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US companies continue to lead the way among the world’s large-cap value creators, taking 7 of the top 10 spots and 11 of the top 20 for global large-cap companies in the 2019 Value Creators rankings released today by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This is the 21st annual edition of the rankings, which shed light on patterns and characteristics of the world’s top value creators.

Although US Firms Take Seven of the Top Slots in BCG’s 2019 Large-Cap Value Creators Ranking, Asian Firms Dominate the Broader Rankings

Only 2 of the top 10 large-cap value creators and 5 of the top 20 are based in Asia, reflecting the disproportionate number of North American companies that rank among the largest companies by market capitalization. But a look at performance beyond the top 20 large-cap value creators reveals a much different picture. Among the top 100 performers, 28% are North American and 55% are Asian. Similarly, among the 330 companies that rank in the top 10 in their industry, 29% are North American and 45% are Asian.

“Asian companies are catching up to, and in some cases surpassing, their longer-established US counterparts in value creation,” said Alexander Roos, a BCG senior partner. “We expect that our annual rankings will provide important insights into this trend in the coming years.”

Since 1999, BCG has published annual rankings of the world’s top value-creating companies, measured on the basis of total shareholder return (TSR) over the previous five-year period. To compile the 2019 rankings, BCG analyzed TSR at approximately 2,250 companies globally (slightly more than one-third of them US-based companies) from 2014 through 2018. In addition to providing our large-cap ranking of five-year TSR at the world’s 200 largest companies by market valuation, the 2019 Value Creators rankings offer rankings of the top 10 value creators in each of 33 industry sectors.

TSR measures the combination of share price gains and dividend yield for a company’s stock over a given period. It is the most comprehensive metric of performance in shareholder value creation. Average annual TSR is the amount of TSR that a company delivered, on average, over the five years covered in BCG’s 2019 analysis.

Key findings:
From 2014 through 2018, the top 10 value creators delivered an average five-year TSR of 35%, spanning a range from 27% to 54%.

The median five-year TSR for the more than 2,200 companies in the database was 8.2%, which is in line with long-term global capital market returns. In contrast, the median TSR for last year’s sample, covering 2013 through 2017, was 15.6%, reflecting the strong bull market throughout that five-year period.

Technology and media are once again the primary value-driving sectors on the large-cap leader board, but this year’s list is somewhat more diverse. Tech and media companies hold down 6 spots in the large-cap top 10 and 8 spots in the large-cap top 20 this year—down from 9 spots and 13 spots, respectively, in last year’s ranking. Medical technology and health care services companies occupy 4 of the top 20 spots, up from 3 last year.

Among the 33 industries tracked, health care services leads the charge with a median annual TSR of 17%—more than twice the median for all companies in the database. Medtech finishes a close second, with a median annual TSR of 16%, followed by financial infrastructure providers (at 15%) and technology (at 14%). Technology and medtech were top-performing industries in last year’s rankings as well, coming in third and fifth, respectively, among the 33 industries. In contrast, health care services finished at number 13 in the 2018 rankings.

In the list of the world’s 200 most valuable companies, for the third year in a row, Nvidia, Broadcom, and Netflix hold three of the top five positions. Adobe Systems joins the top five, while Tencent drops to eighth place. Facebook plunges from number 5 last year to number 33 this year—no surprise given the company’s steep decline in value during the market correction that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2018. Kweichow Moutai, a Chinese consumer nondurables company, vaults from tenth place last year to second place this year.

Among the more than 2,000 companies in BCG’s database that were publicly listed during each of the ten years from 2009 through 2018, only four (approximately 0.2%) outperformed their respective local market index every year. Looking at a broader set of more than 5,700 companies that have more than $1 billion in market capitalization, the study found that a similar percentage (approximately 0.3%) achieved this feat each year over the period.

“Many companies ride a wave of success in specific market cycles, but it is extremely rare, and an even greater accomplishment, for a company to deliver strong performance year after year,” said Eric Wick, a BCG senior partner.

The 2019 BCG Value Creators ranking is presented in an online interactive format that allows users to see the TSR performance of the top 50 large-cap companies and other value creators across 33 industries, as well as to review the individual drivers behind each company’s TSR performance.

SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
www.bcg.com

• Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Tableau
• Logi Analytics Acquires Zoomdata, Extending Market Leadership in Embedded Analytics
• Google to Acquire Looker

The World FinTech Report (WFTR) 2019, published today by Capgemini and Efma, indicates that even though Open Banking has yet to reach maturity, the financial services industry is entering a new phase of innovation – referred to as “Open X” – that will require deeper collaboration and specialization. The report advocates that banks and other financial services ecosystem players must begin to plan accordingly and evolve their business models.

“The findings of the report could not be clearer: collaboration will be the foundation of the future of financial services”

The WFTR 2019 identifies a dual challenge: FinTechs are struggling to scale their operations and banks are stalling on FinTech collaboration. As a result, industry players are looking to leapfrog beyond Open Banking towards Open X, which is a more effective, structured form of collaboration, facilitated by Application Program Interface (API)1 standardization and shared insights from customer data. The era of Open X will create an integrated marketplace, with specialized roles for each player that will enable a seamless exchange of data and services, improving customer experience, and expediting product innovation.

Key findings of the report include:

Open X will transform industry norms and assumptions

The advent of Open X is being driven by four fundamental shifts:

A move away from a focus on products to an emphasis on customer experience
The evolution of data as the critical asset
A shift from prioritizing ownership to facilitating shared access
Emphasis on partnering to innovate instead of buying or building new solutions
Open X will lead the financial services industry to a shared ecosystem or marketplace, in which the industry reintroduces the re-bundling of products and services, and both banks and FinTechs must re-evaluate their strategy for innovation and serving customers.

APIs will be critical Open X enablers

APIs, which allow third parties to access bank systems and data in a controlled environment, will be catalysts to creating the Open X marketplace. While customer data is already widely shared and leveraged in the industry, standardized APIs are not commonplace. Although requirements and regulations are complex, standardization will help to reduce fraud, improve interoperability, increase speed to market, and enhance scalability.

The WFTR 2019 also finds that industry players are looking at two potential monetization models for APIs – revenue-sharing (which 60% of banks and 70% of FinTechs think is feasible) and API access fees (supported by 46% of banks and 55% of FinTechs). However, only about a third of banking executives said they are currently well equipped to monetize APIs.

Privacy, security and collaboration concerns may slow progress

While banks and FinTechs said they understand the importance of collaboration, apprehension over privacy and security remain top of mind. When asked what concerns them about Open Banking, the vast majority of banks identified data security (76%), customer privacy (76%), and loss of control of customer data (63%). FinTechs were more optimistic about Open Banking, but 50% expressed fears over security and privacy, and 38% over the loss of control of customer data.

When asked about roadblocks to effective collaboration, 66% of banks and 70% of FinTechs pointed to a difference in the other’s organizational culture/mind-set, 52% of banks and 70% of FinTechs mentioned process barriers, and a lack of long-term vision and objectives were listed as gates by 54% of banks and 60% of FinTechs. Only 26% of bank executives and 43% of FinTech leaders said they had identified the right Open Banking collaboration partner. These responses suggest that many banks and FinTechs remain unprepared for Open Banking, let alone for the increased demands of data sharing and integration that Open X will bring.

Open X participants must choose strategic, specialty-based roles

Within the Open X marketplace, banks will need to enhance their integrated (traditional) model first and then focus on areas of specialized strength. The WFTR 2019 identifies three strategic roles expected to evolve as a part of Open X:

Suppliers will develop products and services;
Aggregators will amass products and services from the marketplace and distribute them through internal channels, holding onto customer relationships;
Orchestrators will act as market connectors and coordinators, facilitating partner interactions.
According to the report, integrated firms2 are likely to struggle to match the time to market of an ecosystem of specialists and find it challenging to meet the unique demands from customers. Within the Open X marketplace, many incumbents may not be best positioned to compete as an Orchestrator and their strengths may lead them to other roles. No matter what role they assume in Open X, however, they must recruit the right talent, leverage data and technology, and collaborate with FinTechs to first ensure better internal capabilities for competitive delivery of relevant services in the current Open Banking scenario.

