In just a period of 7 months, the Walmart+ membership program which is launched by the world’s largest retailer has been successful to build a base of over 60 million U.S consumers subscribed to the $98-per-year service, not only offers online delivery but also in-store savings and convenience offerings.
Walmart+ is a new membership that gives you access to benefits that help save time and money.
What’s included?
W+ free shipping
Free two-day & next-day shipping on items shipped by Walmart – no order minimum required.
Free delivery from your store
Offers free delivery of groceries.
Member prices on fuel
Save up to 5 cents per gallon at Walmart and Murphy fuel stations. Plus, access member pricing at Sam’s Club fuel centers.
Mobile scan & go
Shop and check out with your phone in-store using the Walmart app. It’s contact-free!
Although the gap between the two rivalry services, Walmart+ and rival Amazon Prime is impressively large of around 100 million members wide, the upstart entry from Arkansas has been trending higher in the first quarter of 2021, at a time when the dominant digital leader has experienced a few months of slippage in its overall share of the category. Hence, even though Amazon seems to be leading by 100 million members, Walmart can still claim the fact that in just a matter of 4 months, that margin has narrowed by approximately 30 million subscribers.
Like we recently reported, of all eight major retail categories in which Amazon and Walmart compete, the food and beverage space is the one in which the chain store operator most dominates its digital rival — but it is also its single largest source of revenue, accounting for 56 percent.
Considering that, one of the key drivers of new subscriptions to Walmart+ is its leadership in groceries and the convenience that comes with running over 5,000 U.S. stores. In short, the new data shows that when it comes to just grocery purchases, Walmart’s pricing advantage — combined with its in-store and curbside pickup options — is clearly attracting people to its membership program and getting them to shift their behavior. Twenty-eight percent of Walmart+ customers said they made the shift in their grocery-buying during the pandemic compared to about 19 percent of Amazon customers who did. However, with Walmart winning in groceries, but Amazon still dominates in its overall assortment. It’s a shopping dichotomy that is driving an increase in so-called “combo subscribers” who belong to both Prime and Plus.
It is not new information that the world’s largest retailers, Amazon and Walmart have been in a continuous war against each other since forever. Not a single week goes by where these two platforms is not trying against each other to have an upper hand by launching new ways to meet the dynamic needs of the consumers around the world. These two top merchants essentially contributed approximately 9% share to the U.S retail sales. Moreover, and both coming off of record years — there has never been a better time to differentiate and distinguish themselves in the eyes of consumers on various fronts.
During the 13 months of the global pandemic, both the largest retailers have undergone an unprecedented string of pandemic-related changes, from lockdown to rebound to the rollout of the vaccine — and hopefully, we will soon see phase four: the roaring 20s fiesta.
While Walmart’s extra-ordinary domestic physical stores were not of much help during the initial times of the lockdown but it did not take long for the company to pick up the pace and secured a significant presence in fulfilling the grocery and general merchandise needs of cooped-up and cautious American consumers.
On the other hand, Amazon running pop-up vaccination clinics in a few states, while also making efforts to get the shot for as many of its one million employees as possible. And just this week, the retailer retooled its voice-activated virtual assistant Alexa to find nearby vaccination sites.
As far as people are concerned, both Amazon and Walmart are in the super-elite one-million-plus employee headcount category, few companies know the power and economics of people better than these two retailers.
Furthermore, Amazon has also extended some of its services to be particularly done by real-life humans rather than technology or robotics. For instance, it has recently started a provision of assembling flat-pack items. It is currently testing that service which would require delivery drivers to carry the box to the designated room, unpack the pieces, assemble the item and remove all of the packaging materials. If a customer was unhappy with the piece, the driver would take the product back.
Hence, as much as both companies have invested heavily in automation, especially in their warehouses and backrooms, this week’s moves underscore the importance that people still play in the success of both companies.
However, it does mean that the companies don’t believe in technology at all. Recently, Amazon is coming up with a tech-hair salon where they are offering high-tech imagery like augmented reality virtual hair color testing as well as in-shop personal entertainment via the company’s Fire tablets. Similarly, Walmart was busy shoring up its new roster of in-store restaurants in the wake of McDonald’s decision to accelerate its exit from the retailer’s lobbies in favor of higher-producing locations that enable drive-thrus.
There is a possibility that Amazon could introduce cashier-less checkout technology soon in the areas of Fresh grocery stores. The main features of Amazon’s automated checkout technology which can be called by the name “Just Walkout” seem to included in planning documents for a store under construction in a suburban shopping plaza in Brookfield, Connecticut. The technology will enable the customers to skip the hassle of getting into the checkout line and they can track any item as they grab them. Subsequently, the price for those items gets charged when they leave.
Those documents of the first Amazon tech-store show gated entry and exit lanes at the front of the store, where shoppers would apparently scan an app or credit card as they come in, as well as hardware to potentially house ceiling-mounted cameras that track which items shoppers pick up in the store. The documents also mention the use of an electronic shelving system, a feature Amazon has deployed in its Fresh and cashier-less Go convenience stores.
Moreover, there seems to be a large staging area at the front of the proposed store layout. Fresh stores have a section where customers can pick up amazon.com or grocery orders placed online or return their packages for free.
However, it is not evident whether the store will integrate any other high-tech elements which are usually featured in Fresh stores such as the one recently launched Dash Carts, comprising smart shopping letting shoppers check out without having to wait in queues.
It was the month of September when Amazon opened its first Fresh grocery store in Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills neighborhood. It has since opened a dozen stores, located in southern California and in several suburbs of Chicago. The company also plans to open a handful of stores on the East Coast.
It would be marked as a triumph industry feat if Amazon ends up launching cashier-less checkout technology in Fresh stores. Amazon Fresh stores are roughly 35,000 square feet, or about the size of a store in Amazon’s other grocery chain, Whole Foods. The format incorporates a blend of in-store and online shopping while offering consumers a variety of products at lower price points than the largely upscale options offered at Whole Foods.
Amazon made an announcement that it is launching an Amazon Salon. It is the giant retailer’s first hair salon where the company is going to make trials of new technologies with the general public. The salon will cover an area of over 1,500 sq. ft on Brushfield Street in London’s Spitalfields, where Amazon says it will initially be experimenting with the use of augmented reality (AR) and “point-and-learn” technology — the latter being a system that enables customers to point to products on a display shelf in order to learn more through videos and other content that then appears on a display screen. Subsequently, to order the products, the customers will have to scan the OR code on the shelf, which makes them land on the Amazon.co.uk shopping page for the item where they can add it to their cart and check out.
The salon’s AR technology for the time being will be used by the customers to experiment with their hair color by virtually trying them on before making a final commitment to a new shade.
Keeping aside its new arrival in AR technology, Amazon has already entered the convenience store market, grocery business, and other physical retail, where it’s innovating with new technologies like cashier-less checkout, smart grocery carts, and biometric systems. However, it’s not known whether Amazon actually has any plans to be in the salon business itself. Instead, it seems the salon will largely serve as a testing ground for new technologies that Amazon will likely want to sell to other retail clients in the future, or perhaps implement in its own stores. And in the case of AR, Amazon may want to gather data on customers’ experiences it can use on its own shopping site, too.
