Tag: Amazon.com Inc

Amazon Prime Day is coming. Here’s how sellers can prepare to boost their sales

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Amazon Prime Day isn’t here just yet, but sellers need to act now to drive optimal results for the highly anticipated summer retail sales event.

While no official date has been released by Amazon, it’s been widely reported that the popular two-day event is most likely to return next month. Last year, it took place on July 12 and July 13 (and was announced by Amazon in mid-June.) That makes mid-July, on or around July 11 and July 12, a logical bet. 

There’s a lot at stake for sellers. Amazon has more than 200 million paid Prime members globally. Last year, Prime members purchased more than 300 million items worldwide during Prime Day — a record, according to company data. What’s more, sales traffic tends to be higher in the days leading up to and immediately following the two-day event, so it’s more like a week-long sales opportunity for sellers.

Of course, some of the biggest buys go to retail giants, from Apple products to Shark vacuums, which in the past year are among the most popular items purchased. The economy has softened, too, and demand is down in the retail sector. Nevertheless this year is expected to be another big year, with 68% of consumers likely to shop on Prime Day, according to a report from Jungle Scout, which provides software and research to Amazon sellers.

Sellers can start preparing by getting information directly from the horse’s mouth. Amazon offers videos from its Seller University on how to maximize profits on Prime Day. For example, it talks about the importance of concise, relevant titles, product listings with rich details and keywords that are likely to appeal to customers.

Here are some additional actions that Amazon ecommerce platform consultants say sellers should be taking now to proactively prepare:

Stay on top of inventory deadlines and available stock

Amazon recently told sellers to have their inventory for Prime Day at U.S. fulfillment centers by June 15, according to Chris Compean, co-founder and chief executive of Mayan, an inventory and advertising automation technology provider to Amazon sellers. Sellers can also consider fulfilling some of the orders themselves.

If possible, sellers should use data from previous years to determine the ideal amount of inventory. Absent data, a general rule of thumb is to plan to sell at least twice as much as usual during the two days, Compean said. Inventory is challenging to get exactly right in the current economic environment — even the biggest retailers have struggled after the pandemic boom, inflation and 2023 consumer weakening — but generally speaking, sellers should always have 60 to 90 days of product in stock. “As long as you are well-stocked in general, you’ll be okay for Prime Day,” Compean said. 

Begin your Prime Day marketing two weeks early

At least two weeks before Prime Day sellers should start building up their visibility, said David Hutchinson, vice president of marketplaces at NP Digital, a digital marketing agency. As part of that initial effort, sellers also need to determine how they are going to compete, whether that’s by dropping prices, offering Lightning Deals — a discount over a short period of time — or coupons on Prime Day, or running these types of promotions, possibly for a few days before and after the two-day event, he said. Lightning Deals, for example, can improve brand awareness and boost sales, but they can also flop. Couponing, meanwhile, can increase sellers’ visibility, but they must have enough inventory to be able to handle the potential sales boost.

Use Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook — and Amazon-provided URL links

Sellers should promote deals that they’re planning to offer on their various social media sites and their dedicated Amazon Store page.

“You want to prime customers to be ready to look for your brand on Prime Day,” Compean said.

Amazon allows sellers to create URLs to include in their Prime Day social media posts, so be sure to do this. “You want customers to be able to click directly on your Instagram post, go to Amazon and buy the product right then,” said Mike Scheschuk, president of small and medium business at Jungle Scout. “It’s the same with TikTok, YouTube or Facebook, or whichever social media platform you want to post on,” he said.

Using Amazon URLs ensures that your sales analytics will include a sufficient level of detail. “You’re not just tracking you got three hundred clicks as a result of a post. You can actually see what they bought as a result,” Hutchinson said. 

Don’t be stingy — offer deals across all products

Some of the best-selling items in the U.S. on Prime Day in previous years have included beauty items, pet products, kitchen essentials, children’s clothing, toys, electric toothbrushes, electronics and outdoor gear and apparel. Of course, small businesses are competing with some of the biggest brands as well for consumer dollars, with Apple products, Shark vacuums, and premium beauty brands also among top Prime Day sellers. Compean recommends sellers offer Prime Day deals on all their products to maximize potential sales. 

Don’t forget to advertise before and after Prime Day

Sellers should plan to spend more on advertising in the days ahead and immediately following Prime Day, when traffic tends to be higher. Last year, average ad spend per brand spiked 320% over “typical days” and rose by 11% from Prime Day 2021, according to Jungle Scout’s e-commerce data.

Budgeting can be tricky, especially for sellers that don’t have prior years’ data to compare, said Dan LeBlanc, co-founder and chief executive at Daasity, an e-commerce analytics platform. In this case, sellers should budget enough so that if the ads don’t generate a return, they won’t feel pinched. A general rule of thumb might be twice the amount of a normal day. “You don’t want to throw your whole marketing budget into this week,” he said.

Audit your customer reviews and product listings in advance

Sellers should use the weeks leading up to Prime Day to pay extra attention to reviews and ensure their products are easy to find. This could include using paid keyword research tools that help businesses determine which keywords are trending on Amazon, or were popular on Prime Day last year. 

Popular keywords aren’t always obvious, though they do fall into categories that are known to be Prime Day winners. Examples that were popular last year on Prime Day include “gel nail polish,” “baby clothes,” “wall clock” and “router,” according to data from Feedvisor, an intelligence platform for sellers.

Sellers can also test to see which product images resonate most with customers, Scheschuk said. That’s typically done by performing A/B testing to see which content, including product images, resonates most with customers using an Amazon-provided service, he said. Using A/B testing, one group of customers sees one version of the content, while a second group views the other. Sellers can then review which version had the best results and use that going forward.

It isn’t possible to provide precise advice on images — that is what case-specific A/B testing is for — but generally speaking, advice to Amazon sellers suggests that imagery used be clear and either product- or lifestyle-focused. It’s also best to keep the product as identifiable as possible as well — will shoppers immediately be able to tell what’s being advertised when seeing the creative?

Get a small business badge to stand out

Many small businesses haven’t applied for a small business badge, which identifies products from U.S.-based small company brands.

“Many people want to support small businesses,” Hutchinson said. “When all things are equal and there’s a few cents difference, as a consumer, you will likely side with the small business versus a large corporation. It’s another way to stand out on Prime Day.”

The small business badge is free, but there are certain Amazon-imposed restrictions, which sellers can learn more about by visiting Seller Central, Amazon’s management portal for third-party sellers.

Amazon uses the Gartner definition of small business to determine which sellers qualify. That means they must have fewer than 100 employees and less than $50 million in annual revenue. Additionally, a brand needs to register in the Amazon Brand Registry or participate in the company’s Handmade program for artisans, according to eComEngine, which offers software to support Amazon sellers.

Remember this is not Black Friday — stay focused on Amazon

For Prime Day specifically, don’t try to drive traffic to other shopping sites you may be listed on such as Shopify or Walmart because that’s not where the bulk of people are going to be looking for deals. “It’s not Black Friday,” Hutchinson said.

Already start thinking about next year’s deadlines

Amazon offers certain Prime Day promotional benefits to eligible businesses who meet its requirements, LeBlanc said. But the deadlines for these benefits are months in advance. Thinking ahead for next year can help sellers take advantage of these special promotional opportunities, he said.

