eCommerce News Weekly Update Vol 33.

This week we prepared five eCommerce news for you to catch up with.

1. Clothing trend forecast 2022: gorpcore and preppy styles

According to a new report, gorpcore and preppy are two styles that will influence streetwear trends in 2022. Sellers can pay more attention to the selection of products, more consideration, and select the most suitable for consumer tastes in fashion items.

In terms of overall clothing elements, knitted textures, casual silhouettes and V-necks and other elements that emphasize unisex appeal can be focused on.

U.S. Grocery Prices Rise, Reaching Largest Increase in Recent Years

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. household grocery prices rose 6.5 percent during 2021, compared with an average annual increase of just 1.5 percent over the last 10 years.

Without the stimulus of government aid programs launched in response to the epidemic, and price inflation cutting into wage appreciation, the U.S. public is expected to become more sensitive to prices in 2022, said KK Davey, president of IRI Strategic Analytics, at the time.

3. Due to the epidemic, the U.S. postal workers shortage

According to Johns Hopkins University statistics, on January 13, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of Newcastle pneumonia in the United States reached 62727044, and the cumulative number of deaths reached 843624.

During the busiest holiday season, the USPS has seen a surge in the number of employees quarantined due to the Newcastle pneumonia outbreak. However, the latest outbreak quarantine data indicates that the USPS will continue to deal with employee availability issues through 2022.

4. Etsy and TikTok cooperation, sellers welcome new opportunities for development!

Recently, Etsy announced a partnership with TikTok to provide platform sellers with more communication and training opportunities to further improve their promotional capabilities, which Etsy calls “a unique and powerful marketing channel for small businesses”.

Etsy platform currently has 10% of sellers use TikTok to promote their products. As a famous e-commerce platform in the United States, Etsy mainly focuses on handicraft products.

While TikTok is at the forefront of social e-commerce platforms, the cooperation between the two will make Etsy's advantages more obvious for other e-commerce platforms of the same type.

5. Congestion at U.S. West ports increases as large numbers of workers are quarantined

The increasing number of Omicron cases has exacerbated the labor shortage situation from Christmas to New Year's Eve, and the efficiency of dock evacuation has dropped by about 20%.

Some Asian seaports may suspend operations for the upcoming Chinese New Year, which may enable U.S. seaports to reduce some evacuation pressure, but the Denmark-based maritime consulting firm said congestion at U.S. and European ports and supply chain shortage may continue to worsen.