Though it has been hinted by the company itself that the salon business it undertook is an experiential venue where they wanted to showcase new products and technology, it has no other plans to open more salons at this time.
The company has not hired any new staff to run it long-term. Instead, it has recruited an existing salon owner, Elena Lavagni of Neville Hair & Beauty Salon, to help with this project. Lavagni and her team have previously provided hairdressing services for other events, like Paris Fashion Week and the Cannes Film Festival.
Amazon has not disclosed what sort of data it will collect from customers who use the salon, but it’s clearly there to learn about how new retail technologies would work in a real-world environment. Like other Amazon physical stores, the salon will first be open to Amazon employees only before offering bookings to the wider public in the weeks to come.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the marketplace of both Walmart, as well as Amazon, has surged following a series of investments not only in technology but also in vendor relationships.
During the years from 2009-2014, Walmart’s marketplace where outside merchants hawk everything from baby blankets to power tools, counted no more than six sellers, and was described by one expert as “in limbo.” However, it grew to an estimated 70,000 sellers in 2020 with the global pandemic acting as the catalyst. Moreover, it is anticipated to hike 146% by the end of 2022, according to projections by data firm Marketplace Pulse, although they have not yet been published.
Considering the fact that Walmart has always distinguished itself as a safer, less crowded marketplace than its rivals like Amazon, making it easier for merchants to stand out and sell products, still there is a loophole to it. Looking at the darker side, this rapid growth has started to endorse stress on the system as mentioned by a few merchants, a growing number of who worry that if the pace picks up, Walmart risks damaging its reputation as a haven for quality sellers. Reuters spoke with vendors from Walmart.com and Amazon, analytics companies that help merchants sell on marketplaces, industry experts, consultants and executives.
“A year or two ago, every brand on Walmart.com would be trustworthy but now it’s getting very similar to Amazon and that’s a huge risk,” said Cal Chan, who sells supplements and skincare products on both Walmart and Amazon. “Amazon let everyone under the sun in – that helped them grow, but now they’re trying to clean up the riff-raff and it’s very hard to close Pandora’s Box.”
Whatsoever, this giant retail owner,(Walmart) is now expected to see a surge of new vendors after it said last month it will open its online store to international merchants, which are less accountable to U.S. consumer protection laws. Walmart has already added over 130 new Chinese sellers. Nevertheless, they intend to neither lower their bar nor change their vetting standards, or monitoring of sellers. As claimed by Jeff Clementz, Vice President of Walmart Marketplace they are just aiming to attract the best from around the world. Walmart said its sourcing teams in other countries have begun vetting potential sellers by their reviews, licensing permissions, reputations, and items.
Sales generated by Amazon’s third-party vendors totaled $189 billion last year in the United States, or nearly 60% of the company’s total U.S. retail e-commerce sales, according to eMarketer data from Insider Intelligence.
Nonetheless, Bradley Sutton, who works at third-party seller consulting firm Helium 10 makes a remark, “Walmart has something Amazon can’t match: brick-and-mortar stores. If you do well on Walmart.com, there’s potential you can get into a regular Walmart. It’s like the Holy Grail for vendors. That’s way bigger than Amazon.”
Amazon which stands strong as one of the world’s biggest e-commerce platforms is moving to give competition to Wayfair by offering a premium level service of assembling merchandise like desks, shelves, and other items.
Wayfair Inc. is an American e-commerce company that sells furniture and home goods. Formerly known as CSN Stores, the company was founded in 2002. Through technology and innovation, Wayfair had made it possible for shoppers to quickly and easily find exactly what they want from a selection of more than 22 million items across home furnishings, décor, home improvement, housewares, and more.
Amazon is experimenting with a premium service that lets customers opt to have furniture or appliances assembled as soon they arrive at their homes, according to people familiar with the plan. The introduction of this new feature would require the company to deliver boxes to the designated room, unpack the pieces, assemble the item and subsequently remove the packaging of the materials. Say, if the customer is not satisfied with the piece one ordered, there is also a provision for it to be taken back by the driver.
This latest service will be first introduced in Virginia and two other markets as well. The e-commerce giant is providing big item deliveries at a set time and also to the specified room of the customer’s choice. This premium service is just a trial to evaluate how customers respond to having items upon delivery. If it’s successful, Amazon believes it will be better able to compete with rivals like Home Depot, Best Buy, and others, which all offer assistance for assembly.
Amazon’s previous arrangement for assembly partners required customers to schedule an entirely different contractor than the delivery agent. And sometimes, depending on where they were located, the service would be unavailable. Nevertheless, this is the case for the company now.
If this premium service given by Amazon gets welcomed by people, then it would have to face competition more effectively with Wayfair, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe’s, which all offer similar options.
Amazon.com, Inc. which is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, has spent $11 billion on content for its streaming video and music services last year. This information was revealed by the company itself on Thursday in its annual report, the latest sign of the company’s willingness to invest heavily in entertaining Prime members.
This amount of $11 billion which has been spent on content in 2020 is considered to be a sharp uptick from a year earlier when Amazon spent $7.8 billion. Amazon determines video and music expenses as any licensing and production costs, as well as costs associated with digital subscriptions and sold or rented content.
However, the company has managed to seek consumer’s attention in a sea of videos and music streaming offerings from Netflix, Disney, Apple, Spotify, and many others. Over the past several years, it has built up a vast library of original and licensed videos, music, and podcasts, including through its acquisition of podcasting start-up Wondery in December.
In addition, with the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, spending on video and music content escalated as consumers have started to spend more and more time indoors mostly looking at screens. Hence, Amazon took advantage of this opportunity. Moreover, Amazon has also pursued more costly film projects as its profile in Hollywood has risen.
The company from a long time now had been interested to make big investments in video and music content as a part of a strategy to buoy Prime memberships. On Thursday, CEO Jeff Bezos announced in his annual shareholder’s letter that Amazon now has 200 million Prime subscribers, up from 150 million at the beginning of 2020. Amazon folds its music and video offerings into the Prime subscription plan, which costs $119 a year and includes other perks like free, two-day shipping.
Spotify has made an announcement that it is releasing of its first hardware device which is strangely called as Car Thing, specifically aimed at Spotify Premium subscribers. This brand new device is surprisingly offering for free shipping. This devices’ testing began in 2019 and today the upgraded version not only has a touch-screen but also a, a big, grip-able knob for navigation, voice control features, and four preset buttons at the top for favorite music, podcasts, or playlists, similar to Spotify on mobile devices.
This device as explained by the company is about solving a need for customers who want a “more seamless” and personalized in-car listening experience. This problem was observed when Spotify pointed out that the average age of a car in the U.S. is actually 11 years old and the average lifetime of cars is 18 years. That means there are still a large number of cars on the road that don’t support modern, in-car infotainment system like cars which today support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
The purpose of the “Car Thing” as indicated by the company is to serve this market and likely, to give Spotify the opportunity to explore future business models where it has a more direct relationship with customers inside the vehicle, though the company isn’t speaking to its longer-term ambitions at this time.
Throwing some light on the features of the device, the new Car Thing itself is a lightweight (3.4 oz.), thin (4.6″ x 2.5″ x 0.7″) music and podcast player that offers a combination of voice control, knobs, buttons, and a touch-screen display for navigating its menus and selecting the media you want to hear. One can choose to use set up the device to work via Bluetooth or an AUX or USB cable, depending on how they usually connect their phone to the car stereo to play music. One will also be able to mount Car Thing to the dashboard in a plethora of ways as this device ships with three different types of dash and vent mounts to choose from, along with a car charger and USB-C cable.
