E-commerce Industry News Recap ?? Week of Jan 1st, 2024

Happy new year! I'm Paul Drecksler and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter .

This is a summary recap of the 154th Edition published 01-01-2024. Check out the full edition for links and sources and subscribe here .

1. Bonanza launched a new webstore builder and e-commerce hub called Vercado, which it described in a blog post as “a powerful alternative to Shopify Plus.” Bonanza describes Vercado as “an all-encompassing, cost-effective webstore builder and all-in-one business hub designed to cater to businesses ranging from start-ups to established giants.”
2. You know that ad-free experience you've come to enjoy on Amazon Prime Video? Now it'll cost you an extra $2.99/month. Amazon first broke the news in a blog post in September 2023 that they'd be switching existing users to an ad-supported experience, but did not announce exactly when the changes would take place. However last week in an e-mail sent to subscribers the day after Christmas, they shared that the effective date of the change will be Jan 29th.
3. A company aptly named Pipedream Labs Inc. in collaboration with Curiosity Labs is launching the world's first below-ground delivery system in Peachtree Corners, GA. The system is exactly how you'd imagine, with little roller coaster cars on an underground track that make deliveries right to your door. The installation spans almost 1 mile long via a tunnel that connects a busy shopping center to Curiosity Lab’s 25,000 sq.ft. smart city innovation center. When an order is placed, Pipedream’s mobile robots travel back and forth through the tunnel to autonomously pick up and deliver food, packages, groceries, household goods, or potentially poop, depending on which jokester is on the other end of the tunnel.
4. Zulily , a Seattle-based retailer that catered to families with young children, is closing down, surprising customers and laying off hundreds of workers after efforts to salvage the business failed. The company has ceased all customer-facing operations, other than fulfilling existing orders during the next two weeks. The company fought for years to compete with Amazon and other major retailers, including filing a lawsuit as recently as Dec. 11 against Amazon, accusing it of trying to destroy Zulily through price-fixing.
5. Digital Trends released its top 10 commercials of 2023, many of which came from the Super Bowl last year. Top of the list was Squarespace's Singularity commercial where Adam Driver comes to terms with the idea that a website builder could create itself. In the fifth spot was Ikea's Proudly Second Best campaign which acknowledged that their furniture could never replace a kid falling asleep on their mom or dad. As a new dad, it was super cute and true to life! And coming in at number 10 was PopCorners' Breaking Bad homage with “SEVEN!” original flavors.
6. Continuing on to another top list, Business Insider compiled a list of 100 people at the forefront of artificial intelligence, including these seven e-commerce entrepreneurs: 1) Miqdad Jaffer (Shopify), 2) Prakhar Mehrotra (Walmart), 3) Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov (eBay), 4) Rohit Prasad (Amazon), 5) Shreya Shankar (Alta), 6) Nikko Str?m (Amazon), and 7) Raquel Urtasun (Waabi).
7. Have you been keeping up with the 苹果 Watch controversy? If not, here's a recap of what's went down since October, leading up to what went down last week. In October, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued an order to ban Apple from importing its Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 after finding that the devices violate patents owned by the medical technology company Masimo. President Joe Biden's administration had 60 days to decide whether to veto the import ban, which it did not. Apple filed an emergency request for the U.S. Court of Appeals to halt the ban, which they denied. On Dec 21st, Apple pulled the watches from its online stores. However other retailers like Walmart and Best Buy weren't affected until their existing supplies ran out. On Dec 27th, Apple won a temporary pause of the ban, which allowed it to resume sales in Apple Stores immediately. The next day, Apple resumed selling the banned watches on its website. The story will continue in two weeks when U.S. Customs and Border Protection rules on the proposed changes on January 12th.
8. According to Coresight Research , 2023 saw an 80% surge in store closures from the year before. Reasons ranged from bankruptcies to operators closing underperforming locations. In some cases, retailers even blamed rising theft as to why they shut down certain locations. However even though there were a lot of store closings, there were also a lot of store openings. Retailers actually opened almost 5,500 stores in 2023, more than offsetting the number of closures, oftentimes moving into locations vacated by other businesses.
9. Free shipping is more important to U.S. shoppers than same-day or next-day delivery, according to a new Forrester report. Nearly half of respondents said the option for faster delivery has no impact on which retailer or brand they'll buy, but 75% said free shipping is the most important criteria.
