2013. AT&T says it will add 1,000 Best Buy locations and 2,000 stores through Aaron’s, a nationwide lease-to-own retailer, to its Cricket distribution network. AT&T earlier signed deals with Target, Wal-Mart, and GameStop ( GME ). AT&T has nearly 4,000 Cricket-owned stores. Cricket wireless services now will be sold at 12,000 outlets across the U.S., including AT&T’s Cricket stores and distribution at Target ( TGT ), Wal-Mart ( WMT ), GameStop, Best Buy, Aaron’s and other locations. About one-fifth of U.S. mobile phone users buy prepaid wireless services. Prepaid customers buy calling minutes and data as needed. Many prepaid plans renew automatically every month, blurring the line with postpaid subscribers that have service contracts. Prepaid customers typically buy less-pricey phones upfront, and spend less on data services. T-Mobile and AT&T both added 469,000 prepaid subscribers in Q4, while  Verizon Communications ( VZ ) shed 157,000 and Sprint ( S ) lost 491,000. Some of Sprint’s prepaid subscribers upgraded to postpaid plans. AT&T stock was up a fraction in midday trading in the stock market today , above 39. Shares are more than 7% extended from a 36.55 buy point first touched on Feb. 3. T-Mobile stock also was up a fraction midday Monday.

Amazon Grows Push-Button E-Commerce Empire

Push a button, get some toilet paper. That’s the idea behind Amazon.com ( AMZN ) Dash buttons , which for Amazon Prime members will ship a range of products to the doorstep of American households with the push of a button — free two-day shipping and all. Thursday, Amazon announced that it’s adding a bevy of new products to its line of Dash buttons, bringing the total to “more than 100,” according to a press release. The new merchandise includes things like coffee, beauty products, and yes, condoms. “The consumer packaged-goods companies are interested in anything that they can do to grow,” Scot Wingo, executive chairman of ChannelAdvisor, told IBD in a telephone interview Thursday morning. ChannelAdvisor works with third-party sellers on a range of e-commerce websites such as Amazon.com and eBay ( EBAY ). Wingo says the consumer packaged-goods firms aren’t getting more sales in brick-and-mortar stores and have looked to e-commerce to boost stagnant revenue. And Amazon — the ever-innovating Seattle-based firm — is trying to capture more dollars that households spend. Though Amazon did not disclose the exact number of Dash buttons sold, or the revenue said buttons generated (which is typical of the tight-lipped company), it did say that Dash orders have grown by more than 75% in the last three months and now take place about once every minute. Wingo called those numbers “interesting.” “Peak Dash button will be in the mid-hundreds — the 200 to 300 range. From there, we’re likely to see Dash functionality integrated into more and more products, like the Brita filter Amazon has already announced.” Amazon’s new additions to the Dash line include Energizer, Arm & Hammer cat litter and Peet’s Coffee, among others. When asked about rivals such as eBay and Wal-Mart ( WMT ) tackling a similar program, Wingo said that it wasn’t likely anytime soon. “Amazon is on version-nine-thinking, and the other guys are on version two,” he said. There are already rumors swirling about the second generation of Dash buttons following Dave Zatz’s discovery , through regulatory filings, that it may rely on Bluetooth. The current version connects to the web via Wi-Fi. Wingo says that the Bluetooth implementation could mean it would connect to Amazon Echo , the firm’s line of “smart” speakers that include Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. “It may mean the intersection between Dash and Echo, with more verbal commands to use Dash buttons,” Wingo said. ITG Investment Research analyst Steve Weinstein released a research note Thursday which said that Amazon is on track to a “modest” revenue beat in Q1. The company has also been criticized for the amount of cardboard it generates, along with other e-commerce rivals. Amazon stock was down a fraction to 597 in early afternoon trading on the stock market today . The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 78, where 99 is the highest.

Amazon.com Vs. FedEx And UPS Not Any Budding Rivalry — Yet

A new report from RBC Capital Markets asks the ever more pressing question about Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and its deliveries ambitions: Does the transportation sector have a problem? The short answer is no — at least not yet, according to RBC analyst John Barnes. The crux of the issue for the e-commerce leader is that its shipping costs soared 32% to $11.5 billion in 2015, while sales rose about 20%. That, says Barnes, suggests that Amazon might have trouble ahead if it continues on course. As a result, Amazon has been taking more of the shipping task into its own hands. RBC emphasizes, though, that Amazon isn’t anywhere near able to separate itself from shipping partners such as UPS ( UPS ) and FedEx ( FDX ). But the company will incrementally begin to do so, the report says, at least in certain areas. In prior years — though not in 2015 — both UPS and FedEx have stumbled during the critical holiday season. Packages not being delivered on time, Barnes says, is like Amazon being closed on random days without warning. Amazon’s massive distribution network is as complex as it is large. It includes a growing trucking operation and the recently disclosed air transport and ocean shipping components. Ocean shipping is where Barnes suspects the company will attack first. “We believe Amazon will take over large swaths of its ocean freight supply chain, as the move can lower its own shipping costs, drive third-party sellers to the platform and eventually turn into a profit center,” Barnes wrote in the report, released late Monday. As IBD has reported, industry experts estimate that the ocean shipping business has the potential to be worth millions in free cash flow for Amazon, mostly from selling capacity to third parties. Analysts says that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos might not go after the free cash flow but instead drive the value back to consumers in some fashion, such as still-lower prices. But the ocean shipping industry is vast, and Barnes estimates that the Seattle-based company would grab only between $200 million and $400 million in business. It could, though, affect shippers such as Expeditors International of Washington ( EXPD ) as well as UPS and FedEx. The ocean shipping grab isn’t without precedent, either. Wal-Mart ( WMT ) has been taking possession of suppliers’ goods in China and doing its own shipping for years. Amazon’s growing air network is one area where the company will be content to work with third parties, Barnes said. Amazon’s  recently announced deal with Air Transport Services Group ( ATSG ) to lease 220 767 jets highlights this point. As part of the deal, Amazon will be able to purchase about 20% of ATSG’s common shares over a five-year period. Meanwhile, Barnes says that UPS and FedEx are both fighting Amazon’s long-term onslaught. UPS now provides 30% of Amazon’s parcel needs, netting $2.2 billion in revenue, and FedEx hauls in $1.5 billion, or about 20%. Those figures translate to about 8% and 10% of ground revenue, respectively, for the shipping companies.