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  • FTC and 17 States Sue Amazon For Alleged Antitrust Violations

    FTC and 17 States Sue Amazon For Alleged Antitrust Violations

    The Federal Trade Commission has launched a widely expected lawsuit against Amazon over alleged antitrust violations.

    The FTC has been investigating Amazon’s business practices and preparing a case against the tech giant for months. The FTC makes clear that it is not suing Amazon become of its size, but because of alleged “exclusionary conduct” aimed at stifling competition from existing or potential rivals.

    “Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them. Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.”

    The FTC took special note of Amazon’s practice of punishing sellers who try to offer lower prices through other outlets, as well as the company’s efforts to force sellers into gaining “Prime” status, ensuring Amazon is able to charge them significant fees for fulfillment services. The agency also took issue with Amazon’s practice of pushing its own products, preferring advertised products over genuine results, and adding more fees to sellers, with many of them paying Amazon as much as 50% of what they earn.

    “We’re bringing this case because Amazon’s illegal conduct has stifled competition across a huge swath of the online economy. Amazon is a monopolist that uses its power to hike prices on American shoppers and charge sky-high fees on hundreds of thousands of online sellers,” said John Newman, Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Seldom in the history of U.S. antitrust law has one case had the potential to do so much good for so many people.”

    The FTC was joined in its lawsuit by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

  • Amazon Is Taking Half of Sellers’ Revenue

    Amazon Is Taking Half of Sellers’ Revenue

    Many e-commerce companies rely on Amazon for the bulk of their business, but it is a costly proposition with Amazon taking half of their revenue.

    According to research by Marketplace Pulse, Amazon has increased its fulfillment fees and mandatory advertising, increasing the percentage it takes from sellers. This has resulted in an increase in Amazon’s cut from 40% five years ago to 50% today.

    Interestingly, the base transaction fee has remained a steady 15%. Fulfillment fees, however, have grown to 20-35% and advertising can rack up another 15%. What’s more, the advertising is not optional, meaning sellers are going to pay for it whether they want it or not.

    Credit: Marketplace Pulse

    As the research firm highlights, this is leaving many companies making far less than they planned:

    Sellers are combating fee increases by either raising prices, diversifying from FBA, or diversifying from Amazon altogether. However, sometimes it’s only at the end of the tax year that they realize how little net profit they have left. A few sellers showed paying 60% and even 70% of their revenue to Amazon in fees. They still had to pay for inventory, freight, employees, and other expenses.

    To make matters worse, there are not many good options for companies that want to avoid Amazon’s fees. Walmart is cheaper for new sellers, but doesn’t have nearly the reach that Amazon does. Shopify and eBay, while significantly cheaper, also require the seller to handle more of their own logistics.

    With an economic downturn, only time will tell if Amazon is squeezing its sellers too much.

  • Walmart Selling Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods

    Walmart Selling Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods

    Walmart is selling outdoor retailer Moosejaw, with DIck’s Sporting Goods buying it for an undisclosed amount.

    Walmart purchased Moosejaw in 2017 for $51 million as it was ramping up its online offerings. The purchase seemed like a good fit, given Moosejaw’s successful e-commerce presence.

    Just a few years later, Walmart is now offloading the company, selling it to Dick’s — which is arguably an even better fit, given both companies’ focus on outdoor apparel and gear.

    “We admire what Moosejaw has accomplished over the past 30 years as leaders in the outdoor industry and look forward to the opportunity to share insights and learn from one another,” said Todd Spaletto, President, Public Lands and Senior Vice President, DICK’S Sporting Goods. “We believe there’s potential to grow the Moosejaw business and provide compelling experiences and an expanded product assortment to its millions of loyal customers.”

    The deal is expected to close March 2023. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

  • Developer Opens eBay Account, Gets Suspended Indefinitely

    Developer Opens eBay Account, Gets Suspended Indefinitely

    Rafael Conde, a developer for Sketch and Hand Mirror, created an eBay account, made his first purchase, and promptly got suspended indefinitely.

    eBay was once THE online destination for used, unique, and vintage items on the internet. In recent years, however, it has been eclipsed by a variety of other platforms. A recent Twitter thread by Conde illustrates an issue that could be a major factor in eBay’s decline.