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Peloton shares plunge after company reports wider-than-expected loss

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Peloton‘s shares plummeted Thursday after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for the fiscal third quarter and acknowledged an uncertain economic backdrop.

The company’s shares were down 14% in afternoon trading.

Yet Peloton pointed to signs of progress with its turnaround plan. It said connected fitness subscriptions grew and free cash flow losses declined. It also said new initiatives have resonated with customers, including a push to sell lower-priced, pre-owned bikes and a rent-to-buy program for fitness equipment. 

Here’s how the connected fitness equipment company did in the three months ended March 31 compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

  • Loss per share: 79 cents vs. 46 cents expected
  • Revenue: $749 million vs. $708 million expected

Peloton’s net loss for the period was $275.9 million, or 79 cents per share, compared with a loss of $757.1 million, or $2.27 per share, a year earlier. It marked the ninth quarter in a row of the company reporting losses.

Revenue declined 22% from a year ago, dropping from $964.3 million.

The fitness company has sought to stabilize its business and find a path to profitability again, after seeing a sharp reversal of fortunes. Sales of its bikes and treadmills slowed dramatically after a Covid pandemic-related surge, forcing Peloton to lean into other revenue sources like subscriptions.

The company ended its third quarter with about 3.1 million connected fitness subscriptions, up 5% from the year-ago period. Connected fitness subscribers are people who own a Peloton product, such as its Bike or Tread, and pay a monthly fee for access to live and on-demand workout classes.

Average net monthly connected fitness churn ticked up slightly from a year ago, too. It came in at 1.1% for the quarter, consistent with the prior quarter, but above the year-ago churn level of 0.8%.

Peloton’s overall membership, however, did not grow. It ended the quarter with 6.7 million total members, the same as the end of the prior quarter and down from 7 million in the year-ago period.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Barry McCarthy said Peloton is looking toward the future. The company later this month will relaunch the brand and introduce a new version of the Peloton app with a tiered membership structure, he said.

McCarthy added the relaunch aims to shake up how people view Peloton, so they think of its wide variety of fitness offerings — not just its well-recognized bikes.

Yet he warned of challenges ahead. He said the company typically experiences a seasonal decline in subscriber growth in the fourth quarter, which stretches across summer months. He said he expects one this year, too.

“Notwithstanding the relaunch, Q4 will be among our most challenging from a growth perspective,” he said.

In the fiscal fourth quarter, Peloton expects connected fitness subscriptions to rise, but revenue to drop. It said it anticipates revenue to decline by about 6% year over year to a range of between $630 million and $650 million, compared with $678.7 million the year-ago period.

It expects to end the fourth quarter with 3.08 million to 3.09 million subscribers, up from 2.97 million in the year-ago period.

On an earnings call, McCarthy said consumers have continued to spend, but he said it’s hard to predict their behavior as economists debate the likelihood of a recession or “soft landing.” He said the debate in Congress over whether to raise the debt ceiling, or risk a first-ever default on U.S. debt, adds to the uncertainty.

Separately, Peloton announced Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Dish Technologies over a patent dispute. The company said it will pay Dish $75 million to settle a U.S. International Trade Commission complaint.

The company had previously said it aimed to reach break-even cash flow on a quarterly basis in the second half of its fiscal 2023. McCarthy said in the letter Thursday that the settlement will significantly pressure free cash flow in the current fiscal quarter.

He added that the temporary hit is worthwhile because it “eliminates a cloud of uncertainty and an enormous distraction to the day-to-day operation of our business.”

McCarthy’s focus on a turnaround follows a tumultuous stretch after the company’s post-pandemic surge.

The struggles forced the company to cut costs last year by laying off thousands of employees, shuttering many of its stores, and outsourcing its last-mile delivery and manufacturing. Its co-founder and former CEO, John Foley, also stepped down last year and later resigned as executive chairman.

As fitness equipment sales continue to lag, Peloton has focused on other ways to drive growth and attract new customers. Under McCarthy, a former Spotify and Netflix executive, the company has emphasized increasing subscriptions.

Subscriptions have become the company’s biggest business driver – accounting for nearly 60% of overall revenue in the three-month period. It was the fourth quarter in a row that subscription revenue surpassed hardware revenue.

The company has tried to nudge sales of equipment by tinkering with prices, offering a rental option and adding rowing machines to its lineup. It got into wholesale by allowing Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods to carry its equipment. Peloton also struck a deal with Hilton to put bikes in all of its U.S. hotels.

In the shareholder letter Thursday, McCarthy said those efforts are working.

Since the company began testing its rent-to-buy program in March 2022, it has grown to 47,000 subscribers, he said. It has an average monthly churn rate of 5%, which is higher than Peloton’s overall churn rate.

Yet McCarthy said the option, which allows customers to make rental payments and chip away at the equipment’s purchase price, reduces a barrier to sign-ups. He cited an internal survey, which found that 62% of respondents would not have subscribed if it weren’t for the flexibility of the rental program.

Peloton’s sales of pre-owned bikes have also resonated, he said. The company launched that offering in December and is considering adding its treadmills and rowers to the program later this year.

Together, the two programs accounted for 24% of connected fitness hardware sales in the fiscal third quarter, he said.

He said third-party sales have also gained traction, and the company plans to expand its assortment with Amazon and participate in its promotional events like Prime Day.

Peloton’s stock has risen about 11% so far this year. Yet its shares are still less than half of its 52-week high of $18.86 — and just a tiny fraction of their over $100 highs during the early years of the pandemic.

Peloton’s market cap is $3.06 billion, after reaching as high as almost $50 billion in early 2021.

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Target shoppers can now make a return without leaving the car

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Target is dangling a new perk to get shoppers to swing by its stores: customers can make returns without leaving their car.

The curbside-returns service, which began last week at roughly a quarter of Target’s nearly 2,000 stores nationwide, will be available across the chain by the end of summer. 

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Target is sweetening its curbside-pickup service, Drive Up, to attract and retain customers as the retailer braces for a potential sales slowdown and tries to hang on to pandemic-fueled gains. Total annual revenue grew by about $31 billion – or nearly 40% – from fiscal 2019 to 2022.

Now, as shoppers become more budget conscious and buy fewer discretionary items, Target said it expects comparable sales to range from a low single-digit decline to a low single-digit increase this fiscal year. At an investor day in February, it projected full-year earnings per share of between $7.75 and $8.75, below Wall Street’s expectations of $9.23 per share, according to StreetAccount estimates.

The company hopes convenient perks like curbside returns will boost customer loyalty and jolt sales.

“Any time we remove friction from our guest experience it benefits the guests and benefits Target because they deepen their relationship with us,” Chief Stores Officer Mark Schindele said. “We’ve shown that with Drive Up overall. Guests try that service, they love it and then they shop our stores more often.”

Curbside pickup became a bigger sales driver for retailers’ e-commerce businesses, especially as shoppers tried to avoid crowds during the Covid pandemic. For some shoppers, the habit has stuck as work and home schedules are fuller and commutes are back — and retailers including Target and rival Walmart now aim to capitalize on that.

