Tuesday, October 7, 2025
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Both Amazon and Walmart in a team together in full year share of retail sales

Two American multinational corporations Walmart and Amazon, seem to take advantage of the surging online shopping situation and join hands together.  This pandemic witnessed Amazon’s share of retail sales spiking higher last year and come within striking distance of overtaking Walmart, new data analysis. The online giant’s 9.2 percent portion of overall retail spending now nearly matches the chain store leader’s 9.5 percent share of retail activity.

While the giant retail store, Walmart’s 9.5 percent share of 2020 retail sales soared up from the 8.9 percent level it posted in 2019, the impact of the ongoing digital shift was significantly evident in Amazon’s new position, which saw its share of a total retail jump by roughly one third from the 6.8 percent retail stake it held in 2019.

The rising trend of Whole Paycheck battle for a market share of retail sales between the 2 competitors has seen Walmart’s lead shrinking for years, but it’s never been as close it is now. For instance, Walmart has maintained a level of approximately 9% share of the total retail, on the contrary Amazon’s stake has become three times than it was before ( all credits to digital sales). Hence, it went from just 3.0 percent five years ago to its most recent full-year tally of 9.2 percent.

It is not undeniable that Amazon’s increasing share of overall retail has been due to its dominance within the digital world. Amazon took in 51.2 percent of total U.S. digital retail sales last year, up from 48 percent in 2019 — but most pointedly, roughly 10 times the online share held by its rival. To be fair, Walmart did substantially increase its share of eCommerce to 5.6 percent in 2020 from 4.2 percent in 2019, although that did little to close the 40-plus point margin between the two.

Because of the importance and scope of retail spending, its impact on the shifting share of total consumer spending also increased last year, and for the first time ever, saw Amazon taking the lead. Although Walmart’s top-line total revenues still outpaced Amazon’s in both the fourth quarter and full-year 2020 reports, the 60-year-old Arkansas-based retailing giant has just pledged to invest $14 billion into new technology and automation as it strives to grow its online business.

Walmart joins Tiktok and together they host a Spring Shop-Along shoppable event- beauty edition

One of the largest retail giants is hosting a new social shopping event for its customers. The platform made an announcement its second live-stream shopping event called “Spring Shop-Along: Beauty Edition” which will take place over Walmart’s TikTok channel on Thursday (March 11) at 9 p.m. EST.

The retail giant had its first event like this in December with a holiday-themed shoppable variety show featuring 10 TikTok creators. The event reported having garnered over 7,000 more views than the company expected. Walmart also reported that its followers on TikTok grew by 25 percent during the event. However, the retailer did not spill any beans on to what extent its first TikTok live shopping event drove sales. Since these numbers were encouraging, that’s why Walmart decided to go for another event but this time to promote beauty products rather than apparel, which had been the focus of the holiday live-stream.

For the event, a variety of TikTok creators will be featured during the 60-minute beauty tutorial event, demonstrating and sharing their skin, hair, and makeup routines and tips while using their favorite Walmart beauty products. One such creator slated for the event is Gabby Morrison, who has more than 3.5 million TikTok followers.

Gabby Morrison, who has more than 3.5 million followers, has been one of the TikToker creators who will be participating in the event. Gabby along with others will demo their skincare, makeup, and hair routines and reveal the Walmart beauty products. Featured beauty brands will include NYX, Maybelline, The Lip Bar, Bliss, Kim Kimble, and Marc Jacobs fragrances.

Viewers who will be a part of the event will not only have the opportunity to get beauty tips but also shop products featured directly from the TikTok app by simply tapping on product “pins”. This will also enable viewers to add items to their cart that they can then check out either during or after the event.

“Brands have found a unique home on TikTok to create content that speaks to the community and inspires engagement, whether it’s participating in trends or discovering new products,” said Blake Chandlee, president of TikTok Global Business Solutions, in a statement about Walmart’s plans. “With the shoppable live-stream experience, it’s exciting to see how the TikTok community loves engaging with their favorite creators and discovering new products. We look forward to continuing building innovative ways to power the path from discovery to purchase, and seeing brands like Walmart bring their creativity to users,” Chandlee further added.