    According to Conde, he set up an eBay account to look for and buy vintage items that aren’t easily found elsewhere. After his first purchase, however, he was notified that his account had been suspended. Talking with an online customer support representative didn’t yield any resolution, with the customer service rep saying the decision was final and nothing could be done.

    To matters even worse, the transaction for the item Conde bid on had already gone through. eBay’s solution was to tell him to contact his payment provider and dispute the charges.

    What’s more, in an unfathomable admission, the eBay rep seemed to indicate that this was a common and normal way of verifying new users.

    The Ask eBay Twitter account responded to Conde’s thread, reiterating that nothing could be done.

    The entire exchange is displayed below and is definitely not a good look for a company that needs to attract users…not alienate them.

  • Shopify Unveils ‘Chaos Monkey 2023,’ Limiting Meetings and Slack

    Shopify Unveils ‘Chaos Monkey 2023,’ Limiting Meetings and Slack

    Shopify is aiming to disrupt the workplace with a new initiative called “Chaos Monkey 2023,” one that limits meetings and Slack usage.

    Like many companies, Shopify is working to adjust to a post-pandemic economy, one that may be on the verge of a recession. The company is hoping “chaos engineering” will help it be more nimble and better able to move forward.

    “Chaos engineering is the practice of experimenting with a system to build confidence in that system’s ability to withstand turbulent conditions in production,” the company said in internal documents viewed by Business Insider. “It’s also known as chaos monkey, and at Shopify, we apply this practice not just in building great products for our merchants – but in everything we do.”

    As part of its new strategy, the company has ended meetings involving more than two people, and all meetings on Wednesday. Large meetings, of 50 or more staff, will be restricted to a specific time-frame on Thursdays.

    In addition, the company de-populated all of its public Slack channels, removing all employees from them, deleting chat history, and lowering their limits to 150 people per channel. The company is evidently moving the bulk of its communication to Workspace by Meta, with Slack only serving as a direct message platform.

    “We’ve forced our async work into Slack – it’s bloated, noisy, and distracting,” said COO and Vice President of Product Kaz Nejatian. “We have endless channel updates mixed with broad announcements and pineapple on pizza debates.” 

    The company acknowledges the plan is disruptive, which is exactly what executives are hoping for.

    “All of this feels chaotic, which is kind of the point,” Nejatian said.

    After laying off 1,000 employees in July, only time will tell if Chaos Monkey 2023 helps the company achieve its goals.

  • COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation, Says DocuSign CEO

    COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation, Says DocuSign CEO

    “We have seen significant acceleration since the COVID-19 pandemic,” says DocuSign CEO Dan Springer. “A significant portion of that (increase) was due to increased use cases from customers driving that digital transformation faster with services like DocuSign. We don’t see customers going back. Once they’ve got the benefits from that efficiency in their business, the better customer experience, and the better employee experience, they’re going to stay in a digitally transformed world.”

    Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and he says that businesses are not going back to a manual world:

    COVID Pandemic Accelerated Digital Transformation

    We’ve been really pleased with the growth we’ve had since going public a few years. We have also seen significant acceleration since the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s obviously a horrible pandemic and our number one priority has been the health and wellbeing of our employees so we can take good care of our customers. As you can see in our Q1 earnings we did see an acceleration of our bookings to 59 percent.

    Traditionally, if you look at the billings-type metric they have been in the mid-30s’. A significant portion of that (increase) was due to increased use cases from customers driving that digital transformation faster with services like DocuSign.

    Companies To Stay In This Digitally Transformed World

    One of the things we’ve seen with the pandemic impact is that it has really accelerated the path that companies were already on to drive that digital transformation. We don’t see companies after the pandemic settles down going back and saying they want more paper and more manual processes.

    Once they’ve got the benefits from that efficiency in their business, the better customer experience, and the better employee experience, they’re going to stay in a digitally transformed world. They are going to use DocuSign and other fantastic services to do that.

    The Future Is Going To Have eSignature At The Center

    We really think that the future is going to have eSignature at the center of what we call the overall Agreement Cloud. Companies want to be more agreeable. They want to be easier to do business with and be easier to do business for. They’re going to not just use DocuSign for signature but all of the other components of preparing agreements and managing those agreements digitally once they’ve been created. That’s why we’re excited about our very robust future.