Click-and-collect, a term used to describe buying online and picking up purchases curbside or in store, grew from 6% of overall e-commerce sales in the U.S. in 2019 to 11% in 2022, according to data from Euromonitor, a market research firm.

Delivery still accounts for the majority of online sales, but click-and-collect drove about $114 billion of sales in 2022 — a jump from $36 billion in 2019, according to Euromonitor.

In the U.S., the vast majority of click-and-collect comes from curbside pickups, said Bob Hoyler, industry manager for retail research at Euromonitor. 

The market research firm anticipates click-and-collect sales in dollars will grow by 8% this year, compared with 2% for delivery. The growth will be fueled by consumers who opt for curbside pickup to avoid delivery fees or shipping minimums at a time of heightened price sensitivity, Hoyler said.

Target debuted Drive Up in 2017 as a test in Minneapolis, where the company is based. It expanded the service to stores across all 50 states in 2019. It added fresh and frozen groceries in 2020, and tacked on wine and beer the following year. 

Last year, the retailer expanded the service to allow shoppers to order a Starbucks drink to retrieve when they pick up their curbside order. The service is available at about 240 stores.

Sales fulfilled through Drive Up grew more than 70% in the fiscal year that ended in late January 2022, on top of a more than 600% boom during the prior fiscal year, the company said. Drive Up sales grew more than 10% in the most recent fiscal year.

Target’s same-day services, which include Drive Up, accounted for more than half of digital sales as of late January as consumers embrace convenience. Same-day services also include Target-owned delivery service Shipt and Order Pickup, which allows shoppers to retrieve an online purchase inside of a store.

The retailer’s average fulfillment cost per unit has fallen by 40% over the past four years as those services grow, Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan said at an investor day in February. More than 95% of Target’s total sales, including digital, are fulfilled in stores.

Other retailers have added to curbside pickup. Walmart rolled out curbside returns at all of its stores ahead of the 2022 holiday season. Dick’s Sporting Goods added curbside returns to its services in 2020 and offers it across all of its stores.

Neither company would quantify the use of curbside pickup or returns, but Walmart said it has seen nearly double the volume of customers using curbside returns from its launch across the chain last fall compared with this month.

At an investor event earlier this month, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the retailer is competing on convenience, too. He credited pickup and delivery for driving growth in recent years, and said the company’s recent survey results show customers are choosing the big-box retail giant to save time along with money.

Yet other retailers such as Kohl’s have eliminated curbside pickup. It ended the service last summer, swapping it out for a self-pickup service inside of stores.

The company’s shift to self pickup is part of efforts to cut costs, including by reducing its payroll, Chief Financial Officer Jill Timm said in September at a Goldman Sachs conference. She said Kohl’s is also testing self checkout and self returns.

For some retailers, the time and labor of curbside pickup can be hard to justify — especially since it encourages shoppers to stay in their cars rather than step into stores where they may fill up their carts with more purchases, Euromonitor’s Hoyler said.

Those concerns fueled skepticism of curbside returns within Target, too.

Most Target returns are made at the store, according to the company. Inside of a store, a shopper may swap out a returned product for another or grab an impulse item.

At Target’s investor day in late February, Citibank analyst Paul Lejuez asked if the retailer would ultimately miss out on purchases by adding curbside returns.

Schindele, the chief stores officer, said Target is focused on the lifetime value of a customer, not just the economics of a single transaction. He said allowing curbside returns also helps the retailer get unwanted items back on the sales floor faster and lowers the cost of mail-in returns.

He added that curbside pickup still inspires browsing and other purchases. On average, about 20% of customers who pick up Drive Up orders also make an in-store purchase on the same day, he said.

“What we find is when a guest uses Drive Up — and it could be Drive Up returns, it could be Drive Up purchase — we find that they spend more money in store over the course of the year.”

During tests of curbside returns, some shoppers have stopped by just to return an item, Schindele said. Others have picked up purchases while making a return. Still others have retrieved items they bought, made a return and gotten a Starbucks drink.

For Target, curbside returns could serve as a differentiator and a complement to the merchandise mix it sells, Hoyler said. Target’s sales focus is on general merchandise, such as apparel and beauty products, with only roughly 20% of its annual sales coming from grocery items. That’s much less than Walmart, which draws nearly 60% of its annual U.S. sales from grocery.

That general merchandise tends to be returned much more often than items like milk and bananas, he said.

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Want to watch MLB games? Making sense of the confusing TV and streaming landscape

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Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (3) slides into third to advance on a sacrifice fly against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning at T-Mobile Park, Sept. 28, 2021..

Joe Nicholson | USA TODAY Sports | Reuters

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack – and a bunch of streaming and TV subscriptions, too.

Major League Baseball‘s season opens Thursday, and fans have to navigate various outlets to find their home team’s games this season. This might create some confusion, while causing some viewers to beef up their baseball budgets.

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MLB teams play 162 games during the regular season, giving the league a lot of runway to sign media rights deals with various outlets in a bid to broaden its reach and audience. In recent years, the focus has been on placing more games on streaming services, while traditional cable TV is needed for a bulk of game viewing.

Here’s a breakdown of how the landscape looks, for now.

Home base plan

For the baseball fan looking to watch as many games as possible, a traditional pay TV service is still the go-to place.

Regional sports networks air the majority of local games during the season. In addition, national networks like Disney unit ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS, as well as Fox Corp.‘s broadcast and pay TV networks, take up a decent chunk of the schedule.

There are a few internet-TV bundle competitors that are an option, too. DirecTV’s DirecTV Stream and FuboTV carry most, if not all, regional sports networks. Other providers like Google‘s YouTube TV and Disney’s Hulu Live TV+ carry few, if any, of these networks.

The reason for that? The high fees networks charge pay TV operators. A “regional sports network” fee is broken out on pay TV bills. It varies by the market.

The fate of the regional sports networks has been brought into question. Recently, Diamond Sports, which operates a portfolio of regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection, toppled by a debt load and the loss of pay TV subscribers.

The networks and the streaming services haven’t gone dark and are still expected to show games this season.

Similarly, Warner Bros. Discovery has been looking to exit the regional sports networks it inherited from the acquisition of Warner from AT&T last year, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. While Warner Bros. sent a notice to the teams looking to transition the network rights over to them, the league and Warner Bros. have been in negotiations to keep the networks running normally for the foreseeable future, people familiar with the matter said.

Streaming options

As the traditional TV audience shrinks, the league and the networks have been looking to streaming services to grow MLB’s audience there. However, as more options are introduced, regional sports networks are getting fewer games and fans have to pay more to watch all games.

“From baseball’s perspective there is not only a need to find new audiences but different demographics,” said Will Mao, senior vice president of media rights consulting at Octagon. “It’s been a longtime narrative the baseball audience is getting older. To find the next generation of fans you need to go where more content is consumed, which is digital streaming platforms.”

With a higher rate of consumers dropping pay TV bundles and opting for streaming services, many networks have created direct-to-consumer streaming app options. Few offset the pay TV losses, but at least provide an option for fans wanting to stream.

New England Sports Network, home of Boston Red Sox games, has a streaming option for fans in its region. Diamond Sports’ Bally Sports+ launched last year, but only offers Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays games as the company negotiates with the league for streaming rights on a team-by-team basis.

