Nutraceuticals and cosmetics certainly have it easier because they have more sophisticated channels. Retail is struggling because it is more conservative and until now had not felt the need to personalise its service and offers
What will we read about in your new book? ‘I tell another side of the family through two extraordinary explorers: my eponymous ancestor Giuseppe Caprotti, who lived thirty years in Yemen, and my great uncle Gianni Albertini, a skier and mountaineer who explored the North Pole’.
In 2013 Esselunga a Casa had a gross profit – before tax – of 7.9%. This is discussed in ‘Le Ossa dei Caprotti’
The government, on energy, is in a huge conflict of interest, which is why prices do not fall: Snam, Italgas and Terna beat Microsoft, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook). Italy’s publicly controlled companies that transport or distribute gas and electricity to citizens and businesses are more profitable than some of the world’s largest, most technologically advanced and important companies in the business of the future: cloud, data centres and artificial intelligence. In short, Big Energy beats Big Tech
“If the situation continues, consumers could see higher prices for bread within six to ten weeks, for eggs within a few months, and for pork and broiler chicken within six months, estimates Raj Patel, a food systems expert at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.”
My speech will also start from some of my experiences at Esselunga, where for many years I worked on the development of projects that accompanied an important phase in the evolution of Italian distribution: the Superstores, the Fìdaty card, Esselunga at Home, the ESD purchasing centre, the development of organic products, together with the introduction of the company’s first social report. The aim, of course, is not to look back. Those experiences serve above all as a starting point to reflect on how distribution, the role of retailer brands and the relationship between industry and retail are changing today.
McKinsey estimates that retailers with autonomous AI systems are growing 50 per cent faster than competitors. Cognizant projects $4.4 trillion in additional spending over the next five years from customers embracing AI. Agents are not an investment in the future of retail, they are already the present, and those who delay to act today risk having to make up for a hard-to-fill disadvantage tomorrow
The first attribution study on Cyclone Harry confirms the role of climate change being denied and ‘cancelled out’ by Trump. And in Europe, losses from extreme weather events since 1980 have amounted to €822 billion, growing exponentially in recent years
It is a pity that no Italian company has had the size but above all the vision to approach the world as these giants have done. In Italy everyone thought: e-commerce must be sustainable on its own. It happened to Esselunga at home until it had no rivals, but Amazon and Walmart disprove this vision. E-commerce is sustained by other, more profitable revenues
“49% of young people now consult ChatGpt for eCommerce and soon this trend will also reach Europe. Walmart has made a deal with OpenAi because they want to control the flow of information: lists, prices and more’. The future of eCommerce has arrived
And as we write, 98% of 88VIP customers in China are already deciding where to spend their next money. WeChat knows where and when. Alipay knows the optimal pricing. The advertising system knows which message is most effective for that person, at that time, on that category. Europe is still debating whether GDPR allows data sharing.
Today, eCommerce food & grocery, although still representing a limited share of the overall turnover of food distribution, has in several cases reached economically sustainable models. This topic was discussed at the eCommerce Food Conference during a round table discussion between Giuseppe Caprotti and Mario Gasbarrino, two historical protagonists of Italian large-scale retail, moderated by Cristina Lazzati, director of Mark Up and Gdoweek