    We just past a billion dollars in revenue (for DocuSign eSignature). We are only four percent penetrated today and we’re six times larger than the next biggest player in the space. There’s not a lot of penetration yet in that core business. Notary is still predominantly done manually. We are making investments there. We believe we can bring the same ease of use that we brought to eSignature we can bring to notary.

    AI To Power The DocuSign Agreement Cloud

    Much bigger than that, even expanding upon the opportunity of eSignature is that broader Agreement Cloud opportunity. We think this is the next big cloud opportunity. You are going to see companies increasingly say I don’t just want to do the workflow and signature. I also want to drive the creations of those agreements. I want to think about artificial intelligence and search capability to manage my agreements. This would enable me to actually manage my business and make my company more agreeable.

    Those are some of the investments we’re making. That’s why we just finished the acquisition of Seal Software last month so we can bring additional artificial intelligence and analytic capability to help people run their businesses better.

    COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation, Says DocuSign CEO Dan Springer
  • Amazon Agrees to Major Business Changes in the EU to Head Off Probe

    Amazon Agrees to Major Business Changes in the EU to Head Off Probe

    Amazon has reached an agreement with the EU to make major changes to its business in exchange for heading off antitrust probes.

    Amazon was under fire for dealing unfairly with third-party sellers, preferring its own retail business over those of competitors, as well as for using its sellers’ non-public data to fine-tune its own services and gain an advantage.

    The EU Commission outlined its concerns in a statement:

    In July 2019, the Commission opened a formal investigation into Amazon’s use of non-public data of its marketplace sellers. On 10 November 2020, the Commission adopted a Statement of Objections in which it preliminarily found Amazon dominant on the French and German markets, for the provision of online marketplace services to third-party sellers. It also found that that Amazon’s reliance on marketplace sellers’ non-public business data to calibrate its retail decisions, distorted fair competition on its platform and prevented effective competition.

    In parallel, on 10 November 2020, the Commission opened a second investigation to assess whether the criteria that Amazon sets to select the winner of the Buy Box and to enable sellers to offer products under its Prime Programme, lead to preferential treatment of Amazon’s retail business or of the sellers that use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.

    As part of the agreement, Amazon will no longer use non-public data from its sellers to improve its own products. The company will also make offers and products from competing sellers equally visible in its “Buy Box.” The terms of the deal will be enforced for seven years, but will only be in effect within the EU.

    “Today’s decision sets new rules for how Amazon operates its business in Europe,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy. “Amazon can no longer abuse its dual role and will have to change several business practices. They cover the use of data, the selection of sellers in the Buy Box and the conditions of access to the Amazon Prime Programme. Competing independent retailers and carriers as well as consumers will benefit from these changes opening up new opportunities and choice.

  • Walmart is the Roman Empire of Retail

    Walmart is the Roman Empire of Retail

    Walmart is the Roman Empire of retail, says Burt Flickinger, Managing Director of SRG. Walmart announced an impressive earnings and revenue beat that told the story investors want to hear. Walmart is winning the retail wars, especially against arch-rival Amazon. “Like Hannibal and the Carthaginians, Amazon is starting to go the wrong way.” says Flickinger. “Big win for Walmart today and they will accelerate that in the next two to seven years.”

    Burt Flickinger, Managing Director of SRG, a consumer industry business consulting firm, discussed how Walmart is winning the retail wars in an interview on Fox Business:

    Walmart is the Roman Empire of Retail

    This earnings report just reinforces its winning. Amazon is going sideways. This is a reenactment of the Punic Wars, Rome versus Carthage. Walmart is the Roman empire of retail. Like Hannibal and the Carthaginians, Amazon is starting to go the wrong way. Big win for Walmart today and they will accelerate that in the next two to seven years.

    What’s doubly impressive, we talk to a lot of vendors and shoppers around the world, what the vendors are saying is Walmart is reinvesting all the PPA (price and promotional allowances) in lower prices. Lower prices normally mean lower margins and lower revenue. But in this case, the shopper is shifting to Walmart.

    Walmart strategically saw all the land-based businesses like Payless and all the retailers from toys to sporting goods going out of business. They had great sales on land and not so good online. Walmart is winning both ways. Amazon, with all the trouble they’re having with Whole Foods, can’t capitalize. Walmart is running the table.