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) rounds the bases after hitting home run number sixty-two to break the American League home run record in the first inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.

Tim Heitman | USA TODAY Sports | Reuters

The New York Yankees’ YES Network launched its own option the day before Opening Day, priced at $25 a month. Still, for Yankees fans, it can be particularly confusing. Since last year, 20 of its local games have been on Amazon‘s Prime Video rather than YES or a local broadcast network, stemming from Amazon taking a piece of ownership in the network.

This will mark the second season that Apple‘s Apple TV+ will air two games every Friday night. However this year “Friday Night Baseball” will come at an extra cost – a $6.99 subscription to Apple TV+ – as opposed to when it was free last year.

A set of 19 games will once again air on Sundays on Comcast‘s Peacock beginning April 23 of this year, a bit earlier than its May 8 start last year. Peacock, which costs $4.99 a month, will soon have more information about its announcers for the Sunday broadcasts, many of which air at 11:35 a.m. ET or 12:05 p.m. ET, a bit earlier than the typical MLB start time of 1:05 p.m.

Since 2021, ESPN has begun simultaneously airing games on its streaming service ESPN+, which costs $9.99 a month, and also streams a local RSN game most days throughout the season.

“I do empathize now with the rose-colored glasses many have for the traditional cable bundle. There’s value to bundling we’ve learned not just across media but other industries,” said Mao.

These additional streaming bills come as the cost of pay TV subscriptions from satellite and cable providers varies across the U.S. A recent U.S. News report found that an average cable bill costs more than $200 a month, but that could include bundled services, likely broadband service. The Federal Communications Commission’s most recent report from 2018 shows the average of basic cable at $25.40 a month, with the expanded package averaging $71.31. The former is unlikely to include national sports networks.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of Peacock and CNBC.

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Zipline unveils P2 delivery drones that dock and recharge autonomously

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Logistics startup Zipline has flown more than 38 million miles with its autonomous electric delivery drones since the company was founded in 2014. Zipline put its first fleet to work in Rwanda, delivering blood and other health supplies to clinics and hospitals. Since then, the Silicon Valley startup has expanded its service in six other countries, with limited delivery service and distribution centers in three states.

On Wednesday, Zipline showed off its next-generation aircraft, which it hopes will make rapid aerial deliveries an everyday convenience for customers throughout the U.S., even in densely populated urban areas.

Zipline’s new drone, dubbed the Platform 2 or P2 Zip, is capable of carrying up to eight pounds worth of cargo within a ten-mile radius, and can land a package on a space as small as a table or doorstep.

“The reason that number is important,” says Zipline CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, “is that when you look at e-commerce in the US, a vast majority of packages weigh five pounds or less.”

Zipline cofounders, CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton and CTO Keenan Wryobek

Zipline

The P2 Zip can travel ten miles in ten minutes, and the company can make a delivery approximately seven times faster than any typical service you may order from today, the CEO said. Rapid deliveries by drone may put an end to “porch pirates,” Rinaudo Cliffton said, referring to the theft of packages left on a doorstep while the customer is away from home.

While Zipline’s original drone, the P1 Zip, features a fixed wing or glider-like design, the P2 employs both lift and cruise propellers and a fixed wing. These help it maneuver precisely and quietly, even in rainy or windy weather.

To deliver cargo to a customer’s door, the P2 Zip hovers around 300 feet above ground level and dispatches a kind of mini-aircraft and container called the “droid.” The droid descends on a long thin tether, and maneuvers quietly into place with fan-like thrusters before setting down for package retrieval.

Zipline’s original P1 drones will remain in production and in wide use, says Rinaudo Cliffton. The P1 Zip can fly a longer distance, delivering up to five pounds of cargo within a 60-mile radius, but it requires a larger space for take off, landings and “the drop.”

The P1 Zip lets cargo down with a parachute attached, so its payload lands within a space about the size of two car parking spots. After a P1 Zip returns to base, an employee needs to disassemble it, then set up a new one, dropping in a freshly charged battery for the next flight.

Zipline’s new P2 Zip can dock and power up autonomously at a charging station that looks something like a street lamp with an arm and a large disc attached to that arm:

A rendering of P2 Zips charging at a docking station.

Zipline

Zipline docks can be installed in a single parking spot or alongside a building depending on zoning and permits. Zipline envisions the docks set up by restaurants in a downtown shopping district, or alongside the outer wall of a hospital, where the droid can be inserted into a window or dumbwaiter, retrieved, and reloaded by healthcare workers indoors.

Setting up one of these docks takes about as much work as installing an electric vehicle charger, Rinaudo Cliffton said.

Before developing the P2 Zip, Zipline had established logistics networks in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda already. It is operating some drone delivery networks in the US, in North Carolina, Arkansas and Utah — but the P2 will help it expand that network.

Partners who plan to test deliveries via P2 Zip include the healthy fast-casual restaurant Sweetgreen, Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, Michigan Medicine, Multicare Healthcare System in Tacoma, Wash., and the government of Rwanda.

Zipline is not alone in its ambitions. Zipline is part of a program with other startups like DroneUp and Flytrex to make deliveries for Walmart. Amazon, meanwhile, has been working on making drone deliveries a reality here for nearly a decade, although that business has struggled to overcome a thicket of regulation and low demand from test customers.

Quiet and green is the goal

Zipline head of engineering Jo Mardall told CNBC the company focused much of its engineering on making sure the drones were not just safe and energy-efficient, but also quiet enough that residents would embrace their use. 

“People are worried about noise, rightly. I’m worried about noise. I don’t want to live in a world where there’s a bunch of loud aircraft flying above my house,” he said. “Success for us looks like being in the background, being barely audible.” That means something closer to rustling leaves than a car driving by. 

The droid component of the P2 Zip is designed to enter distribution centers through a small portal, where it’s loaded up with goods for delivery.

Zipline

The P2 Zips have a unique propeller design that makes this possible, Mardall explained, adding, “The fact that the Zip delivers from from 300 feet up really helps a lot.”

Mardall and Rinaudo Cliffton emphasized that Zipline aims to have a net-beneficial impact on the environment while giving business a better way to move everything from hot meals to refrigerated vaccines just in time to customers. 

Unmanned aerial vehicles, they explained, avoid worsening traffic congestion by going overhead. And since Zipline’s drones are electric, they can be powered with renewable or clean energy, without the emissions from burning jet fuel, gasoline, or diesel.

But most importantly, the CEO said, Zipline’s drone delivery allows companies to “centralize more inventory,” and “dramatically reduce waste.”

A study published by Lancet found that hospitals using Zipline services were able to reduce their total annual blood supply waste rate by 67%, the CEO boasted.

“That is a mind-blowing statistic, and a really big deal. It saves health systems millions of dollars, by reducing inventory at the last mile and only sending it when it’s needed.”

Zipline is aiming to bring that efficiency to every corner of commerce, the CEO said. It’s also aiming to keep the cost of drone delivery competitive with existing services, like FedEx and UPS, or food delivery apps like Uber Eats and Instacart.

But first, the startup plans to conduct more than 10,000 test flights using about 100 new P2 Zips this year. With its existing P1 drones, Zipline is already on track to complete about 1 million deliveries by the end of 2023, and by 2025 it expects to operate more flights annually than most commercial airlines.

