Hello, it’s Spring Invest, a French investment fund dedicated to RetailTech. Welcome to the latest edition of Retail Chronicles, our bi-monthly newsletter about emerging trends in retail, brands, and new commerce.

In this special Best of 2020 edition, you will find a compilation of what has been written for the past months, summarized in 4 chapters :

🔮 Emerging Trends in Retail and New Commerce

🔥 Consumer Brands and Distribution Models

🦍 The A-players : AMZ, FB, SHOP, WMT, BABA,…

🦠 The Implications derived from Covid-19

In 2021, we will continue to share bi-monthly insights, click here to subscribe :

🔮 Emerging Trends in Retail and New Commerce

Influence Marketing : Influencers are the retailers of the 2020’s

Supply Chain : Why Supply Chain is at the top of C-level’s agenda

Fashion : The fashion market is reconfiguring + our takeaways here

E-commerce : The browsing e-commerce opportunity

Marketplace : Data about marketplaces in 2020 + our takeaways here

Logistics : Urban logistics is on fire (micro fulfillment centers, dark stores, etc.)

Second hand : The market is hot hot hot

Top Q1’20 trends : CBInsights Consumer Products Q1’20 + our takeaways here

Top H1’20 trends : CBInsights Retail tech trends H1’2020 + our takeaways here

🔥 Consumer Brands and Distribution Models

ONVB : ONVB (Omnichannel Native Vertical Brand), a new distribution model

The “Total Commerce” : 2020 will be the year of Total Commerce + our takeaways here

From Wholesale to DtC : Nike’s strategy as an example+ our summary here

For brands, profitability is back as the #1 priority : How consumer brands are evolving?

CPG : How CPG brands are embracing the direct-to-consumer strategy

Direct-to-Consumer : The DTC party is over, what happens next? + our review here

DNVB : The saturation by market segment from Digital Native Group

Consumer brand : Brand differentiation + our analysis here

Consumer brand : Bundling or unbundling ? + our view here

🦍 The A-players : AMZ, FB, SHOP, WMT, BABA,…

Shopify vs. Amazon : Platform in an aggregator world + our key takeaways here

Shopify vs. Amazon : A dive into the merchant’s side + our key takeaways here

Shopify : Bessemer Venture Partners investment memo for a $5m investment in 2010

Shopify : Shopify’s future of commerce 2021

Amazon : Ben Evans about Amazon's profits, AWS, and advertising

Amazon : M&A with Amazon seller companies is booming + our takeaways here

Facebook : A dive into its commerce ambition

Walmart vs. Amazon : A look at the US – Amazon is not inevitable!

Alibaba : Singles Day 2020’s numbers

🦠 The Implications derived from Covid-19

A podcast on Why COVID-19 Could Reshape DTC Retail + our key takeaways here

Article on How the Covid-19 has changed the relationship between Founders & Investors

McKinsey’s essay on Reimagining stores for retail’s next normal

Retail Apocalypse: The numbers behind the scene

Who will emerge as the winner of the Covid crisis ? by Web Smith

🥂 … and HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Spring team !

If you have ever wondered who is the team behind this newsletter, here it goes ☝️

We are often being asked, “What is so special about you ?”. As a specialized investment fund, we are able to provide our portfolio companies with our knowledge of the market, its players and their needs. More specifically, we bring to the table :

➡️ FINANCING - We invest tickets ranging from 500k€ to 3m€, with the ability to follow up on successive financing rounds. Our process is fast, light, and transparent.

➡️ SALES ACCELERATION - We bring qualified leads to our startups by connecting them with executives among 50+ European retailers who have expressed short-term needs for operational deployment.

➡️ OPERATIONAL SUPPORT - We give our startups access to 9 Venture Partners, all seasoned entrepreneurs with deep experience and expertise in sales management, communication, human resources, or internationalization.

➡️ NETWORK - We give our startups access to a network of 100+ entrepreneurs and C-level managers who can help on specific issues and assist in the business.

Read more in Maddyness.

👍 If you like Retail Chronicles and want to help it grow, please share this newsletter with your colleagues, followers, and friends. If you hate it, then send it to your enemies. Have a great day, and see you soon!

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About us

Spring Invest is a French investment fund dedicated to companies that are shaping the future of retail. We invest both in Enablers, B2B companies providing innovative solutions to (e)retailers and brands, and Disrupters creating new models of distribution. Our investment approach relies on strong relationships with 50+ European Retailers and Brands in order to provide sales acceleration to our portfolio. We also provide operational support with a dedicated team of Venture Partners working with our portfolio on sales, communication, HR, and internationalization.