    This Says it All for US Retail

    This says it all for US retail. The well capitalized highly capable retailers are winning and if it’s a one man show, like Bezos running the show, you could be Alexander the Great, you could be Hannibal out of Carthage, but one general isn’t going to win a war. Recent (lower) retail sales numbers were a combination of a couple things. One is Jerome Powell scared the market, especially high to mid-end, didn’t spend as much. Also, consumers were a little bit scared toward the end of the year. Walmart, off price, low price, did very well, but full price full service struggled and that’s why the numbers were bad.

    Walmart comp sales increased 4.2 percent, just like Steve Jobs and Apple with their great campaign Think Different with Muhammad Ali, Walmart is thinking different with Doug McMillon. It’s evolved from a company of family management to professional management. Walmart had 40 percent growth online.

    Walmart Ads Are Really Connecting

    Before, Walmart looked at advertising as an expense. But as Jerry Della Femina said, most of the Super Bowl ads were pretty pathetic. Walmart was one that stood out because it advertised Walmart online and Walmart in-store. The Walmart ads are really connecting with consumers, a United Nations of consumers.

    They’re reaching everybody around the world with better prices and better service. Doug McMillon has invested in inventory and has invested in store staffing, first to raise wages with some push from the UFCW. They are hitting on all cylinders. The biggest problem now is they can’t handle all of the volume they are seeing on the weekends.


  • It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture, Says CMO

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture, Says CMO

    “When I think of brand architecture it really gets to the essence of the brand,” says Buffalo Wild Wings CMO Seth Freeman. “The essence of the brand is around this idea of camaraderie and ritual and something that we like to call “game on.” It’s our ability to make sure that when folks come in to experience Buffalo Wild Wings that we have a game on mentality and that we bring them the very best of who we are.”

    Seth Freeman, Chief Marketing Officer of Buffalo Wild Wings, was recently interviewed on Adweek’s CMO Moves podcast with Nadine Dietz. Freeman discussed their new “game on” brand architecture that defines not just their new marketing strategy but really the heart of the business. “The purpose ultimately is really about inspiring legendary experiences between friends,” noted Freeman:

    Turning Good Times With Friends Into Great Times With Brothers

    When I think of brand architecture it really gets to the essence of the brand. There are three components to it in the way we framed it up.  They are the promise, the essence, and the purpose. We identified an insight out there that guys want to turn good times with friends into great times with brothers. More accurately, legendary experiences with brothers. That was the cultural insight that really framed our brand architecture.

    When we think about our purpose we defined our promise as the great American sports bar that turned game time into stories worth telling. It wasn’t just about inviting folks to watch a game. It was about translating that into an experience worth telling. That’s what folks are really looking for. That’s the promise that we deliver on every single day. That’s why we get up. That’s why folks are going out there and doing the job that they do and delivering a great experience.

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings

    Our purpose ultimately is really about inspiring legendary experiences between friends. The essence of the brand is around this idea of camaraderie and ritual and something that we like to call “game on.” It’s our ability to make sure that when folks come in to experience Buffalo Wild Wings that we have a game on mentality and that we bring them the very best of who we are. We have 80,000 folks out there working across Buffalo Wild Wings and they bring it every single day.

    https://youtu.be/AkGZHYM-D90
    It’s Game Time at Buffalo Wild Wings!

    As we were talking to consumers, one of the things we learned was that some of the most impactful experiences that they talked about was with the bartenders and servers. They are influencing whether or not those folks come back. For instance, one of the most memorable experiences they talked about was the bartender remembering them when they came back.

    That is our brand architecture, but it also lends itself to things we have done in rolling out this purpose to the broader community through our Brand Champ Initiative. That really is a cultural movement that we are employing across our franchises and corporate stores. We have over 1,200 locations where folks are trained to make sure that the brand architecture is translating to a way that is meaningful to the consumers and also meaningful to the folks that are on the front lines every single day.

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture


  • How Do You Measure the Success of a Content-Driven Marketing Strategy?

    How Do You Measure the Success of a Content-Driven Marketing Strategy?

    Content marketing is reshaping ecommerce for companies large and small. That’s because marketing is about trust first and foremost and marketers are realizing that quality content builds trust quicker than traditional advertising. Tim Turner Forman of a new startup called The Tot and Matt Osias of Hawke Media recently discussed how to start a content-driven marketing strategy.

    Why is it important to resist the urge to have your content do the selling?

