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More lawmakers are cracking down on Amazon's allegedly anticompetitive practices. But it's important to understand what these politicians and advocates are claiming, in order to surmise the best approach to fight the ever-growing tech behemoth.
Amazon has rolled out a new selling format for brands in its third-party marketplace: Sold by Amazon, a program that lets sellers submit products to be priced by Amazon’s algorithm. Positioned as a competitive advantage to sellers, the new selling format could prove to be a slippery slope.
Amazon has previously offered vendors the ability to bid on the Amazon’s Choice badge by lowering prices, increasing profitability per sale for Amazon and increasing marketing spend, according to sources who received the pitch from the company.
Amazon reportedly obtained a liquor license in San Francisco. This is likely part of the company's slow expansion into the alcohol delivery business. As a whole, alcohol e-commerce has been relatively untapped – and Amazon may be the company that makes a big splash.
Two months after it pulled its FedEx Express air mail service from the platform, FedEx has ended its FedEx Ground Shipping service. To get items to customers within Amazon’s ever-shrinking guaranteed delivery windows, the company will rely on UPS, DHL and its own network of delivery capabilities, which include its own fleet of cargo planes, delivery trucks and local drivers.
This week, Microsoft purchased the marketing technology platform PromoteIQ. It's another example of the computing giant trying to both court retailers and compete with Amazon. But can Microsoft level up with the e-commerce giant?
Within the past several months, Facebook has started to crack down more on businesses who are routinely being ranked by users as not being honest about their shipping times.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in California, is just the most recent action eBay has taken against Amazon. In it, eBay singles out three Amazon representatives who, the suit claims, used eBay’s internal seller messaging system to poach sellers. Beyond those three representatives, the effort involved a network of Amazon reps in multiple countries that conspired to approach eBay’s sellers on the platform and convince them to join Amazon.
According to president and chief digital officer David Hayne, Urban Outfitters, Inc.’s well-oiled e-commerce and retail machine, as well as its deeper pocket of resources, will be Nuuly’s advantage as it takes on the rental apparel market.
Every brand under the TechStyle umbrella is powered by FashionOS, TechStyle’s proprietary technology platform that powers the e-commerce sites, in-store tech and point-of-sale, customer service, fulfillment centers, media buying, customer acquisition and data science and analytics.
Amazon’s second-quarter sales for 2019 saw net sales increase 20%, to $63.4 billion, compared to $52.9 billion over the same period last year. Jeff Bezos, in remarks to investors, attributed the sales growth to a positive customer response to Amazon’s push to one-day Prime shipping.
A new boom of technology partners have seen an opportunity to seize on this next-stage DTC opportunity: Scale is difficult, and brands, despite product market fit and a customer base, might sink left on their own.
Alibaba wants US small-to-medium sized business to use its platform to sell wholesale. It's a clear move to both enter the North American market and compete with Amazon. The question remains: will US companies be interested?
More e-commerce companies are having trouble filling ordered quickly and efficiently. While big retailers try to build out logistics programs to rival Amazon, third-party providers are seeing a growing opportunity to target the high-end direct-to-consumer space.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Amazon's Brand Accelerator program includes a clause that grants the company the right to purchase any brand it works with for a set price. Essentially, what this means is that Amazon agrees to provide resources to help a business's sales, but it can – at a moment's notice – decide to purchase the brand and bring the entire operation in-house.
Digital messaging is central to human communication, yet most customer support teams sound deeply inhuman on digital platforms. To connect with modern consumers, it's crucial to get conversational through text, email and social — but without getting invasive. Download the guide to learn how.
Uniqlo just announced a new promotion, giving away 100,000 free samples. The retailer's US business has been flagging, and this seems like a way to try to regenerate interest. This latest program seems to borrow from some DTC strategy.
Read MoreJoin us at the Modern Retail Summit, where retail marketers will discuss everything from the Amazon effect, new infrastructure and the shift in the direct-to-consumer world.
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