Walmart is also hinting at the fact that these shoppable events are just the start for the platform since it will be doubling its activities on social commerce and also testing ways to engage its customers. “We will continue to bring more shopping experiences to TikTok in the coming months by partnering with creators to highlight different products via different formats,” Walmart mentioned.

Bitcoin start-up, Moon collaborates with Lighting Network for all Visa-enabled e-commerce sites

The latest Bitcoin startup, Moon, has recently figured out a new way of buying everyday goods and services for its users with the help of the Lighting Network at any Visa-enabled e-commerce site based in the U.S.

However, what is a lighting network?

The Lightning Network is a second layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. It’s a payment protocol for fast transactions between participating nodes. Many developers believe the Lightning Network to be a solution for the scaling problems that Bitcoin is facing. What the Lightning Network does, is creating a temporary communication channel between two parties. Here these two parties can make as many transactions as they want.

How does it work?

1. Add Moon to Your Browser
Add the browser plugin in just 2 clicks.

2. Purchase a Virtual Card
Purchase cards with your Coinbase account or a Lightning wallet. Crypto is converted to USD.

3. Pay
Cards are immediately available to spend. Use virtual cards to pay everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted in the US.

Shared solely by CoinDesk, this startup launched the new payment option just recently. The Moon’s browser extension’s latest feature enables its users to make payment for purchases using a Visa prepaid card which could be bought on the extension using Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Once this payment option is availed, the card can be used as the payment option at checkout immediately.

When the user is checking out, he employs the Moon browser extension to generate a prepaid card in no time for exactly that amount at which purchases are. Subsequently, The browser extension generates a Lightning invoice, which the user pays from any Lightning wallet. and then they can use the card to pay for the items in their cart. However, these cards issued can be put to use only once and have no fees.

Moon also joins hands with Coinbase so that the users of both the platforms can make use of the cards directly from their Con vase accounts on-chain.

The payment solution offers to collaborate traditional payment rails with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, a bleeding-edge technology stack that facilitates instant, low-fee transactions.

“We’ve been working with the Visa Fintech team and their network of partners to build Moon. Since the vast majority of merchants don’t accept Bitcoin payments, sending payments over the Visa network is the best option due to its ubiquity,” Moon Founder and CEO Ken Kruger told CoinDesk.

 

 

 

 

Beyond the Atlantic start-up, Unybrand is acquiring companies that sell on Amazon marketplace

Miami-based Unybrands was co-founded in 2020 by CEO Ulrich Kratz, Eugen Miropolski, and Christian Harnischfeger to buy, build and boost online brands where business owners have reached the limits of their scale due to a lack of operational infrastructure and growth capital. It has recently raised funds worth $25 million and so far acquired 2 companies that sell on Amazon marketplaces and also on their own websites.  The founders aim to buy those companies focused on health and sustainability and also grow them by bringing European brands to the U.S. and vice versa.

The company will also have to face competition among a couple of other companies that have raised cash solely for the purpose of buying smaller brands that have carved out a niche on marketplaces run by Amazon.com Inc. and other companies.

In 2020, the funds dedicated to buying e-commerce companies increased dramatically to $5.8 billion from $1.3 billion. Hence, “It is a great time to be in this business,” Kratz told. “Growth in e-commerce is going to accelerate more. We are bringing scale to small brands. Customer habits are changing, and they now want small brands and to go by reviews. We can marry that.” he added.

With third-party sellers accounting for 60% of Amazon’s sales, there are plenty of successful Amazon brands for investors to buy, says Thomas Smale, CEO of FE International. “Plus some of the early funds are beginning to show some success, so investors are throwing more money at them,” he says. There are now at least 51 companies focused on buying Amazon brands, according to U.K. business broker Hahnbeck. Thirteen of those companies have publicly disclosed their funding, and they have collectively raised over $2.6 billion in the capital. 

