Modern Retail

Fresh off the announcement that it would acquire Grubhub, Wonder has big ambitions to become a super-sized food delivery app. Earlier this month, Wonder, a food delivery startup founded by serial entrepreneur Marc Lore, announced that it would acquire Grubhub from its parent company, Just Eat Takeaway.com, for roughly $150 million in cash. Wonder will also take on $500 million of Grubhub’s debt as part of the deal. But this was just one of a few acquisitions Wonder has made in the past year and a half. Last October, Wonder also acquired Blue Apron, one of the first movers in the meal kit space, in a $103 million deal.

For this year’s Modern Retail Awards, the finalists emphasized authenticity and relatability through educational and experiential marketing and other community-centric initiatives. Compelling storytelling and strategic expansions into new product offerings also allowed brands and retailers to better connect with customers, leverage existing loyalty and drive growth.

Cyber Five – the five day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday – is shattering records, with $10.8 billion in online Black Friday sales alone, according to Adobe. Here's a breakdown of the holiday sales numbers so far. In this piece by Melissa Daniels, we speak to Lupine Skelly of Deloitte, Michele Snyder of IMAGE Skincare, Eric Girouard 👊💥 of BRUNT Workwear, and Jinal Shah of Zip Co.

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As retailers reportedly lose tens of billions of dollars each year due to fraudulent returns, some major retailers like REI and Target have either announced policy changes or stricter messaging toward people abusing their returns systems. Here's what led to this. In this piece by Mitchell Parton, we speak to Kassi Socha of Gartner, Barry Thomas of Kantar,

On Cyber Monday, the busiest shopping day of the year, an Amazon fulfillment center in New Jersey swirls with activity as the e-commerce giant prepares to package hundreds of thousands of items. Two executives spoke about the company's preparations for the holiday sales onslaught. In this piece by Allison Smith, we speak to Sarah C. Rhoads and Jenny Freshwater. #retail #amazon #cybermonday

It’s unclear exactly what the economic environment will look like next year under a new presidential administration. But one thing is clear: if direct-to-consumer startups haven’t already started thinking about how to protect their businesses against tariffs, then they are behind. That’s according to a handful of executives we spoke with about how the election of President Donald Trump has changed their planning for 2025, if at all. President-elect Trump made some sweeping claims during his campaign — from carrying out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S history to ending taxes on tips, and has even floated the idea of ending federal income taxes. #tariffs #dtc

Over one-third of consumers have switched brands in the past year, but brands can overcome attrition with relationship marketing. Sponsored by Marigold.

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: Some retailers are cautiously optimistic about holiday sales, with apps like SHEIN and Temu taking away market share from traditional retailers.

The Biden-era FTC has been known as particularly aggressive against deals involving consumer companies. That could soon come to an end as M&A and antitrust experts expect dealmaking to pick up under the new administration. In this piece by Mitchell Parton, we speak to Brian Yarbrough of Edward Jones, Chris Sagers of Cleveland State University, Andrew Dunst of The Sage Group, LLC (US).