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B2C (Business to customer) news
Amazon will start delivering packages into the homes of Prime members through a program called Amazon Key. I have seen various comments on this being scary, invasive and a step too far. Amazon and Walmart / Jet are only interested in shipping products to customers and when those customers are not a home, it's further capital and resources needed to get that item to the customer. Recode, Fortune, The New York Times
I believe that companies that are not transactional in nature from founding stages struggle to add commerce to their businesses. Case in point, Snapchat who seemingly dont have a proper business model but are a public company and are making losses as they sold spectacles which did not lead to repeated usage. Techcrunch
Amazon is going after corporate customers in a big way, with the announcement of a new paid membership program aimed at multi-user businesses in the U.S. and Germany. Called Business Prime Shipping, the program extends Prime’s free, two-day shipping benefits to all users with an Amazon Business account, allowing them to shop for office supplies and other company needs. Techcrunch
Amid retail apocalypse, PE pushes into ecommerce. For private equity firms operating in the retail industry, one door may be closing. But another is opening. On one hand, recent years have brought a flurry of bankruptcies for traditional big-box retailers backed by PE, as companies with outdated business models continue to fall behind their more streamlined peers. But some firms have been able to capitalize on that very same trend by embracing a more specific niche: ecommerce. Pitchbook
Amazon gets wholesale pharmacy licenses amid speculation of prescription drug push. The latest evidence comes in the form of a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which found through reviews of public records that Amazon got the go-ahead over the past year from pharmaceutical boards in 12 states to become a distributor. Those states are Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, Louisiana, Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee, with an application pending in Maine, but not Amazon’s home turf of Washington state. GeekWire. The New York Times
CVS-Aetna? Expect more strange bedfellows as competition from Amazon grows. “A potential combination would diversify CVS profit streams ahead of an Amazon entry and set the stage for a new healthcare/retail delivery model,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research note Friday. Los Angeles Times
Retail's Secret Weapon Is the Private Label. I think most retailers are making the right call by trying to build a stable of winning, recognizable private-label offerings. In the digital era -- when price comparisons are a snap and switching retailers doesn't require a trek to another shopping center -- it's all too easy for shoppers to abandon you if they primarily come to you for ubiquitous national brands. Bloomberg Gadfly
Expedia Axes Its Price-Matching Guarantee in a Sharp Break From the Past. For years, Expedia.com, the flagship brand of online booking conglomerate Expedia Inc., joined the industrywide practice of claiming that consumers would always get the best prices for travel on its websites and apps. But on October 18, Expedia-branded websites worldwide dropped that long-standing offer. Skift
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D2C (Direct To Customer) news
The $600 Million Dollar Story - the story of RXBar growing in 4 years to an exit. Fascinating. If a gym didn’t buy, he gifted them a free box of bars just to get his product in the hands of his customers. Imagine that. Giving away thousands of dollars of your product because you unequivocally believe it’s the best thing out there and people would come back. Reign23
How Sweetgreen, Glossier, Away, And Walker & Co. Built Cult Brands - fascinating. Company leaders took the stage at the Fast Company Innovation Festival to discuss the importance of community, anticipating consumer needs, and more. Fast Company
How to grow a Direct to Customer business. SMCP’s main brands, Sandro and Maje, were founded in 1984 and 1998, respectively. Until the early 2000s, the brands were sold entirely through retail networks of department stores and speciality boutiques. Now, the company is vertically integrated, operates its own e-commerce stores and store network, and direct retail sales account for 94 percent of business. Glossy
After Lazada, he started an online fashion brand with his partner. It’s profitable and growing - The story of Linjer. In the span of three years, Linjer has grown into a multimillion dollar online fashion company and it’s turning a healthy profit – a story that stands out in the world of fashion ecommerce, where profitability remains elusive even for established players. Tech In Asia
As the holidays fast approach, young, direct-to-consumer brands are plotting how to best reach their customers during this noisy time of year. The result will be a mix of smarter and less aggressive discounting than their predecessors, as well as timely product launches and events. Glossy
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Marketplace news
Alibaba and Amazon look to go global. The biggest tussles will probably be over growing economies and cross-border commerce. Yet both companies run the risk that strategies which did well in their home countries may not succeed elsewhere. The Economist
Amazon is shutting down its Amazon Wine business in the wake of the Whole Foods deal. Amazon Wine will close up shop at the end of this year. Not surprising as the decision to shut down the business appears to stem from so-called tied house laws, which prohibit retailers that sell alcohol from accepting payments from suppliers to advertise their goods. Wine suppliers pay fees to Amazon to sell through Amazon Wine, while Amazon also acts as a retailer of wine through Whole Foods and increasingly other services, like Prime Now. Recode, TechCrunch
The age of Amazon and Alibaba is just beginning. The firms’ businesses will reinforce each other as consumers and companies become more likely to use their platforms, and diverse sources of revenue and data power further growth. As a result, the two giants sit at the centre of all sorts of activity. In America Amazon is showing, week by week, the havoc that an innovative e-commerce firm can wreak in a giant, mature market. In China Alibaba is showing how dramatically one company can reshape business in a fast-growing economy. The Economist