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Amazon shows off new satellite internet antennas as it takes on SpaceX’s Starlink

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The company’s “standard” customer terminal, the middle of the trio of Project Kuiper satellite antennas at under 11 inches square and weighing under five pounds.

Amazon

WASHINGTON — Amazon revealed a trio of satellite antennas on Tuesday, as the company prepares to take on SpaceX’s Starlink with its own Project Kuiper internet network.

The tech giant said the “standard” version of the satellite antenna, also known as a customer terminal, is expected to cost Amazon less than $400 each to produce.

“Every technology and business decision we’ve had has centered on what will deliver the best experience for different customers around the world, and our range of customer terminals reflect those choices,” Rajeev Badyal, Amazon vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said in a statement.

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Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The Federal Communications Commission in 2020 authorized Amazon’s system, in which the company has said it will “invest more than $10 billion” to build.

The Kuiper antennas

The “ultra-compact” version of the Project Kuiper

Amazon

The “standard” design measures under 11 inches square and 1 inch thick, and weighs under 5 pounds. Amazon says the device will deliver speeds to customers of “up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps).”

An “ultra-compact” model, which Amazon says is its smallest and most affordable, is a 7-inch square design that weighs about 1 pound and will offer speeds up to 100 Mbps. In additional to residential customers, Amazon plans to offer the antenna to government and enterprise customers for services like “ground mobility and internet of things.”

Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices and Services Dave Limp declined to say how much it costs to make each ultra-compact antenna, but told CNBC that it is “materially less” expensive to make than the standard model.

Its largest “pro” model, at 19 inches by 30 inches, represents a high-bandwidth version for more demanding customers. Amazon says this antenna will be able to “deliver speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps)” via space. Badyal told CNBC there are a variety of enterprise and government applications for the pro series, such as “oil rigs in the middle of the ocean” or “ships that want lots of bandwidth,” such as military vessels.

The company’s “Pro” customer terminal, the largest of the trio of Project Kuiper satellite antennas at 19 inches by 30 inches.

Amazon

Amazon has yet to say what it expects the monthly service cost for Project Kuiper customers will be.

In showing early customers its antennas, Limp said he’s seen them get “excited” about the lineup.

“They’re surprised by the price points, surprised at the performance for the size, and [the antennas] are solid state so there’s no motors,” Limp told CNBC.

Amazon said it expects to begin mass-producing commercial satellites by the end of this year. Limp told CNBC that once Amazon’s manufacturing facility is fully built, the company expects to manufacture up to “three to five satellites per day at scale.”

“We’ll ramp up to that volume,” Limp said.

Amazon’s demand for rocket launches

The company’s first two prototype satellites are scheduled to launch on the debut mission of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, set for May.

Badyal told CNBC that Amazon expects to make “minor tweaks” from the prototypes to the commercial version, as the satellites are “almost identical” but represent the first time much of the company’s hardware has flown in space.

The company’s prototype Project Kuiper satellites shipping for launch.

Amazon

While Amazon has yet to show off its satellites, or reveal many details, Limp noted that the Kuiper spacecraft are “larger mass” than the first generation of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, with Amazon aiming for “Goldilocks-sizing.” And Amazon expects the performance of its Kuiper satellites to “outperform them significantly” when compared to Starlink, with expected performance of processing up to 1 terabit per second (Tbps) of traffic. The satellites are expected to have a lifespan in space of about seven years, before they need to be replaced.

Launches of production satellites are scheduled to begin in the first half of 2024, with initial service slated for once the company has a few hundred satellites in orbit, Limp noted.

Last year, Amazon announced the biggest corporate rocket deal in the industry’s history, and has booked 77 launches – deals that included options for more when needed – from a variety of companies to deploy the satellites fast enough to meet regulatory requirements.

Limp said that those launches mean Amazon has “enough to get the vast majority of the constellation up” in space.

“I don’t think you’re ever done thinking about launch capacity, but we feel pretty good about what we have on the order books,” Limp added. “If new vehicles come online, that are more competitive, we’re going to look at it.”

Notably, Amazon has not purchased launches from SpaceX, the most active U.S. rocket launcher. Instead, Amazon has tapped a variety of competitors, purchasing rides largely on rockets that have yet to debut.

“I don’t have any religious issue not to buy capacity from SpaceX, they’re a very reliable rocket, but the Falcon 9 economically wasn’t the best rocket for us,” Limp explained.

Asked whether Amazon would consider owning a rocket system to support its launches, Limp said, “I would never say never to a question like that” but that the company looks for acquisitions in areas “where you can have something that’s differentiated and it’s something where it’s not well-served.”

Limp noted that it’s a different scenario than something like “Prime Air,” the company’s cargo airline, as that was a situation in which the company’s forecast for e-commerce growth was higher than transportation providers like FedEx or UPS or USPS believed.

“We were just using a lot of the excess capacity … only then when it stopped becoming well served did we look at it,” Limp said. “There was a shift in it being well-served for our needs. Right now, I don’t see that from a rocket perspective. There is a lot of launch out there.”

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Top Wall Street analysts like these stocks for the long haul

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A Peloton exercise bike is seen after the ringing of the opening bell for the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, New York, U.S., September 26, 2019.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Investors are trying to make sense of big corporate earnings, seeking clues about what lies ahead as macro headwinds persist. It’s prudent for investors to choose stocks with an optimistic longer-term view in these uncertain times.

Here are five stocks picked by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipRanks, a service that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Costco

Wholesaler Costco (COST) is known for its resilient business model that has helped it navigate several economic downturns. Moreover, the membership-only warehouse club has a loyal customer base and generally enjoys renewal rates that are at or above 90%.

Costco recently reported better-than-anticipated net sales growth of 6.9% and comparable sales growth of 5.6% for the four weeks ended Jan. 29. The company delivered upbeat numbers despite continued weakness in its e-commerce sales and the shift in the timing of the Chinese New Year to earlier in the year.

Following the sales report, Baird analyst Peter Benedict reaffirmed a buy rating on Costco and a $575 price target. Benedict stated, “With a defensive/staples-heavy sales mix and loyal member base, we believe shares continue to hold fundamental appeal as a rare megacap “growth staple” – particularly in the face of a difficult consumer spending backdrop.”

Benedict’s convictions can be trusted, given his 55th position out of more than 8,300 analysts in the TipRanks database. Apart from that, he has a solid track of 71% profitable ratings, with each rating delivering 16.3% average return. (See Costco Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks)​

Amazon

2022 was a challenging year for e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) as macro pressures hurt its retail business and the cloud computing Amazon Web Services division.

Amazon’s first-quarter sales growth outlook of 4% to 8% reflects further deceleration compared with the 9% growth in the fourth quarter. Amazon is streamlining costs as it faces slowing top-line growth, higher expenses and continued economic turmoil.

