Amazon’s cashier-less tech option ‘Just Walk Out’ starting in Seattle is anticipated to go big

June 16, 2021

There is a piece of good news for all the introverts who just can’t be around humans especially after more than a year of quarantining at home. All those living in Seattle will soon be able to pick up their groceries without having to interact with anybody. Amazon made an announcement about its first full-size Amazon Fresh grocery store with the company’s “Just Walk Out” cashier-less checkout technology. The stores will be open to customers from Thursday (June 17) in The Marketplace at Factoria mall in Bellevue, Washington outside of Seattle.

With the Just Walk Out option, shoppers can either scan a code that appears in the Amazon app, float their palm over one of the store’s biometric palm scanners or insert their Amazon account-linked credit or debit card. The store will then use ceiling cameras and shelf weight sensors, among other technologies powered by Amazon Web Services, to update shoppers’ virtual carts as they add and remove items from their physical carts. Those who would prefer to check out in the traditional way will also have the option to do so.

Dilip Kumar, vice president of physical retail and technology at Amazon made a statement that the feedback they have gotten from this technology has been fantastic. This is mostly due to the fact that customers skipping the need to stand in queues for checkout not only saves them time but also reduces contact in stores. “Bringing Just Walk Out technology to a full-size grocery space … showcases the technology’s continued ability to scale and adapt to new environments and selection,” said Kumar. In addition, Jeff Helbling, vice president of Amazon Fresh Stores, said the company has “received incredible feedback” at Fresh locations in California, Illinois, and Virginia about the store model’s prices and selection, it’s delivery and pickup options, and the ability to voice shop with Alexa, among other features.

The store will feature both Amazon’s private-label groceries and those from other brands, as well as meals prepared in the on-site kitchen.

While this marks the first full-size store using the “Just Walk Out” technology, it is not the first time customers have been able to purchase groceries from Amazon in this way. The technology has also been implemented in smaller locations. Kumar cites Amazon Go, Amazon Go Grocery, and Amazon Fresh stores in the U.K., as well as third-party retailer stores, as places where this technology has been successfully deployed. The company also previously had two Amazon Go Grocery stores in the U.S., though those have been folded into the Amazon Fresh grocery brand.

Amazon makes new bot additions to its warehouse family for safety: Ernie, Bert, Scooter and Kermit

June 14, 2021

There are soon going to be new additions to the Amazon family where the company’s warehouses could soon be joined by a couple of new co-workers: Ernie and Bert. These are the names of the new robots and they are being tested by the company with the objective of reducing strenuous workload and movements for workers.

However, the introduction of bots raises some suspicions if human jobs are in question or not. To this, Amazon argues they simply allow workers to focus on tasks that most need their attention while minimizing their potential for injury. Amazon said it’s added over a million jobs around the world since it began using robotics in its facilities in 2012.

In May, Amazon announced a goal of reducing recordable incident rates by 50% by 2025. It plans to invest over $300 million into safety projects this year.

The two bots help with the following. Ernie helps to remove items from a robotic shelf so that employees don’t have to. Nevertheless, this process doesn’t save time, but testing has so far indicated it could make work safer for employees.

On the other hand, Bert enables navigate facilities independently, even while workers are moving around. Unlike other robots, Bert would not need to remain in a restricted space, meaning workers could ask it to take items across a facility. It is Amazon’s first autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR’s). Amazon stated that Bert could eventually move heavier items.

Scooter and Kermit are Amazon’s other bots that are under development and function as transport cars. These types of robots are believed by the company to take over workers’ tasks of moving empty packages across facilities. This will enable the employees to pay more attention to activities that require critical thinking skills and also reduce physically strenuous work.

Kermit, which follows magnetic tape to move empty totes, is further along in development, Amazon said and will be introduced in at least a dozen North American sites this year. Amazon said it plans to deploy Scooter in at least one facility this year.

Amazon will get ahead of Walmart in the retailer race in 2022 as stated by JP Morgan analysts

June 12, 2021

It is not unknown that Amazon and Walmart, the two giant retailers have always been at war against each other. However, as per a report provided by JP Morgan, Amazon is all set to overtake Walmart as the largest U.S retailer in 2022.

Amazon’s U.S. retail business is the “fastest-growing at scale,” according to the company’s analysts. Between 2014 and 2020, Amazon’s U.S. gross merchandise volume, or GMV — a closely watched industry metric used to measure the total value of goods sold over a certain time period — has grown “significantly faster” than both U.S. adjusted retail sales and U.S. e-commerce, the analysts said.

Neither Amazon nor Walmart breaks out GMV in their quarterly earnings results, but JPMorgan estimated it for the companies and found that Amazon’s GMV is growing faster than its largest retail competitor. JPMorgan analysts said Amazon’s GMV in 2020 climbed 41% year over year to $316 billion, while Walmart’s GMV is estimated to have grown 10% year over year to $439 billion in 2020.

There are a few factors that can be given the credit that is driving Amazon’s growth and those are believed to be expansion into “large and under-penetrated categories” such as grocery and apparel, strong growth of third-party seller sales, and the “Prime flywheel.” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in April the company now has more than 200 million Prime subscribers, up from 150 million at the beginning of 2020.

