e-Commerce & more I 20th to 26th Jul

Online grocery continues to grow!! 

Online sales jumped 76% last month VS last year and the trend is not slowing down!

Last week news….

China Missfresh raise 0.5 Bln for online grocery! Shopify enhance virtual shopping & Buy Now Pay Later, 7-Eleven catch up on online order & delivery, AB Tasty raises $40M to optimize e-commerce UX, Arrive Outdoors raises $5M for your next Burning Man gears!

1. Missfresh racks up $495 million in funding as China’s e-grocery booms

The COVID-19 lockdown around the world introduced online grocery to many shoppers for the first time, I estimate based on conversation with customers and partners that the pandemic has accelerated the penetration of online grocery by 10 years!! This is the category of business that has the most benefited from the pandemic…

China Missfresh just raised half a billion to enhance its 30 minutes delivery to your house! Yes 30 minutes, this is definitely faster than even if you go running to the supermarket to do your purchases yourself…

The one thing: Online grocery has a huge impact on consumer behavior as online purchases becomes the “norm”, basically your brain goes into “If I buy my food online everyday, I can buy anything online…”

2. Shopify adds virtual shopping feature with hero

With COVID19 cases still increasing in many parts of the world, shopping experience has to evolve. U.S. online sales jumped 76% to $73.2 billion last month from a year earlier, indicating a significant shift in spending habits that may prove to be long-lasting.

One big thing to improve in the online shopping is THE EXPERIENCE! Many companies are tackling this area and one key aspect is the introduction and development of virtual shopping technology.

No wonder this new partnership between Shopify & Hero technology which will allow Shopify merchants to provide a more immersive experience and many functionalities for their customers.

Better experience = More sales = More commissions! 

3. Shopify inks deal with Affirm, a buy-now-pay-later financing service for credit-card users

“Buy Now Pay Later” is becoming the norm for many online buyers and many merchants, particularly in countries like the US.

Shopify named Affirm its exclusive partner to power split payments across Shopify’s U.S. storefronts. Shoppers can currently divide their carts into four equal installments at Affirm’s 6,000+ U.S. merchants and this will be expanded now to the entire ecosystem of merchant of Shopify. This is a perfect timing for such announcement as the pandemic has created challenging time for many who are embracing the flexibility of BNPL...Max Levchin (CEO Affirm) told Bloomberg that demand at Affirm has nearly quadrupled during the pandemic.

My prediction: This is the first step for Shopify in acquiring Affirm in the coming months. 

4. 7-Eleven launches order ahead, expands delivery footprint

We needed a pandemic to get the basics of online in place but now things are seriously moving in the space of ecommerce for all. 7Eleven is the last major announcement of a company expanding its delivery & instore pick up in order to integrate online & stores.

Customers can now place a pickup order on the app at a participating 7-Eleven store, walk in, bypass the line (yes no lines at 7Eleven, amazing no?), and retrieve their order.

5. AB Tasty raises $40 million to optimize e-commerce user experience

AB Tasty just raised 40$M to continue enhancing thei SAAS solution which improve the user experience on e-commerce platforms, travel portals, fashion websites and more. The solution let you customize the message and the feature set of your application depending on the person with whom you’re interacting (Personalization powered by Data).

6. Start Up of the week: Arrive Outdoors, the online gear rental platform for outdoor adventures, raises $4.75 million

I remember when I was planning my trip to Burning Man with my friend Cesar 3 years ago, we were looking for outdoor & camping gears and end up in Amazon.com like most of us! Well you might have a new option now if you want to purchase outdoor gears. Arrive outdoors is capitalizing on the covid crisis as camping and outdoor activities are probably the safest way to go on vacations for the next couple of weeks. The company just raised $4.7M to grow their business which is booming with the combination of: Summer Product + Outdoor + Nature = Growth.

My prediction: We will continue to see more and more specialized marketplaces which can bring more experience and customizations to consumer needs VS the traditional large marketplaces.

Cheers, Enjoy

Nabil