Recently, LeafLink, a wholesale cannabis platform, announced it had secured $100 million in financing led by CPMG, L2 Ventures and Nosara Capital, alongside participation from existing investors.

Artie Minson, president and CEO, LeafLink

LeafLink claims to serve 50% of the U.S. wholesale cannabis industry across 30 markets. The new enables LeafLink to “support its customers’ evolving technology and operational needs through enhanced platform functionality.”

“As states across the U.S. continue to legalize cannabis, we’re looking forward to growing our partnership with the industry,” says LeafLink president and CEO Artie Minson. “Our continued goal is to help brands and retailers scale their businesses while operating safely, efficiently and in compliance.”

Connecting 8,400 marijuana merchants with brands and distributors

LeafLink, a New York B2B marketplace founded in 2016, connects about 8,400 marijuana retailers with 3,700 cannabis brands and distributors.

For sellers, the marketplace platform enables them to access a real-time inventory menu, enter orders on behalf of buyers, log sales activities, and receive and approve inbound orders. In addition, sellers can track order status, share details with customers, and track upselling and cross-selling activities and opportunities ,among other features.

For buyers, marketplace tools include order and reorder management, customer support, order-tracking. and the ability to request samples.

LeafLink says it has now raised more than $450 million in investment funds.

The company also says its marketplace platform processes more than one billion transactions annually, valued at about $4.5 billion.

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Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (No. 60)

Abercrombie net sales were up 3% year over year to $836 million. The retailer did not break out ecommerce sales. 

“On digital engagement, our team has leveraged social media platforms to showcase our lifestyle offering, where we are able to highlight key must-win products for us in an authentic way. Social has proven to be a great channel for our target millennial customer,” CEO Fran Horowitz told investors.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (No. 55)

American Eagle ecommerce revenue was down 4% year over year in the first quarter, while in store revenue was up 5%. Overall revenue grew 2%, the retailer reported.

“Customers returned to in-person shopping and demand continued to normalize from elevated builds during the pandemic,” chief operating officer Michael Rempel told investors in a call. Leaders at American Eagle are working on strategies to use analytics to increase engagement, traffic, and conversion, Rempel said.

Bath & Body Works Inc. (No. 57)

The health and beauty retailer finished expanding its BOPIS rollout across the U.S. in Q1, CEO and director Gina Boswell told investors on May 18. Bath & Body Works plans to increasingly connect its digital and in-store offerings, Boswell said, because customers who shop through both channels spend three times more than customers who only use one. As of May 18, just 15% of customers shop through both channels, she said.

Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (No. 328)

Ecommerce sales were down 18.4% in Boot Barn’s fourth quarter. “We believe these declines are a result of competitors having a stronger in-stock position compared to last year and expect this softness will be transitory,” CEO and president Jim Conroy told investors.

“While our online business declined, that business is cycling two very strong years of 39% and 24% comp growth in fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2021, respectively. Given the extraordinary revenue increase last year, we are quite pleased with these results,” Conroy said. Retail same store sales declined just 3.3% over the same period.

BJ’s Wholesale (No. 69)

BJ’s Wholesale said that digitally enabled comparable sales were up 19% year over year for the quarter ended April 29 ,2023. Online sales made up 10% of total sales in the quarter, CEO and president Bob Eddy told investors. Members of the warehouse club who shop online spend 70% more than members who only shop in stores, Eddy said.

Canada Goose (No. 135)

The winter wear retailer grew revenue 31.4% year over year in its fiscal Q4, but growth was partially offset by lower ecommerce results, per CEO and chairman Dani Reiss. Canada Goose didn’t share specific ecommerce figures.

The retailer shared plans to “further enhance store productivity and e-commerce performance in the not-so-distant future,” without stating details.

The Children’s Place (No. 124)

Digital sales growth at The Children’s Place “significantly outperformed” in-store sales for the first quarter, CEO and president Jane Elfers said in a statement. 