Alibaba President Michael Evans: Lots of Work To Do on Communicating Our Anti-counterfeit Efforts. “Is Alibaba doing enough to fight the massive counterfeit listings on its platforms?” Jing Daily
China’s second-biggest online retailer JD.com is reportedly planning to enter the Middle East and is interested in partnering with the Saudi government. Is this the beginning of a potential partnership between Noon.com and JD.com? JD.com is currently looking for partnerships as Amazon and Alibaba become global powerhouses. Forbes Middle East
eBay has added visual search to their marketplace. Too late and too little impact will be felt by this improvement as customers don't start their product search on eBay nor are their marketplaces showing growth. I believe that we are headed to eBay selling their marketplace business to a PE fund or some other commerce business that believe that they can grow eBay. Let me be clear - their classifieds and second market businesses are currently the only upside in their business. TechCrunch
E-commerce giant Amazon to ramp up India investments and this should concern Flipkart. Amazon India chief Amit Agarwal said on Thursday that the online retailer plans to double down on its investments in India, especially in key areas such as digital payments and the Prime membership programme. Dealstreet Asia
JD.com: China’s Forgotten Travel Juggernaut? In travel, however, JD.com is mostly forgotten—at least on the international stage. Prominently featured on JD.com’s front page, travel products such as flight tickets, hotel bookings, vacation packages, cruises, and so on can all be purchased on the gigantic e-commerce platform. Jing Travel
Amazon launched a cash payment service in Mexico, aiming to expand its customer base in a country where shoppers are wary of credit card fraud and often earn their living in paper currency. In Mexico, shoppers can deposit between 100 pesos ($5.20) and 5,000 pesos per transaction at several convenience store chains throughout Mexico, including 7-Eleven, placing up to 10,000 pesos a day into Amazon accounts online. Fortune
China’s HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in E-commerce China Dangdang Inc in a deal that could value the online marketplace at over $1 billion. Reuters
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Fashion ecommerce news
MatchesFashion adds new designer styles to its site every day. “Exclusives are a really interesting buy for us,” said Kingham. “When we started carrying exclusives, we needed to increase our buys during the year. We needed monthly deliveries, but the production cycle is arranged so that everything comes in at the same time, several times a year, with lulls in between.” By providing data to brands, MatchesFashion leverages exclusives to generate demand. Interesting concept but not sustainable. Digiday
Five-year-old underwear and basics company MeUndies has made its initial foray into traditional retail with the launch of its first pop-up store in Palo Alto, California. This is the next step for MeUndies as the e-tailer builds on its relationship with investor Simon Ventures to create unique experiential. Mr-Mag
Online artist community and ecommerce website Threadless has acquired shoe brand Bucketfeet, and the brand will be producing on-demand footwear. Bucketfeet has been able to switch all their production from taking huge quantities of inventory to a print-on-demand model which seemingly is the reason for this acquisition. Multichannel Merchant
Five Israeli Companies Changing The Face Of International Fashion Tech. I always look at Israel for a look at the future and wont be surprised if some of these companies are acquired. Ranging from e-commerce and 3D online shopping to 3D printed clothing, wearable technologies and eco-fashion, digital fashion is incredibly broad but making a strong and swift imprint. It’s no surprise that Israel is in the midst of it all. No Camels
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Mobile commerce
Southeast Asian e-commerce startup Carousell closes $70-$80M Series C round. TechCrunch understands that Carousell’s annual GMV — gross merchandise volume, which indicates the total value of goods sold across a platform — is at $5 billion. TechCrunch
Ridesharing giant Uber will launch its first co-branded credit card on November 2 in conjunction with Barclays, integrating card benefits into its app to create a seamless way for customers to spend their reward points on Uber rides. This is a big deal that has implications for any competitors of Uber as they are able to collect data on their customers. Skift
Why Kicking Out Counterfeit Crooks on Instagram Is So Important. For those who are less cash, the market has become flooded with knock-off fakes. These are promoted via comments and sponsored ads on sites like Facebook and Instagram. Entrepreneur
Facebook continues to add to their plethora of features by adding cars to their selling proposition. This will definitely impact second hand car sales platforms and vehicle classifieds operators such as eBay Motors. Does the fact that they leverage Blue Book pricing lead to this becoming a dominant platform longterm? I still think that Facebook is trying everything to access commerce for advertising purposes but I just don't see this having long term impact. TechCrunch
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Stats and other interesting news
Bezos, King of E-Commerce. This Bloomberg Profile looks into how Bezos built Amazon inside his garage and now has his sights set well beyond online commerce. Ritz Holtz / The Big Picture
The 11 Best Tiny Houses You Can Buy on Amazon. A few clicks deeper down the Amazon rabbit hole reveals all kinds of buildings that you can buy and get delivered to your door. Gizmodo
Wal-Mart is rolling out shelf-scanning robots in more than 50 U.S. stores to replenish inventory faster and save employees time when products run out. Reuters
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Thoughts on the news from this past week
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