“Open Banking has long been regarded as transformational for financial services, but this report shows it is just one part of a much bigger picture,” said Anirban Bose, CEO of Capgemini’s Financial Services and Member of the Group Executive Board. “The industry is on the verge of a more comprehensive evolution, where there is opportunity to leapfrog into an integrated marketplace that we are calling Open X. In Open X, there will be seamless sharing of data, and ecosystem partners will be able to collaborate in a far more comprehensive way. Our research suggests that banks and FinTechs need to prepare themselves for a more radical change than many previously anticipated.”

“The findings of the report could not be clearer: collaboration will be the foundation of the future of financial services,” said Vincent Bastid, Secretary General of Efma. “In the era of Open X, ecosystem players will have to work together more effectively than they have previously. Only by embracing collaboration and new, specialist roles can both banks and FinTechs thrive and best serve their customers. It’s clear that many barriers to collaboration still exist, and there is an urgent need to overcome them for collective benefit.”

Report methodology

The World FinTech Report 2019 is based on a global survey encompassing responses from 116 traditional financial services firms and 40 FinTech firms including banking and lending, payments and transfers, and investment management. Questions sought to yield perspectives from both FinTech and traditional financial services firms— exploring the emergence of Open Banking in the financial services industry. It sheds light on the impact the new ecosystem will have on all the stakeholders, the challenges and concerns that firms will face, and the emergence of new businesses and monetization models in this space.

About Capgemini

A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of over 200,000 team members in more than 40 countries. The Group reported 2018 global revenues of EUR 13.2 billion.

Visit us at www.capgemini.com. People matter, results count

About Efma

A global non-profit organization, established in 1971 by banks and insurance companies, Efma facilitates networking between decision-makers. It provides quality insights to help banks and insurance companies make the right decisions to foster innovation and drive their transformation. Over 3,300 brands in 130 countries are Efma members.

Headquarters in Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Andorra, Stockholm, Bratislava, Dubai, Milan, Montreal, Istanbul, Beijing, Tokyo and Singapore. Learn more www.efma.com.

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1 Application programming interface (API) refers to a set of functions and procedures that a player opens to the external world to allow the creation of applications that access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.
2 Integrated firms refer to the firms that perform all the functions on their own without collaborating or leveraging other firms in the ecosystem. Many of the banks in the current ecosystem are integrated firms as they build, produce, and distribute their own products for all business lines (without leveraging FinTechs or other players in the ecosystem)

The second annual joint survey of supply chain executives at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference details the key innovation investments across retail, manufacturing and logistics in 2019. The JDA & KPMG Digital Supply Chain Investment Survey, conducted by Incisiv reveals that end-to-end visibility continues to be the number one priority for the second consecutive year, driven by artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and cognitive analytics.

Second annual survey reveals that real-time visibility is driving digital supply chain investments enabled by AI, ML and cognitive analytics

AI/ML and Cognitive Analytics Viewed as Most impactful Driver Towards Enabling End-to-End Visibility
The new survey reveals that supply chain traceability and visibility continues to be the highest investment area for supply chain executives (77%).To achieve this level of visibility, supply chain executives plan to deploy or test cognitive analytics (82%), AI/ML (62%) or digital control tower (55%) technology in the next 24 months. Together, AI/ML technologies are viewed as the most impactful technology this year (80%) given its wide applicability and promise of addressing complex business problems across the value chain. Cognitive/predictive analytics was also ranked highly, as 75% of respondents believe it will have a disruptive impact in the year ahead. Overall, since last year, AI has shifted into the high impact/high planned adoption quadrant for surveyed executives, confirming the importance of the impact this technology will have on supply chains in the year ahead.

“A truly autonomous supply chain requires predictive end-to-end visibility and these survey results echo our vision to make this a reality for our customers,” said Fred Baumann, group vice president, Industry Strategies, JDA. “Supply chain executives must invest in the critical technology elements such as AI/ML that will simultaneously unlock the value from customer data while shedding light on disruptions before they occur, recommending prescriptive actions for a smarter, more agile supply chain.”