Online purchases made up 46% of sales in the quarter, compared to 45% in the previous year’s Q1 and just 33% in 2019. Elfers said ecommerce is projected to be 30% of sales by 2025, representing over $1 billion. 

Web traffic was “up double digits,” and 56% of new customer acquisition came through ecommerce, the retailer said. 

“Our millennial moms’ clear preference for the ease and convenience of shopping for her kids online is here to stay,” Elfers told investors.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (No. 32)

The sports retailer didn’t share specific ecommerce figures, but president and CEO Lauren Hobart told investors that “our digital experience remains an integral part of our success,” in a Q1 earnings call. 

Dick’s acquired outdoor retailer Moosejaw in March. Moosejaw primarily operates online, averaging 3 million visitors per month.

“For just over 10 months in 2023, we expect Moosejaw will add approximately $100 million in net sales,” chief financial officer Navdeep Gupta told investors.

e.l.f. Cosmetics Inc. (No. 953)

Beauty retailer e.l.f. grew net sales by 78% in its fiscal fourth quarter, “primarily driven by strength across our retailer and e-commerce channels,” it said in a statement.

E.l.f. began as an exclusively online brand before expanding into stores. Consumption of the brand’s digital content was up 75% in fiscal 2023, CEO Tarang Amin told investors. The retailer’s beauty squad loyalty program grew to 3.7 million members in the quarter, up 25% year over year. Loyalty members were behind nearly 80% of ecommerce sales, along with higher AOV and more frequent purchases than non-members, Amin assid.

Foot Locker, Inc. (No. 52)

Foot Locker reported that comparable digital sales in Q1 were down 16.8% year over year. The footwear retailer also discontinued an ecommerce line called East Bay, and online sales were down 9.5% excluding the brand. That’s still a larger decrease than in store comparable sales, which were down 7.4%. 

Online sales made up 16.3% of sales in the quarter, down from 18% in Q1 2022. Ecommerce sales are starting to pick up, with April sales up year over year, CEO Mary Dillon said. The retailer is on track to reach its goal of 25% online sales by 2026, Dillon said.

Guess Inc. (No. 177)

Online sales at Guess grew in Q1, although more slowly than in store sales, CEO Carlos Alberini said. 

Total revenue was down 4% in the quarter to $570 million, with U.S. revenue declines offsetting growth in Asia and Europe.

Kohl’s Corp. (No. 23)

Digital sales were down 19.6% year over year in Q1, Kohl’s reported. Net sales were down just 3.3%. 

“Our customers continue to shift back towards stores, and we reduced online-only promotions as we work to simplify our value strategies,” CEO Tom Kingsbury told investors.

Online sales made up just over one-quarter of sales for the quarter at 26%.

Ralph Lauren Corp. (No. 75)

Ralph Lauren’s digital sales were up in fiscal 2023, the retailer said. ”Sales in our owned Ralph Lauren digital sites grew mid-single digits on top of 20% growth last year,” chief financial officer and chief operating officer Jane Nielsen told investors in a Q4 earnings call.

“We plan to enhance the user experience with rich digital content and even greater customer personalization in fiscal ’24,” Nielsen said. That includes using generative AI for copy editing, computer programming, and graphics in addition to inventory optimization and forecasting.

Urban Outfitters (No. 30)

Apparel retailer Urban Outfitters reported comparable sales grew by double digits both in stores and online for its Anthropologie, Free People, and FP Movement brands. The Urban Outfitters brand’s comparable sales were down, and overall comparable sales were up 5%, the retailer said. 

“The growth in Retail segment comp sales was driven by a high single-digit digital comp and a low single-digit positive store comp,” co-president and chief operating officer Frank Conforti told investors. 

Online rental and resale marketplace Nuuly revenue grew 125% year over year, ending the quarter with 167,000 subscribers. 

Williams Sonoma Inc. (No. 22)

Revenue decreased 6% year over year in Q1, but was up 3.5% over 2021. The retailer did not specify ecommerce revenue. 

Williams Sonoma plans to “optimize our digital spend and customer connections,” per CEO Laura Albner.