At the top of the device, there are 4 preset buttons that let one save favorite content for easy access. By default, these are configured with your Liked Songs and Spotify’s Daily Drive and Morning Commute playlists, with the last preset empty. Many users may just keep these selections, but you can change them at any time, Spotify says.
“In a typical year, Americans spend over 70 billion hours in their cars and there are 250 million cars on America’s roads today,” mentioned Spotify’s Head of Global Culture and Trends, Shanon Cook. “That’s a lot of time spent on the road. So what you do and what you listen to, to help you get through those hours in the car really matters.”
Just for the time being, this new invention is being made available free, however just during the limited release period to give the users enough space to let them adjust to the pay the cost of shipping — a choice Spotify made because Car Thing is still somewhat experimental.
“This is Spotify’s first hardware, and we obviously want to get things right,” said Spotify’s Head of Hardware Products, Andreas Cyborg. “And we want to learn quite a lot here in the beginning, so it’s a natural way for us to start,” he said.
Amazon currently has 150 million Prime users which is a privileged subset of its total user base. Collectively, it banked about USD 75.5 billion in sales revenue for the first quarter of 2021.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Anyways, talking about Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ brainchild has tens of millions of products with heavy deals and discounts that it runs throughout the year.
But what if there’s a subsection of Amazon that offers mind-boggling discounts of up to 70%. Would you try it out?
It is a reality as Amazon runs it’s not-so-widely-known yet popular Amazon Warehouse Deals that offer extremely heavy discounts on the listed products.
If your heart is already thumping for more, here’s a guide on what is Amazon Warehouse Deals, how it works, what to look out for, refund and replacement policies, and so on.
What are Amazon Warehouse Deals?
Amazon Warehouse Deals listing
Hidden in plain sight is Amazon.com’s enticing subsection which goes by the moniker Amazon Warehouse Deals. It houses a wide range of products that were either returned, replaced, warehouse-damaged, used, or refurbished articles.
These are the products that Amazon didn’t return’ to the seller inventory and rather used its rigorous vetting process to include in the Warehouse deals if they fail its standards to be marked as ‘new’.
What’s important to know that these are extremely time-sensitive. Given the fact that Amazon is very popular and a lot of people know about its Warehouse deals as well, these products could sell out in a jiffy.
Depending upon what time of the day and what product you are looking for, the prices may change as well. Moreover, the prices also change depending upon the quality grade of the product where the refurbished or renewed products are of the highest quality whereas ‘Used, Acceptable’ marked products are of the lowest standards that Amazon Warehouse offers.
Are Amazon Warehouse Deals owned by Amazon?
No doubt, all the products listed on Amazon Warehouse Deals are owned by Amazon. The eCommerce giant has a vetting procedure based on which it chooses the products to be listed and the categories the particular product falls into.
How does Amazon Warehouse Deals Work?
Every year, Amazon sells millions of items as renewed, like-new, discounted, pre-owned items to the customers with heavy discounts that could be up to 70 percent.
As said, Amazon has a vetting procedure aka 20-point quality inspection according to which it sorts the products into the respective quality grades, adds a discounted price on it, and puts upon the Warehouse deals section for users to purchase it.
As per the process is concerned, Amazon receives the returned product from the customer. Then, Amazon ensures that the product’s working order is proper or not.
It is subjected to undergo a 20-point quality inspection based on which the product is tagged into its respective quality grade. It is then listed on Amazon’s website for sale with discounted price tags.
The product could have Prime or non-Prime delivery so do check it out in advance if you are willing to buy anything on the display.
Why buy from Amazon Warehouse?
No doubt Amazon puts up the best deals on any product on its websites. However, with Amazon Warehouse deals, you can get an extra discount on any product subject that the product might be used.
But hey, with great discounts and 30-days replacement policy, Amazon has your backs and it is always at your service solving queries, issuing replacements, and returns when requested although within the eligible period.
What is the replacement policy for Amazon Warehouse products?
Amazon offers a 30-days free replacement period for the products listed subject that the products to replace or return are with the same listing conditions as mentioned at the time of buying it. Since the products could be from a wide range of catalog, the replacement policy might not be uniform across all of them. If you are eligible for a replacement or refund, you’ll get a 100 percent refund except for the delivery charges the product could have arrived with.
Products tagged as ‘Renewed’ are eligible for a 90-days return policy although you need to keep the product as it is in the same conditions as it was purchased.
Why is Amazon Warehouse stuff so cheap?
Amazon offers 7 to 30-days or replacement and refund policy depending upon what product you buy. As with any other retailer or e-commerce platform, customers return products citing some of the other issues with it.
Now that Amazon has a tonne of products whose packaging might be broken or damaged, they can’t sell it as a new product. Thus, Amazon Warehouse deals are placed so that interested buyers can purchase the products at a slashed price tag, sometimes saving just a few bucks.
But at the end of the day, a few bucks a product multiplied by a dozen or purchases can save you a fortune.
What are the different types of quality grades?
Types of Amazon Warehouse product quality grades:
As said above, Amazon Warehouse Deals have different quality grades of products on sale, and here’s what all these grades mean.
Renewed
If you are a frequent Amazon user, you might have seen ‘Renewed’ status on several products. It is the highest grade for a product on Amazon Warehouse.
These are the products that have been repaired/renewed after several points of inspection and testing to curb the issues (or no issues) that it was replaced for.
This usually comes with a 90-days replacement and refund guarantee depending upon which product you buy.
Certified Renewed items are inspected by the vendor, the seller, and Amazon staff to ensure it is up to the mark.
Used, Like New:
These are products that may have been used slightly or not at all with no noticeable scratches, blemishes, or marks on it. Packages of such products may not be available or damaged in some form or other but overall, the product quality is like new.
Used, Very Good
The products that are lightly used and may have minor scratches, indications of wear and tear but as said, it is perfectly working order are termed as “Used, Very Good”.
Say you bought a phone and returned it in a few days. The description will have details on the flaws before you buy it.
Used, Good
Next up, the ‘Used, Good’ quality grade on Amazon indicates the product has some moderate signs of use. It may have some missing accessories, packages may be damaged or might be repacked. The product is still in perfect working order.
Used, Acceptable
Finally, the ‘Used, Acceptable’ quality grade indicates that the product has worn out such as a few months of rigorous use of a smartphone. No doubt the product still functions without any glitch.
There may be some packaging issues or cosmetic defects which is why its grade was pushed to the lowest. It could also mean some of the accessors, tools, instructions, or parts could be missing.
The price of the item you are checking out may alter between the various quality grades with descending order, of course.
How to browse Amazon Warehouse Deals?
There’s no rocket science behind browsing the Warehouse products but the reality is that not everyone knows about it. Amazon has a dedicated landing page for its Warehouse Deals or you can navigate to it from Amazon.com by searching for “Amazon Warehouse” and alike keywords. You can browse through the categories and get the best deals on listed products.
How to find and buy specific items on Amazon Warehouse?
