Gap, Tiffany, Wal-Mart, and Amazon

Give this well-written article a read (click here). The supporting video (click here) is done extremely well. Lots of metrics, woven into a very easy-to-understand story. The story makes one want to go out and spend $35,000,000 improving back-end systems. 

The authoring organization praises Gap and rips on Tiffany. But what about five-year sales trends?

• Gap's Compound Annual Growth Rate, 2009 - 2013 = 3%.
• Tiffany's Compound Annual Growth Rate, 2009 - 2013 = 10%.

Tiffany, doing a bad omnichannel job, is growing 3x faster than Gap, a brand lauded as an omnichannel success story.

The authoring organization praises Wal-Mart, comparing it favorably to Amazon in e-commerce growth. But what about five-year sales trends?

• Wal-Mart = +4%.
• Amazon = +32%.

Both metrics can easily be calculated after reading annual reports.

There are two trends. We're ignoring the second trend.

1. Growth via channel alignment.
2. Growth via merchandise customers want at a price customers want to pay.