There exist a plethora of things that sets Unybrands apart from its competitors. For starters, one point is it focuses on a certain kind of customer, the one who is mainly interested in health and sustainability. Moreover, it will focus on finding products geared to such shoppers in just eight product categories, divided into two groups.

One group is consumables—personal care, pet supplies, household products, and supplements—and the second encompasses durable items in such areas as juvenile and baby, sports and fitness, garden and outdoor, and lifestyle/home.

Another highlight about the company is that it will be able to work both sides of the Atlantic Ocean since all of its co-founders were inhabitants of Germany with experience working in the United Kingdom. One of Unybrands’ strategies will be to take successful U.S. brands and bring them to Europe, and European brands to the U.S. That geographic expansion is often beyond the capability of small companies.

“We are working to acquire the right businesses and integrate them onto our platform, as well as continuing to build on the team and technology to be successful,” he added. “We plan to grow the brands on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Albertsons and Tortoise join hands enabling remote-controlled Bot grocery delivery

Albertsons Companies, the country’s second-largest grocery store chain us joining hands with automated logistics start-up Tortoise to commence the pilot testing to examine grocery delivery using remote-controlled delivery robots. The pilot will start in 2 Safeway towns of Tracy and Windsor in Northern California. Albertsons acquired Safeway in a $9.2 billion merger deal in 2015. Although Tortoise co-founder and president Dmitry Shevelenko said if successful, he expects the pilot to continue to scale to other stores in the state and possibly throughout the West Coast.

Chris Rup, the EVP, and chief customer and digital officer of Albertsons mentioned that he along with his teams is very obsessed with trying new and disruptive technologies that can bring more convenience for our customers. “We are willing to quickly test, learn and implement winning innovations that ensure we are offering the easiest and most convenient shopping experience in the entire industry,” he added further.

This remote-controlled, zero-emission delivery carts will bring good and other household staples within three-mile radius of a Safeway supermarket. The bot carts are fully equipped with a camera and speaker which has the capacity to hold up to 120 pounds of groceries in four lockable containers. The carts have the ability to move at an average speed of 3 mph and are powered by an electric battery. Remote-control operators located thousands of miles away will guide the delivery cart to its destination. For its pilot run in Northern California, a human will accompany the cart for deliveries, and also, the customers will receive a text message upon the cart’s arrival.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, Tortoise offers automated logistics technology for delivery bots, scooters, and more. Tortoise initially focused on neighborhood stores and specialty brand shops, through a partnership with an online grocery platform. Shevchenko’s strategy is to get contracts with big retailers while continuing to partner with online commerce platforms, which would enable it to reach smaller, independent stores.

The surge in the demand for online grocery shopping can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and is anticipated to comprise 21.5 percent of total U.S. grocery sales by 2025.

Interview with A.J. Hernandez, CEO of SkyPostal

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Mr. A.J. Hernandez the CEO of SkyPostal, Inc. to get more insights on shipments to Latin America & challenges, best-selling products, and increase in shipment rates. Following is our interview with him:

What is the best way to ship cross-border eCommerce shipments into Latin America?

The best way to ship to Latin America is to work with alternative delivery services that offer a more reliable service than the postal network and much more reasonably priced than the express carriers.  In addition, the ADSs have regional knowledge that can be very helpful in navigating the often-complex world of customs clearance and final mile delivery in Latin America.

How has COVID impacted eCommerce?

COVID has exploded eCommerce all over the world and Latin America is no different.  What is different in Latina America is that more people were “forced” to try online shopping for the first time.  These people were once wary of online shopping for fear of fraud or never getting their product.  Now they are more comfortable and have become regular online shoppers.

What are some of the challenges that sellers/shippers face when sending orders to Latin America?

