Publications

17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

07 Jul 2022
HBS Case

How a Multimillion-Dollar Ice Cream Startup Melted Down (and Bounced Back)

and in retail chains with lots and lots of stores, they use what are called co-packers, third-party factories, that will make ice cream to your specifications. That was always an option for Ample Hills.” Hiring a co-packer would have... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

October 2017
Case

Shift Technologies, Inc.

By: Thomas Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a “high touch,” concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco–based startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift’s current business model... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Multi-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

23 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 23

failures of early online grocers such as Webvan, grocery remains both the largest single U.S. retail category and one of the few that has not yet migrated online. Amazon began testing its grocery delivery... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Positioning Brands Against Large Competitors to Increase Sales

By: Neeru Paharia, Jill Avery and Anat Keinan

We explore the effect of having a large dominant competitor and show the conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. We demonstrate through lab and field studies that highlighting a large competitor's size... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Competitive Positioning; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

January 2017 (Revised August 2019)
Case

X Fire Paintball & Airsoft: Is Amazon a Friend or Foe? (A)

By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella

Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com’s third-party Marketplace, and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Competition; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Small Business; Retail Industry; Canada

June 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Revlon India's Turnaround: Navigating Online-Offline Decisions Using a Balanced Scorecard

By: Tatiana Sandino and Samuel Grad

Revlon India was founded as a joint venture in 1995, pairing the industrial conglomerate UMG with the global beauty brand Revlon, Inc. to bring international color cosmetics to India. After growing rapidly and pioneering the Beauty Advisor (BA) model in India, the... View Details

26 Apr 2016
First Look

April 26

April 2016 Review of Economic Studies Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring By: Stanton, Christopher, and Catherine Thomas Abstract—Online markets for remote labor services allow workers and firms to contract... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2024
HBS Case

Psychological Pricing Tactics to Fight the Inflation Blues

percent off bargain. Online retail giants, such as Temu and Shein, are known for regularly using this tactic, displaying crossed-out anchor prices along with deeply discounted sale prices. “Transparency goes... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Retail; Retail

13 Jul 2016
HBS Case

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

a better job of making apartments appealing than the online classified site, but first they had to siphon away its customers. To do that, Chesky and Gebbia created software to hack Craigslist to extract the contact info of property... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Retail; Retail

March 2018
Teaching Note

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (A) and (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines the ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must determine how to... View Details

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

the optimal capital requirement is around 20%. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51305 The Empirical Economics of Online Attention By: Boik, Andre, Shane Greenstein, and Jeffrey Prince Abstract—In... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

approach to the customer experience, with an emphasis on employee training and improved ecommerce and automation technology, both on the floor and in back office roles. One foundational move to beef up its technology was Walmart’s $3.3 billion acquisition of View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

April 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Unleashing Human Magic at Best Buy

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Sunil Gupta and Amram Migdal

The case examines the transformation of Best Buy under CEO Hubert Joly's leadership from 2012. Facing significant business challenges, including competition from online and physical retailers, Joly implemented the "Renew Blue" turnaround strategy, which focused on... View Details