Today In Retail: Amazon’s Disappointment Could Be Walmart’s Advantage; Carter’s Gets Bump From Enhanced Tax Credit

In today’s top retail news, Amazon misses analysts’ sales expectations amid consumers’ return to pre-pandemic patterns, while children’s apparel retailer Carter’s says the federal government’s new child tax credit is good for both the country and its bottom line. Also, Procter & Gamble is expected to raise prices as logistical costs rise, and retailers turn to artificial intelligence to assist with the industry’s labor shortage.

AMZN vs WMT Weekly: Amazon’s Decelerating Sales Could Be An Opening For Walmart

With consumers emerging from their homes to shop and socialize, therefore spending less time shopping online, Amazon missed analysts’ second quarter sales expectations — a rare occurrence for the eCommerce giant. Walmart isn’t scheduled to release its earnings until Aug. 17, but where Amazon saw disappointment, Walmart may see strength in its retail footprint. Walmart has 4,700 stores across the U.S., with 90 percent of Americans living within 10 miles of a location, meaning the retailer may have been able to capitalize on consumers’ emergence from their homes.

Carter’s Says Enhanced Child Tax Credit Gives Children’s Apparel A Boost

Children’s apparel retailer Carter’s is optimistic as back-to-school shopping returns to normal and the new enhanced child tax credit kicks in across the U.S., even as the company is being forced to spend more to ensure products can be imported quickly. In the second quarter, Carter’s net sales were $746 million, up 45 percent year over year, which executives attributed to structural changes the retailer has made in its business — including more focused product offerings, leaner inventories and less emphasis on promotions, as well as enhanced eCommerce capabilities.

P&G Warns Of $1.9B In Cost Increases For FY 2022

Consumers can expect to pay a bit more for their favorite Procter & Gamble products in the next year, after officials said they expect to levy price increases across the board to overcome $1.9 billion in anticipated higher commodity costs and freight increases. For the company’s 2021 fiscal year, which ended June 30, P&G reported net sales of $76.1 billion, up 7 percent from a year earlier.

AI Is Retailers’ Favorite New Tool To Help Combat Labor Shortage

Zohar Gilad, CEO of retail software provider Fast Simon, told PYMNTS that artificial intelligence (AI) may be a part of the solution to the retail industry’s labor shortage, automating processes that previously required manual labor. Fast Simon is integrated with many of the major online storefront providers, including Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Magento, which allows the company to give merchants a turnkey AI product without much heavy lifting. “Our job is to make sure that merchants can get anything they can get from the traffic that comes to their store,” Gilad said.