Drilling down even further into how impactful AI/ML technologies are, survey respondents found the highest value use case to be the ability to optimize inventory (51%) followed by predictive distribution (45%) and optimizing distribution networks (42%) because companies need the ability to fulfil from anywhere, profitably. Cross-industry, the highest value use cases for AI were identified by respondents to be:

Increasing inventory and pricing accuracy for Retail
Improving demand forecasting for Manufacturing
Optimizing distribution network for Logistics

“As the study found, supply chain visibility continues to be the highest priority for executives, and in just a year, plans to invest in cognitive and predictive analytics have skyrocketed,” said Brian Higgins, KPMG U.S. Advisory principal and the firm’s Procurement and Product Operations leader. “Investments in these technologies, as well as AI and ML and digital control tower technology, over the next couple of years will offer the most impact for gleaning and leveraging data insights. This holds the potential to truly change the game for enterprise supply chain execs as they can track conditions in real-time, detecting issues and addressing them proactively for optimization.”

Investment Challenges and Innovation Roadblocks
Though speed-to-market was ranked as a top investment driver for 69% of respondents, resistance to change is the number one challenge to driving innovation for 42% of respondents. The inability to assess the potential of new technology has risen over the last year, indicating a disconnect between technology hype and technology value. Executives struggle to visualize and quantify the measurable impact that a technology will have on their business. To address this, executives must underscore the measurable impact that AI/ML and cognitive analytics will have, as a true step change towards the performance of global supply chains. Providers that have a proven value delivery track record in the AI/ML space will hold a competitive advantage overcoming this challenge.

Another way executives are driving innovation is through cloud technologies. Cloud adoption is viewed as enabling speed-to-market by respondents. Sixty-four percent believe cloud helps them quickly adapt to business needs and drive business agility 2X faster than any other technology.

“Competing in a world of infinite customer choice and increasing distribution complexity will be impossible for firms that don’t upgrade their supply chain innovation and agility quotient. It isn’t easy, executives are facing technology hype-cycle fatigue because the inability to map technologies to specific, practical and impactful use-cases continues to be an innovation impediment,” said Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer at Incisiv. “Leveraging advanced analytics to focus on specific use-cases, using cloud-based software to improve business agility and investing in the right talent are core ingredients to what will move the needle on innovation.”

JDA and KPMG are at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in Phoenix, this week, May 13-16, in booth #313 (JDA) and booth #325 (KPMG) where attendees can access the 2019 Digital Supply Chain Investment Survey results. JDA will also be showcasing its moonshot – the Autonomous Supply Chain!

Survey Methodology
Incisiv collected responses from 93 supply chain executives in the retail, manufacturing and logistics industries in February 2019 to determine the findings. 58% of respondents are from companies that are worth more than $1 billion and 74% of respondents decide or directly influence supply chain purchase decisions.

Sources: KPMG LLP, JDA Software, Inc.

2,062 foreign companies opened up businesses in Germany in 2018 – a new record. That is the result of the FDI Report drawn up by Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI). The EU is the most important source of Greenfield and expansion projects in Germany. The US holds its position as the top investor country leading the way with 345 investment projects – also a new record. The Americans were followed by Switzerland (229 projects), China (188) and the UK (168).

The number of British firms established in Germany since the Brexit referendum (2016 – 2018) has risen by 34 percent. Meanwhile the number of new Chinese companies in Germany fell by 33 percent compared to the same period (2016 – 2018). The number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) also went up, from 1925 in 2017 to 2825 in 2018 – an increase of more than 47 percent.

“These figures conclusively demonstrate that Germany is a popular investment location for foreign companies. Never before have so many British companies set up their business in Germany as last year. Around 45 percent of all British companies surveyed by GTAI said that Brexit had played a role in their decision to invest in Germany,” says Germany Trade & Invest CEO Robert Hermann. “Many investors appreciate the positive environment for establishing a business in Germany. The size of the German market and its position within the EU are also powerful arguments.”

The most popular sectors last year were business and financial services, followed by IT, communications and software, consumer goods, and machine and parts manufacturing. Roughly a third of foreign companies concentrated on marketing and distribution while 17 percent used Germany as a location for production and R&D.

