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In early May, Instacart quietly added a new feature called “Product Library,” which lets brands whose products are bought and sold on Instacart edit how their products appear on the platform. The Product Library update might be small, but it showcases the extent to which Instacart, as it becomes an increasingly ad-focused company, has tried to make itself more friendly to brands.
As the Amazon acquisition boom continues, a growing number of companies are beginning to consider how -- and whether -- to turn the products they acquire into recognizable brands even off of Amazon. But question of how present the actual name of the rollup company should be in the minds of consumers also remains up in the air. “At this point, we have delivered products to one out of every ten households in America, but they have no idea that we’ve done that,” said Josh Silberstein, founder and co-CEO of Thrasio.
Over the last year, influencer-created videos have increasingly popped up on Amazon product pages. With these videos, Amazon is trying to bring some of the cues from social platforms onto its own site -- and rather than have its influencers only recommend products on YouTube or TikTok, and just link back to Amazon, now Amazon is trying to bring more content natively onto its platform.
As DTC brands continue to look for new customer acquisition channels, Pinterest is becoming a bigger part of their shoppable content playbook. The social platform, which has been increasingly building out e-commerce capabilities, has partnered with several digitally-native brands on a shopping event featuring exclusive products.
While Amazon's Dash Replenishment might be the largest program in what remains a niche industry, a growing number of startups are pitching auto-replenishment systems to brands -- and to stand out, they’re making their case not on just the economic benefits of convincing customers to set auto reorders, but also on the potential consumer usage data that they can source.
One of the biggest storylines of this year’s Prime Day is inventory problems. Toward the end of May, third-party sellers began reporting that their inventory maximums had dropped suddenly -- meaning, essentially, that Amazon would only accept a reduced amount of inventory into its warehouses.
This week, Etsy announced that it has acquired Depop, a clothing resale app for $1.6 billion. That announcement comes nearly two years after Etsy acquired Reverb, a marketplace for new and used music gear. In its press release, Etsy laid out its rationale for acquiring Depop: It help Etsy further its "house of brands" strategy, in which it will operate the three marketplaces separately -- Etsy, Depop and Reverb -- but share technology, marketing, product and customer services staff.
Last week, the e-commerce rollup space got one of its biggest endorsements yet when the SoftBank Vision Fund led a $775 million investment round in Perch, a Boston-based rollup company that has been active since January 2020. Modern Retail talked to Chris Bell, a former Wayfair executive who is now founder and CEO of Perch, about how he is thinking about standing out in such a crowded market.
The fact that a major fashion brand like Gucci is investing in Roblox underscores how, in recent months, retail brands have increasingly been eyeing ways to build out a presence on the platform.
Last week, Karl Racine, attorney general for the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit alleging that Amazon’s own policies were forcing sellers to set prices that are artificially high on platforms other than Amazon. The case centers on Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy -- the rule in which Amazon states that prices on its platform should be lower than in other stores (sometimes called a “most-favored nation” clause). Here are a few key things to know about the case.
Modern Retail spoke to Becca Sawyer, head of small business and operations at TikTok, about how the company is pitching itself to small businesses. Sawyer, who has worked at the company since May 2020, is leading an effort to expand TikTok’s offering to the business world.
On Thursday, Google announced a slew of new features aimed at making Google Shopping easier for brands to use and break away from the crowd. Google is adding integrations with WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square, allowing the products of brands using these platforms to automatically show up among Google's results.
Amazon is continuing to try and enter the cloud gaming space. But it isn't the only one. Here's why retailers and platforms are making investments in it.
Last month, the company published a new product collection that highlights viral products. By curating this collection, Amazon is acknowledging the importance that TikTok has amassed in driving retail sales, especially for products that stray toward the unconventional.
Many brands see immense potential in YouTube's new video unit Shorts. And while Shorts is often cast as a mere TikTok doppelgänger, its unique infrastructure, and especially its search tools, might make it an especially appealing home for brands looking to create content that retains longer-term relevance.
Tehmina Haider is the head of Harry's Lab, which both builds new CPG brands as well as invests in and acquires existing ones. Haider described the operation as being a "diversification engine." She joined the Modern Retail Podcast and explained how she's built out the program over the last three years.
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