Nonetheless, several Amazon bulls, including Mizuho Securities’ Vijay Rakesh, continue to believe in the company’s long-term prospects. Rakesh sees a “modest downside” to Wall Street’s consensus expectation for the 2023 revenue growth for Amazon’s retail business. (See Amazon Website Traffic on TipRanks)

However, he sees more downside risks to the Street’s consensus estimate of a 20% cloud revenue growth in 2023 compared to his revised estimate of 16%. Rakesh noted that Amazon’s cloud business was hit by lower demand from verticals like mortgage, advertising and crypto in the fourth quarter and that revenue growth has slowed down to the mid-teens so far in the first quarter.

Consequently, Rakesh said that AMZN stock could be “volatile near-term given potential downside revision risks.” Nonetheless, he reiterated a buy rating on AMZN with a price target of $135 due to “positive long-term fundamentals.”

Rakesh stands at #84 among more than 8,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks. Moreover, 61% of his ratings have been profitable, with each generating a 19.3% average return.

Peloton 

Fitness equipment maker Peloton (PTON), once a pandemic darling, fell out of favor following the reopening of the economy as people returned to gyms and competition increased. Peloton shares crashed last year due to its deteriorating sales and mounting losses.

Nevertheless, investor sentiment has improved for PTON stock, thanks to the company’s turnaround efforts under CEO Barry McCarthy. Investors cheered the company’s fiscal second-quarter results due to higher subscription revenue even as the overall sales dropped 30% year-over-year. While its loss per share narrowed from the prior-year quarter, it was worse than what Wall Street projected. 

Like investors, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth was also “incrementally positive” on Peloton following the latest results, citing its cost control measures, improving free cash flow loss and better-than-anticipated connected fitness subscriptions. Anmuth highlighted that the company’s restructuring to a more variable cost structure is essentially complete and it seems focused on achieving its goal of breakeven free cash flow by the end of fiscal 2023.

Anmuth reiterated a buy rating and raised the price target to $19 from $13, given the company’s focus on restoring its revenue growth. (See PTON Stock Chart on TipRanks) 

Anmuth ranks 192 out of more than 8,300 analysts on TipRanks, with a success rate of 58%. Each of his ratings has delivered a 15.1% return on average.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s (MSFT) artificial intelligence-driven growth plans have triggered positive sentiment about the tech behemoth recently. The company plans to power its search engine Bing and internet browser Edge with ChatGPT-like technology.

On the downside, the company’s December quarter revenue growth and subdued guidance reflected near-term headwinds, due to continued weakness in the PC market and a slowdown in its Azure cloud business as enterprises are tightening their spending. That said, Azure’s long-term growth potential seems attractive. 

Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth, who ranks 137 out of 8,328 analysts tracked by TipRanks, opines that while near-term headwinds could slow cloud growth and the “more personal computing” segment, Microsoft’s investments in AI will drive its future.

Feinseth reiterated a buy rating on Microsoft and maintained a price target of $411, saying, “Strength in its Azure Cloud platform combined with increasing AI integration across its product lines continues to drive the global digital transformation and highlights its long-term investment opportunity.”

Remarkably, 64% of Feinseth’s ratings have generated profits, with each rating bringing in a 13.4% average return. (See MSFT Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks)

Mobileye Global 

Ivan Feinseth is also optimistic about Mobileye (MBLY), a rapidly growing provider of technology that powers advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and self-driving systems. Chip giant Intel still owns a majority of Mobileye shares.

Feinseth noted that Mobileye continues to see solid demand for its industry-leading technology. He expects the company to “increasingly benefit” from the growing adoption of ADAS technology by original equipment manufacturers.  

The company is also at an advantage due to the rising demand in the auto industry for sophisticated camera systems and sensors used in ADAS and safe-driving systems. Furthermore, Feinseth sees opportunities for the company in the autonomous mobility as a service, or AMaaS, space.

Feinseth said there is potential for Mobileye’s revenue to grow to over $17 billion by 2030, backed by the company’s “significant R&D investments, first-mover advantage, and industry-leading product portfolio, combined with significant OEM relationships.” He projects a potential total addressable market of nearly $500 billion by the end of the decade.

Given Mobileye’s numerous strengths, Feinseth raised his price target to $52 from $44 and reiterated a buy rating. (See Mobileye Blogger Opinions & Sentiment on TipRanks)

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How the job of Amazon delivery has changed with Rivian’s electric vans and routing software

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For the 275,000 Amazon drivers dropping off 10 million packages a day around the world, the job can be a grind. But a lot has changed since drivers in 2021 told CNBC about unrealistic workloads, peeing in bottles, dog bites and error-prone routing software.

Among the biggest developments is the arrival of a brand-new electric van from Rivian.

Amazon was a big and early investor in the electric vehicle company, which went public in late 2021 with a plan to build trucks and SUVs for consumers and delivery vans for businesses. Since July, Amazon has rolled out more than 1,000 new Rivian vans, which are now making deliveries in more than 100 U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York City and Austin, Texas.

The partnership began in 2019, when Amazon founder and ex-CEO Jeff Bezos announced Amazon had purchased 100,000 electric vans from Rivian as one step toward his company’s ambitious promise of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

″[We] will have prototypes on the road next year, but 100,000 deployed by 2024,” Bezos said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in September 2019. Amazon has since revised the timeline, saying it expects all 100,000 Rivian vans on the road by 2030.

Rivian has faced several challenges in recent months. It cut back 2022 production amid supply chain and assembly line issues. Its stock price dropped so sharply last year that Amazon recorded a combined $11.5 billion markdown on its holdings in the first two quarters.

CNBC talked to drivers to see what’s changed with the driving experience. We also went to Amazon’s Delivering the Future event in Boston in November for a look at the technology designed to maximize safety and efficiency for delivery personnel.

For now, most Amazon drivers are still in about 110,000 gas-powered vans — primarily Ford Transits, Mercedes-Benz Sprinters and Ram ProMasters. Amazon wouldn’t share how it determines which of its 3,500 third-party delivery firms, or delivery service partners (DSPs), are receiving Rivian vans first. 

The e-commerce giant has been using DSPs to deliver its packages since 2018, allowing the company to reduce its reliance on UPS and the U.S. Postal Service for the so-called last mile, the most expensive portion of the delivery journey. The DSP, which works exclusively with Amazon, employs the drivers and is responsible for the liabilities of the road, vehicle maintenance, and the costs of hiring, benefits and overtime pay.

Amazon leases the vans to DSP owners at a discount. The company covers the fuel for gas-powered vans and installs charging stations for electric vehicles.

The company says DSP owners have generated $26 billion in revenue and now operate in 15 countries, including Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, Canada, and all over Europe. 

What drivers think

In the early days of testing the Rivian vans, some drivers voiced concerns about range. An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC the vans can travel up to 150 miles on a single charge, which is typically plenty of power for a full shift and allows drivers to recharge the vehicle overnight.

As for maintenance, Amazon says that takes place at Rivian service centers near delivery stations or by a Rivian mobile service team, depending on location.

Julieta Dennis launched a DSP, Kangaroo Direct, in Baltimore three years ago. She employs about 75 drivers and leases more than 50 vans from Amazon. She now has 15 Rivian vehicles.

“It’s very easy to get in and out with all of the different handles to hold on to,” Dennis said. She said that some drivers were hesitant at first because the vehicles were so new and different, “but the moment they get in there and have their first experience, that’s the van that they want to drive.”

