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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For the latest installment of Digiday Media’s Amazon U series, experts zoomed in on a topic many brands are struggling to get right: retention.
The company's growing arsenal of streaming rights underscore Amazon’s pivot into becoming a full-scale ad company -- not just one that exists to make extra profits off of its existing pool of third-party sellers, but one that will draw in businesses and brands that have nothing to do with Amazon’s core product.
As both Amazon and Walmart launch more private-label products, few top search result slots are going to third-party sellers. That reality not only underscores the success of private-label products for both Amazon and Walmart -- it also shows just how tight the window has become for third-party sellers to get their products seen in the highest-trafficked parts of Amazon.
If a customer left a five-star rating, the sellers offered to refund them in full for their purchase. In most cases, they offered the reimbursements through PayPal, not Amazon, so that Amazon moderators wouldn’t be able to pick up on the links. Safety Detectives said it found evidence of at least 200,000 reviews that are the result of a refund scheme.
A California court just deemed Amazon liable for a faulty product sold by a third-party seller. The ruling, if nothing else, solidifies that Amazon has a real liability risk in California. “It’s going to carry a lot of weight in California,” one lawyer said.
The addition of a customer engagement feature to Transparency seems to be a way to rebrand -- and potentially increase the value proposition for -- what has been a largely neglected feature within the company’s counterfeit-fighting service umbrella.
Earlier this month, Amazon quietly rolled out a tool called Manage Your Customer Engagement that lets sellers send messages -- through Amazon -- to certain customers. Offering sellers the ability to send campaigns and product updates to their customers is one step toward allaying those concerns. Yet the new tool comes with a number of important limitations. Sellers, for instance, will not know anything more about their customers than they already do.
Most people think Amazon's advertising revolves predominately around search. But the e-commerce giant's tentacles expand in many other directions. At Modern Retail's Amazon U event, we drilled down on video advertising. Here's our guide, featuring the top insights from the event.
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.
The Nation Retail Federation predicts record Halloween sales of $10.14 billion this year with candy and costumes, in particular, growing 20% and 28%. Still, while in person shopping opens up alongside an in-person holiday, Halloween e-commerce continues to thrive in 2021. And retailers are preparing accordingly.
Read MoreAt the Modern Retail Summit, retail marketers will discuss everything from the Amazon effect to new infrastructure to the shift in the direct-to-consumer world.
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