Even consumers more inclined than others to return to stores during COVID-19 are buying online more than ever, Sucharita Kodali, Forrester Research vice president-principal analyst, told the National Retail Federation Monday. Forrester estimates about 40% of U.S. consumers are in that category, compared with 53% who prefer to continue sheltering at home and are fearful the economy is reopening too quickly. Of those who say they want to go back to stores, 30% "are choosing to purchase online,” said Kodali. “Almost half of them are purchasing their groceries online. This is an important observation because among people who may want to go back to stores, you’re still seeing them consuming online.” That’s the factor that’s “certainly driving e-commerce forward, but continues to be a challenge for physical stores,” the analyst said. Forrester found 37% of consumers “don’t want to pay anything” even for a same-day transaction. Another 22% said they are willing to pay $3-$6 for same-day delivery. With the e-commerce supply chain stretched to the limit during the pandemic, Forrester estimates 22% of consumers experienced late deliveries during the crisis, said Kodali. “That has also led to greater dissatisfaction with players like Amazon.” Of the Amazon Prime members Forrester canvassed, 24% said they were “frustrated” with the service, she said. Dissatisfaction was 10 points higher among Generation Z respondents, she said. Amazon didn’t comment Monday. Consumer resentment toward Amazon during the crisis “has provided oxygen” for other e-commerce giants like Walmart and Target, said Kodali. Though Amazon’s Q1 e-commerce sales were 25% higher than in the 2019 quarter, Walmart’s were up by 77% and Target’s 141%, she said.

Brands that used technology to transfer the in-store experience online more smoothly during the pandemic “reaped the rewards of customer loyalty,” reported KPMG Monday. It canvassed 11,000 U.S. consumers online. "With the move to online accelerating due to COVID-19, the nature of the relationship between brands and their customers has changed, bringing the need for commercial cadence to the forefront,” said KPMG. Respondents voted USAA their top brand, Costco No. 7. No tech brands made the top 10.

Some in the tech sector backed fighting Nokia’s July 2 International Trade Commission complaint on banning imports of Lenovo laptops, tablets and desktop PCs for allegedly violating five patents. That would block access to affordable Lenovo Chromebook computers, said Google Friday (login required): As most schools worldwide “have begun adopting online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for mobile computing devices from many countries’ K-12 education sectors has been rising with Chromebooks currently seeing the highest shipments.” The Computer & Communications Industry Association commented against Nokia’s assertion that excluding Lenovo PCs won’t harm the public health and safety. “That does not reflect modern society,” said CCIA. “Computers are no longer optional entertainment devices.” They're the “main or even exclusive portholes through which nearly every American interfaces with nearly every aspect of modern life,” especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. Four of Nokia’s “asserted” inventions on video compression are H.264 “standard-essential patents” (SEPs), wrote Lenovo in docket 337-3466. The fifth describes user interfaces for better information searches through communications devices. Nokia committed to license SEPs to anyone on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, said the PC maker. The FTC warns such SEP-based exclusions “may adversely affect competitive conditions and harm consumers,” said Lenovo, citing a March 2011 FTC report on the “evolving” intellectual property marketplace and the need to align patent "remedies" with competition. The report recommended the ITC “consider these adverse effects in evaluating the public interest impact of proposed remedial orders,” said Lenovo. Nokia didn't comment Monday.

Retail consumer tech sales this year will fall 2.2% from 2019, the first decline since 2009, said CTA’s biannual forecast Monday. Tech industry sales revenue is projected to be $406.8 billion in 2020 “as consumers struggle with economic uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the association. The segment’s largest category -- smartphones -- will take a 6% hit this year, dropping to 153 million shipments worth $72 billion, said CTA. More than 14 million 5G smartphones are seen shipping in 2020, generating $11 billion in revenue. Software and streaming service categories are on track to reach a record of $86 billion, 14% growth, benefiting from stay-at-home orders, said CTA. Consumer spending on video streaming services is expected to hit $27 billion, up 23%. Audio is tracking toward $8 billion, up 21%.

COVID-19's supply chain disruptions and sharply lower demand sent Volvo’s Q2 revenue plunging 38%, including a 46% decline in vehicle sales, said CEO Martin Lundstedt on a Friday investor call. Volvo also incurred a 15% revenue decline in services, he said. “We are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lundstedt. “Even if we see positive signs in utilization of installed fleet and the demand of equipment and services, we also must be clear that numerous uncertainties remain,” he said. “The risks for further and repetitive lockdowns are still relatively high.”

Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings denied the decision to share the CEO role with Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos (see 2007160073 and personals section, July 17) foretells his exit from the company or a reduction in his day-to-day duties. “I'm in for a decade,” said Hastings in a Q2 call Thursday (see materials here). “As co-CEOs, it's two of us full time.” Forecasting a 63% year-over-year decline in Q3 net subscriber additions to 2.5 million is based on "the context of what just happened in Q2,” said Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann. “We just added 10 million members, which is the largest growth we've ever had in a second quarter.” Lockdowns sent Q1 sub growth soaring. Newer members are “highly engaged,” said Neumann. “They're sticking around with us actually as well or better than pre-COVID.” When a Netflix user churns, “it's always temporary,” said Hastings. “It's just a matter of timing as our service gets better, as maybe their income increases, as the internet gets faster.” The streaming-device maker disputes of the sort that have kept Peacock off the Roku platform are “really unfortunate,” said Chief Product Officer Greg Peters, newly named to the dual role of chief operating officer. “It really impacts consumers when they can't watch the shows that they're thrilled to watch on the device that they have.” COVID-19 on-set “safety protocols” Netflix is installing globally “will become a permanent part of production,” said Sarandos. The time between the shutdown and ramping back up “was spent on scripts and development and preparedness,” he said: That will make the shoots “more efficient." The stock closed 6.5% lower Friday at $492.99.

GameStop joined the growing list of retailers requiring customers to wear masks inside stores, saying Friday the “safety measure” will take effect July 27 in all U.S. locations. The 10-day lag will give GameStop time to inform customers of the change, post signage and train employees on the new protocol. Best Buy, Costco, Target and Walmart are among the growing number of retailers requiring mask use in stores (see past two issues of this publication). GameStop didn’t respond to questions.

Smartphone shipments in India fell 48% in Q2 to 17.3 million units due to a “complete halt in production” and lower demand due to COVID-19, said Canalys Friday. Third-place Samsung, whose shipments dropped 60% to 2.9 million for 16.8% share, also had exports hit “as its largest manufacturing plant outside of Vietnam shut down for most of Q2,” said the research firm. Xiaomi led the market with 5.3 million shipments for 31% share, followed by Vivo shipping 3.7 million units for 21.3% share.

LG Electronics Chief Technology Officer Park Il-Pyung will keynote the global news conference at IFA 2020 Special Edition, said show organizers Friday. The sharply downsized in-person event is Sept. 3-5 and will be livestreamed (see 2005190035). IFA didn’t say what date Park will appear or whether he will attend physically or virtually. Organizers didn’t respond to emails Friday. “LG will take part in IFA 2020 Special Edition and focus on the consumer situation in times of the new normal,” they said. Rival Samsung announced this month it was pulling out of IFA and will stage its own virtual event in early September (see 2007020030).

T-Mobile and Sprint customers can get MLB.TV for free beginning Tuesday, said T-Mobile Friday. The perk includes a free one-year subscription to The Athletic; both services are regularly $59 annually. Spring training games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday; regular season games begin Thursday in the COVID-19-shortened MLB season.