The number of U.S. households that bought consumer tech during the 12th week of the COVID-19 pandemic was down slightly from June 12-14, said CTA’s COVID-19 tracker Wednesday. Use of streaming video services (52% of U.S. households), live TV services (22%) and gaming livestream services (13%) fell. “With the start of summer, the dip we are seeing in tech purchase and content consumption is likely due to people getting outside more and families” vacationing, said CTA. “Households with people under the age of 35 are driving purchases of tech.” More than half had bought at least one device in the past week, it said after asking 1,000 homes online, June 26-28.

Warehouse staffing, consumer expectations for delivery and the Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods are among challenges Sonos is juggling as the company ratchets up e-commerce amid the novel coronavirus, said John Hills, senior manager-logistics, America. Hills told a webinar hosted by freight logistics company Flexport that during the pandemic, which slammed brick-and-mortar sales worldwide, Sonos is “not only dealing with the impact of COVID, we’re still navigating some of the waters with these 301 tariffs” imposed last year by the Trump administration on goods imported from China. Higher tariffs led Sonos to steer production of most U.S.-bound goods to Malaysia. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence highlighted a spike in direct-to-consumer sales (D2C) in April when consumers turned to e-commerce to buy goods they couldn’t get when stores temporarily closed. More people are required to move 1,500 units in a D2C model vs. a “handful” of pallets destined for one retailer, Hills said Wednesday. Forecasting D2C sales fluctuations can be unpredictable, said the executive: “It’s much more challenging to capture spikes in demand for D2C than it is for B2B.” An online article or blog can drive a surge, or a successful promotion can produce an unexpected order spike, he said. Sonos is also competing with big box retailers that have bigger warehouse staffing needs due to the pandemic-fueled jump in e-commerce business. FedEx also is getting more e-commerce consumer interest (see 2007010052).

The pandemic “accelerated” consumer e-commerce adoption, said Brie Carere, FedEx executive vice president-chief marketing and communications officer, on a fiscal Q4 call Tuesday. E-commerce increased to 27% of U.S. retail in April, from 16% in calendar 2019, partly because “total retail contracted” during coronavirus lockdowns, she said. FedEx expects e-commerce as a percentage of retail will stay “elevated,” said Carere. “This shift has left an indelible mark on the retail industry, causing the bankruptcy of some chains that have been around for decades.” E-commerce helped retailers “with a strong omnichannel strategy flourish,” she said. “Surging” e-commerce sales from large retail customers drove a “sizable mix shift” to direct-to-consumer residential volume from commercial business-to-business transactions in Q4 ended May 31, said Carere. U.S. residential volume was 72% of revenue in the quarter compared with 56% a year earlier, she said. Carere thinks the strong shift to e-commerce was “structural,” not temporary: “We have seen a huge uptick in the categories that people are willing to purchase online.” FedEx saw that trend develop pre-COVID, “but it has accelerated when you think about things like furniture, large packages, high-value electronics,” she said. COVID-19 brought a “huge change in who is buying online,” especially 65-and-older consumers, she said. “I do not anticipate that these buying behaviors will revert back.” Wednesday, the stock closed up 12% at $156.66.

The FTC got more than 34,000 online shopping complaints from consumers in April and May, the agency reported Wednesday. “More than 18,000 of those complaints related to items that were ordered but never delivered,” the FTC said. “The most common item reported not delivered was facemasks, with other reports including sanitizer, toilet paper, thermometers, and gloves as not received.” Reports of unreceived items in May were near double those of December, which is peak holiday shopping season. The agency sent warning letters in June to marketing companies to remove and address online and social media posts claiming their products can treat or prevent COVID-19 (see 2006050059).

The FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment and the FCC Media Bureau set a virtual workshop Aug. 3 on “the role of U.S. libraries as community hubs to drive digital adoption and literacy”, said a public notice Wednesday (see 2004280070). The workshop will focus on supporting digital skills education in underserved communities and digital inclusion, the PN said. “The workshop will also address the impact of COVID-19 on advancing digital inclusion, as well as the impact of various local, state, and federal interventions in the last few months.”

Joy introduced a COVID-19 “wedding calculator” to help adjust marriage plans. It gives couples an “overview” of adjustments to consider, including possible scheduling, guest count and venue changes, said the wedding tech company Tuesday. The company estimates nearly half of 2020 U.S. weddings were postponed to next year, it said: "We expect that by the end of July, 75 percent of 2020 weddings will be postponed to 2021."

Shoppers could be hesitant to visit stores this holiday season, making the buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) service an appealing option and an opportunity to test “brick-and-click” elements in post-purchases messaging, said retail consultant Monica Deretich. She suggested using parking lots as merchandising locations for last-minute items typically found at the checkout line. Marketing firm Sailthru, in whose Monday report the analyst appeared, singled out Best Buy’s curbside pickup experience (see 2005210037). Best Buy outlines “every step of the process,” provides links to help topics and displays relevant recommendations in post-pickup confirmations, said Deretich. The pandemic's impact is likely to “live on through the holidays,” she said.

Calendar 2020 estimates for “end-unit” sales of smartphones are “meaningfully lower” than pre-COVID-19, “even though estimates for enterprise laptops and Chromebooks have increased,” said Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. “Reduced level of global economic activity has also curtailed near-term demand.” The pandemic's impact on Micron’s production early in Q3, which ended May 28, was limited to two “back-end assembly and test sites” in Malaysia, he told investors Monday. See here for Q3 details.

Global shipments of smartphone battery cells were $1.5 billion in Q1, up 5% from the same 2019 quarter, reported Strategy Analytics Tuesday. TDK-owned Amperex held the top revenue share at 36.5%, with LG Chem at 28.4% and Samsung SDI at 17.5%. SA expects demand for smartphone battery cells to diminish this year with the slowdown in smartphone shipments amid the pandemic.

New Jersey legislators supported extending an emergency telehealth law and executive order until 90 days after the end of the COVID-19 crisis. The Assembly voted 73-0 Monday to send S-2467 to Gov. Phil Murphy (D), whose office declined comment Tuesday. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed an executive order Monday trimming a previous telehealth EO because the legislature had codified some parts of it.