In addition, the onset of the global pandemic also contributed to the reason for the company’s success. The coronavirus pandemic rapidly accelerated the adoption of e-commerce and cemented Amazon’s dominance in the retail space. Consumers who were stuck at home for obvious reasons resorted to Amazon for a plethora of goods ranging from toilet paper to workout gear. They also relied on Amazon for services they might not have otherwise considered, such as online grocery delivery. Hence, Amazon’s pandemic-fueled sales surge has helped it grow its slice of the e-commerce market. JPMorgan estimates Amazon expanded its share of the U.S. e-commerce market to 39% in 2020, up from 24% in 2014.

Even for this year, Amazon is estimated to deliver 7 billion packages in 2021, surpassing the roughly 6 billion packages UPS is expected to deliver in the U.S. this year. Besides, n recent years, Amazon has quietly built a shipping operation that rivals the likes of UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service. It maintains an ever-increasing network of warehouses and last-mile delivery stations, and a sprawling logistics operation with airplanes, trucks, and vans. This has enabled the company to deliver most of its own orders.

All this adds to that Amazon is on track to “become one of the largest delivery companies” in the U.S. as the analysts at Bank of America wrote in research published Tuesday.

Shopify makes Primer, an AR platform a part of it to visualize and commercialize home decor

June 12, 2021

E-commerce platform Shopify has acquired Primer, an augmented reality (AR) app that lets users test the effects of a home improvement project before getting their hands dirty. Primer is an Augmented Reality platform that helps décor brands, designers, and design enthusiasts instantly visualize products at scale directly in one’s space. Therefore, this app enables users to visualize what tile, wallpaper, or paint will look like on surfaces inside their homes.

Adam Debreczeni and Russ Maschmeyer, co-founders of the Prime app stated in a blog post that its services will be shutting down next month as a part of the deal. Primer’s has a team of 8 employees who will be joining Shopify after the acquisition. However, the terms of the agreement, including the cost of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Primer aims to create commerce that is immersive, the blog post said, a goal that is reflective of larger e-commerce trends. Customers want to recreate in-store experiences, and even more so, they want the flexibility to try products before buying them and that is what this app is used for.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to realize our founding conviction of building immersive shopping experiences on a massive scale at Shopify,” reads Primer’s blog post, written by the company’s co-founders, Russ Maschmeyer and Adam Debreczeni.

Primer offers its augmented reality (AR) technology to the brands which in turn can produce both samples as well as showroom integrations that sales teams and clients can use to view product installations at full scale virtually. The technology can mimic real lighting conditions, textures, and sheens that give its customers realistic visuals of tiles, colors, and patterns, according to its website.

Shopify on its acquisition with Primer mentions that AR can be a game-changer since interacting with AR content when shopping leads to a 94 percent higher conversion rate than shopping without.

“2020 catapulted commerce into a period of incredibly rapid change, presenting Shopify with unprecedented opportunities in 2021 to accelerate innovation,” the company said.

Amazon focused on delivering experience to customers amid intense Prime Day competition

June 10, 2021

With Amazon Prime Day approaching in less than 10 days to go, a growing list of counter-offers and promotions from rival retailers could make this event very challenging and competitive.

During the same days when Prime Day is being held, competitive retailers like Walmart and Target have also very strategically placed their own events which eventually raise the bar of competition. .While the expansion of deals offered by more stores and websites — as well as a doubling of the original two-day sale window — is good for consumers, it’s clearly getting harder to be heard. This increasingly competitive reality is clearly putting pressure on creative marketing executives to find new ways not only to hype their offerings but to also differentiate themselves and stand out from the pack.

For instance, shopping rewards site Rakuten unveiled its “Shop Like a Winner” event on Wednesday (June 9), a three-day, 10-percent cash-back campaign involving hundreds of stores and brands. It will run from June 21 to 23, abutting Prime Day and related events from Walmart and Target. Additionally, Kristen Gall, president of Rakuten Rewards made a statement recently that this is the perfect time to shop as retailers compete to offer the best deals of the summer, and shoppers will come out the biggest winners. She insisted that the retailers should also use the opportunity to move summer inventory and make way for fall and back-to-school sales.

“You can expect them to offer aggressive savings on seasonal home goods like patio furniture and barbecues, as well as summer apparel for the family. Electronics, kitchen appliances and office supplies will also see deep markdowns”, she added.

With the rising competition, Amazon Senior Creative Program Manager Nicole Jue said that this Amazon Prime Day will be about experience, energy, excitement, emotion and joy that comes to real people while they seek out bargains.

To that point, Amazon’s newly released 30-second video promo promises “two days of epic deals” that shoppers won’t want to miss. “You can change your kitchen, change your yard, change your game or even change the way you celebrate. So if you have plans on Prime Day… change ‘em,” the ad says, sticking with a general hype theme rather than specific product offers.

