Ecommerce & Marketplaces Newsletter - May 17, 2024
Adobe Analytics data showed resilient e-commerce growth in the first four months of 2024. On TikTok Shop, brands continue to deal with a buggy and opaque platform. Running an online business means every sale counts. So, you want to be sure that you do as much as possible to convert views to conversions. The importance of sustainability has long been recognized across industries. Yet, many obstacles delay transitioning to more sustainable practices.
Digital Commerce 360
While large B2B companies like Fastenal Co. and W.W. Grainger, China Inc. use their substantial digital technology resources to serve customers effectively and grow sales across multiple online and offline channels, much of their strategies apply to companies of all sizes. That’s largely because today’s digital commerce technology offers a wide range of capabilities.
Campus Technology
OpenAI is introducing a new iteration of its flagship GPT-4 large multimodal language model. Called "GPT 4o." (The "o" stands for "omni"), this new flagship model was designed, the company said, to "reason" across audio, vision, and text in real time. The new iteration will be free for all users, said OpenAI CTO Mira Murati during the livestream announcement, and paid users will continue to have up to five times the capacity limits of free users.
Adobe
Adobe Analytics data showed resilient e-commerce growth in the first four months of 2024, rising 7% year-over-year to $331.6 billion. Consumers have been trading down to cheaper goods, across major e-commerce categories including personal care, electronics, apparel, furniture and groceries. Buy Now Pay Later expected to drive over $81 billion in online spend in 2024, setting a new record as shoppers embrace more flexible ways to manage their budgets.
Modern Retail
Just before Lisa Guerrera , founder of TikTok-viral beauty brand Experiment , signed up for the U.S. version of the social media company’s online marketplace, she sought the advice of veteran sellers on the platform. Her question for them: Was TikTok Shop worth it? “They said, ‘Buckle up for the first thirty days,” Guerrera said in a phone interview. Sellers told her they experienced issues ranging from artificial intelligence that erroneously gets products taken down to buggy platform integration.
StartUp Nation
Running an online business means every sale counts. So you want to be sure that you do as much as possible to convert views to conversions. One of the most significant areas where sales are lost is during checkout. In fact, some estimates suggest cart abandonment rates average as high as 70.19%. Your ecommerce checkout page is the final stage of your initial sales funnel. Think of it as the boss level in 90s video games where some people admit defeat.
Practical eCommerce
Small to midsize ecommerce companies often struggle with order fulfillment. Given the costs of running a warehouse and fulfillment center, many SMBs outsource those tasks, but that could change as robots become viable for even smaller companies. The warehouse automation industry remains focused on massive companies, but the nascent trend toward ecommerce SMBs could offer growing brands more fulfillment options. The question will be whether small-scale warehouse automation systems and robotics save ecommerce companies money and otherwise offer a competitive advantage.
Entrepreneur
The main advantage of ecommerce is convenience. You can browse merchandise from the comfort of your home, compare offerings without running from store to store and get what you want delivered where you want it. However, to keep enjoying this convenience, we must make it more sustainable. The importance of sustainability has long been recognized across industries. Yet, many obstacles delay transitioning to more sustainable practices.