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Net sales fell 6% versus a year earlier to $3.28 billion.

Comparable sales declined by 3% across Gap’s four brands. That was due mostly to large drops at Banana Republic and Athleta, while Old Navy fell slightly and the Gap brand posted a 1% increase. The results suggest that Gap will need to do more beyond cost-cutting measures to reposition its brands for longer-term growth.

“We continue to take the necessary actions to drive critical change at Gap Inc., ultimately getting us back on a path toward delivering consistent results long-term,” interim CEO Bob Martin said in a statement.

The Gap is No. 20 in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 database, which ranks retailers by annual web sales.

Gap’s margin beats expectation

Gross margin in the period came in above the average analyst estimate, while adjusted earnings per share were slightly positive, compared with an expected loss. The improvement was due in part to lower air freight expense and fewer discounts, the company said. Gap has also reduced headcount and trimmed expenses.

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The report, B2B Ecommerce Technology Trends + EnvisionB2B 2023 Preview, includes several reviews of B2B companies and a preview of the full EnvisionB2B agenda, which features more than 50 speakers and 25 sessions. EnvisionB2B is scheduled for June 20 – 22 at the Hilton Chicago.

Joe Cicman, senior analyst, Forrester Research Inc.

Joe Cicman, senior analyst for B2B digital commerce at Forrester Research, asserts that B2B sellers must review the functions that address the challenges they face in serving customers, then identify the ecommerce technology platform that covers those functions.

At EnvisionB2B 2023 next month, Cicman will refer to findings of a recent joint Forrester and Digital Commerce 360 B2B Digital Buyer study and discuss with Val DuVernet, senior director of digital strategy at pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp., the intersection of online B2B buyer demands and ecommerce technology strategies.

Among the survey’s findings: 70% of B2B buyers will increase their online purchasing of good and services this year, and buyers’ prefer purchasing on manufacturers’ ecommerce sites because of the quality of their product information. Those findings show that B2B sellers must find the right ecommerce technology to offer customers the best buying experience, Cicman says.

B2B companies “should examine potential ecommerce solutions to identify which ones cover the specific common functions they most value,” Forrester says in the March 2023 report, “Demystifying the Technical Functions of B2B Commerce Solutions,” written by Cicman with input from other Forrester analysts.

Some critical functions, for example, can include how ecommerce technology manages customer account hierarchies, contract terms and personalized product catalogs for each customer.

Gene Alvarez, distinguished vice president and analyst, Gartner Inc.

Gene Alvarez, distinguished vice president and analyst covering digital commerce technology at research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., says B2B companies today have plenty options for deploying ecommerce technology based on their resources and their customers’ demands regarding the online buying experience. Alvarez will lead an EnvisionB2B panel discussion and workshop on customer loyalty strategies.

He asserts that, as competition increases in B2B ecommerce and companies develop new and innovative ways to interact with buyers and make their customers’ jobs easier, it will be crucial for online sellers to operate commerce technology they can modify to keep up with new standards.

“As new innovation comes along, you need to” be able to bring about that new innovation because it will be table stakes within a year,” Alvarez says.

Manufacturers and distributors push ahead with ecommerce

Brent Steffen, director of ecommerce, Caterpillar Inc.

“Everything we are doing with digital is about creating integrated and seamless experiences for our customers that help them be more efficient,” says Brent Steffen,  Caterpillar Inc.’s director of ecommerce, who will give a June 21 keynote address about innovation in B2B ecommerce at EnvisionB2B 2023.

With corporate roots going back to 1873 and annual sales of more than $6 billion, Konica Minolta Inc. is well known as a global manufacturer and marketer of digital imaging products used in corporate and institutional facilities worldwide.

But the company is ready to reach and engage more customers more often, which is why it’s forging into B2B ecommerce.

Velinda Cox, vice president of ecommerce, Konica Minolta

“We are in a position of transition, change and transformation,” says Velinda Cox, senior vice president of ecommerce at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc., in Ramsey, New Jersey, where she is spearheading the global company’s ecommerce strategy. Cox will give a June 22 EnvisionB2B keynote address on developing a new strategy for digital ecommerce and a supportive technology ecosystem.