In addition, Amazon is playing up the small business benefits derived from this annual surge of consumption. Recently, it had begun issuing $10 Prime Day credits to customers who make purchases from a select roster of SMB merchants in the two weeks leading up to the main event. The SMB coupon campaign is a repeat from last year’s Prime Day, which was pushed back to October but still saw record sales for small merchants before and during the actual event.

In announcing the dates for this year’s Prime Day, which is the earliest in its six-year history, Amazon said it is “putting its small business selling partners front and center” via two million deals across every merchandise category. The online giant is also operating a special “Support Small” curated SMB storefront as another avenue of steering business to smaller sellers.

Shopflix, in-trend video streaming network comes to life to tell the real-life brand stories

June 9, 2021

With the growing trend among retailers and brands of live-streaming to sell and highlight products, another video streaming network, Shopflix is launched on Wednesday (June 9^th). It is a video streaming network where brands can tell their stories. For shoppers, the network offers entertaining, shoppable video content 24 hours a day, demonstrated by expert hosts and category influencers.

Shopflix acts as a “retail partner and content creator” for brands, as it offers a novel direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales channel with stronger margins, a lower acquisition cost, and hosts with large social followings who post on behalf of each show, according to the announcement. The network provides round-the-clock shoppable video content for consumers.

“More consumers today are looking to brands that share their values and understand their unique style and interests, so brands need to give shoppers a reason to stay interested, recommend their products, and keep coming back,” Shopflix Co-founder Lindsey Kilbride said in the announcement. “At Shopflix, we care about telling engaging stories of brands and brand founders above all else, which differentiates us from other shopping networks and live streaming events.”

This platform creates content that includes “Pops”, which are under two minutes, and short-form content, which is between five and 15 minutes. The platform also offers long-form content, which is between 20 and 25 minutes.

Some of the shows hosted by this network are:-

Wall traveled by Rosie Clayton where she travels most of the Instagrammed walls across America to learn about local culture and stories of the best local brands
Breaking Through by Melissa Chataigneinterviews founders who have faced adversity and worked their way all the way up, zooming in on the funny, humanizing, yet relatable ‘rejections’ that nearly all entrepreneurs face.
Mom: What Happens Live !: Urban chic moms Ceta Walters and Andrea Levoff tell the funny and often embarrassing stories of living with kids in the digital age.
Generation Next Low key gadget and tech geek Reagan Bregmantakes viewers on an in-depth, yet inviting and relatable look at emerging trends and innovative products that are taking everyday products to the next level.

And shows like Trailblazers, Eco-Friendlier, Taking the Leap, Shop Virtual Support Local, and many more like these.

“Shopflix is content first, commerce second, which helps the brand/consumer relationship go deeper than the transaction by providing an engaging story that resonates with their target shopper to pique interest beyond the product,” Shopflix Co-founder Matt Matros said in the announcement.

Save the date ! 48 hour event of Amazon Prime Day’21 and what to expect from it

June 8, 2021

As Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Day approaches, people are getting excited to know what this deal has to offer. This event which is to be held on two days of summer on June 21-22 focuses on its marketplace sellers-which the company refers to as small businesses. Like the last two years, Prime Day deals will run for 48 hours. The sales event will be held in 20 countries this year, not including Canada and India, where events are postponed due to COVID-19.

This event offers various deals on a variety of products on Amazon.com, which began as a celebration of Amazon’s 20^th year in business. It eventually turned into a summer holiday event intended to hike additional business for the platform and also the retailer’s marketplace sellers. In recent years, other large retailers have offered promotions on their own websites around Prime Day to take advantage of the additional online shoppers.

This event usually takes place in the month of October. However, it was scheduled before time and this year, in the year 2021, Amazon Prime Day is taking place in June itself all because of the corona-virus pandemic, which has shifted and changed consumer’s shopping patterns, impacted retailers’ supply chains, and inventory, and led more shoppers to Amazon.com to purchase essential items.

Prime Day also is also a way for Amazon to sign up more consumers for its Prime membership, a $119 per year or $12.99 a month loyalty program that offers such perks as free one- or two-day shipping, digital photo storage, and video streaming. Prime Day deals are only available to Prime members, which now total 200 million worldwide, CEO Jeff Bezos said in his annual letter to shareholders in April. That’s up from 150 million global Prime members in January 2020 and 100 million in April 2018.

For the second year in a row, Amazon seems to be focusing more on its marketplace sellers—which it refers to as small businesses—than in previous years. For instance, it will once again have “curated small-business collections” during Prime Day on Amazon.com/SupportSmall where consumers can browse marketplace sellers’ products by category, business location, and collections such as Black-owned, woman-owned, and military family-owned businesses.

Additionally, Prime members will receive $10 to shop on any products during Prime Day when they spend at least $10 on items sold by marketplace sellers starting June 7 till June 20. Over 300,000 sellers are eligible for the “Spend $10, Get $10 promotion,” more than twice as many as last year, the company says. This promotion is funded by Amazon.

Nevertheless, Prime Day still lags behind larger shopping events such as the Cyber 5 holiday (the five-day shopping period beginning Thanksgiving Day) or Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Singles’ Day event held in November each year. But when these sales events are broken down by day, Prime Day is considered to be a little better. If simply put, this 48 hours even of Amazon Prime Day generated revenue of around $5.20 billion in 2020. That would mean Prime Day sales were ahead of online sales generated on Thanksgiving Day, and the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving Day 2020.