If you have any specific product in mind and you want to buy it, go to Amazon and visit the product page. Now, on the right-hand side of the screen, you’ll see the price tag along with a deflated menu tagged as ‘Other Sellers on Amazon’.
It could be listed after the description as well so you’ll have to search for it. You’ll see multiple prices for the same product from different sellers. Check out for “New & Used” or “New & Used” or “Buy Used”, etc.
When you tap on the particular price tag, say the cheapest one, it will give you an option to check out paying the discounted price. If there are other offers associated with the product and associated with this New & Used pricing, you can pair it up to get higher discounts.
On the contrary, you can go to Amazon.com and search for “Warehouse deals” or use Google to search for the Amazon + keyword to locate it. This should take you directly on the deals page with time-sensitive products ready to be purchased on just a click.
How to choose the right quality grade?
If you want to buy any item cheaper than its actual price tag, Amazon Warehouse Deals is the right place. But hey, the question is, how to choose the right quality grade. Here’s how you can choose the grade of products to buy.
Ranging from “Renewed” to “Good, Acceptable”, the former is the highest quality grade and the latter is the lowest. If you are looking for something purely for its functionality and don’t care about the cosmetic damages (if any), go for the cheapest grade aka ‘Good, Acceptable’.
Similarly, if you stress on buying something unused and new-like in a perfect condition, go for the ‘Renewed’ grade. If there’s something that you need to put up for display, you can go for ‘Very Good’ and ‘Like New’ grades where minor scratches, scuffs, cosmetic changes are there although not that apparent.
What are the risks of buying via Amazon Warehouse Deals?
No doubt people may ask questions if it is worth buying via Amazon Warehouse Deals or not. Here are the answers to your queries:
Is Amazon Warehouse legit?
Amazon is one of the largest and most popular eCommerce platforms and has been doing business based on trust, word of mouth, a huge catalogue of products and deals. It has a subsection with a limited number of products aka Amazon Warehouse which is nothing but products that have been damaged, returned, replaced, and so on.
If legit or not is your question, you can check all products, their description that will have all the information about the product, quality grade, price tag, and things that are missing/damaged.
You can check out the seller’s profile with reviews on any renewed or warehouse-damaged products and then decide whether to go through with it or not.
Can you send the product back if you don’t like it?
If you order any product from the Warehouse deals and choose to return it, you are welcome and Amazon allows returning or replacing the product.
However, these refurbished products are rarely screwed. I am saying it because I have already purchased several products and all are working just fine.
Beware of buying from third-party sellers
First up, I don’t think so you should believe in third-party sellers and instead lookout for products enlisted by Amazon. Falling prey to the scam seller profile like Warehouse Deals Inc could be bad for your pockets as people have already reported receiving wrong items, longer ship times, terrible customer service, and others. Although Amazon removed the profile, similar profiles gain access to Amazon Warehouse Deals so beware.
Amazon has buyer protections that will allow buyers to get the amount they paid when the seller deceptively sells a product. However, it isn’t as robust as eBay but at the end of the day, you’ll get your refund if you have been cheated by any third-party sellers.
Do Amazon Warehouse Deals items have manufacturer’s warranty?
The answer is really simple. No product sold under Amazon Warehouse Deals is secured with the manufacturer’s warranty although 30 to 90 days or replacement and return policy can take the charge if needed.
Amazon Warehouse Deals Shipping Policy
As per Amazon, all the products that are eligible for Amazon Warehouse Deals come with Prime Shopping, free 2nd Day Shipping, or the third one i.e. Free Super Saver Shopping.
The type of shipping depends on the individual products. The Amazon Warehouse Deals are limited inside the boundaries of the country and thus, it won’t ship to many international addresses.
It is not Prime as always but some products will have Prime or free shipping with it so you can simply relax and get your hands on the product quickly.
What are Amazon’s FBA Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy?
If you are a seller, you must know that Amazon has FBA’s Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy as well according to which, any product if lost or damaged by Amazon, its fulfillment centers, partnered carriers and during delivery to the custom, Amazon is liable to reimburse the seller although there are a few working parts here.
One such clause states that the replacement value cannot exceed $5000. Furthermore, Amazon already has a list of potential causes of damages that are covered and those which are not covered on its website.
That’s pretty much everything you need to know about Amazon Warehouse Deals and how it works. There’s definitely a lot of moving parts here but at the end of the day, the deals are pretty enticing and since you have Amazon’s trust, easy replacement and return policy, a well-inspected product with details already available on the listing before you buy it, the purchase is surely worth it.
Amazon has been observing a strong growth rate in seller addition and rises in the number of million-dollar businesses on the platform even when the world is expected to get hit by the second wave of the pandemic. This trend is especially noticed in India.
The global senior vice president and India country head, Amit Agarwal claimed that 2.5 lakh new sellers have joined since last year and that the rate at which sellers have come online has gone by 50 percent post-COVID-19. According to him, there will always be naysayers out there who would not embrace technology but the right kind of people take advantage and embrace technology and (they) are going to come out of it (pandemic) as far more robust digital businesses and serve their customer base, online and offline and in ways that were not possible before.
All major retail giants like Amazon, Reliance Industries, and Walmart Inc’s Flipkart are persistently struggling in a battle to gain market share in India, where millions of middle-class customers are newly adopting online purchases of food and groceries due to the pandemic. The booming e-commerce market in the country is expected to touch $86 billion by 2024, as claimed by a research firm Forrester.
These e-commerce firms have incurred thousands of dollars in setting up infrastructure like warehouses, and logistics as well as marketing and promotions to woo users to their platforms, especially from tier II cities and beyond. When questioned about allegations that only a few large sellers – especially those where Amazon has invested – are doing well, Agarwal said “the facts speak of a very different reality”.
However, The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has alleged unfair practices by Amazon and had sought a probe into the role of Amazon seller, Cloudtail India, and Appario Retail (where Amazon is a stakeholder).
Agarwal believes that the rules should improve the ease of doing business online and exports and should create a more “predictable and stable environment” that enables long-term investment. Moreover, he has added an enabling policy that would help increase the rate of growth of the e-commerce industry, which is going to be an important lever for economic recovery and job creation.
“It should improve the ease of doing business online, it should improve the ease of doing exports…it should create a predictable and stable environment that enables long-term investment,” he said.
The Chinese regulators accused Alibaba of its monopolistic practices and hit it with a fine of amount 18.23 billion yuan ($2.8 billion). the anti-trust regulators concluded that the online shopping giant had been behaving like a monopoly.
The regulators opened a thorough investigation into the company’s monopolistic practices in December. The investigation’s main focus was a practice that forces merchants to choose one of two platforms, rather than being able to work with both.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) claimed the giant tech’s policy dominated competition in China’s online retail market and “infringes on the businesses of merchants on the platforms and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Moreover, the government added that the “choose one” policy and others gave way to Alibaba to boost its position in the market and also take unfair competitive advantage.
Hence, along with the fine of around 4% of the company’s 2019 revenue, regulators said Alibaba will not only have to file self-examination but also compliance reports to the SAMR for three years.
The company said in a statement it accepted the penalty and will comply with the SAMR’s determination and sincerity. Alibaba said it fully cooperated with the investigation, conducted a self-assessment, and already implemented improvements to its internal systems.
