digimag-october-2022.dealerscope.comDealerscope DigiMag October 2022

× Content x DigiMag October 2022 Pulse Voices Retail Rumblings IFA News Mobility 2022 Retail Excellence Award Appliances Most Powerful Woman In CE Tech Awards 2022 Data Connected Home Gaming Cryptocurrency Distributor Roundup Stat Shot Podcast Subscribe To Our Publications Get In Touch Masthead Menu In this issue, meet the honorees of the Powerful Women in CE Tech Awards. Plus, learn about the rising figures of the blockchain universe in a cryptocurrency feature, and find out what’s happening in the car tech market today. Happy reading! A WORD FROM OUR PUBLISHER Here’s to Our Industry’s Powerful Women! A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.” – Melinda Gates I like this quote by Melinda Gates. I ask — why in our industry does it need to be difficult for women to find a voice? Can we start to change this? I believe we can and have started to see changes. The Dealerscope October issue is one of my favorites, as it showcases Powerful Women in Consumer Technology.” Here we honor the achievements of smart, accomplished women within our industry. This year, our honorees are an amazing group, and I want to personally congratulate each one. I recently went to the Nationwide PrimeTime event, where they hosted a luncheon for their Women in Nationwide” members and allies. The presentation was given by John Boyd, vice president of retail business at GE Appliances, a Haier company, as well as Mary Moulton Putman, vice president of marketing & brand at GE, on how to support the industry through mentorship as well as diversity and inclusion. This was an informative session on how we can support women. I learned a lot and was reminded how great women had been important mentors in my own career. These are the sessions and events our industry needs — not the old, traditional look at me” events. Congratulations to Nationwide Marketing Group on taking the lead in this initiative. Our October issue also includes our annual Retail Excellence” awards. This year we honor four great retailers. They are Audiotronics, Conn’s HomePlus, RC Willey and Wilshire Media Systems. They all have rich histories, and we invite you to please read about them within our pages. We also have coverage on Fall accessories, short-throw projectors, HD audio, digital signage, and more. Our new contributing editor, Brittany Mier Y Teran, has written a feature on cryptocurrency, a topic that I am very excited to read about. We also feature a Distributor Roundup, with insights compiled by Nancy Klosek, and our Car Electronics Roundtable, handled by Steve Silver. Both provide an outlook on what’s happening now, and what is to come. I also want to call your attention to our look at the category of data in the industry; we kick it off in our October issue feature labeled Gaming Tech.” Please note, if you have not been getting our newsletters, I would like to know. We changed our software, so I want to make sure the industry’s most important news is hitting your mailbox. Please contact me at tmonteleone@ctlab.media Best always and have a wonderful Halloween! Tony Monteleone, Group Publisher of CT Lab Global Media A WORD FROM OUR EDITOR IN CHIEF When Change Is Good Fall for inspiring stories in this month’s issue Here in the South, the fall season is synonymous with the long-awaited cooldown in the weather, the busyness of school and business travel and football, of course. While the Dealerscope staff are traveling around the country and globe covering stories on consumer tech, it’s easy to forget that this change in the seasons is just as predictable as ever, and just as welcome — unlike the challenging changes in our supply chain, our businesses and sometimes, throughout the world. But, like with the changing seasons, we all know that change in our industry can be quite good. Women in the technology industry were largely under-represented up until recent years. My mom is an example of how this happens: as a young engineer back in the 80’s, she found out the less-than-qualified man she was training was being paid more than her. When she spoke up, she was let go. Fortunately, her story ends well, with her finding another company that supported her and even offered her higher education in her 60’s to advance her career. Today, we are seeing more of these happy endings because of the changing industry. That’s why this month we are proud to present our 2022 Powerful Women in Consumer Tech Honorees, which consists of women who have inspired and encouraged others in the industry. The goal of this award is not only to recognize these individuals, but also to encourage more diversity in the industry and in the workforce in general. Reading through their responses, I was encouraged by how many said their employers and co-workers rallied with them to support their careers, even if they were the only woman there. That’s excellent change! We have several other inspiring stories in this issue, including our features on the Retail Excellence Award winners and an incredible story from contributor Brittany Mier y Terán on how women are working in the cryptocurrency world. Hear about the successes of distributors and how they’ve reset programs and priorities in sync with dealers’ needs and wants. And in case you missed our Digital IFA post-show issue (you can subscribe online for it still!) check out our coverage of the show and all of its inspiring programming. Thank you for reading Dealerscope magazine. Erinn Loucks Editor in Chief CE RETAIL TECHNOLOGY October 2022 CE News DTC Software Logistics Firms Flourish | Direct-to-consumer (DTC) retail exploded during the pandemic as companies sought to gain access to their customer base without using third-party retailers or intermediaries. However, the logistics of DTC retail are vastly different because instead of shipping products en masse to distribution centers or stores it forces companies to manage the flow of individual goods. To manage these shifting logistics, companies have increasingly turned to supply-chain software technologies, which help to streamline the shipping process and remove points of inefficiency . U.S. Consumers Struggling with Increasing Credit Card Debt | In the second fiscal quarter of 2022 credit card balances increased by $46 million or roughly 5.5 percent from the year’s first quarter. Moreover, the number of new credit card accounts in the country grew by 13 percent on a year-over-year basis, which is the largest recorded jump in the last 20 years. With the increase in accounts came a $312 billion or 2 percent increase in household debt, as consumers struggle to keep up with the high prices of everyday necessities. Retailers Turn to Liquidators to Clear Inventory | In 2021 consumers returned nearly 16.6 percent of the products they purchased, accounting for a 6 percent increase from 2020. In total, the returns made up $761 billion in lost sales. This dynamic indicates that the market is currently over-saturated with unwanted consumer goods. As a result, retailers are turning to liquidators to help move inventory -often for pennies on the dollar- and clear shelves for new in-season products. Target Makes eCommerce More Profitable | Target is improving eCommerce profit margins via an array of sortation centers that leverage a contract carrier force and source products from stores instead of warehouses. At the sortation centers, workers sort products, which have been packaged for delivery in store backrooms, into bundles for delivery to the same town or neighborhood. Target will have nine of these facilities nationwide by the end of January 2023. Nationally, the sortation centers handled a whopping 4.5 million packages in the first quarter of 2022. Meta Closes the Door on Facebook Live Shopping | Meta has ditched Facebook Live Shopping in favor of merchants focusing more on promoting products via Facebook and Instagram Reels. Users are no longer able to host or...