Pinterest rolls out ‘Shopping List’ feature enabling consumers to purchase items directly

June 7, 2021

An American image sharing and social media platform, Pinterest has long positioned itself in the mind of the users as a source of inspiration for them but is soon paving ways that ultimately lead to online purchases. Over the period of years, it has worked on features to enable better connectivity of its users with the products and services they wish to purchase, for instance, shoppable pins, visual search, AR try-on, product recommendations, and more. Today, finally, the company is rolling out another feature aimed at turning users’ saved Pins into purchases: a shopping list.

Through this new feature of shopping, one can save all Product Pins in one place. So if anybody wants to buy anything, they won’t have to hunt around but just look through the saved Pins and Boards to find the products they had been considering. Here, they will find the information they need, including an item’s price, reviews, and shipping info in an even grid so one can compare products and make decisions.

Nevertheless, this feature is not simply an organizational tool. Pinterest mentions that it will send out notifications if the items one has saved have dipped in price which would eventually encourage users to make the final purchase.

The feature will launch first in the U.S. and U.K., and will later roll out to Australia, Canada, France, and Germany later in the year, Pinterest says.

Alongside the Shopping List, Pinterest today is also expanding merchant tools with the debut of its Verified Merchant Program in the U.K., Australia, Canada, France, and Germany, plus a merchant storefront on profile feature, and new product tagging in Australia, Canada, France, and Germany. The Verified Merchant Program, which was launched last year, offers retailers a way to sign up for a manual review to determine if they meet Pinterest’s qualifications for high-quality customer service experiences. If so, they receive a blue checkmark on their profile as a signal to consumers that they’re a trustworthy retailer.

In addition, the company is today launching a special two-week long Shopping Spotlight called “The Goods by Pinterest,” which offers users access to limited-edition items sold by DTC brands including Brooklinen, Outdoor Voices, Clare Paint, Olive & June, and Maude. And it’s running a “Shop the mood” campaign offering curated trends from its annual report, “Pinterest Predicts.”

With these new additions to the platform, the company wants to ensure those users who are using its site and not just idly browsing, but actually checking out.

Amazon’s Prime Day to tackle severe competition from Walmart and Target’s “Deals (for) days”

June 4, 2021

From the time Amazon has announced its Prime Day on June 21 and June 22, its rivalries like Walmart, Target, and other retailers have been on the move to dilute “The” day’s event. They are doing so by disclosing their own plans to hold competing later this month.

So if one doesn’t want to spend all his money on Amazon but still wants to shop for discounted goods, one will have the option of going to a couple of retailers. Both Target, as well as Walmart, have announced their own sales events on the same dates as Amazon Prime Day, challenging it directly. Walmart’s event called “Deals for Days” will take place from June 20th through the 23rd and will feature “Black Friday-like savings.” Moreover, Walmart is not only jumping ahead of its online rival by a day but is also extending afterward by an extra day in a move that is reflective of its growing confidence and commitment to compete digitally.

“Customers will find Black Friday-like savings on top items from Walmart and its Marketplace sellers in electronics, home, toys, beauty, fashion and more,” the company announcement said, before touting its omnichannel play that will also include online-only and in-store only savings, and rollbacks. One can also expect online-only discounts and in-store-only savings.

At the same time, Target as well will be offering a similar event with more or less a name- Deal Days. The event will go live starting June 20th through the 22nd, which is a full day longer than its sales events in previous years. The deals will also span across categories and will include food and beverage for the first time. You don’t need any kind of membership to take advantage of Target’s deals, unlike Prime Day sales that are limited to Prime members.

Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day event will start on June 21st and ending before midnight on the 22nd. It serves as a sort of reset for the event, which took place in October (instead of summertime like usual) last year due to the onset of the pandemic.

Although the Seattle-based retailing giant promises to continue to innovate and grow Prime Day, it is clearly getting harder to move the needle and offer something unique or exclusive that can’t be price-matched elsewhere.

As a result, these sales events will increasingly compete on service and delivery with the winners being the ones that are best able to manage the logistical components of the sales which include such nuanced skills as identifying and pre-stocking inventory as well as managing final-mile delivery details as fast as possible.

Pilot testing in the U.S starts by Twitter for its story-like feature – Fleet

June 1, 2021

Twitter, an American microblogging and social networking service is bringing into the picture its own version of stories, known as Fleets. The company made an announcement that it will start its pilot testing of Fleet ads in the United States, with just 10 advertisers till now on board. This feature will have a full-screen, vertical format ad offered across social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok among others.

These new Fleet ads will show up in between Fleets from people you follow and will support both images and video in 9:16 format. The video ads support up to 30-seconds of content, and brands can also include a “swipe up” call-to-action within their ads.

The video in this will be shorter than that of what Instagram offers (approximately 120 seconds) or Tiktok (60 seconds). Additionally, Fleet ads will launch today in the U.S. across both iOS and Android.