10. Shopify is rolling out a personal news feed feature that enables users to follow authors and topics they're interested in, as part of the company's effort to integrate more deeply into the content consumption habits of its users. Shopify is also publishing tools to encourage users to subscribe to newsletters and monitor and track financial data of stocks. Editor's Note: This was the only source I could find on that news story. If you have any additional insights, please e-mail me or comment below.
11. U.S. retail sales (excluding automotive) increased 3.1% YoY this holiday season, according to preliminary insights from Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payments. Online retail sales increased 6.3% YoY while in-store were up a more modest 2.2% YoY, not adjusted for inflation.
12. 亚马逊 has been handed a warning by the FDA over sales of mislabelled and unapproved products after a lab analysis found several male energy supplements contained undisclosed… umm.. male performance drugs. (Sorry, but if I write the names of the drugs out, this e-mail will for sure hit your Spam folder!) The products, which were marketed as harmless dietary supplements, should have been defined as drugs, as they contain ingredients intended for use in treating and preventing… you know what… the FDA cautioned.
13. British households will soon have a better way to recycle e-waste like cables, toasters, and power tools under the government's plans to have retailers pay for household and in-store collections. The ambition is for retailers, rather than the taxpayer, to pick up the tab for these new ways of disposing of defunct, often toxic products safely. (Something tells me the consumer will be bearing the brunt of this expenditure either way.)
14. India's proposed national e-commerce policy is in the final stages and expected to be announced very soon, according to union minister Piyush Goyal. The new rules will address data, infrastructure development, e-commerce marketplaces, and regulatory issues to stimulate the country's digital economy and exports.
15. Paytm , India's largest digital payments platform, confirmed a “slight reduction” in its workforce (but did not specify a number) while denying media reports that it could cut more than 1,000 jobs. A spokesperson said, “We will be able to save 10% to 15% in employee costs as AI has delivered more than we expected it to.” Damn, it's starting!
16. Amazon is expanding its micromobility delivery hub network with the roll out of its latest fleet of electric cargo bikes in Croydon. Ecargo bikes and on-foot deliveries are now operational from hubs in more than 20 cities across the UK and Europe.
17. eBay sellers are reporting that additional offers are coming in after they've accepted an offer. Traditionally an item goes into “sold awaiting payment” status, but now items are remaining active until the buyer pays, allowing another buyer to make a higher offer or buy the items outright.
18. WordPress is creating guides to help publishers migrate away from commercial page builders and onto their block based editor Gutenberg. Some perceive it as a controversial move to create a guide to undermine software publishers like Elegant Themes (maker of Divi) and Elementor, who have been a major part of the WordPress ecosystem prior to Gutenberg entering the scene.
19. A federal judge ruled that X violated contracts by failing to pay millions of dollars in bonuses that were promised to its employees. Mark Schobinger, who was Twitter's senior director of compensation before leaving Elon Musk's company in May, sued the company in June, claiming breach of contract.
20. 微策略 's stock soared over 300% this year, outperforming tech giants like Nvidia and Meta, after the company's big crypto bet paid off. Since 2020, MicroStrategy has accumulated over 174k bitcoins, now worth about $7.4B, which is over 90% of its total market cap. Sell, sell, sell!
21. Cindi White, a 65-year-old former insurance investigator who lives alone in NJ, gave more than $25k to Creators via TikTok's Live Matches, where creators compete against each other for likes and virtual gifts. White devoted as much as 50 hours a week to TikTok Battles, and now says it's an addiction like gambling.
22. 谷歌 will begin testing its new Tracking Protection feature, which restricts website access to third-party cookies by default, on Jan 4th to a around 1% of Chrome users. Google plans to phase out the use of third-party cookies for all users in the second half of 2024, although they've already delayed the push several times, so who knows?
23. 京东 won its antitrust lawsuit against 阿里巴巴集团 , which was ordered by a Beijing court to pay $141M in damages for abusing its market dominance and conducting a monopolistic tactic known as “picking one from two” (where online merchants are forced to pick only one platform as their exclusive distribution channel), which caused damage to JD.com 's business. Well, now that that's over, both companies can focus their attention on battling Temu and SHEIN , which they are rapidly losing market share to.
24. Two-thirds of Gen Z consumers did not know that they could use account-to-account payment, which allow a user to send money directly from one account to another. The use of this payment method is more widespread among older generations, like Gen X, baby boomers, and seniors.

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See you next week!

PAUL

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