“Alibaba would not have achieved our growth without sound government regulation and service, and the critical oversight, tolerance and support from all of our constituencies have been crucial to our development,” the company said.
Co-founded by legendary entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba is one of China’s most prominent and successful private businesses. By making such a high-profile example, Chinese regulators are sending a clear message about their intent to rein in the country’s most powerful companies.
Ma has kept a very low profile since Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial affiliate, was forced to shelve what would have been the world’s biggest IPO last November after he criticized Chinese regulators. Since then, Ma has made only one brief public appearance in a video in January, and Ant Group — which owns the hugely popular digital payments app Alipay — has been ordered to overhaul its business.
Twitter is in talks to acquire Clubhouse, a buzzy audio-based social network. The deal value is anticipated to be around $ 4 billion. Even though the talks were taking place over the past several months, they’re no longer taking place, and the reason they ended isn’t known. It is thought that Clubhouse was seeking to raise a new round of funding at a valuation of around $4 billion, but the report detailing the potential acquisition talks indicate that the discussions with Twitter collapsed first ( it failed to proceed), leading to a change in strategy to pursue securing additional capital in exchange for equity investment. Clubhouse began to explore whether it made sense to raise financing at that valuation instead. To be simply put, discussions are no longer ongoing, and it’s unclear why they stalled. Moreover, a Clubhouse representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Although Clubhouse is just a year old it has drawn appearances from some of the biggest names in business and Hollywood. Established social media companies have quickly gone to work on their own versions of Clubhouse, including Twitter. The app lets users host their own online radio shows. Listeners can tune in to hear interviews or panel discussions and ask to participate in live chats. Facebook Inc. is exploring one, too, and Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn and Slack Technologies Inc. have also said they’re working on similar features for their networks.
Twitter has its own platform which is not only similar to Clubhouse but also poses as a competitor to it. It’s called Spaces, launched in late 2020, a drop-in audio chatroom feature that it has been rolling out gradually to its user base over the past few months though it’s still in beta form and not all users can create or host public discussions. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is bullish on the potential for audio as a new way for people to interact on Twitter, and the company has long bet on live content through partnership deals and acquisitions. At a press event on Wednesday, Twitter head of revenue product Bruce Falck said the company is considering ways to monetize Spaces, but those discussions are still in the very early stages.
Instacart and Doordash, both American-based companies are intending to roll out the service of credit cards. One company operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada. The company offers its services via a website and mobile app. The service allows customers to order groceries from participating retailers with the shopping being done by a personal shopper, whereas the latter is an online food ordering and food delivery platform based in San Francisco.
Instacart is anticipated to work with J.P Morgan for a new card that offers a feature of rewarding its frequent users. Moreover, DoorDash received offers from 10 banks or FinTechs to help with its card.
Since both, the companies became one of the most trending entities because of the pandemic, mainly because everybody was trapped inside their houses and ordered food from mobile apps. Hence, now they’re now seeking to capitalize on the demand even as businesses start to open back up. Both the companies hope that the cards will enable them to engage users and even attract new ones.
On the other hand, banks, view these new partnerships as ways to expand and diversify. Travel rewards, which banks had featured prominently pre-pandemic, have fallen out of favor as travel stopped. The co-branded cards for airlines or hotels used to draw affluent customers who also tended to spend a lot.
Unfortunately, the InstaCart cards are not likely to launch until next year. The plan for that card will see users likely earning 5 percent cash back on Instacart purchases. J.P.Morgan is also J.P. Morgan is also offering the DoorDash card. Other bids include a FinTech company Deserve, which would be working with Marqeta, another FinTech. DoorDash will likely choose its issuer in a few weeks.
Instacart claimed 2020 as its busiest year ever since it started eight years ago, and as such, gave its gig work “shoppers” bonuses of $50 to $500 to thank them for the work they had done all year.
The Clubhouse App works in a brilliant way to deliver a social experience which makes it one of the most active tools for growing business nowadays. It delivers an experience that is very similar to an audio-only virtual event in a very rapid way. The app clubhouse is currently having more than 1 million users. At the same time, it offers thousands of rooms where people from all over the world can hold their conversations regarding their industries, interests, professions, and business ideas.
Hence it is pretty much intuitive and useful for a budding businessman or for those who want to make their reach and growth optimal. Hence knowing how to use the Clubhouse App for business is undoubtedly going to help you in a much progressive way. Thus have a look:
The Clubhouse app works optimally to offer an experience that is very similar to an audio-virtual event in a massive way. The voice-only constraints are very similar for the podcast, which easily gets played on demand. But the conversations here happens live and are not recorded for further playbacks. Thus if you are not in the room, you are going to miss the important details.
This indicates that a lot of people spend their lot of time in this app, looking for conversations regarding their interests and topics. Hence if you are a marketer or a business owner, this comes with a huge number of opportunities. You can easily establish your own brand by targeting the opportunities.
There are also plenty of opportunities to share your brand’s story or the story of your foundation that helps you to connect with your customers. There are plenty of opportunities for getting feedback or running various groups and conversations to generate plenty of marketing awareness.
What is more exciting about the app Clubhouse is it offers a perfect way of building brand awareness through various campaigns. For example, Former CEO and President of Focus Brands, Kat Cole, host an office hours room on a weekly basis to help out other businesspeople and budding entrepreneurs to find their own way of business.
Brands also opt for sponsoring rooms where the company founders can share their founding story, which not only inspires others but also delivers a bunch of useful ideas, which are easy to add in the various spheres of business.
Clubhouses make it easier for people to find each other and gather at one point. It is possible to connect with people with whom you might want to speak for advice. Also, you can discuss partnerships, investments, hiring, and many more.
How to do Business with Clubhouse?
Prospering your business with Clubhouse App stock requires more engagement and participation in the app. For finding your business ideas and enhancing your engagement, you need to take part in them in an effective way.
1. Finding People, Rooms, and Following the Clubs
If you want to make your Clubhouse engagement very useful and beneficial for you, then you need to be quite strategic with the people, rooms, and clubs that you follow. Following any people, room, or club is going to lead you to many other rooms and clubs. Following up something very carefully on Clubhouse is going to show you plenty of rooms suitable for your interests.
As you enter the app, you can see a long list of rooms in the home area. These rooms are mostly based on the people and clubs that you usually follow. Also, it is going to show up in plenty of trending rooms.
If you are starting for the first time along with this app, then the Clubhouse application is going to recommend some of the people to follow who are available in the directory of your phone. The styling and size in the rooms in the hallway area may vary from the big keynote style present in the large panel rooms to small rooms with few members. Going through the rooms is going to show you interesting people to follow in this area.
To find people with the same interest as yours in the business you can look at the people and clubs which are followed by the people that you usually follow. This makes the process of finding others easier for you.
2. Searching for the Member Directory, Club Directory, and Event Calendars
The member and club directories are easy to search with relevant keywords. Also, the event calendar is very easy to navigate, which shows you plenty of upcoming events. Searching for members and directories lets you relate your interests to find out more people and rooms along with clubs that you can follow.
3. Browsing the Front Row Area
As you enter a room, you can see three sections for people. The first section includes a stage and shows the speakers. The second section comes with the front row and shows the peoples whom the speakers follow. The third section, on the other hand, is going to give you the list of audience. You can tap on people from the front row area where you can easily discover more people who share the same interests as you from where you can follow to grow your contact with those people.
