For most of the last decade, it was Amazon versus the world of brick-and-mortar. Now, the competitive challenge is no longer complicated to define: Amazon is one of the fastest growing companies in the history of American business.1 And this growth story—unprecedented, immense, rocket-like, (choose your superlative!)—does not come with a happy ending for most...

It simply didn’t make sense at first blush: About half the people said they loved Walmart; the other half said they don’t. Even more confounding, such sharp customer polarization often hinged on the same metric: customer service. How did the world’s largest retailer manage to measure up to half the people, even as it failed...

Amazon isn’t an easy competitor to predict. After all, much can be gained by analyzing how Amazon pulled such a victory off. Therefore, we want to review the three things Amazon not only did right, but the three things consumers now want most. We asked 4,000 consumers what brand attributes they consider to be most...

The state of the industry can be summarized in one word: Reformation. Consumer preference is shifting faster than we can say “Hey Alexa”, brand awareness is rapidly eroding, and the market is being dominated by niche brands birthed from the ecommerce and social media boom. And to top it all off, we are truly in...

The plastic straw obsession is so 2019. As we look towards 2020, what will be the next Big Green Trend? Almost every day, we see brands introducing new sustainable initiatives—sometimes it feels like we're in the midst of a race towards who can be the Greenest of them all. In preparation for the upcoming year,...

As we prepare to put a bow on 2019, we thought it would be fitting to ask the experts (our own WD associates) which brands they'd put on the naughty or nice list. In no particular order, here are a few brands that are standing out for all the right or wrong reasons. Naughty Abercrombie...