However, Twitter has not mentioned how often the users will be able to see a Fleet ad as you swipe, saying only that it will “innovate, test and continue to adapt” in this area, as it learns how people engage.

Advertisers, meanwhile, will receive standard Twitter ad metrics for their Fleet ads, including impressions, profile visits, clicks, website visits, and more. And for video ads, Twitter will report video views, 6s video views, starts, completes, quartile reporting, and other metrics.

The pilot which is going to be started will enable the company to evaluate how well these types of ads perform on Twitter, which will inform the company not only how to better optimize Fleet ads going forward, but also other areas where it may launch full-screen ads further down the road. In addition, it wants to learn how people feel about and engage with full-screen ads, as the test continues.

Twitter had first begun experimenting with Fleets in spring 2020 as a way to offer a Stories-like product experience. The company anticipated that the feature would encourage more users to share content on the platform which will disappear after a period of 24 hours, reducing the pressure to perform that comes with posting directly. It rolled out to global users in November 2020. They were initially criticized by some who felt that Fleets were yet another example of how all social apps were starting to look the same.

Presently, people are using this Fleet feature to point to other tweets they’ve posted or to share personal updates, photos, and commentary. Nevertheless, unlike Stories on other platforms, like Snapchat or Instagram, Fleets still offer a fairly bare-bones experience in terms of creator tools. You can change the background color, and also add stickers and text.

The platform has declined to make any comment regarding the proportion of Twitter’s active user base that has now adopted Fleets, noting instead that 73% of those who post Fleets say they also browse what others are sharing. The company says it plans to roll out new updates and features to Fleets in the future, as it continues to invest in the product.

Tata bags largest stake in Indian online grocery app BigBasket and joins the big rivalry race

May 31, 2021

India’s Tata Sons have acquired a majority stake in online grocery retailer BigBasket. As per the reports, this move places the firm in the same category as that of Amazon, Walmart’s Flipkart, and Reliance Industries, making these platforms Tata’s rivalries.

The stake was bought by Tata Digital Limited, a brand of Tata Sons. However, the company has declined to comment on this story and even BigBasket has not yet responded to any interview requests. The deal is supposedly worth 95 billion rupees, or $1.31 billion, and involves Tata buying out the stake of China’s Alibaba. BigBasket’s largest shareholders, Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, and private equity firm Actis have fully exited the company, said a person aware of the deal.

Tata Sons Private Limited is the holding company of Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in the Tata group of companies. It is a privately-owned conglomerate of nearly 100 companies encompassing several primary business sectors: chemicals, consumer products, energy, engineering, information systems, materials, and services. Headquarters are in Mumbai.

In a country like India, eCommerce food and grocery sales have increased with the global pandemic acting as a catalyst. There has been noticed a shift to digital, the news outlet notes, and Tata has been looking to launch a “super app” that would tie in with all of its consumer businesses. The app would offer food and grocery ordering, fashion and lifestyle, consumer electronics and consumer durables, insurance, and financial services, education, healthcare, and bill payments.

“Grocery is one of the largest components of an individual’s consumption basket in India and BigBasket, as India’s largest e-grocery player, fits in perfectly with our vision of creating a large consumer digital ecosystem. We are delighted to welcome BigBasket as a part of Tata Digital,” said Pratik Pal, chief executive of Tata Digital.

The announcement of the deal comes about a month after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved a proposal by Tata Digital to buy up to 64.3%in Supermarket Grocery Supplies via a mix of primary and secondary transactions.

In addition, an international online grocery retailer has also expressed interest in investing as much as $25 billion in the super app. If that deal went forward, it would be the largest retail action of its kind in India, surpassing Walmart’s $16 billion investment in Flipkart in 2018.

Twitter to roll out its new service- Twitter Blue with new exciting features

May 30, 2021

The American microblogging and social networking service, Twitter introduced a new paid-for “Twitter Blue” service on app stores, suggesting the social media company may launch its long-rumored subscription service soon. Mobile phone app stores showed the service, although its expected features did not yet appear to be available.

A subscription plan has long been anticipated as Twitter looks for more ways to make money from its large user base. In April, the company said it had 199 million users from whom it could make money every day, a 20% year-on-year hike.

On Apple’s App Store Twitter lists “Twitter Blue” under in-app purchases for £2.49 in the UK and $2.99 in the US store. On the Android store, the Twitter listing shows “in-app purchases” but does not list pricing for the service.

One of the expected features of this service would include an “undo” button enabling users to recall tweets for a few seconds after sending them. Additionally, a “collections” feature so users can make separate lists of tweets (rather than relying on a single bookmarks list), and a mode to make it easier to read long threads.

Charging users for extra features could significantly increase Twitter’s money-making abilities. In the first three months of 2021 alone, the company made revenues of $1bn (£700m). Finding other sources of revenue could also make it less susceptible to fluctuations in global demand for advertising, as well as technological changes such as Apple’s clampdown on tracking on its devices.

According to researcher Jane Manchun Wong, Twitter Blue could come with tiered pricing, with users who pay more able to access more features.