Baltimore DSP owner Julieta Dennis shows off a Rivian electric van at Amazon’s Delivering the Future event in Boston, Maryland, on November 10, 2022.

Erin Black

Brandi Monroe has been delivering for Kangaroo Direct for two years. She pointed to features on a Rivian van that are upgrades over what she’s driven in the past. There’s a large non-slip step at the back, a hand cart for helping with heavy packages and extra space for standing and walking in the cargo area.

“We have two shelves on both sides to allow for more space,” Monroe said, adding that she’d prefer to drive a Rivian for every shift. “And then the lights at the top: very innovative to help us see the packages and address a lot easier, especially at nighttime.”

There’s even a heated steering wheel.

Former driver B.J. Natividad, who goes by Avionyx on YouTube, says his non-electric van could get very cramped.

“I remember one time I had 23 or 24 bags and over 40 oversize packages and I had to be able to figure out how to stuff that all in there within the 15 minutes that they give us to load up in the morning,” said Natividad, who now works for USPS.

The Rivian vans have at least 100 more cubic feet than the Sprinter and up to double the cargo space of the Ford Transit vans Natividad drove in Las Vegas. Rivian vans are still small enough that they don’t require a special license to drive, though Amazon provides its own training for drivers.

One driver in Seattle, who asked to remain unnamed, was especially excited about the new Rivian vans. He offered an extensive tour of the new driving experience on his YouTube channel called Friday Adventure Club.

He said one of his favorite features is a light bar “that goes all the way around the back.” He also likes that the windshield is “absolutely massive,” the wide doors allow for easy entry and exit, and the cargo door automatically opens when the van is parked. There are two rows of shelves that fold up and down in the cargo area.

There’s also new technology, such as an embedded tablet with the driving route and a 360-degree view that shows all sides of the van.

Mai Le, Amazon’s vice president of Last Mile, oversaw the testing of the center console and Rivian’s integrated software.

“We did a lot of deliveries as a test,” Le said. “As a woman, I want to make sure that the seats are comfortable for me and that my legs can reach the pedals, I can see over the steering wheel.”

She demonstrated some of the benefits of the new technology.

“When we start to notice that you’re slowing down, that means that we can tell you’re getting near to your destination,” she said. “The map begins to zoom in, so you begin to find where’s your delivery location, which building and where parking could be.”

The new vans have keyless entry. They automatically lock when the driver is 15 feet away and unlock as the driver approaches. 

Workers load packages into Amazon Rivian Electric trucks at an Amazon facility in Poway, California, November 16, 2022.

Sandy Huffaker | Reuters

Cameras and safety

Above all else, Amazon says the changes were designed to make the delivery job safer.

A ProPublica report found Amazon’s contract drivers were involved in more than 60 serious crashes from 2015 to 2019, at least 10 of which were fatal. Amazon put cameras and sensors all over the Rivian vans, which enable warnings and lane assist technology that autocorrects if the vehicle veers out of the lane.

Dennis mentioned the importance of automatic braking and the steering wheel that starts “just kind of shaking when you get too close to something.”

“There’s just so many features that would really, really help cut back on some of those incidental accidents,” she said.

Amazon vans have driver-facing cameras inside, which can catch unsafe driving practices as they happen.

“The in-vehicle safety technology we have watches for poor safety behaviors like distracted driving, seat belts not being fastened, running stop signs, traffic lights,” said Beryl Tomay, who helps run the technology side of delivery as vice president of Last Mile for Amazon.

“We’ve seen over the past year a reduction of 80% to 95% in these events when we’ve warned drivers real time,” she said. “But the really game-changing results that we’ve seen have been almost a 50% reduction in accidents.”

As a DSP owner, Dennis gets alerts if her drivers exhibit patterns of unsafe behavior. 

“If something with a seat belt or just something flags, then our team will contact the driver and make sure that that’s coached on and taken care of and figured out, like what actually happened,” Dennis said.

That level of constant surveillance may be unsettling for some drivers. Dennis said that issues haven’t come up among her staffers. And Amazon stresses it’s focused on driver privacy.

“We’ve taken great care from a privacy perspective,” Tomay said. “There’s no sound ever being recorded. There’s no camera recording if the driver’s not driving and there’s a privacy mode.”

Amazon says the cabin-facing camera automatically switches off when the ignition is off, and privacy mode means it also turns off if the vehicle is stationary for more than 30 seconds.

Safety concerns extend beyond the vehicle itself. For example, an Amazon driver in Missouri was found dead in a front yard in October, allegedly after a dog attack.

Amazon says new technology can help. Drivers can choose to manually notify customers ahead of a delivery, giving them time to restrain pets. Another feature that’s coming, according to Le, will allow drivers to mark delivery locations that have pets.

Natividad said he had multiple close calls with dogs charging at him during deliveries.

“You customers out there, please restrain your dogs when you know a package is coming,” he said. “Please keep them inside. Don’t leave them just outside.”

Optimizing routes

Providing drivers with more efficient and better detailed routes could improve safety, too. Drivers in 2021 told us about losing time because Amazon’s routing software made a mistake, like not recognizing a closed road or gated community. In response, they sometimes tried to save time in other ways.

“People are running through stop signs, running through yellow lights,” said Adrienne Williams, a former DSP driver. “Everybody I knew was buckling their seat belt behind their backs because the time it took just to buckle your seat belt, unbuckle your seat belt every time was enough time to get you behind schedule.”

Amazon listened. The company has been adding a huge amount of detail to driver maps, using information from 16 third-party map vendors as well as machine learning models informed by satellite driver feedback and other sources.

One example is a new in-vehicle data collection system called Fleet Edge, which is currently in a few thousand vans. Fleet Edge collects real-time data from a street view camera and GPS device during a driver’s route.

“Due to Fleet Edge, we’ve added over 120,000 new street signs to Amazon’s mapping system,” Tomay said. “The accuracy of GPS locations has increased by over two and a half times in our test areas, improving navigation safety by announcing upcoming turns sooner.”

Tomay said the maps also added points of interest like coffee shops and restrooms, so in about 95% of metro areas, “drivers can find a spot to take a break within five minutes of a stop.”

In 2021, Amazon apologized for dismissing claims that drivers were urinating in bottles as a result of demanding delivery schedules. Natividad said he occasionally found urine-filled bottles in his vans before his shift in the mornings.

“As soon as I open the van, I’m looking around, I see a bottle of urine. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m not touching this,'” he said.

Pay for Amazon drivers is up to the discretion of each individual DSP, although Amazon says it regularly audits DSP rates to make sure they’re competitive. Indeed.com puts average Amazon driver pay at nearly $19 an hour, 16% higher than the national average.

Natividad started delivering for Amazon in 2021 when his gigs as a fulltime disc jockey dried up because of the pandemic. He liked the job at the time, generally delivering at least 200 packages along the same route. However, during the holiday season that year, he once had more than 400 packages and 200 stops in a single shift.

“Towards the end of my day, they sent out two rescues to me to help out to make sure everything’s done before 10 hours,” he said.

Amazon is working to optimize its routes. But it’s an unwieldy operation. The company says it’s generated 225,000 unique routes per day during peak season.

Tomay said the company looks at the density of packages, the complexity of delivery locations “and any other considerations like weather and traffic from past history to put a route together that we think is ideal.”

