Scott Galloway from NYU presents their takeaway from sifting through various data points on the future strength of the four big social consumer enterprises Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. You can watch it here:
They might not be correct and i suppose many of those brands that he presented previously have told him that, but nevertheless a few are observed by myself or from what I read previously.
On a Singapore centric level, Singapore Post, transport stocks and retail REITS and warehouse REITs investors may reference some of the social and consumer trends taking place.
One of the threats majority of investors can see on the first level is how retailing will be impacted by the move to online and Scott’s data point shows that eventually online is only an extension of a business retail model, and that there are opportunities for brick and mortar solutions to extend customer outreach and act as click and collect points.
The most foolproof of the REIT model i felt is the warehouses. As consumption increases, depending on how retail brick and mortar trend will shift, there may be more demand for them. I was surprised that people prefer to click and purchase online, then collect their stuff from brick and mortar stores or easily assessable warehouses.
I suppose there are inflexibilities and delays in shipping not to mention a rising costs to the traditional delivery model. Can SingPost be the cost effective supply chain or would we see a new start up like GrabTaxi doing delivery at a much lower cost in Singapore.
Lastly, Scott presented an excellent break down of how Apple should be seen as and one of the amazing thing was their ability to increase their margins over time for a company dealing with consumer technology, which are usually a race to the bottom.
In this interesting slides, as the products go down from the brain to the heart to the vanity, you see greater margin extraction.
It’s good to look at the model of GoGoVan, which is beginning to make its presence in Singapore