Twitter also made an announcement this month that it was acquiring Scroll, a subscription service that removes ads for news sites and is designed to give readers a “seamless reading experience.” While it’s not an ad blocker, Scroll performs a similar function, leveraging browser extensions to tell sites not to display ads. In exchange, Scroll gives participating news sites a portion of the user’s subscription fee.

A significant turn of Google towards e-commerce with Shopify

May 30, 2021

Although Google is not the platform that comes to consumer’s minds when they think about shopping, Google and its advanced technology are always working their way to support better retail experiences for both consumers as well as merchants.

Google is mainly a search engine but over the years it has transformed itself from just being a mere search engine to one of the largest technology companies in the world. Considering this, the e-commerce industry has boomed significantly and Google wants to tap in on the industry. The search engine company has been planning its e-commerce debut for a long time now and even so it is not conventional shopping.

At Google’s annual conference last week, this search giant made its announcement of joining hands with Shopify Inc. and Square Inc. to strengthen their integration and to more connect itself to the world of commerce. On Thursday (May 27), Google announced it’s taking that several steps further as retailers on WooCommerce, GoDaddy and Square will soon be able to integrate with Google easily and for free. It is now getting ready to give its users an all-new-convenient way of shopping. The Android-maker mentions that market players like GoDaddy, WooCommerce, and Square will now be able to sell their products directly on Google’s platforms including YouTube, Maps, and Google Search. According to a report by Bloomberg, Google first launched this feature for Shopify merchants and now, it is also allowing the Canadian merchant’s payments service called ‘Shop pay’ as a payment option for consumers.

The crux of the commercial transformation by the world’s leading online search engine is, well, just that: that consumers turn to Google to find things more than they do to buy things.

The twist, however, is that Google fields over a billion buying inquiries per day into 24 billion listings contained within its shopping graph, Google Vice President and General Manager Matt Madrigal told Karen Webster shortly before the news went live.

“We want to bring all the different buying options together for consumers,” he said, “because as we’ve seen with the growth of omnichannel retail and experiences, consumers expect not just a lot more in product choices, but really a change in how they shop. Our goal is to find ways to connect merchants of all sizes with shoppers, something Google is really uniquely positioned to do. We want to create this open network for shoppers and retailers from small D2C [direct-to-consumer] brands to big brands and online marketplaces.”

Google’s objective is to ease the connectivity between merchants and customers irrespective of where the purchase ultimately occurs. It is also to be working on more ways to bridge the connection between retailers and consumers, and not getting in the middle of the brand’s relationship with their customers.

One of the largest anticipated online event, Amazon Prime is coming soon in June

May 27, 2021

Hike in the consumer’s demand and surge in online shopping as the result of the pandemic increases the chances make Amazon’s Prime day a hit. It has been reported that the event will take place on June 21 and 22, 2021. This year, the online retail giant is expected to kick off its annual two-day shopping event in June. This may be the online retailer’s biggest event yet. After a year of laying low, consumers are ready to shop again.

Prime Day, which is usually slated for July is, however, taking place in June. . In order to take advantage of this event, one must be an Amazon Prime member. It typically includes discounts on more than 1 million items, including intermittent “Lightning Deals,” for Prime members.

The employees of the company have been notified of the event dates and asked them to keep the information hidden until an official announcement were to take place. The world’s biggest online retailer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year, this event was held in October as the pandemic had swept the country. Moreover, Prime Day is held off for a while in the country India and Canada due to severe Covid-19 concerns.

From the very start, this two-day event has been a revenue-maker for Amazon. The company relies on the annual event to beef up sales and to attract and retain subscribers to Amazon Prime, its paid subscription service. The event can deliver as much as a 10-times boost to average daily sales, accounting for as much as 2 percent of annual revenue. The retailer’s first Prime Day was in 2015, and it has since grown into a two-day sales extravaganza. Competitors often offer their own deals in parallel with Amazon’s event.

For the purpose of boosting subscriptions, access to Prime Video is included for free with an Amazon Prime annual subscription. The company’s financial commitment to Prime Video continues to reverberate, as Amazon has poured cash into original films while pursuing mega-dollar content deals such as its $1 billion bid to carry NFL Thursday Night Football games.

Instagram drops a product “DROP” feature to enhance its online shopping

May 27, 2021

Instagram, a famous social media platform made an announcement that it is launching a new feature to its list of new other distinct features which will help connected online shoppers to product drops through its app. Drops which are the latest e-commerce trend enables sellers to create hype for upcoming products in the days and weeks eventually leading up to their availability. The products themselves are often only available in limited supplies or for a short period of time, increasing demand.

On Instagram, this feature of Drops will have its own place in the app at the top of the Shop tab where it is not only easily discoverable by the consumers but also the latest product launches could be easily viewed. Shoppers can also receive reminders about the products they are interested in, and search through them and other collections from other drops that recently took place on Instagram.

Similarly, like other shopping services provided by the platform, consumers can make their Drops purchases directly in the Instagram app itself via Checkout on Instagram, not by visiting third-party websites. This model will eventually allow Instagram to collect fees on purchases — something that’s become a more important part of Facebook and Instagram’s overall business model in the wake of Apple’s privacy crackdown on iOS apps that impacts Facebook’s ad revenues. However, to help those businesses who are still recovering from COVID-19, Instagram has given up its selling fees on a temporary basis. This strategy can also help the platform to establish and gain ground in online shopping in competition with its rivalries like TikTok.