The biggest challenge is the lack of reliable service via the postal networks.  Sellers are used to using the USPS, Canada Post, or the European Posts and getting good service but this is not the case in Latin America.  The postal service network in the region is very unreliable and the result is poor user experiences that is why it is important to work with private operators that know the region.

Another challenge is understanding the import duties and taxes, which can be complex but with the right partner, they can easily be managed.

Are cosmetics not allowed in Mexico?

Many shipping companies have stopped accepting cosmetics into Mexico including FedEx, DHL, and UPS but cosmetics can be imported.  The problem is that they cannot be imported into Mexico City via the simplified courier clearance and must go through a much more tedious and expensive formal clearance.  SkyPostal has developed a solution to import cosmetics via Nuevo Laredo, on the other side of Laredo, Texas where simplified clearance is allowed.

What are some of the biggest selling products?

Clothing, shoes, electronics, baby goods, and phone accessories are very popular, but cosmetics and health supplements have seen a huge increase over the past few years.

Why has shipping gotten more expensive?

Shipping has gotten more expensive because there is not enough transport supply to meet the transport demand.  This is directly related to the COVID pandemic.  Airlines have fewer flights and less frequency, this creates a bottleneck for transport and an increase in transport rates.

About A.J. Hernandez 

A.J. Hernandez the CEO of SkyPostal, Inc. has been in the international logistics industry since 1987.  In 1992 he developed SkyBox, a B2C cross-border shopping service for Latin American shoppers.  After selling SkyBox to Lan Airlines in 2001, he founded SkyPostal.  SkyPostal quickly became a leading private mail and parcel delivery network in Latin America.  A.J. is regarded as an industry expert on international cross-border e-commerce package delivery, especially in the complex Latin American market.

About SkyPostal

SkyPostal’s mission is to provide its customers with a consistent, secure and reliable mail and parcel delivery service of the highest standards into Latin America, the Caribbean and Mexico through the use of innovative logistics solutions and state of the art information technology.

To enhance mobile shopping experience, Snapcommerce raises funds worth $85M

During the stressful global pandemic era, people are not only shopping vigorously digitally on online platforms but also are using their mobile phones for shopping. Hence, for mobile-based companies like Snap-commerce, this is fortunate news.

The Toronto, Ontario-based start-up Snap-commerce which formerly was known by the name of SnapTravel, has recently raised $85 million in what the company is describing as a “Pre-IPO” growth round to help further its mission of “changing the way people shop on their phones.”

The company has built out an AI-driven, vertical-agnostic platform that makes use of messaging in an effort to personalize the mobile shopping experience and “deliver the best promotional prices.” While it’s initially focused on the travel industry, the company is now branching out into other consumer verticals – hence its name change.

Inovia Capital and Lion Capital co-led the new growth round, which also included participation from Acrew DCF, Thayer Ventures, Full In Partners as well as existing backers Telstra Ventures and Bee Partners. The financing brings Snapcommerce’s total raised since 2016  to over $100 million. Its last raise — a $7.2 million round from Telstra and NBA star Steph Curry — took place in 2019.

The startup which was founded by tech entrepreneurs Hussein Fazal and Henry Shi over the years claims to have helped more than 10 million users globally save over $75 million. It expects to cross over $1 billion in total mobile sales this year. And now it’s ready to branch out into helping consumers save money on goods. The company turned the corner to profitability three months into the pandemic in 2020, seeing a 60% surge in sales in the second half of the year compared to 2019, according to CEO Fazal. It then decided to re-invest its profits to continue growing the business.

“When shopping, it’s hard to find the right product and even if you do, it’s hard to find a good deal,” he said. “On a desktop, there are ways around it. But on mobile, it’s virtually impossible.” Moreover, the CEO(s) believe that the pandemic has just been lucky for them for it only acted as a catalyst for their company’s growth as more and more people turned to the use of mobile phones for almost everything.