SOURCE Germany Trade & Invest
https://www.gtai.de/GTAI/Navigation/EN/welcome.html

Blockchain investment continues to surge as new, practical business applications gain traction and business leaders begin to see beyond the “hype cycle,” according to Deloitte’s “2019 Global Blockchain Survey,” released today. While blockchain implementation continues to increase across financial services, its transformational importance is gaining momentum across multiple sectors, including technology, life sciences, media, telecommunications and government. The survey reveals that executives see blockchain as a more mature solution, while they’re taking pragmatic approaches toward investments and adoption.

Eighty-three percent of the 2019 blockchain-savvy survey respondents cite that their organizations see compelling use cases for blockchain, and more than half (53%) reported that blockchain technology has become a critical priority for their organization this year — a 10 percentage point increase over last year. This momentum is translating into action, with 40% reporting that they are willing to invest US$5 million or more in new blockchain initiatives over the next 12 months.

Moving from ‘will it work’ to ‘what will it disrupt’
More organizations across a wider variety of sectors are expanding and diversifying their blockchain initiatives. This is occurring even as uncertainty remains about having the talent, strategic vision and experience to adopt blockchain solutions and fully realize the technology’s benefits. Overall, survey respondents pointed to more diverse advantages than in 2018. For example, there was a 12 percentage point increase in those planning to replace current systems of record with blockchain — which demonstrates the technology’s increasing maturity.

“The tone and terms of the debates around blockchain are shifting, according to this year’s study, incorporating more use cases and strategic visions of the future,” said Linda Pawczuk, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and U.S. blockchain leader. “As the blockchain story continues to mature and begins a new chapter, we believe the question for executives is no longer ‘Will the technology work?’; but, ‘How can we make this technology work for us?'”

Moving to application: enterprise companies and emerging disruptors unleash blockchain’s potential
In addition to surveying enterprise respondents, Deloitte targeted a sample of emerging disruptors — leaders at companies who built their business models around the technology. With more familiarity, emerging disruptors are leveraging blockchain to reinvent business models and reduce friction across organizations:

Emerging disruptors overwhelmingly cite business models and value chains (42%) as the most significant advantage of blockchain, whereas enterprise respondents were equally split between security/lower risk and business models/value chains (23% for both).
In fact, 71% of enterprise organizations believe that blockchain provides greater security than conventional information technology solutions, while only 48% of emerging disruptors feel the same.
When asked, 4 in 5 emerging disruptors expect to see results from blockchain implementations within three years, as opposed to 3 in 5 enterprise responders.
When asked about barriers to adoption, enterprise organizations had little consensus. In contrast, emerging disruptors overwhelmingly (71%) chose regulatory issues as the greatest barrier to blockchain adoption.
Talent, strategic and other concerns remain
While the perception of blockchain is shifting on a global scale and it continues to gain traction and acceptance across a growing number of industries, enterprise and emerging disruptor executives are approaching blockchain with caution and a measure of skepticism:

The number of respondents who see blockchain as overhyped grew from 39% last year to 43%.
Most respondents list blockchain as a top-five priority, yet just 23% expect to initiate new blockchain deployments in the next year, a decline from 34% in 2018.
Talent remains a concern for organizations, as 28% — the same as in 2018 — cited lack of skills or “in-house capabilities” as a barrier to success.
China, other countries globally see increasing practical utility from blockchain
Just as emerging disruptors are changing the dynamics of the industries and sectors in which they compete, new blockchain initiatives in different countries and regions are affecting how blockchain is implemented around the world. The survey profiles the drivers and attitudes that affect blockchain development in China, Singapore and Israel, which can serve as guides for organizations that are looking to do business with global partners and show how innovation is informed by context. Key findings include:

In China, 73% of survey respondents said blockchain is a top-five strategic priority, a figure substantially higher than most other countries.
More than half of survey respondents in China and Singapore are currently hiring blockchain staff.
Most respondents from China, Singapore and Israel say they need to see a return on blockchain investment within three years.
Blockchain consortia continue to demonstrate robust interest across sectors
The survey further explores attitudes toward blockchain consortia, as businesses in a variety of industries continue to join and explore the consortium model to develop blockchain applications, share expertise, and catalyze the broader blockchain ecosystem. The overwhelming majority of respondents (92%) either belong to a consortium or plan to join one in the next 12 months. Respondents cited alignment on objectives (41%), quality and stature of other members (37%), and opportunity for influence (36%) as primary criteria for joining a consortium. The majority expect cost savings (57%) and accelerated learning (55%), indicating that blockchain consortia still have an important role to play as blockchain technology matures and practical applications begin to make their impacts felt across businesses. While consortia present challenges for blockchain practitioners — including intellectual property concerns; funding uncertainty; and business, technology and regulatory risk factors — they will continue to figure in the blockchain landscape.

Executives have begun to ask challenging, granular, and increasingly pragmatic questions about blockchain technology that demonstrate an emerging awareness of its evolution. Blockchain technology works. Now, executives must figure out how to make it work for “their” businesses, how to make the most of disruptive innovation in the space, and how to align within the entire blockchain ecosystem as it begins a new chapter.

“It’s critical for organizations to ask the questions that will help discern blockchain’s real value from myth and hype. We’re still in early stages of discovery for blockchain, and there are blind spots to explore as well as benefits,” said Rob Massey, partner and global blockchain leader for Deloitte Tax LLP. “At Deloitte we’re committed to helping organizations of all sizes and sectors navigate the enormous market opportunities and risks that blockchain presents.”

The survey was conducted from early February to early March 2019 and polled a sample of nearly 1,400 senior executives in 12 countries. To access the full report, visit: 2019 Global Blockchain Survey.

Deloitte to present findings at Consensus 2019 event
A panel of Deloitte blockchain executives will present the survey’s findings at Consensus 2019, Monday, May 15, at 11:20 a.m. EDT. The panel, “Getting Down to Business in Blockchain,” will showcase Deloitte’s approach to blockchain, which it sees as a multidimensional set of risks and opportunities across innovation, business model disruption, tax, audit, regulatory, security and privacy concerns.

SOURCE Deloitte
http://www.deloitte.com/us

Today Deloitte, MIT and Datawheel released the third major update to Data USA, a data visualization platform with more than 400,000 monthly visits. This third update includes a “Viz Builder” tool, which allows users to build custom data visualizations using data from over a dozen U.S. public sources.

Data USA’s 3.0 includes additional data sets, now capable of generating more than 2.5 million data visualizations

Along with this new feature, Data USA releases an improved, open source and scalable design.

Data USA is a free and open, publicly available platform that has become one of the main sources for Americans to access public data. The comprehensive visualization engine integrates, visualizes and distributes publicly available data pulled from multiple public sources, such as the U.S. Department of Education, Census Bureau, Department of Labor, and Department of Health and Human Services.

“The US government produces tons of valuable data every year; however, there are not many tools to make sense of it, fuse it, sift through it, and visualize it, making it inaccessible to all but the most skilled data scientists,” said Matt Gentile, principal, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP and one of the creators of Data USA. “We’re working to close that gap and make that data useful, relevant, and understandable, to those in the public sector, private sector, and the general population. This release will put relatable statistical evidence about the economy, the workforce, public health and education in the hands of everyone to drive basic decisions, such as what the best parts of the country to find a job as a nurse.”

“We’re very excited to unveil the newest installment of Data USA, along with all the new features that come with it,” said Cesar Hidalgo, MIT Media Lab faculty and co-founder of Datawheel. “With this new update, Data USA continues to prove itself to be a flagship project showing what is next in this new wave of open data sites.”

Data USA 3.0 includes more data sets, but also updated features that enable users to more easily visualize public data. Features like the data cart and visualization builder allow users to dig deeper into the data than ever before. For example, users can now visualize the number of people working in an industry that belong to a specific demographic, such as an ethnic group and gender as shown here. This level of depth was not possible in previous versions of Data USA.

The new visualization builder feature allows users to see data differently, creating a consolidated view of useful data on a wide range of topics, such as:

Drug overdose and death rates by county
Customer profiles across geographic regions
Black females working in the software industry by state
Admissions for universities in the Boston-metro area
Deloitte, MIT and Datawheel launched Data USA in April 2016 and have continued to add more data, modify and evolve the platform. In its first year, Data USA delivered more than 2.5 million sessions, with the majority of visitors coming from organic search.