Brands on Instagram had already been running drops before today when Instagram had released a product reminders feature back in 2019 that allowed consumers to get notified when an item in which they were interested became available for purchase. Till today, brands across fashion, beauty, streetwear, and others have leveraged the feature, the company says, including Hill House Home, Dragun Beauty, Adidas, and others.

This new Drop feature simply organized the product launches at a single place to make it easier to browse and shop. At launch, some of the drops available include today’s Drake x NOCTA “Cardinal Stock” collection and upcoming drops like Wren + Glory hand-painted summer collection and Charlotte Tilbury Exclusive Pillow Talk Lips & Dreams, Lashes Kit. This week, there are five total drops available. This number will vary from week to week as Instagram continues to test the new feature, the company tells us.

MGM Studios soon to be “Amazon Studios” for $8.45 billion

May 26, 2021

The online shopping giant Amazon is buying the Hollywood TV and movie studio MGM, which has on its content slate upcoming films like House of Gucci, No Time to Die, Respect, and The Addams Family 2. The list includes the “James Bond” and “Rocky” series and classics ranging from “Fargo” to “Robocop” to “Silence of the Lambs.” Also included are more than 17,000 TV shows. Once the deal closes, the short-term impact will be unfettered access for Amazon’s Prime Video platform, giving the service a leg up against rivals like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max.

The acquisition is settled at $8.45 billion, marking its boldest move yet into the entertainment industry and turbocharging its streaming ambitions. The deal is the second-largest acquisition in Amazon’s history, behind its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods in 2017.

Mike Hopkins, the senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios believes that the real financial value of this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that they plan to re-imagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. addition, he mentions that it is very exciting and it offers them a variety of opportunities for high-quality storytelling.

At the same time, in a statement, MGM Chairman Kevin Ulrich said: “The opportunity to align MGM’s storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination. I am very proud that MGM’s Lion, which has long evoked the Golden Age of Hollywood, will continue its storied history, and the idea born from the creation of United Artists lives on in a way the founders originally intended, driven by the talent and their vision.”

This deal mainly focuses on Amazon’s competitiveness to thrive in the crowded streaming market. Amazon also says it will be making efforts to preserve older films. The press material includes all of the standard languages you would expect about marrying the old with the new. However, Amazon has, of course, already been making an aggressive push into original content through its own production studio and distribution. On the film side, it has produced notable titles like “Manchester By the Sea,” which nabbed a screenwriting Oscar, and its list of shows includes “Transparent.” The company is also embarking on a massive (and massively expensive) series based on “Lord of the Rings.”

Amazon, Netflix, Disney, and other video streaming services have been looking to beef up their content libraries to win over subscribers, committing billions toward licensing content and developing original programming.

The deal has been a blessing in disguise as MGM has had a more difficult 21st century. In 2010, the studio filed for a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy after switching hands several times. The studio was reorganized and its creditors took control. Hence, this collaboration is just the latest in a flurry of media consolidation, including Disney/Fox, Viacom/CBS, and AT&T/Time Warner since Amazon has long been willing to make big investments in video content as a strategy to buoy Prime memberships, which now surpass 200 million globally. It spent $11 billion on video and music content last year, up from $7.8 billion in 2019.

Amazon tapping on advertising revenue 2 times harder than Snap, Pinterest, Roku and others combined

May 25, 2021

There has been observed major growth in Amazon’s advertising means which is directly proportional to its growth as well since its contribution is now 2.4 times larger than Snap, Twitter, Roku, and Pinterest, all the platforms combined. It is growing at a rate of 1.7 times as quickly.

Amazon’s “Other” unit, which is primarily made up of advertising but also includes sales related to other service offerings, grew revenue a whopping 77% year-over-year to more than $6.9 billion in the first quarter, the company reported last month. And industry moves like Apple’s recent software changes that make it easier for users to block advertisers from tracking them, look poised to add more fuel to Amazon’s growth.

As stated by the Loop Capital analysts, performance ads on the e-commerce platforms are on the rise by Amazon’s high traffic as well as unparalleled user insights which never fail to provide significant value for sellers and brands. They also mentioned the company’s presentation at the recent IAB NewFronts which made a note of the company’s efforts in the streaming space. Amazon asserted early this month its ad-supported streaming video content now reaches more than 120 monthly users every month, driven by platforms like Twitch.

“With Amazon’s technology, scale, device reach, and connectivity to the consumer, we think these newer efforts are positioned to become a very significant contributor in a relatively short amount of time,” the analysts wrote. “Given the margin profile of digital advertising services at Internet scale, we think this is not being adequately reflected in the stock.

The e-commerce giant was able to generate revenue of $22.4 billion in the past year, above 65% over the years. That was 2.4 times the $9.3 combined revenue total of middle-cap ad platforms Snap, Twitter, Roku, and Pinterest, which grew by 38% over that same timeframe.