 

 

In an attempt to get into e-commerce, Twitter gives a try to its “Shop” feature

Twitter, a famous social media networking platform is trying its hand at the social shopping scene with a “Shop” button being prominently displayed on some tweets. This new feature will enable the integration of merchandise information as a part of the tweet and link to an e-commerce store. The tweet card will include the name of the shop, product, and price.

The concept was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who tweeted screenshots of the experience. The social platform mentioned that that the tweet is an example of the e-commerce-focused tweets the social media platform is planning. Moreover, With more than 300 million active users, Twitter is an excellent platform for businesses to reach & connect with the new audience. It is a go-to social network for businesses to communicate with their fans & customers effectively.

The company is also becoming a creator platform and is launching a “Super Follow” subscription. This will enable the subscribers to enjoy exclusive benefits, content, and discounts. There could also be “shoppable” tweets that would give creators the power to direct fans to merchandise.

The platform made an announcement that it was searching for a subscription product to lessen its reduce its dependency on paid advertising. One idea would let users tip people they follow in exchange for exclusive content.

Plans for e-commerce were hinted at during Twitter’s Investor Day last week. “We’re starting to explore ways to better support commerce on Twitter,” said Twitter Revenue Lead Bruce Falck during the event. Falck also acknowledged that people talk about their favorite brands on Twitter, and some businesses have already started integrating sales into tweets. He told investors the concept is still in its initial stages.

“This demand gives us confidence in the power of combining real-time conversation with an engaged and intentional audience. Imagine easily discovered, and quickly purchased, a new skincare product or trendy sneaker from a brand you follow with only a few clicks,” Falck said.

Related : Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter in competition to monetize themselves

 

Walmart’s Express Delivery feature promises to deliver within 2 hours with no minimum order

With the objective of directly challenging its competitor, Amazon, Walmart made an announcement that it is dropping the $35 minimum order requirement for its two-hour “Express” delivery service, a competitor to Amazon’s “Prime Now.”  With Walmart Express Delivery, customers can order from Walmart’s food, consumables, or general merchandise assortment, then pay a flat $10 fee to have the items arrive in two hours or less.

This service is useful for more urgent delivery requirements, for example, diapers or a missing ingredient for a recipe. “Customers told us sometimes the items they needed in a hurry didn’t meet the minimum, so we’re removing it, making it even easier for customers to get what they need when they need it,” said Walmart Senior Vice President of Customer Product Tom Ward.

The express delivery provided by the retailer will enable customers to place website orders for food, staples, essentials, and more. These orders are then packed for delivery by Walmart’s team of 1,70,000 for personal shoppers and are priced at the same amount as they are in-store. This gives Walmart a competitive advantage against other grocery delivery services like Instacart or Shipt since these are platforms where products can be priced higher and hurried or inexperienced shoppers aren’t always able to find items or search the back, having to mark them as “out of stock.”

Moreover, Walmart employees will have a better understanding of their own store’s inventory and layout, making these kinds of issues less common. It will also have direct access to the order data, which will help it better understand what sells, what replacements customers will accept for out-of-stocks when to staff for busy times, and more.

The express delivery option is available at about 3,000 Walmart stores, reaching almost 70 percent of the U.S. population, the company said. Walmart also offers free curbside pickup and serves approximately 220 million customers and members at 10,500 stores and clubs under 48 brands in 24 countries and e-commerce websites.

Walmart’s competition, Prime Now currently has a s 2-hour service has a minimum order requirement of $35 without any additional fees in many cases for free delivery– through the Prime Now app explains that some of its local store partners will charge fees even when that minimum is met, and others may have higher-order minimums, which makes the service confusing to consumers.

 

American Eagle launches AR shopping tool as part of “Jeans are Forever” campaign

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., also known as American Eagle, is an American lifestyle, clothing, and accessories retailer headquartered at SouthSide Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It recently is introducing an augmented reality (AR) shopping tool on Snapchat as part of its spring 2021 Jeans Are Forever campaign, as it announced in a press release on Friday (Feb 26).