How do You Grow Your Following on the Clubhouse App?
Growing your following on the Clubhouse application can help you in a massive way to grow your business bigger. For reaching out to more people of your interest, you need to attract people by being highly active on the platform.
The large rooms sound good. But being stand out in a large room with a 5000 or more audience is very challenging. Thus it is better to start with rooms which have a small number of members in the audience, which is going to offer better chances for you to get invited on the stage.
However, you need to ensure that the rooms you are picking for you have relevance with your industry to get to know more about the people. As you tend to get more active and close to the group, the hosts are more likely going to invite you on the stage, which is very effective for attracting more followers.
While you are on the stage, you need to add more value to what you are staying in order to stand out significantly on the platform. Without spending much time introducing you and your company, it is better to add more value to what you are saying. You can ask clear-cut questions, or you can answer your questions in a much to-the-point manner. Adding value to your speech is going to lead people to click on your bio to learn more about you and your business to follow you.
Thus every time you enter a room or join a stage, your followers are going to get a notification that you are live. This is easily going to let you build your own community.
1. Put Efforts to Build Your Network in ClubHouse
The More captivating and impressive your profile is; the more people are going to follow you quite effectively. One of the best ways to build your network on Clubhouse App stock is to optimize your bio where you can tell your people what your USP is. Whatever you are going to include in your bio, it is going to determine how you are going to appear in the searches and how people are finding you through the searches in the club directory or members directory area.
It is very useful to create an extended informational bio along with emojis or icons to make it more impressive. It is important to add all your basics like where you work, your title, or your content channels and social media profiles. But Clubhouse does not support any kinds of links in the bio area. You can use your username for each of your profiles and add a call to action button to lead people to get connected with you and contact you to enhance your network.
2. Grab the Idea of Collaborating with Others
As you create a room, it is better to add more members to be there on the stage. It is better to partner with people from your industry who are having more followers than you. As your partner comes on the stage, their followers are going to receive a notification about it and very likely going to join the room. They might end up following you also. This strategy is very useful to gain many followers in a day which can actually boost up the growth of your business.
3. Hosting Your Clubhouse Room to Impress and Gain More Followers
As you are going to create a room, you are going to become a moderator for that respective room. You can easily control whom to invite on the stage and whom to not. You can also mute people. Also, you can allow others to have the role of a moderator. If you are thinking of hosting you, need to organize the room properly. Also, you need to learn what your audiences need.
To organize the room, you might take a short break. During this time, you can prompt the audience to follow your other moderators. As you welcome them back, you might prompt them to ping someone you know in the room. Also, it is important to take the opportunity from the diversity in your Clubhouse online app audience. You can include voices from all around the world who seem to have various perspectives. This way, you can make your conversation more interesting, valuable, and interactive for your people.
4. Generating Feedback from the Customers and Businesses
If you are hovering around the Clubhouse for a long time, then you can see one of the founders asking for feedback on the creation of a new feature. You can take pages from their playbook and opt for the same thing along with your audience base.
Opt for creating a room and ask for more feedback on your latest idea or insight about the business. You can instantly have other entrepreneurs come in if they are finding your idea very useful. Also, it is a great platform to seek solutions if you are having a business problem. Start a conversation and see what solutions your members and followers are recommending. It is simply going to build up a foundation for your business.
5. Opt for Announcements Using Clubhouse
As you opt for growing your audience on Clubhouse, you can use this app for announcing exciting news for your company. To get more sustainable suppliers, you can opt for creating a chat about your business decisions. You can educate your people about why you have made this step. It is going to offer you better chances to bring more value to your business. Hence you can indulge in more meaningful discussions with your audiences.
You can create a room and announce your new product launch or features. It can work as a very excellent way to build up more anticipation with your community. Also, you can get instant feedback with it. Also, others can suggest better ideas to tweak your features which can make your new business launch more impressive.
6. Connect with More Investors with the Clubhouse
The Clubhouse online app is one of the most useful areas to get more investors to your business. The venture capitalists are one of the bigger parts of this exclusive crowding in the Clubhouse app for business. This comes with a very exciting opportunity for having startups go in front of the investors and derive more valuable business connections.
You can start a room to talk more about your business. You can also get immediate feedback from the investors that you can use for improving your product. Adding more value to the room, talking about what you do and how you help, and the solutions you provide through your business is going to be very useful to get more interested investors.
Conclusion
Clubhouse application works as a social media ecosystem which involves a unique twist of involving business ideas and prospect in it. It not only lets you reach out significantly to the customers but also takes you forefront to the investors, which helps you to get more resources and lets you explore more spheres in the business, which works as an essential step to grow and strengthen your business.
In 2002, owing to the global pandemic, e-commerce spending surged by $900 billion, according to Mastercard’s newest Recovery Insights report, Recovery Insights: Commerce E-volution, published today (April 6).
Shopping through the online platforms acted as a life-saver for both small as well large businesses, retailers, and restaurants, when everyone was trapped inside their homes and normal consumer spending habits were put to a stop during the COVID-19 pandemic. E-commerce made up roughly $1 out of every $5 spent on retail, up from about $1 out of every $7 spent in 2019.”
Although this digital shift has been universal or consistent, due to household, economic and geographical differences, 20 to 30 percent of it, nevertheless, will become permanent. The shift becomes even more permanent in certain essential retail sectors: Grocery e-commerce could see 70 to 80 percent remain post-pandemic. And while it hasn’t been universal, it is a connected digital shift moving in every market, to some degree, dependent on the infrastructure.
“While consumers were stuck at home, their dollars traveled far and wide, thanks to eCommerce,” said Bricklin Dwyer, Mastercard chief economist and head of the Mastercard Economics Institute, in the report’s press release. “This has significant implications, with the countries and companies that have prioritized digital continuing to reap the benefits. Our analysis shows that even the smallest businesses see gains when they shift to digital.”
The most significant adoption of e-commerce trends was followed by North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The shift to digital has also increased customer choice, opening the average customer up to international, as well as local, stores in a new way. Consumers are shopping at up to 30 percent more online retailers and marketplaces than before.
The Mastercard Economics Institute concludes that global sales activity has escalated and determined additional retail e-commerce spending based on trend deviations. The Recovery Insights initiative was launched last year enabling businesses and governments to assess the various risks introduced by the global pandemic using Mastercard’s analytics and experimentation platforms.
Thanks to giant retail players like Amazon and Walmart, people today are habitual of being pampered with next or same-day delivery. However, the pandemic has also started one new trend of renewing our interest in buying from smaller businesses and retailers.
In the same way, there is a startup namely Swyft which is a marketplace, connecting a network of shipping carriers with vendors. The company also offers software services to those carriers to make them more efficient and turns them into a vast network that allows them to pick up more inventory without adding to their infrastructure. To put more simply, this company facilities delivering of parcels by involving several regional carriers without making any big changes to their original routes or adding new drivers, trucks, etc.
This company, Swyft to expand has just recently funded worth $17.5 million in Series A. The round was co-led by Inovia Capital and Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Shopify and existing investors Golden Ventures and Trucks VC. With the capital, Swyft is looking to amass an army, for lack of a better term, comprised of all of the smaller players, including mom and pop retailers and vendors as well as smaller, regional carriers. Banded together through software, these carriers and retailers can match the scale and influence of the behemoths without spending a fortune.