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The marketplace, Volition, will use the newly raised investment money from Newark Venture Partners and Quiet Capital, with participation from Lachy Groom, Alan Rutledge, Julian Capital, and Humba (Susa) Ventures, to continue expand operations, the company says.

Volition B2B marketplace

Nick Pinkston, CEO, Volition

“Volition is the first marketplace for the $2 trillion industrial components industry that helps engineering and purchasing teams find and buy all of the parts they need to prototype and manufacture their designs,” says CEO and co-founder Nick Pinkston.

The industrial parts market is highly fragmented, with over 500,000 unique suppliers that can be difficult to discover, the company says.

“Prior to Volition’s arrival, there was no way to easily search across all suppliers,” the Volition B2B marketplace says. “Most suppliers are new to ecommerce. And the majority do not currently provide customers a way to search for or purchase their products online, meaning customers must search through a patchwork of options to find what they need.”

Volition says its core B2B marketplace technology directly integrates with suppliers’ databases to maintain updated information and creates automated systems that quickly search and filter parts by exact product specifications, the marketplace says.

The Volition B2B marketplace, on the web at GoVolition.com, is based in San Francisco.

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Namely, small businesses. More than 60% of the businesses that sell on Amazon are small and independent, Amazon says in a new report. Collectively, those businesses in 2022 sold more than 4.1 billion products — or an average of 7,800 products every minute — Amazon says.

Sales per small business store on Amazon averaged about $230,000 per store, according to Amazon’s new report, 2022 Small Business Empowerment.

Dharmesh Mehta, vice president, worldwide selling partner services, Amazon.com Inc.

“Selling in Amazon’s store has enabled independent sellers to employ an estimated 1.5 million people in the U.S.,” says Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon’s worldwide selling partner services. “And during the 2022 holiday season alone, Amazon customers purchased nearly half a billion products from small businesses in the U.S., leveraging Amazon’s significant investments in customer traffic, a trusted shopping experience and fulfillment and logistics capabilities that enable fast and convenient delivery.”

Amazon small business metrics

• In 2022, Amazon and its third-party lending partners lent $2.1 billion to independent sellers.
• The top small business categories include health and personal care, home, beauty, grocery, and apparel,
• The states with the most independent sellers are California, Florida, New York, Texas, and New Jersey.
• The fastest growing are Alaska, Washington, D.C., Mississippi, Maine, and Wyoming.

“While small businesses continue to thrive by selling in Amazon’s store, running a small business has never been straightforward,” Amazon says. “And this past year brought new challenges that businesses of all sizes had to navigate. The economy saw rising interest rates and inflation not seen in nearly 40 years. And many businesses continued to face supply chain issues because of the global pandemic and its aftereffects.”

Amazon.com Inc. is No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North American web merchants by sales. It is No. 3 in the Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces.

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Total U.S. web traffic from Feb.-April 2023 was -5.3% for Home Depot, -8.9% for Lowe’s, and -13.1% for Overstock, according to Similarweb estimates.

Home Depot (ranked No. 4 in the 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 database) had the best conversion rate (3.3%) among home improvement merchants, which include Lowe’s (No. 12), Overstock.com (No. 50), Wayfair Inc. (No 10), Ikea, and Ace Hardware Corp. (No. 662). That’s down half a point from 3.8% a year prior and 3.8% in the quarter ended Jan. 31. Ikea ranks No. 3 in the Digital Commerce 360 Europe database.

When compared to earnings results for Q1, only Lowe’s reported an increase in online sales (6%) for the three-month period ended May 5.

Home Depot online sales for fiscal Q1 ended April 30 fell 2.9%. While Overstock.com reported that online sales were down 29% in its fiscal Q1 ended March 31. Wayfair reported revenue decreased 7.3%, active customers decreased 14.6% and orders were down 6.7% for its fiscal Q1 ended March 31. 