“Great jeans are always in style, and our American Eagle product teams are focused on the continuous development of new fabrics, fits and washes to provide quality and comfort — delivering the best in jeans innovation,” said Jennifer Foyle, the chief creative officer of AE and global brand president of the company’s Aerie unit. She added that the company’s campaign “is meant to uplift our customers and radiate good vibes — encouraging a true sense of optimism, especially now.”

The company will launch its AR Jeans Guide for Snapchat in the spring, which will feature denim looks for men and women. The “first-of-its-kind two multi-URL 3D shoppable jeans lenses” will give users the ability to see a variety of AE jeans in augmented reality using the world-facing camera, according to the release.

AR allows e-commerce customers to preview products or experience services in their own environment and on their own time, before electing to make a purchase. Using AR, your customers can preview products and be more likely to pick the right product the first time.

Hence, by making use of digital and analog technology, the campaign was photographed with a mix of cameras, including Polaroid, 16mm, Super 8, iPhones, and others. In addition to headlining the campaign, Stokes and Bailey are also credited as photographers.

American Eagle, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker AOE, has been an apparel retailer for men and women since 1977.

Two famous actors of the Netflix teen drama Outer Bank, Chase Stokes and Madison Bailey will headline the Jeans Are Forever campaign. Foyle picked these two young actors because according to her they both can represent their young customers and play up their true personalities in a candid way that felt real to who they are on- and off-screen.

With the concept of Social shopping becoming the latest online shopping trend, further accelerated by the pandemic’s lockdowns and social distancing, Walmart has also teamed up with TikTok to launch shoppable product offerings within the app’s chat window.

Mumbai-based JustDial launches its e-commerce B2B portal- JDMart

JustDial, a Mumbai-based search engine has launched its B2B e-commerce portal called by the name JD Mart, to take on big players like IndiaMart and Udaan.  The platform will connect bulk buyers with wholesale sellers across product categories.

“JD Mart is an exclusive B2B portal for a new wholesale experience,” JustDial’s press statement read, per the report. “B2B buyers can discover quality vendors offering a wide selection of products to choose from, spread across various categories to suit all their B2B needs.”

The search engine was planning to launch the B2B e-commerce platform, along with demand service platform JD Xperts, by the end of 2020. However, the plans were delayed as IndiaMart moved to the Delhi High Court on November 10, 2020, accusing that the hyperlocal search engine was infringing on its intellectual property rights (IPR) with its yet-to-be-launched service.

Fortunately, The Dinesh Agarwal-led company secured a temporary injunction from the Delhi high court against JD Mart over copyright violation. The temporary injunction prevented JustDial from launching the marketplace under the brand name JD Mart and using other intellectual properties including category tree, naming convention, supplier and product information, and specifications.

JustDial had called these accusations “absolutely baseless and frivolous”, highlighting that the company will pursue legal remedies. In turn, the company had accused IndiaMart of data-copying and cybersquatting, among others. “Our products suffer from no plagiarism and the same is above board both in terms of law and best business practices. JustDial has painstakingly built its database, brand over the last 25 years and such baseless allegations shall be adequately addressed,” the company’s spokesperson had said.

India is among those countries which have observed a rise in B2B e-commerce transactions, with a survey finding that space had a 200 percent rise in transactions as opposed to B2C transactions. Moreover, mobile orders in India rose 8 percent in 2020, and reports said that the trend of using mobile will continue for both B2B and B2C operations. Digital sales channels can boost both the size of the revenue and the number of transactions made.

eBay stands against price gouging; also encourages to report it

eBay Inc. is an American multinational e-commerce corporation based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. The platform has recently released an announcement reminding sellers of it’s of its price–gouging policy and also encouraging users to report items they believe violate the policy. Increasing the price of items to a level that is much higher than is considered fair or reasonable is not allowed on eBay.

Price gouging occurs when a seller increases the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or supply shock. Common examples include price increases of basic necessities after natural disasters.