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

“Given that we’re in over 20 countries and every geography looks different, it’s not just about delivery vehicles or vans anymore,” Tomay said. “We have rickshaws in India. We have walkers in Manhattan.”

In Las Vegas, Amazon held a roundtable last year for DSP owners and drivers. Natividad says he spoke for 20 minutes at the event about the need for Amazon to improve its routing algorithms.

“I think they should do that probably once a month, with all the DSP supervision and a few of the drivers, and not the same drivers every time. That way different feedback is given. And like seriously listen to them,” Natividad said. “Because they’re not the ones out there seeing and experiencing what we go through.” 

Natividad didn’t get to try out the routing technology in the Rivian vans before he left to deliver for USPS in July. He’s excited that the postal service is following in Amazon’s footsteps with 66,000 electric vans coming by 2028.

Amazon, meanwhile, is diversifying its electric fleet beyond Rivian. The company has ordered thousands of electric Ram vans from Stellantis and also has some on the way from Mercedes-Benz.

Correction: Julieta Dennis launched a DSP, Kangaroo Direct, in Baltimore three years ago. An earlier version misspelled her name.



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#job #Amazon #delivery #changed #Rivians #electric #vans #routing #software

Top Wall Street analysts pick these stocks to celebrate the new year

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Apple CEO Tim Cook poses in front of a new MacBook Airs running M2 chips display during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, June 6, 2022.

Peter Dasilva | Reuters

With the brutal 2022 behind us, we look ahead to a year of relatively predictable challenges. This calls for careful investing with a longer-term view. To help the process, here are five stocks chosen by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their track record.

DoubleVerify Holdings

As its name suggests, DoubleVerify (DV) helps to improve the safety and security of online advertising. A pioneer in this area, the company’s services are employed by customers in the financial services, retail, automotive, travel, telecom, and pharmaceutical sectors. (See DoubleVerify Holdings Stock Chart on TipRanks)

Truist analyst Youssef Squali sees multiple growth opportunities, especially in the social media field. Interestingly, DoubleVerify’s social media client roster includes names such as TikTok, Microsoft (MSFT)-owned LinkedIn, Reddit, Amazon’s (AMZN) Twitch, Meta’s (META) Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube. Looking at this, Squali expects “social media as a channel has unlocked incremental spend for DV to attack within walled gardens, which advertisers value vs. letting these platforms ‘grade their own homework.'”

Moreover, the analyst pointed out that DoubleVerify’s sophisticated software solutions help client companies safeguard their brand reputation while maximizing their return on ad spend. This is particularly important as the digital advertising ecosystem is growing and so is competition. A safe, fraud-free, and appropriately targeted ad environment also helps companies draw traffic.

Squali is “incrementally bullish” on DoubleVerify, with a Buy rating and $36 price target. The analyst stands 92nd among more than 8,000 analysts tracked on TipRanks. Moreover, 57% of his ratings have been profitable, bringing 17.6% returns per rating on average.

Apple

Investors may be spooked by Apple’s (AAPL) weakening demand and production issues right now (as evident from the sharp decline in stock value). However, taking into account the value that the company has returned to shareholders in the past years, even through market downcycles, these headwinds seem to be mere hiccups in the company’s long-term journey.

Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth agreed, adding that the “near-term production headwinds create a long-term buying opportunity, and its massive installed user base, increasing ecosystem, and growing Services revenue will continue to drive accelerating Business Performance trends, and greater shareholder value creation.”

Feinseth is particularly upbeat about the company’s foray into the metaverse with the launch of its mixed-reality headset this year.

Moreover, strong balance sheet and cash flow generating capabilities should enable Apple to continue to invest in growth-driving initiatives and enhance shareholder returns through share repurchases and dividend hikes. (See Apple Dividend Date & History on TipRanks)

The analyst reiterated a Buy rating on AAPL stock with a price target of $210. “AAPL is on our Research Focus List and in our Focus Opportunity Portfolio,” emphasized Feinseth, who holds the #269 position among more than 8,000 analysts on TipRanks.

The analyst’s ratings have been profitable 59% of the time and each rating has generated average returns of 10.5%.

Booking Holdings

Booking Holdings (BKNG) is an online platform for making travel and restaurant reservations, which, needless to say, has been benefiting lately from the easing of Covid-related travel restrictions. The stock joins Apple in Ivan Feinseth’s “Research Focus List” and “Focus Opportunity Portfolio.”

Continued travel demand has been transcending the current macroeconomic uncertainties, and that is a boon for Booking. Feinseth also points out that the reopening of China after a prolonged period of strict zero-Covid policy “creates a massive upside catalyst.” (See Booking Holdings Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks)

The company is also gaining increased penetration in the direct travel booking market thanks to its Genius loyalty program and its concept of travel integration. “BKNG’s ability to optimize its market reach and profitability through new technology, including machine learning and other forms of AI (Artificial Intelligence), enables it to expand its global reach, drive more competitive pricing, and increase profitability,” said the analyst.

Feinseth reiterated a Buy rating on Booking, with a price target of $3,210.

Bumble

The challenging economic environment has led to too many problems for the public to be thinking about love. This has left investors swiping left on online dating service provider Bumble (BMBL), leading to a sharp drop in share prices.

Nonetheless, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Mark Kelley maintains a solid relationship with Bumble. “We view Bumble as one of the most innovative companies in the global online dating space offering a compelling and differentiated value proposition for consumers, which we believe will lead to a long runway of paying user/ARPPU growth, and a multi-year operating leverage story,” noted Kelley.

In the last quarter, Bumble launched its message-before-match feature, “Compliments,” which is expected to boost user engagement and thus, support monetization efforts. (See Bumble Blogger Opinions & Sentiment on TipRanks)

Additionally, the analyst believes that Bumble’s mission to prioritize user safety, accountability, and control helps the company stand out in the crowd of competing platforms. Importantly, Kelley also believes that Bumble may be heading into its best days as users increasingly open up to real-life dating after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the dating ecosystem since 2020.

Despite reducing the near-term price target to $27 from $30, Kelley maintains a Buy rating on Bumble.

The analyst’s track record shows that his conviction is worthy of consideration. Kelley has a 103rd ranking among more than 8,000 analysts. Moreover, 70% of his ratings have been successful, generating 31.5% average returns per rating.

Perion Network

Global technology player Perion Network (PERI) is another stock that Mark Kelley has vouched for recently. The analyst’s optimism was reflected in the reiteration of his buy rating and higher price target ($34 from $29). Its recent quarterly results showed positive trends, which led to the renewed conviction.

The analyst views Perion as a “unique ad tech offering,” boasting a portfolio of technology for helping advertisers and publishers scale their business. Perion’s growth journey has been a combination of organic expansion and expansion through acquisitions. Together, they have built a suite of assets that serve the “three pillars of digital advertising” — search, social media, and display/CTV. (See Perion Network Financial Statements on TipRanks)

Kelley expects the global digital advertising market to reach $650 billion by the end of this year. Within that, the analyst estimates the exact opportunity of Perion in terms of TAM (total addressable market) to be around $190 billion, keeping aside the $460 billion TAM estimate for Google search.

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