About Deloitte
Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500 and more than 5,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across the industry sectors that drive and shape today’s marketplace to make an impact that matters — delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them.

About Datawheel
Datawheel is an award winning software company that provides end-to-end digital transformation solutions capable of integrating, distributing, and visualizing multiple streams of data. With multiple clients in the U.S., Chile, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Estonia, among others, Datawheel has become a leader in the development of digital transformation solutions for the public sector.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the “Deloitte” name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

SOURCE Deloitte

Related Links
http://www.deloitte.com/us

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the 10 states with the fastest-growing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) selling in Amazon’s stores. The report examined year-over-year sales growth of businesses selling in Amazon’s stores across all 50 states and found that SMBs in Mississippi are growing the fastest, with businesses in Nebraska, Maine, Texas, and Indiana rounding out the top five. Third-party gross physical merchandise sales – primarily comprised of SMBs selling in Amazon stores – surpassed $160 billion in 2018 and make up more than half of the units sold in Amazon’s stores

States with large rural populations have the fastest-growing small and medium-sized businesses according to Amazon report

Recent study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that unlocking the digital potential of rural small businesses could add $47 billion to the U.S. GDP per year

More than half of the items sold in Amazon’s stores are from small and medium-sized businesses

“We’re thrilled to see so many small businesses in states with large rural populations like Mississippi, Maine, Vermont, and North Dakota growing their sales fastest in our stores,” said Nick Denissen, VP at Amazon. “Online selling enables rural businesses to complement their offline sales in physical stores by reaching customers they wouldn’t otherwise have access to as easily. Research shows that increased adoption of online tools and digital services could grow annual revenues of rural small businesses by 21% over the next three years and create 360,000 jobs in rural communities. Amazon continues to invest billions of dollars to develop tools and services that help small businesses reach new customers.”

The top 10 states with the fastest-growing SMBs:

1. Mississippi
2. Nebraska
3. Maine
4. Texas
5. Indiana
6. Colorado
7. North Dakota
8. Vermont
9. Wisconsin
10. Missouri

A recent study conducted with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce showed that nearly 20 percent of rural small businesses in America generate at least 80 percent of their revenue by selling their products and services online. The study also found that online tools and technology have the highest potential impact on rural small businesses with revenue under $100,000.

“Small businesses in rural America are significant contributors to the U.S. economy. Access to digital tools allows rural small businesses to successfully start, scale and compete in a global economy – regardless of their size and location,” said Tim Day, senior vice president of C_TEC, the U.S. Chamber’s Technology Engagement Center.

“Since joining Amazon Handmade in 2015, my sales have doubled year-over-year,” said Casey Everett, owner of Hearth and Harrow based in Rockport, Maine. “Selling online has allowed me to create a business I love in a community that I love. With Amazon, I’m able to reach customers in Germany from my home-studio in Maine – it’s incredible.”

Small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s stores come from every state in the U.S., and more than 130 countries around the world. In 2018, more than 50,000 SMBs exceeded $500,000 in sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide, and nearly 200,000 surpassed $100,000 in sales. The number of SMBs eclipsing $1 million in sales in Amazon’s stores worldwide grew by 20 percent last year.

To help small and medium-sized businesses thrive, Amazon last year created Amazon Storefronts, a store for customers to shop exclusively from U.S. small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s stores. With Storefronts, customers can shop a curated collection of over one million products and deals from nearly 20,000 U.S. small and medium-sized businesses, and learn more about profiled businesses through featured videos and stories.

The company is also hosting a variety of events to educate sellers, including Amazon Academy events across Europe, the Boost Conference specifically for businesses using Fulfillment by Amazon, and the new Selling Partner Summits across the U.S. The new Selling Partner Summits are a series of six conferences designed to help sellers grow their business in Amazon’s stores. The Selling Partner Summits, which were announced in February, sold out quickly in just six weeks.

To learn more about small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s stores, visit: aboutamazon.com/smallbusiness.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about