Home Depot led the pack in web traffic 

With more than 521 million visits to its website in Q1 2023, Home Depot outpaced Lowe’s 321 million visits and 303 million visits to Wayfair.com, according to Similarweb estimates of desktop and mobile web visits from Feb.-April 2023.

Ikea has the most web visits that lead to conversion

Ikea’s converted web visits grew 0.3%, the only merchant to grow in this category. Wayfair’s conversion rate decreased 0.1%, followed by Ace Hardware (-0.2%), Lowe’s (-0.3%), Home Depot (-0.5%) and Overstock (-0.6%). 

Lowe’s lost the most web traffic share but gained online sales in Q1

It may be quality of time, not quantity of time, when it comes to web traffic visits. Lowe’s web traffic declined in Q1 but online sales increased 6% — an anomaly among competitors whose ecommerce sales declined.

Bounce rates were down for Lowe’s but up for Home Depot, according to Similarweb estimates. Lowe’s bounce rate decreased 2.77% in April 2023 year over year. 

“This could reflect a better ecommerce experience for website visitors,” says David Carr, senior insights manager. Over the last few years, Lowe’s has invested in upgrading its 15-year-old legacy software system. 

Online sales increased 6%, representing more than a 10% sales penetration. Lowe’s will continue to focus on upgrading its B2B Pro digital experience with new tools and personalization, said Marvin Ellison, chairman, president and CEO, during the retailer’s May 23 earnings call. Ellison attributed online growth to an increase in its pro sales. Lowe’s pro customers are contractors, repair remodelers, tradesmen, as well as property management and facility management professionals, according to the merchant.

“We also continue to enhance our DIY online experience by making home improvement projects easier for consumers to visualize, estimate and shop,” Ellison told investors. “These investments are paying off with higher online convergence and attachment rates.”

Consumers are also spending less time per website visit, according to Similarweb’s estimates. The average minutes per visit, desktop and mobile web, worldwide, is on the decline. 

In April 2023, the time spent decreased year over year:

Ace Hardware gains the most web traffic in Q1

Smaller merchant Ace Hardware’s desktop web traffic grew 22.4%, according to Similarweb estimates of desktop and mobile web visits from Feb.-April 2023. That’s in line with Ace Hardware’s Q1 2023 (ended April 1) report of a 22% increase in online visits. The merchant reported that online revenue increased 11% compared with the year prior.

Wayfair web traffic also increased 3.1%.

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Chewy ranks No. 13 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers by web sales.

Customers requested health care from Chewy

Chewy primarily focuses on food and supplies in the $130 billion pet industry, but about one-third of that market is health spending, president of Chewy Health Mita Malhotra said. In 2022, Chewy had 20.4 million active customers, the retailer  said.

Before the pharmacy launch, Chewy heard feedback from customers that they wanted to buy medical supplies from the company. 

“We buy everything else from you … why don’t you carry medical? Why don’t you sell pharmaceuticals?” customers asked Chewy, per Malhotra. 

Chewy first ventured into health care as a pharmacy because it made sense with the existing ecommerce platform, Malhotra told Digital Commerce 360. The biggest opportunity was in medications for “chronic conditions and preventative care,” she said. They make up about 70% of medications Chewy sells.

Consumers showed a preference for buying those products, with examples like insulin and prescription food, as subscriptions. The strategy was a massive success, and autoship orders made up 73% of sales in the most recent fiscal quarter, accounting for $1.98 billion of revenue.

However, fewer than 5% of Chewy customers buy all their pet health care products from the ecommerce retailer, CNBC reported. The retailer hopes to make health care 30% of its business in the near future.

Building trust

Consumers’ willingness to pay for their pets’ health care has been profitable for Chewy, but it first had to convince them it was a trustworthy provider.

“Trust is rooted in how you really take care of customers. Are you listening to them? Are you taking care of them?” Malhotra said.

For Chewy, that’s an outgrowth of the retailer’s customer service, which has made headlines for how it treats pet owners in difficult times. Some customers told Entrepreneur in 2022 about receiving flowers, sympathy cards, and even portraits when their pets died.