    Tim: What we do at The Tot is provide trust and advice and mindfully curated products. For it to be considered trusted advice it needs to come from a credible real place. It needs to be authentic and it needs to come from experts, people who know what they are talking about. At The Tot we work with a network of experts around the globe to create parenting content. What first-time parents are looking for most is information and they are just as likely to turn to a website as they are to go to a doctor and they are even more likely to go to a website than to ask their own Mother. If we are able to develop and curate content of moms sharing to other moms, that develops a relationship and provides values for them.

    How do you measure the success and performance of a content-driven marketing strategy?

    Matt: When you consider measuring in general, there are so many different formats that are out there that people can leverage. Oftentimes, people are saying… well I want articles for my blog. What type of article are you looking for? What is the goal of that piece of content? Are you trying to drive organic search and bring in new audiences so they can learn who you are or are you trying to engage them a bit more with videos and infographics? Every single format has a very specific measurement.

    Beyond that, your measurements are somewhat different than your basic media buying for example, where you spend a dollar and hope to make back three, or some version of that. When we are looking at content marketing, especially when it is brand agnostic, the real important ideal there is to think about how can I actually give something to my audience that resonates with them, teaches them and solves a problem. Then ultimately, your brand is there waiting for them.

    Awareness, Engagement, Advocacy

    The three things that I look at are awareness, engagement, and advocacy. The first thing you would want to do in building a content marketing strategy is to consider the idea of awareness, giving awareness to the people you are working with. Then having intent-driven content. People are asking questions in Google all the time and they are getting answers. If your site has the answers in its content, especially if it’s early stages, then that’s going to do something that most (ecommerce) sites aren’t doing, which is to put eyes onto your site, without the brand and product coming into play at first.

    With this brand agnostic content, the bulk of your content is primarily text-based content. With measurement I look at eyes on site and what they are doing when they get there. Are they jumping around to different pages or are they bouncing right away? When you bring in somebody to your site where it is solving something you have to have something that is engaging to keep them there and keep them coming back.

    Tim: We definitely watch inside of Google Analytics to be able to see the pageviews, what people are doing, and how they move from the editorial side of the site to the product side of the site. We also use content as part of our marketing program. It’s definitely an upper funnel prospecting piece.

    Quality Content is Just as Important as Ad Spend

    Tim: As somebody who came from an ad agency working with clients who had large ad spends and then coming to a start-up to help them grow and find customers, we didn’t have a large ad budget. What we did have though is this wonderful bank of content. This quality content has become just as important as the ad spend. Every month we put together a new prospecting campaign with a variety of articles and then we keep some evergreen pieces of what performed and that gives us a really good indicator of the type of people we are able to draw and attract to the site. It’s very contextually targeted so somebody that is clicking and looking at an article titled, “9 Ways to Prepare for a New Baby,” is probably going to be our customer.

  • Square Changes Its Name to Block

    Square Changes Its Name to Block

    Taking a cue from Google and Facebook, Square has changed its name to Block, retaining the Square name for its Seller business.

    Square is Jack Dorsey’s second company. Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO Monday, presumably giving him more time to focus on Square. As the first big move since Dorsey’s pivot to focus exclusively on Square, the company is changing its name.

    Block will be the name of the corporate entity, with its various businesses — such as the Square Seller business — forming the building blocks of the company.

    “We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs,” said Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Block. “Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.” 

    Other than the name change, there will be no other organization changes.

  • Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    “Our ads on Reddit have gotten a lot of traction and puts a big smile on people’s faces,” says 1-800 Flowers CEO Chris McCann. “That’s what we’re trying to do is just make sure we’re relevant and create that cognitive speed bump when people think about our company. They see something different and I’m thrilled with the creative team for coming up with something like that.”

    Reddit Ad That Went Viral for 1-800-Flowers.com

    As usual, some opinionated Redditers expressed their thoughts on the ads:

    1-800 Flowers CEO discusses the company’s growth that was accelerated by the pandemic:

    Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

    What we’ve seen is an acceleration of growth in our company that began back in 2018 and really then accelerated even further in 2020 with the pandemic. It’s driven by the need for us as people to connect and express ourselves. As a company whose vision is to inspire more human expression, connection, and celebration, and as an ecommerce leader, we’re well-positioned in the trends that we see coming out of this pandemic. We think these trends are sustainable going forward.