The co-founders of the company include Aadil Kazmi (CEO), Zeeshan Hamid (Head of Engineering), and Maraz Rahman (Head of Sales). Kazmi and Hamid both spent their careers at Amazon, working on data and last-mile operations, whereas Rahman was an early employee at a YC-backed prop-tech startup.
The trio was in dilemma questioning themselves early last year why retailers weren’t able to offer same-day delivery and chose to tackle the gap they discovered.
The main element of Swyft is the software that enables the delivery of its carriers efficiently. The back-end software allows carriers to digitize or automate a good deal of what they’re traditionally doing by hand.
“I don’t know what percent of your purchases are from Amazon, but for me, it’s like 150 percent,” said Eurie Kim. “I’d prefer to buy elsewhere with the pandemic, and support local and independent brands, but Amazon’s trained us all to have fast and free shipping. It feels like an opportunity where the consumer experience is really lacking and the burden on merchants and retailers is extremely heavy.” CEO Aadil Kazmi says.
Since April 2020, the company has made possible the delivery of more than 180,000 packages, and expanded gross margin from 78 percent to 82 percent, thanks in large part to revenue from the software side of the business and a zero-asset model. Moreover, it comprises 16 full-time employees where twelve percent are female and 75 percent are people of color, according to the company.
Crypto’s progress towards mainstream adoption takes another drastic step forward since the CEO of an e-commerce giant, Shopify is publicly giving a thought as to how to integrate his company with the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
Shopify which is a commerce platform allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their products. It is now the leading commerce platform designed for businesses of all sizes. Whether one sells online, on social media, in-store, or out of the trunk of their car, Shopify has them covered.
As a step forward in the cryptocurrency space, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke posted a Twitter message asking the DeFi community what “role” Shopify could play in the growing financial vertical. He asked “What are the commerce-related opportunities that you are most excited about? What role do you want Shopify to play?” An inquiry like this on a social media platform drew the attention of millions including from multiple DeFi power players. Nansen’s Alex Svanevik mentioned stable coin payments as well as using Defi protocols to allow cash in Shopify accounts to earn yield, and likewise, ConsenSys’ Corbin Page pointed to a hackathon project that deposited payments directly into yield-bearing protocols. More responses were suggesting the leverage of deposited funds for real-time subscription fees and payments.
It’s still clear whether Shopify will implement any of these suggestions or when any of them will be put to action. But the platform’s growing interest in decentralized finance integration is proof of the expansive growth of the ecosystem. Moreover, Lutke also stated that he has been exploring the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector for some time. He said the main goal is to better understand how the ERC20 works.
However, if a DeFi-powered ever does make its way onto Shopify’s platform, it would likely immediately be one of the most important catalysts for adoption in DeFi’s short history. Shopify is the largest company in Canada, among the largest in the northern hemisphere, and counts over 3 million online stores as part of its platform.
Liquor stores were thought of as having a crucial role in businesses to play during the global pandemic, hiking not only the rise of alcohol e-commerce, but setting off a domino effect of recent venture capital investments, M&A, and companies entering the public markets. In figures, The share of alcohol sales made online was just 1 percent in 2019, compared to groceries at 3.4 percent and 38 percent of apparel sales during the same time. However, the trend changed and at platforms like Vivino, an online wine marketplace, growth was more than 100 percent in 2020. According to an investor of Vivino, people were not drinking more, just shifting consumption to home and enjoying the convenience of home delivery while restaurants and bars were closed.
International Wine & Spirit Research now anticipates the total value of alcohol e-commerce across 10 global markets, including the U.S., to exceed $40 billion by 2024.
Although COVID-19 fueled a rise in e-commerce alcohol sales, venture capital investment dollars and deals into space were down across the board between 2019 and 2020 owing to poor e-commerce strategies. Alcohol companies are able to advertise online, but not everyone knows how to effectively develop online strategies, so there is still limited exposure as claimed by Zac Brandenberg, the CEO of DRINKS. While, Catharine Dockery, a founding partner at Vice Ventures, mentioned in an interview that her firm hasn’t been super active in the space in the past few months due to inflated company valuations.
Considering the first quarter of 2021, the alcohol e-commerce market saw some major company activity, including:
Uber agreed to acquire alcohol marketplace Drizly;
Vivino raised a $155 million Series D;
Vintage Wine Estates, a wine, and spirits company and its merger with special purpose acquisition company Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp.; and
GoPuff, an instant delivery platform for everyday items, fresh off of its acquisition of alcoholic beverage seller BevMo, raised $1.15 billion in Series G funding.
Wine and spirits are a large market, and one that is heavily regulated in many places, but startups are creating opportunities in e-commerce, digital experience, and better logistics to change the industry. Moreover, the alcohol and spirits category was one of the last product categories to shift online despite being a more than $167 billion market and quite popular. Putting U.S. liquor stores in the essential business column enabled retailers, delivery platforms, and direct-to-consumer brands to expand the way they reached consumers, including by curbside, speedy delivery, and ship to home.
Goggle tried to copy Amazon’s playbook, an ultimate guide to dominating the marketplace in 2021 with the aim of becoming the shopping hub of the internet. however, it only rewarded them with little success. Hence, now it is trying something different: the anti-Amazon strategy. The company is trying to present itself as a relatively cheaper and less restrictive option for independent sellers. Consequently, it is focused on driving traffic to sellers’ sites, not selling its own version of products as Amazon does.
In the previous year, to put the plan into action, Google eliminated fees for merchants and allowed sellers to list their wares in its search results for free. Moreover, It is trying to make it easier for small, independent shops to upload their inventory of products to appear in search results and buy ads on Google by teaming up with Shopify, which powers online stores for 1.7 million merchants who sell directly to consumers. Fortunately, this strategy adopted by Google seems to be working as well. Google has nothing as alluring as the $295 billion that passed through Amazon’s third-party marketplace in 2020. The amount of goods people buy on Google is “very small” by comparison — probably around $1 billion, said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse, a research company.
While, no one can surpass Amazon’s global advertising business, but as the pandemic has forced many stores to go online, it has created a new opening for Google to woo sellers who feel uneasy about building their businesses on Amazon.
Sellers often complain about Amazon’s fees and the thin profits it offers — which can account for one-quarter of every sale, not including the cost of advertising, not to forget the pressure to spend more to succeed. Furthermore, merchants on Amazon do not have a direct relationship with their customers, limiting their ability to communicate with them and to generate future business. And because everything is contained within the Amazon world, it is harder to create a unique look and feel that expresses a brand’s identity the way companies can on their own websites.
Therefore, when the pandemic spurred huge demand for online shopping, Google eliminated fees, allowing retailers to list products for free and walking back a 2012 decision to allow only advertisers to display goods on its shopping site. Also, Google enabled customers to buy products directly from merchants on Google with no commissions. It also said Google would open its platform to third parties like Shopify and PayPal so that sellers could continue to use their existing tools to manage inventory and orders and processing payments. Especially its partnership with Shopify proved to be meaningful since hundreds of thousands of small businesses have flocked to the software platform during the pandemic.