Customer service representatives have leeway to have these interactions with customers, Malhotra said. Currently only about 20% of Chewy customers are buying pharmaceuticals, but she believes the number will grow thanks to the emphasis on customer service. Chewy declined to share specific statistics around its pharmaceutical sales. 

Pet health is resilient

The pet category is “resilient,” even in times of economic downturns, Malhotra said, and that’s even more true of pet health care. She cited a 2021 Metlife study of 2,000 dog and cat owners, which found that 58% said they worried more about their pets’ health than their own. 52% of respondents also said they spend more money on their pets’ health care each year than on their own. 

Malhotra said this trend is clear in Chewy’s sales.

“Food, pharmacy, wellness regiments: People are not pulling back on spending,” she said. Those categories are “durable,” while consumers might pull back on more discretionary items like toys if they have less to spend.

Better medical care and nutrition are also helping pets live longer. This leads to further spending on pet health care, and increasingly expensive care as they age, according to a report from Bloomberg Intelligence.

“We’re seeing a profound increase in consumer spending on pets and expect to see this continue through 2030,” co-author of the Bloomberg report Diana Rosero-Pena said. “Consumers are willing to pay more for items for their pets, with the pet food market having the potential to grow more than 50% from current levels by the end of the decade.”

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Both merchants cited falling lumber prices and unfavorable weather conditions as reasons why do-it-yourself consumers pulled back on projects in Q1.

Home Depot Q1 2023 earnings

Net sales fell to $37.25 billion in the fiscal first quarter of 2023. That’s down 4.2% from $28.90 billion during the same quarter in 2022.

Net earnings were also down 8.5% at $3.9 billion, compared with $4.2 billion a year prior.

Home Depot chair, president and CEO Ted Decker told investors that after 43% growth in three years, the merchant expected “demand would moderate in fiscal 2023, which our first quarter results reflect,” according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the earnings call with investors on May 16.

While do-it-yourself (DIY) customers bought more compared with Home Depot’s B2B Pro customers, sales to both were negative compared with the prior year, Decker said. Home Depot’s B2B Pro business sells to professional home improvement and other contractors.

The merchant still uses stores to fulfill some of its online orders. It fulfilled 45% of online orders through stores during the period.

Comparable retail sales for expensive items were down 6.5%, Billy Bastek, executive vice president, merchandising, told investors. These are for transactions over $1,000.

Lowe’s Q1 2023 earnings

Lowe’s net sales were $22.35 billion, down nearly 6% compared with $22.66 billion a year earlier.

The retailer’s net earnings for the three-month period ended May 5 were $2.26 billion, compared with $2.33 billion the year prior.

Online sales increased 6%, representing more than a 10% sales penetration. Lowe’s will continue to focus on upgrading its B2B Pro digital experience with new tools and personalization, said Marvin Ellison, chairman, president and CEO, during the May 23 earnings call.

Comparable sales decreased 4.3% compared with a year earlier.

Supply chain improvements

Ellison told investors Lowe’s continues to roll out its market delivery model, bringing the merchant to 12 geographic regions across the U.S. supporting 1,100 stores. Improvements include delivering large and bulky products more efficiently.

“And with our improved online capabilities, like easy scheduling and order tracking, we continue to see more and more of our customers getting comfortable completing their purchases online,” Ellison said.

Lowe’s to expand rural products in some existing stores

Lowe’s plans to add rural assortment merchandise to as many as 300 existing stores by the end of year. The stores will offer farm, ranch and outdoor products. This is in an effort “to position Lowe’s as a one-stop-shop to make it convenient for rural customers to get what they need in one shopping trip,” Ellison said. The rural store locations will offer merchandise for pets, livestock, trailers, utility vehicles, specialized hardware, and apparel from clothing brand Carhartt.

“While in years past, our penetration of rural and remote stores was viewed as a competitive disadvantage,” Ellison told analysts, “we now expect that these stores will be a key component of our operating profit growth over the next three to five years.”