    We started out as one flower shop many years ago. What we’ve done is created this e-commerce platform for growth, a platform for expression, connection, and celebration. It starts with this all-star family of brands that we have led by Harry & David, 1-800-Flowers, Cheryl’s Cookies, Shari’s Berries, and our recent acquisition just this past August of Personalization Mall. You see us now as a company in the expression and connection business with a leadership position in floral, a leadership position in gourmet food gifting, and certainly now leadership and position in expressions and personalized items which is a fast-growing market.

    You’ll continue to continue to see us grow by organic product development of products that help customers express and connect. And as we’ve done through acquisition, adding to that platform and leveraging that platform that we’ve built.

    Need To Express and Connect Is a Lasting Trend

    Hopefully, the vaccines accelerate and we turn to some sense of normalcy sooner rather than later. As we look at our business, the momentum we saw began in 2018 and 2019 and then accelerated with the pandemic. We’ve been on a good momentum growth even before the pandemic and we really see ourselves now as a bigger stronger company than we were prior to it. We’ve acquired Personalization Mall just this past August and by putting it on our platform and leveraging our digital marketing expertise we accelerated the growth of that company. It grew by 50 percent this last quarter.

    A year ago August we acquired Shari’s Berries and took a business that was stagnant and losing money to now one that’s got a nice growth rate and is generating a nice contribution margin as well. If we just keep our focus on what the consumer is looking for to help express and connect then we’ll be continuing to see double-digit growth for some time to come. That trend that we’ve all learned from being isolated, our need to express and connect is a lasting trend coming out of this pandemic along with the shift from offline to online.

    1-800 Flowers Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

  • Google Cloud Retail Search to Address $300 Billion E-Commerce Search Abandonment

    Google Cloud Retail Search to Address $300 Billion E-Commerce Search Abandonment

    Google is trying to help the e-commerce industry address a $300 billion abandonment issue with Google Cloud Retail Search.

    According to Inc. search abandonment — where a user searches for a product but doesn’t click through to the results — costs the e-commerce industry a whopping $300 billion a year. Google is working to address that with its new tool, which has been in private preview, but is now available to all.

    “Search abandonment is a costly industry-wide issue, but for startup founders and small business owners, it can be devastating,” Carrie Tharp, Google Cloud’s vice president of retail and consumer, told Inc. “With Retail Search, we’re able to help convert site traffic to sales and keep startups and small businesses from leaving money on the table.”

    The tool brings the power of Google Search to a company’s own sites.

    Retailers now have the ability to provide Google-quality search and recommendations on their own digital properties, helping to increase conversions and reduce search abandonment. 

    Cloud Retail Search should help Google as it continues to fight for cloud market share against its larger rivals, AWS and Microsoft Azure.

  • Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

    Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

    “We’re forecasting that ecommerce spending this year will be somewhere between $850 billion and $930 billion,” says John Copeland, Vice President of Marketing Science and Customer Insights at Adobe. This would be a 14 percent increase over last year. That would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.”

    John Copeland of Adobe, predicts that ecommerce spending could be $930 billion, or just under $1 trillion, in 2021:

    COVID was a catalyst to the ecommerce channel last year. What we saw when you look at the full calendar year of 2020 was $813 billion dollars in ecommerce spending, 42 percent growth over 2019. That’s like combining two years’ worth of growth into a single year. Consumers have really embraced the online channel to meet their needs during these challenging times.

    We’re all kind of wondering what (the vaccine rollout) is going to do in terms of ecommerce. We’re forecasting this year somewhere between $850 billion, only a 5 percent over last year, and up to $930 billion, which would be a 14 percent increase over last year. The 5 percent increase would be if everybody gets vaccinated and rushes out and we see kind of a slowdown. The $930 billion, 14 percent increase, would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.

    Buy Now Pay Later Up 215 Percent Over Last Year

    Buy Now Pay Later is very much good for retailers. In fact, what we’ve seen in February this year relative to February 2020, which is kind of on the cusp of the pandemic, is a 215 percent increase year over year in buy now pay later orders. In terms of retailers, it comes along with larger average order values. What we’re seeing is 18 percent larger orders when customers are using that service. Unlike layaway, with buy now pay later you actually get the goods upfront, you don’t have to wait until the payment’s done.