Google claims that it has hiked its number of sellers appearing in its results by 80% in 2020, with the most significant growth coming from small and midsize businesses. And existing retailers are listing more products.
While Planet Express is not a new name in the shipping business, it is not very common either. Naturally, this raises many doubts in the minds of potential customers. After all, you are entrusting your valuable packages to a company you don’t know much about. However, new as it might be, Planet Express is certainly worth the hype around it. Let’s know more about this detailed Planet Express review.
Established in 2017, Planet Express is a mail-and-package forwarding service based in the US. Despite barely being 3-year old, Planet Express has made a name for itself in the shipping industry. Showing an aggressiveness that only a start-up could show, Planet Express has kept its rates among the lowest in the industry, while also offering many interesting features to the customers. A lot could be attributed to its CEO Jason Luong, who was also the COO at Shipito for 8 years.
Features of Planet Express
Package photos
A major issue in such delivery systems is that if there was a fault from the seller’s side (broken or wrong product), you would not realize it until you have received it – making the return process a pain. Planet Express remedies this by offering free photos of your product when it is received at their warehouse. This gives you a chance to ensure the proper condition of the package before it is forwarded ahead.
Package Consolidation One very useful feature of Planet Express is the package consolidation. Essentially, it gives customers the power to decide which of their products should be shipped together. It optimizes the space taken by the final package and also saves the individual charges on shipping these products separately.
Special Request scope Planet Express keeps outdoing itself in giving more control to the customers. It offers a ‘special request’ feature to the users, where they can make any specific request about the package. This includes adding custom messages, returning some portion of the package to the retailer, reinforcing the package etc.
Shop For Me A consistent issue faced by many customers is making international payments on e-commerce platforms. Not everyone has cards that accept international transactions. So, Planet Express comes to the rescue once again. By paying a fee (7% of the price of the product), you can leave it on the company to place your order, including filling the payment and address details. Quite a handy power, to be frank.
eCommerce fulfilment
While Planet Express is great for individual shoppers, it also cares for merchants and retailers. That’s why it offers a separate plan for e-commerce merchants who have no warehouse but place frequent orders.
Personal Warehouse Address
Perhaps the sweetest feature of this Planet Express review 2021 is their warehouse address. By signing up and paying a nominal fee, you get the address of your own personal warehouse, either in California or in Oregon. Any product you buy in the US will be shipped to these warehouses – from which you can then forward to your own address.
Shipment Process in Planet Express
The first step towards using Planet Express is creating an account on it. The company asks for a 5$ deposit before you can get your personal warehouse address. However, fret not; this money can be later used towards your payments. As soon as you make the deposit, you receive the address of their US-based warehouse. Now it is time to get to the business.
With your Planet Express 2021 warehouse address, you can shop on any US-based eCommerce platform without any restrictions. Just remember to enter the warehouse address while placing the order. When the order is placed, the package will be delivered at the warehouse.
Next, you can notify the warehouse about the incoming package; however, it is completely optional. Planet Express guidelines ensure that warehouses have to accept all orders of their members. But notifying the warehouse in advance would only make things go quicker.
When the package is received at the warehouse (and you have seen its photo for assurance), you can decide what to do next. Planet Express offers you many options to choose from. If you are a merchant, you can decide to let the packages (usually in bulk) to remain in their warehouse until you need them for your local customers. This is an excellent option for merchants who can’t afford a warehouse of their own.
If you are a regular shopper who only wanted to save on Planet Express ship charges, you could ask the product to be immediately forwarded to your address. Planet Express boasts of covering most of the countries in the world, barring few unstable ones. Don’t forget to leverage the package consolidation and special request features during the process.
Pricing
There are two broad plans offered by Planet Express 2021:
One Package Plan
Account fee: Free
Handling fee: $2 per package
Storage: 10 days of free storage, after which $0.1 per day per lb
Consolidation Package: Not available
Consolidated Package Plan
Account fee: $10 per month OR $50 per year
Handling fee: $2 per package
Storage: 45 days of free storage (7 days in case of the consolidated package), after which $0.1 per day per lb.
Consolidation Package: Available; charges $5 flat, plus $2 for each package in the consolidated order.
In addition, certain features are available in both plans:
Photo cost (before warehouse): $1 for 3 usual pictures; $2 for 10 detailed pictures
Photo cost (after warehouse): $2 for 3 usual pictures; $5 for 10 detailed pictures
Special Request charges: $5 per package
Shop For Me charges: $5 flat per item, plus 7% of the purchase item price.
Package trashing/deletion: Free
Planet Express ship discounts: Facilitated to all customers
Any priority request has an additional fee of $3
Pros of Planet Delivery
Now that we have seen what they have to offer, let’s list all the good stuff we found in this Planet Express Review:
Multiple warehouses
While Planet Express 2021 already had a warehouse in California, it opened another one in Oregon last year. This allows customers to avoid the 9.5% sales tax that was imposed on any purchases made within the state of California.
Lowest rates One comparison is enough to tell you how much cheaper Planet Express is compared to its competitors. There are many reasons for that. The Package Consolidation feature allows customers to optimize their shipped orders, thus minimizing the rates. Since Planet Express ship in bulk, just as big names like FHL and UPS, it too is offered discounted charges. However, unlike the other services, Planet Express passes on discounts to its users.
Web Interface The web interface of the Planet Express 2021 site is now very intuitive and easy-to-use. All essential features could be found easily on the dashboard. One can move from one step to another without having to ask anyone. This makes it appealing for new users.
Zero Hidden Fees As you saw above, all the charges of Planet Express are displayed upfront. Unlike other delivery services that add extra charges in the middle of the process, Planet Express is clear about what they will charge for any service. Their Postage Calculator allows you to calculate the shipping charges even before placing the order on an e-commerce site. The transparency is definitely a big point for them.
Cheap Storage Whether you are a regular buyer who wants to ship multiple packages together, or a merchant looking for a virtual warehouse – the company offers really cheap storage for all. 10-day storage is free for all, which could be extended to 45 days if you opt for the Consolidated Package Plan, Even beyond the free period, warehouse charges only one cent per pound of package weight. So, even if you leave a 5lb package in their warehouse for a month, it will only cost you $1.50!
Excellent Customer Support
If there is one thing that delivery services often lack, it is good customer support. But that’s not the case with Planet Express. Their customer support is excellent and always available. In case you ever face a problem in the delivery, they will go out of their way to ensure your satisfaction.
Hassle-free shopping in the US
Planet Express ensures that as far as shopping within the US goes, you will never face any problem. Every US-based eCommerce seller delivers to either of their warehouses. They also ensure that every order is received at their warehouse.
Cons of Planet Delivery
The fixed-fee structure might make things costlier for one-time users.
The warehouse is not equipped for large quantities of orders from a single customer, despite its e-commerce fulfillment claim. Thus, it is only suited for small-to-medium businesses.
Final Words
Planet Express is, without a doubt, an impressive mail-and-package forwarding service. It offers impressive features to its customers, individuals, and traders alike. All of this offered at some of the lowest rates in the industry. While it is not perfect, Planet Express is certainly one of the best services individual shoppers and small merchants can hope for. Given its current rate, it seems likely that the company will only get better with time. Our verdict of the Planet Express review is that the company should definitely be given a chance to serve you. For more details on their services, you can visit, www.planetexpress.com.
