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Shopify's move comes at a time when a lot of small businesses that sell through the e-commerce giant are actively exploring alternative ways to acquire users while coping with a steep rise in advertising costs and inflation.
The second quarter of 2022 saw Facebook’s parent Meta report a year-over-year decline in ad revenue, indicating marketers are pulling back spending amid the targeting changes. Now, amid big changes due to Apple's iOS 14 update, Meta is trying to convince advertisers to stay on the platform.
As inflation wrecks havoc on Americans' shopping habits, luxury brands have become even more exclusive thanks to historical price hikes. These factors, according to luxury resale platforms, create an opportunity to court high-end shoppers looking for deals.
The market for aggregators grew swiftly during the pandemic. But this year, aggregators have hunkered down and shifted focus to staff reduction and consolidation as record-high inflation and a potential recession has led to softening consumer demand.
A number of technology giants like Meta as well as Amazon started experimenting with live shopping several years ago, encouraged by the format's success in China, as well as by accelerated e-commerce sales during the pandemic. But most of these efforts have failed to attract large audiences.
Amazon is increasing the perks of its Prime program to provide more value to Prime members and reduce the likelihood of churn. This comes as its growth numbers have flattened and profits have dwindled.
Chinese online retailer Alibaba has been hit with a string of bad news recently regarding its U.S. business. This week, Alibaba was added to an SEC watchlist, indicating that its financial audits for the most recent fiscal year could not be properly reviewed, and putting the Chinese tech giant at eventual risk of being delisted. That's just the latest hardship it faces in its U.S. expansion plans.
Pinterest's revenue growth slowed dramatically during its second-quarter earnings, following similar trends as other major tech companies that recently reported declines in digital advertising. However, the company said it plans to invest more in shopping to drive revenue growth.
Amid a slowdown in international sales, Amazon is expanding its presence in Europe and hiking the cost of its Prime membership in select countries. Last week, Amazon announced plans to launch a dedicated website and third-party marketplace for Belgium in the coming months, inviting sellers to start registering their business.
Companies that assist vendors to maximize sales on Amazon said that the recent cost increases are becoming more difficult for third-party sellers to continue to absorb. In turn, sellers suggested a variety of ways that Amazon could assist third-party sellers in this time of need, though, it's not immediately clear that the e-commerce giant will adopt any of them
Brands say they are shifting their advertising dollars to e-commerce giant Amazon due to poor effectiveness of social ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google.
Last month, Pinterest completed its acquisition of The Yes, an AI-powered shopping platform. The Yes founder Julie Bornstein is the new chief shopping officer at Pinterest. In a candid chat with Modern Retail, Bornstein spoke about the ongoing integration between the two companies, the future of online shopping and the modern online shopper's priorities.
Amazon is making concessions that offer European vendors more control. However, some sellers are unsure if the most recent adjustments are sufficient because the proposal's present level of detail is inadequate.
Shopify just announced a new integration with YouTube. Merchants can sell their full range of products on Youtube in three ways – livestreaming, videos and through a storefront. Experts, however, aren't convinced that livestream commerce will hit the big times in the U.S. just yet.
The buy now, pay later sector is hardly shriveling up, with consumer demand remaining strong and business activity happening all over the globe. Overall, the global market is projected to reach $576 billion in 2016, up from $120 billion last year, according to a May 2022 report from Global Data.
Despite grappling with the impact of excess inventory and shifting customer spending, Walmart reported that it is steadily resolving some of the issues impacting its bottom line. The retail giant is battling headwinds on several fronts, but thanks to value propositions, experts said it is able to weather the storm.
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