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On Monday, Away announced that Stuart Haselden, currently Lululemon's COO, will replace co-founder Steph Korey as CEO come January. Haselden has experience navigating some of the key challenges Away will face -- namely, evolving a company's brand identity as it expands beyond its core product, and developing a comprehensive plan for international expansion.
Large grocery chains like Kroger are feeling competition not only from new players in grocery like Amazon, but also food delivery services like UberEats and Grubhub. In response, Kroger is getting more aggressive about forming partnerships that will allow its customers to more easily buy prepared meals.
Postmates announced a new partnership with Old Navy, allowing customers to have items delivered to their door within a day. While the app has always been agnostic when it came to types of products delivered, this partnership indicates that it's further trying to differentiate itself from the food space.
In February, Amazon launched Amazon Live, a page for its own QVC-like shopping videos that are livestreamed and produced by Amazon, as well as a new app that would allow brands to create their own live shopping videos. Although Amazon is encouraging more brands to test out Amazon Live, it has yet to become a critical driver of sales during large shopping holidays like Cyber Monday.
Pinterest has a new page that showcases select small businesses. It's another example of the social media platform trying to prove to brands that it's a worthy alternative to Facebook and Google. The next year will be the real test for whether or not Pinterest can make the case.
Kroger is continuing to roll out its online wine program. Today, it announced some new features and more locations. Put together, the grocer is trying to be a leader in the alcohol e-commerce space. It's certainly something that's ripe for the picking.
Poshmark has over 7 million sellers on its resale platform. One way it's been trying to garner more engagement and retention is by facilitating small local events for these users. The company is now trying to invest further in this events program, as it tries to scale and potentially go public.
Fast, reliable delivery options have become table stakes for today's brick-and-mortar retailers, thanks to Amazon. Now, they're also becoming an important part of these retailers' marketing strategies in the run up to big holiday sales days like Black Friday and Christmas. In the lead up to Black Friday, many retailers are dropping the minimum order value needed for customers to get free shipping altogether, or are giving their most loyal customers access to the fastest delivery and fulfillment options for free.
Facebook wants people to shop on its platform. The latest evidence comes from two product rollouts -- one for catalogs in WhatsApp, the other called Facebook Pay. It's part of a bigger industry realization that conversational messaging is the next big frontier for US platforms. But Facebook has some big hurdles to overcome in order to succeed.
A new report says that Google's Search results are littered with counterfeit results. The company, however, doesn't crack down on the problem. For Google, it's a philosophical problem as it considers itself to be an index of the free and open web. But as it continues to expand its commerce offerings, the problem could get more prickly.
As buy now, pay later financing models start to gain more traction among younger customers, the businesses powering these transactions are also looking for more ways to keep customers shopping within their network of retailers. Affirm, founded in 2013 is one such business, and last week launched a redesigned mobile app that's designed to encourage customers to turn to Affirm to finance more of their purchases.
Brands, especially venture-backed ones, live and die by a few metrics. Customer lifetime value and retention rates are especially critical in proving to investors that their company is worthy of being valued at five times or ten times revenue.
The "treasure hunt" shopping experience that's been popularized in outlet and off-price stores has historically been difficult to recreate online. But as more people general are doing their shopping online, that isn't stopping more retailers from trying their hand at building a more appealing discount shopping experience online.
Google just announced new features to its Google Shopping program. The platform is trying encroach on the e-commerce terrain that both Amazon and Facebook have dominated. It illustrates that the next big shopping advertising battle will focus on product discovery.
As eBay looks to install new leadership, its struggles have made clear just how difficult it is for alternative marketplaces to win over both sellers and shoppers thanks to Amazon's dominance. On Wednesday, the company's CEO, Devin Wenig stepped down after five years. The company named CFO Scott Schenkel interim CEO as it looks for a replacement.
As brick-and-mortar businesses struggle to stay competitive in the Amazon era, a retail revolution has occurred.
The service, which will operate separately from Elliot, will allow brands to have customers shop products straight from an interactive live stream. The live shopping network is meant to give viewers to ask questions about curated items' fit and texture, among other details, before clicking checkout on products.
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