The year ahead for home improvement

Deflation in lumber will be less of a headwind in 2023, says Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at financial investment firm Edward Jones. Consumer discretionary spending habits are more telling, he says.

Home Depot has had three years of unprecedented growth. As its Pro customers shift from bigger projects to small- to mid-sized projects, the merchant will continue to experience a slowdown, he says.

“Home Depot might feel some of that headwind in the near term,” Yarbrough says.

“We saw this huge pendulum shift during the pandemic for the home improvement category,” he says. “Now we’re seeing it normalized. Consumer spending is shifting back to the services sectors like travel and entertainment.

“But homes will get older,” Yarbrough says. “They will require more repair and maintenance in the long term.”

Meanwhile, over the last two to three years, Lowe’s has upgraded from a 15-year-old [technology] legacy software system to the cloud.

“Now, Lowe’s system can handle a lot more traffic,” Yarbrough says. “Lowe’s has also updated online transaction capabilities. It has been playing catch up, in a sense, with Home Depot. And I think they’re there now.”

Lowe’s plans to expand into rural locations is an interesting move, Yarbrough says. He doesn’t believe the move will affect Home Depot so much as it might Tractor Supply. Tractor Supply is conveniently located to rural shoppers and has a strong welcome/loyalty program, Yarbrough says. It also appeals to consumers on the go — its mobile app accounted for 20% of digital sales in Q1 2023.

“It’s early, so let’s not get too excited here,” he says. “But if this strategy works and starts driving more customers to [Lowe’s rural stores] and drives better sales, it will be an interesting dynamic to watch over the next several years.”

Home Depot ranks No. 4 in the 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 database. Lowe’s ranks No. 12.

Home Depot earnings

For the first fiscal quarter ended Apr. 30, 2023, Home Depot reported:

• Net sales decreased to $37.25 billion. That’s down 4.2% from $38.90 billion from the comparable period a year earlier.
• Net earnings were $3.9 billion, down 8.5% from $4.2 billion compared to a year earlier.
• Online sales decreased 2.9% for the quarter, compared with the same quarter in 2022.
• Comparable sales in the U.S. decreased 4.6%.

Lowe’s earnings

For the quarter ended May 5, 2023, Lowe’s reported:

• Net sales increased to $22.35 billion. That’s down nearly 6% from $23.66 billion for the comparable period a year earlier.
• Net earnings was $2.26 billion, compared with $2.33 billion a year earlier.
• Online sales grew 6.0% compared with the same quarter in 2022.
• Comparable sales decreased 4.3%.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports.

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Christopher Schutts, CEO, Logik.io

The company will expand its market strategy with $16 million in a Series A funding round, Logik.io announced today.

“Many B2B companies struggle to deliver the low-touch consumerized experiences customers demand today,” co-founder and CEO Christopher Shutts said. “But the businesses who are leading their industries understand that no matter how complex your products are, buyers seek out businesses who make it simple to find, configure, and augment purchases across any channel.”

Logik.io’s clients include Keysight Technologies and Club Car

Logik says its Commerce Logic Engine technology is designed to help B2B buyers find and configure complex products and services from manufacturers, SaaS software providers and service companies. Logik’s customer base includes electric testing equipment manufacturer Keysight Technologies and Club Car, a maker of golf carts and utility vehicles.

The $16 million funding was led by Emergence Capital and joined by ServiceNow Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. Logik.io has now raised a total $26 million since Schutts and Logik.io chairman Godard Abel co-founded the company in 2021. Santi Subotovsky, general partner at Emergence Capital, will join the Logik.io board.

Prior to Logik.io, Schutts and Abel co-founded BigMachines, a configure-price-quote software provider they sold in 2013 to Oracle Corp., which renamed it Oracle CPQ.

Abel also developed Steelbrick, a CPQ software firm now part of Salesforce Inc. In addition, Abel is co-founder and CEO of G2.com, an AI- and ChatGTP-backed online information resource for business software.

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