    Another trend is Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store, also known as BOPUS. In February of this year, we’re already seeing it growing 67 percent year on year. It’s always been huge and growing during the holiday season but now people are clearly working it in as part of their fulfillment options. Picking up in the store gives consumers the ability to schedule it according to their availability and knowing that stock will be there for them when they want to pick it up.

    Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion, Says John Copeland of Adobe
  • Salesforce and FedEx Partner to Deliver End-to-End E-Commerce Solution

    Salesforce and FedEx Partner to Deliver End-to-End E-Commerce Solution

    Salesforce and FedEx are partnering to deliver an end-to-end e-commerce and shipping solution.

    The partnership between the two companies will see the integration of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Salesforce Order Management with features from FedEx and its e-commerce subsidiary, ShopRunner. The combination of platforms and services should help e-commerce shops manage the entire process, from promotion to purchase to shipping.

    “Brands and merchants have to move quicker than ever to meet their customers’ expectations,” said Claude Russ, COO of FedEx Dataworks and CEO of ShopRunner. “With the combined power of Salesforce and FedEx, we will provide them the speed, control and economics they need to help them exceed those expectations. From optimizing their inventory management and fulfillment operations, to faster delivery and attracting new buyers, together we’re helping change the game so brands and merchants can have greater control over the links of their supply chain and increase their competitiveness.”

    “We are in a world of commerce anytime and anywhere,” said Lidiane Jones, EVP & GM, Salesforce Commerce Cloud. “Commerce Cloud and Order Management let companies sell wherever their customers shop and fulfill on any channel. Pairing that with FedEx’s logistics capabilities lets us deliver an even faster, easier, and cost-efficient experience for our customers. Now, retailers can better meet shoppers’ two-day shipping expectations without accumulating extensive costs, or sacrificing their time or brand.”

    The partnership is a multi-year agreement, with US customers set to see the first results of the partnership in Spring 2022.

  • Salesforce Economy to Create 9.3 Million Jobs, $1.6 Trillion in Revenue by 2026

    Salesforce Economy to Create 9.3 Million Jobs, $1.6 Trillion in Revenue by 2026

    A new report is demonstrating the breadth of the current digital transformation, claiming the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million jobs and $1.6 trillion in revenue in the next five years.

    Salesforce is the leading CRM provider in the world, and recently acquired Slack, one of the leading corporate messaging platforms. Salesforce has gone all-in on the hybrid/remote workplace, and aims to be the “digital HQ” for its customers. CEO Marc Benioff is a firm believer that employees “can be successful from anywhere,” and Salesforce is aggressively positioning itself as the company that can make that happen.

    A new study by IDC, shows Salesforce is doing something right, as the company and its ecosystem partners “will create 9.3 million new jobs and $1.6 trillion in new business revenues worldwide by 2026.” Equally impressive, for every $1 Salesforce makes, its partner ecosystem will make $6.19.

    The company attributed its “digital HQ” strategy as a key to IDC’s findings. IDC predicts that cloud-related tech will make up 27% of digital transformation IT spending in 2022, and grow to 37% in 2026. This trend is being driven by the remote work transition initially sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Salesforce is helping its customers make that transition smoother.

    In fact, IDC found that Salesforce solutions had helped 47% of customer respondents expand their workforce to include more suburban and rural areas. In addition, 38% were able to expand their workforce into new demographics, such as stay-at-home parents who would otherwise not be able join the workforce, and 36% are able to support more flexible work environments.

    “The Salesforce partner ecosystem extends the power of Salesforce to companies of all sizes, across industries and helps make customer success possible,” said Tyler Prince, EVP, Alliances & Channels, Salesforce. “As Salesforce grows, so do our partners — and we are committed to providing our expanding partner ecosystem with the tools needed to succeed in the jobs of the future.”

  • Facebook Building Yellow Pages Into WhatsApp, Launching in Brazil

    Facebook Building Yellow Pages Into WhatsApp, Launching in Brazil

    Facebook announced it is building a Yellow Pages feature into WhatsApp, allowing users to look up local business information.

    Once a staple of everyday life, the Yellow Pages directory have fallen out of favor, replaced by digital alternatives. In Facebook’s quest to monetize WhatsApp, and make it a critical business tool, the company is looking to provide a digital Yellow Pages feature that will help users find local business information.

    CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature in a Facebook post:

    We’re building a modern-day Yellow Pages into WhatsApp where you can look up and contact local businesses right inside the app. Launching in São Paulo today, and hopefully more places soon.

  • Amazon Unveils Fire TV Omni Series, Its Line of Smart TVs

    Amazon Unveils Fire TV Omni Series, Its Line of Smart TVs

    Not just content to sell other companies TVs, Amazon has unveiled its own line of smart TVs, the Fire TV Omni Series.

    Amazon currently sells the Fire TV Stick line of streaming hubs, giving customers a convenient way to stream Prime Video, as well as virtually all the major streaming platforms. The company is now building on that with the Fire TV Omni Series, a family of full-fledged smart TVs.

    The Fire TV Omni Series is available in a variety of sizes, including 43”, 50”, 55”, 65”, and 75”, and will offer 4K Ultra HD, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Digital Plus. The two biggest models sport a slim bezel for improved aesthetics and include support for Dolby Vision.

    “We’ve reimagined what a TV can do by building it with two of our most popular experiences at the core—the intelligent always-available power of far-field Alexa, and Fire TV’s content-forward approach to entertainment,” said Daniel Rausch, Vice President, Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services. “Our new Fire TV Omni Series smart TVs, with hands-free access to Alexa, make controlling your TV faster, simpler, and more natural.” 

    The TVs will be released October 27 and will start at $409.99.

  • Amazon Will Hire More Than 40,000 Corporate and Tech Roles

    Amazon Will Hire More Than 40,000 Corporate and Tech Roles

    During Amazon’s Career Day 2021, to be held on September 15, the company plans to hire more than 40,000 corporate and tech roles.

    Amazon has experienced significant growth as a result of the pandemic. During lockdowns and quarantines, the company’s e-commerce platform was the lifeline for many consumers. The company has already went through multiple hiring sprees.

    Amazon has now announced it will hire more than 40,000 tech and corporate roles during Career Day 2021, along with tens of thousands of hourly positions in its Operations network.

    “We’re working hard every day to be the best place for people to have satisfying and fulfilling long-term careers,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. “Amazon continues to grow quickly and relentlessly invent across many areas, and we’re hoping that Career Day gives both job seekers and current Amazon employees the support they need to learn new skills or reimagine their careers at Amazon or elsewhere.”

    Amazon says it is the biggest job creator in the US right now, and has hired a whopping 450,000 individuals since the pandemic started. It appears the company isn’t slowing down yet.

  • There Is No Change Coming To Lyft, Says Co-Founder – Despite Ruling

    There Is No Change Coming To Lyft, Says Co-Founder – Despite Ruling

    Lyft co-founderJohn Zimmer is extremely confident the court ruling that found California Proposition 22 unconstitutional will be overturned on appeal.

    “If you look at California Constitution we feel very confident in the way the ballot initiative was written,” says Lyft co-founder and President, John Zimmer. “The Attorney General in California agrees with us and was on our side in this lawsuit. As this goes through higher courts, the appeals court in California, we are extremely confident that the proposition will be upheld.”

    “There is no change coming (to Lyft) out of that ruling,” adds Zimmer. “It will go on appeal and we’ll continue to work within the system of law and we are confident of the final outcome.”

    “It’s hard to predict the legal process fully but we’re optimistic that within that (6 months) timeframe we’ll get a more final resolution.”

  • Former Walmart U.S. CEO Sees Virtual Reality As Future Of Retail

    Former Walmart U.S. CEO Sees Virtual Reality As Future Of Retail

    Former Walmart U.S. President and CEO Bill Simon sees technology, such as virtual reality, having a big impact on traditional brick-and-mortar retail, according to CNBC.

    Simon served as President and CEO of Walmart U.S. from 2010 to 2014, giving him a unique perspective on the retail industry. Rather than predicting doom-and-gloom for traditional retail, Simon believe technology has the ability to transform the industry and open all new possibilities.

    Even something as simple as trying on clothes may be revolutionized by technology, such as virtual reality.

    “Could we have virtual changing rooms so that you can just scan an item in a store with your phone and try it on yourself without actually having to go try it on?” Simon said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

    Simon believes successful retailers will combine online sales with a brick-and-mortar presence, and cites Target and Amazon as two examples of companies that are making it work.