Rebecca Day

CTA’s return to New York Nov. 11 to honor inductees into the 2021 Consumer Tech Hall of Fame will require COVID-19 vaccine proof, said confirmations emailed Thursday. Vaccine verification will be required through photo ID and one of four methods: CTA’s partnership with the Clear Health Pass, the NYC COVID Safe App, New York’s Excelsior Pass or a physical Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination card, CTA said. “Proof of a negative COVID-19 test is not permitted for admittance to this event,” it said. The trade group is following state and local guidelines and CDC recommendations and asks that attendees “wear a mask during the event when not eating or drinking.” The Clear Health Pass we downloaded using the CTA code tied to the Hall of Fame dinner expires Dec. 4. It wasn’t clear if the pass could be updated to be used as proof of vaccine at CES in Las Vegas Jan. 5-8. CES didn't respond to questions. 2021 honorees at the event are Mike Fasulo, Sony Electronics; Nancy Klosek, Dealerscope; Bill and Barbara Pearse, Ultimate Electronics; and Roberta Williams, Sierra Online. The event wasn’t held in 2020 due to the pandemic and those inductees will also be honored Thursday: Vint Cerf, developed TCP/IP; Frank Conrad, Westinghouse; Peter Fannon, Panasonic; Kazuo Hirai, Sony; and Robert Kahn, Developed. This year’s event will also recognize the 2021 and 2020 Innovation Entrepreneur Award (IEA) honorees celebrating a leading executive, business and an exceptional startup in the consumer technology industry: James Mault, Nuheara and Roybi for 2021; Vicki Mayo, re:3D and Nuro for 2020, CTA said.

EMarketer predicts many Apple Watch Series 7 and MacBook Pro M1 and M1 Max units ordered today won’t be delivered until early to mid-December, emailed the market research firm Wednesday. GPS and cellular Apple Watch Series 7 models we put in a virtual cart at Apple.com Wednesday showed a delivery window of Dec. 7-14. EMarketer also cited reports that Apple cut iPhone 13 production by 10 million units due to the chip shortage. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on an earnings call last week that chip shortages cost the company $6 billion in the September quarter (see 2110290040). Target and Apple doubled the number of store-within-a-store installations to 36 in time for the holiday season, eMarketer said. The spaces have Apple-trained Target tech consultants. Apple didn’t comment Wednesday.

Spending on influencer marketing in the U.S. will rise 33.6% this year to $3.7 billion, almost $1 billion more than in 2020, said an eMarketer report. Growth will continue in double digits until 2023, approaching $5 billion. That compares with estimated spending of $58.66 billion on social network ads, which are seen growing 26.9% over 2020. Both are social media-based.

After an outsized 2020 season, when the COVID-19 pandemic drove consumers to invest heavily in home office and home entertainment products, spending on tech during the holiday season will grow just 0.5% year on year to $142.5 billion October-December, said CTA Tuesday. The October-December spend in 2020 was $141.8 billion, a 10.9% increase from 2019.

Despite “complex mechanics and forces at work,” the outlook is favorable for strong retail sales growth this holiday season,” said National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz Tuesday in a holiday season forecast follow-up. Kleinhenz repeated NRF's optimistic forecast last week (see 2110270035) of Nov. 1-Dec. 31 sales growing 8.5%-10.5% to $843.4 billion-$859 billion, excluding sales of autos, gasoline and restaurants. "Even at the low end of the forecast, that would be both the largest growth rate -- topping last year’s 8.2 percent -- and the largest total amount -- beating last year’s $777.3 billion -- on record," he said.

Conflicting projections of the impact of COVID-19 were one of the factors behind the supply-demand mismatch that continues to plague the global supply chain, said Apple CEO Tim Cook on a Thursday earnings call. Some within and outside the industry “thought that the pandemic would reduce demand” so they “pulled their orders down” and “things reset,” Cook said: “What really happened was demand went up.” Yields also came into play, he said.

Headphones, laptops and TVs headline Target’s “early Black Friday" savings event Oct. 31-Nov. 6, the retailer said Thursday. A dozen TVs are part of the early Black Friday deal, including a 55-inch TCL 4K Roku TV ($399, down from $519), an Element 32-inch 720p TV ($10 off to $189), an LG 32-inch TV ($199); and a Westinghouse 43-inch 4K Roku TV ($349). Sale-priced Samsung TU7000 series 50-inch ($479), 55-inch ($499) and 65-inch ($649) TVs were shown as not available for shipping Friday, and Target stores in the New York area had very limited stock of the trio. In other deals, Beats Solo 3 wireless headphones are half off to $99, an HP 15-inch laptop is $200 off to $339 and Bose QuietComfort 35 noise-canceling headphones are cut $120 to $179. An Element 65-inch 4K Roku TV is discounted $350 to $299. Select video games for Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation are up to 60% off. If a Holiday Best deal price goes lower later in the season, Target’s Holiday Price Match Guarantee allows guests to match items at Target through Dec. 24, it said. Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Costco, Kohl's, Newegg, Office Depot, Sam's Club, Staples and Walmart were among the 29 competitors Target said it will price-match this season within 14 days of purchase.

Amazon is optimistic it can meet customer demand in Q4, said Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky on a Q3 earnings call Thursday. He cited “a lot of promotional activity” in October to pull some demand forward from the typical November-December crunch around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “Operationally, it's easier to perform when the volume is spread out," he said.

E-commerce’s share of overall retail “has reset lower than the peak last year,” said Shopify Chief Financial Officer Amy Shapero on a Thursday earnings call. The company expects Q4 to generate most of its 2021 revenue, but the revenue spread “will be more evenly distributed across the four quarters than it has been historically,” she said, citing potential impact from supply chain delays and higher costs for materials, labor, shipping and advertising. Spending for Black Friday and Cyber Monday “may be pulled forward.” Shopify expects its gross merchandise value to grow “substantially faster than the commerce market," Shapero said. E-commerce share remains several points higher than two years ago and is “poised to resume a more normalized rate of growth,” she said. In a reflection of in-store retail’s 2021 rebound, CEO Harley Finkelstein pitched traditional retailers on the call, saying the brick-and-mortar segment “reclaimed some of its share of retail.” He touted Shopify’s new point-of-sale software that supports in-store retail, allowing merchants to “transition seamlessly” between online and off-line selling. The e-commerce platform company’s revenue grew 46% year on year in Q3 to $1.1 billion. In social commerce, Shopify expanded its relationship with TikTok in the quarter, introducing product discovery and shopping tabs, linking products directly to a merchant’s online store for checkout, said Finkelstein. He also cited integration with Spotify, allowing artists to sync their product catalogs and showcase products on their Spotify profile (see 2110270043). The economy “remains resilient,” said Shapero, but with consumer spending on services and off-line retail expanding, e-commerce “is growing at a more normalized pace relative to 2020.” Shopify, in turn, expects to “grow revenue rapidly in 2021, but at a lower rate than in 2020.” Shares closed 7% higher Thursday at $1,457.

IRobot slashed operating income projections for the fiscal year ending Jan. 1 on concerns over higher supply chain costs, price increases and Section 301 tariffs, said Chief Financial Officer Julie Zeiler on a Thursday earnings call. Q3 gross margin declined by 11 percentage points, with 60% of the decrease due to an unexpected $14 million in tariff costs and “supply chain headwinds.”