Additionally, Amazon is close to a deal to acquire MGM Studios, the co-owner of the James Bond franchise and other film and TV series, for between $8.5 billion and $9 billion. However, the transaction hasn’t been disclosed yet but is anticipated to happen as soon as Tuesday.

Google and Shopify planning to proliferate online shopping by joining hands with one another

May 24, 2021

Google recently had made an announcement that it is partnering with Shopify. This collaboration will enable millions of merchants the ability to reach consumers through Google Search and its other services and will allow merchants to sign up in just a few clicks to have their products appear across Google’s 1 billion “shopping journeys” that take place every day through Search, Maps, Images, Lens and YouTube.

The company however hasn’t disclosed the extensive details about this integration but the news follows a series of updates to Google Shopping resulting from Amazon’s increased investment in its own advertising business, which threatens Google’s core ads business.

Google has a new tool, “Shopping Graph” which would now begin to pull together information from across websites, price reviews, videos, and product data pulled directly from brands and retailers, to help better inform online shoppers about where to find items, how well they were received, which merchant has the best price, and more. This Shopping Graph can also analyze across Google’s platforms, whether someone is discovering products through Google Search or even watching videos on YouTube, among other things. For instance, if you now view screenshots of products in Google Photos, there will be a suggestion to search the photo using Google Lens, to help you find the item for sale. And Google announced earlier this year it was pilot-testing a new experience on YouTube that allows users to shop products they learn about from their favorite creators — a move to counteract the growing threats from TikTok and Facebook, and their own investments in e-commerce.

Through this integration doesn’t mean that every Shopify storefront will be included on Google — the merchants have to take any action to make that happen — it would be almost a no-brainer for them not to leverage the new option. The internet commerce platform will not have any favorites when it comes to distribution. It is also in partnership with other big platforms like Facebook and TikTok and also Walmart to proliferate the retailer’s online marketplace.

Among many other things, e-commerce severely hit by the pandemic waves

May 23, 2021

E-commerce business is one of the things which haven’t been able to escape the impact of the ongoing second wave of the pandemic. Once the national lockdown had lifted, there was noticed an immediate hike in the number of online orders with the delivery of the goods being allowed. However, this time there surrounds uncertainty among industries in the context of recovery in various sectors with the major being the Great Global Pandemic and its adverse impacts over the past several weeks.

As reported by an e-commerce solutions provider, Unicommerce, online shopping volumes dropped in the month of April. Additionally, fashion and accessory sales were down 22% in the same period while eyewear and accessories were down 16%. Only fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and health and pharmaceuticals, saw growth — of 33% and 18%, respectively. Consulting firms and analysts are reviewing the annual growth outlook for e-commerce this year as they are largely concerned with non-metro markets being hit hard this year. Around this time some of the executives also mentioned that the effects of the current wave of Covid-19 have hit consumer demand for non-essential segments, both in urban as well as rural markets. Expectations of a demand revival are driven by the belief that consumers will continue to avoid offline shops and malls.

Although the second wave has impacted the large population of the country and people are afraid of stepping out more than ever, the appetite to shop online will continue to grow in the long run.

E-commerce executives said that the effects are more visible this time though data is still flowing in for the month. There are certain items like essentials whose sales never came down but demand right now is less for work-from-home and kitchen and home products.

Other stakeholders feel the same — traditional retailers and shop owners are increasingly looking to go online amid the second wave.

Twitter joins hands with Stripe on the launch of its new feature :Ticketed Spaces

May 22, 2021

Twitter, one of the most trending social media sites is collaborating into a partnership with payments provider Stripe on the launch of the company “Ticketed Spaces” feature. US users will be able to apply to host paid live audio rooms starting in the next couple of weeks. Anyone who wants to charge has to have 1,000 followers, have hosted three spaces in the past 30 days, and be at least 18 years old.

As asserted by Stripe’s head of partnerships for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, he said that it was the perfect time to be a creator online. Additionally, he mentions that they are happy to be powering Ticketed Spaces to bring more revenue options to Twitter’s users.

The Ticketed Spaces feature means that hosts, who put time and effort into creating space for conversation and connection, can gain some monetary support, according to the press release. For their part, listeners get access to the conversations they care about. This live audio function is among the multiple ways Twitter has announced that it will help its users monetize.

According to a report, this new feature’s users will receive 80% of revenue after Apple and Google’s in-app purchase fees are taken. For instance, if you sell a $10 ticket, Apple would presumably take a 30 percent cut, leaving you and Twitter to split the remaining $7. Eighty percent would go to you, and 20 percent would go to Twitter. The company says it’ll cover the cost of Stripe’s transaction fees. (Hosts will also need a Stripe account.)

With this collaboration, various other platforms like Substack, Spotify, Anchor, and TikTok turned to Stripe as they mentioned that it is an easy way for them to accept money from around the world, and to handle payouts to creators. In addition, “consumers can quickly and easily pay creators” in their own currencies.

In Q1, Twitter has revenues of more than a billion But since the platform is attracting more people to join, the company anticipates that second-quarter revenue would hit between $980 million and $1.08 billion.

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