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Google is trying to woo sellers to sell on its marketplace, but they aren't taking the bait. The problem is that, as friendly as Google’s policies are to sellers, very few customers actually seem to visit the Google marketplace. “Zero percent fees on zero dollar sales is still zero,” said Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of the marketplace tracking site Marketplace Pulse.
When it comes to art buying, brick and mortar galleries have historically dominated the space, making for an intimidating experience for most everyday shoppers. However, while the art world is struggling without in-person auctions, marketplaces like Artsy are finding that the pandemic is helping expand the market to include young customers.
For decades, dry ice has been the standard packing solution for frozen and perishable foods. But with much of the depleting supply going toward keeping Covid-19 vaccines cold, brands that rely on dry ice to ship products to consumers are looking for alternatives.
For a decade, Shopify has been slowly growing, describing itself as a quiet no-nonsense back-end tool to help merchants grow their businesses. And over the last year it's become an empire. Now, as Shopify has create more programs to bring in new merchants, the company has become a new e-commerce default -- and it has big plans to expand beyond mere DTC brands.
Walmart is testing ways to keep consumers ordering groceries online long after the pandemic. As grocery sales slow down, the retailer is partnering with tech startup HomeValet to install smart coolers on customers' porches.
Increasingly, when consumers stumble across a pair of a pants or a two-sided cereal bowl that catch their eye on Instagram or TikTok, they’ll have to go to a Linktree or a Linkin.bio page to buy it -- and that has turned those startups into a new kind of storefront for the social media era. According to Linktree, e-commerce-related traffic has been consistently doubling month over month.
Shopify announced that it would be banning two online stores affiliated with President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Stripe has reportedly stopped processing payments for the Trump campaign. Rarely do political calls for action extend to e-commerce marketplaces or software providers. But recent actions signal that may start to change.
Big CPG continues to experiment with subscription services. This week, Coca Cola relaunched its Insiders Club program after pausing it during the pandemic. The program lets a select number of subscribers receive monthly boxes of exclusive items. The move highlights a bigger trend within food and beverage.
The resale industry has been one of the biggest winners in 2020, culminating in resale app Poshmark filing to go public. Poshmark's S-1, which was published on Thursday, reveals that the startup was actually able to turn its first profit of $8.1 million during the first nine months of 2020 -- a rarity among consumer startups looking to go public. But Poshmark still faces a number of challenges ahead in its quest to become a public company. Here's our detailed look into the company's just-released financials.
Shipping delays are getting worse and worse for e-commerce businesses right now, and Etsy shops are no exception. In recent days, Etsy forums have been flooded with sellers looking for advice from one another on how to deal with shipping delays. "USPS delays are killing my plants and killing my business in turn," one seller said on Wednesday, writing that packages were often taking 10-14 days -- and sometimes up to four weeks -- to ship. As third-party sellers on a rapidly growing e-commerce platform, Etsy sellers only have so many options to try to address shipping delays.
Right now, retailers are focused on getting items to customers in time for the holidays. But come January, they'll have a new headache to contend with: processing all of the items that ultimately get returned. Some research has shown that items bought online are more likely to be returned than those bought in store, with online apparel having some of the highest return rates. Given that people are expected to do more of their holiday shopping online this year in lieu of visiting a store, retailers are also bracing for the likely scenario that people will want to make more returns this year than ever before. To prepare, they are trying to give customers as many ways as possible to make returns.
Carriers like FedEx and UPS have been warning for months to expect holiday shipping delays. But now, they are taking more drastic steps by imposing some limits on the number of packages it will pick up per day from companies. The package pickup limits are being imposed on major retailers like Nike and Macy's, down to startups like aperitif brand Haus. Retail executives told Modern Retail that while they expected some delays, they felt like carriers haven't given them enough notice, and are leaving them out to dry during their busiest time of year.
Alcohol delivery platforms continue to acquire customers, especially as millions of Americans face a second wave of pandemic lockdowns. This Thanksgiving was no different. Aside from its standard sales boost, this year Drizly's white glove service saw record consumer interest.
The often dreaded office holiday party is on hold this year, and many employers are looking for alternatives to celebrate remotely and reward workers. Virtual gifting, like e-commerce, is on the rise to meet this demand. Startup Loop & Tie and 1800-Flowers.com's new SmartGift portal, aimed at business customers, are trying to capitalize on the growing phenomenon.
In order to prevent Amazon from clawing away more of their business, shipping carriers are trying to forge deeper partnerships with other platforms that work closely with retailers and e-commerce companies. That's evidenced by FedEx's latest acquisition, announced last week. The logistics carrier is acquiring ShopRunner, a marketplace that offers its members free two-day shipping and returns on products from more than 100 retailers.
Over the past few years, Amazon has quietly built out a successful business-to-business platform for haircare businesses as well as individual hair stylists and other professionals. Those, potentially, will become the major beneficiary of its latest store: Amazon Salon. The launch of a physical salon seems much less about capturing the revenue from cutting and coloring hair, and much more about building Amazon’s credibility as a supplier of professional beauty products and beauty technology.
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