With this phenomenon becoming a significant issue in 2020, the main reason being supply shortages during the global pandemic, with states and the federal government charging retailers they said violated laws.

In its announcement, eBay said it had a zero-tolerance policy on price gouging “to ensure that buyers are able to find essential items at reasonable prices, especially during challenging and extraordinary times like those we face today.”

They’re actively addressing reports that some sellers are charging unfair or unreasonable prices for certain items on eBay, which risks taking advantage of buyers in this time of uncertainty. To ensure the safety of their community, they’re blocking or removing many of these items from our marketplace. They’re committed to ensuring that their marketplace remains a safe place for buyers and sellers, so listings that exhibit unfair pricing behavior are not allowed. It’s taking measures to block or remove listings that make false health claims or those offer products at inflated prices in violation of applicable laws.

The company encourages their community to report any listings they suspect of price gouging to them so that those reports can be taken very seriously and the required action will be taken accordingly.

To report directly from the listing, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the listing and choose Report item, which you’ll find next to the description and shipping and payment options.
  2. On the File a report page, select Price gouging in the Report Category field.
  3. In the Reason for report field, select Price gouging.
  4. Select an option from the Detailed Reason field and then Send.

“Buyers are encouraged to report items they believe violate our policy using our price gouging reporting tool,” eBay said, linking to a page titled “Reporting price gouging on eBay.”

Related: Multibillion-dollar business, eBay experience 22% rise in US sales amid 2020 pandemic

Interview with Jeff Wixted, VP, Marketing & Client Solutions, Accertify

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Mr. Jeff Wixted, VP, Marketing & Client Solutions at Accertify to get more insights on chargeback fraud, ways to prevent a chargeback, and the role of Accertify in dealing with chargebacks. Following is our interview with him:

1) Do you anticipate we’ll continue to see an elevated number of chargebacks in 2021? Which factors would you attribute this increase to?

2020 was a rollercoaster year for chargebacks with the pandemic causing sudden cancellations, shutdowns, and disruptions and disproportionately impacting industries such as travel, ticketing, and entertainment. While it’s hard to say for certain, early signs suggest chargebacks are likely to decline this year in these industries.

On the other hand, COVID-19 is accelerating ecommerce for many businesses, with new players creating or adopting online channels for services traditionally done in-store.

With these changes, more consumers are turning to online ordering and food delivery, and adopting new subscription or streaming services to view shows, movies, music and workouts at home. Chargebacks in these specific areas naturally saw an increase, and these industries may continue to experience increased volumes in 2021 compared to 2020.

2) What tactics would you recommend for merchants to help mitigate the impact of chargebacks?

Merchants can bolster their defense lines to protect against chargebacks by:

  • Clearly communicating policies (ex: return policy, cancel policy, etc.) and any changes in policies to your customers
  • Regularly communicating with your customers about the status of their good or service – keep them apprised of what is happening and what they can expect (ex: your order was shipped today, or it is due to arrive in 2 days)
  • Providing multiple channels – phone, email, chat, text – for customers to communicate with you to ask questions and resolve any issues or concerns
  • Establishing relationships with your financial partners; have clear descriptors of your services on cardholders’ statements
  • Utilizing a service to try to deflect chargebacks from occurring in the first place or to notify you a dispute is about to be received so you can refund the transaction and stop the dispute proactively
  • Ensuring you have a strong fraud prevention platform and strategy in place to help you to reduce your costs, protect your business from losses, and improve customer experience

If a chargeback does occur, merchants can act by:

  • Identifying the root cause. Analyze and learn from them to improve processes, especially your fraud defenses.
  • Responding quickly. Do not wait until the reply by date to respond to avoid any potential issues identified by your financial partner, such as a missing document or poor image, leaving you with little time to address and correct it.
  • Tracking your disputes. This allows you to quickly adjust to unexpected increases as well as identify declines in expected win rates as early as possible.
  • Thinking about working with a professional service. Professional chargeback management services will help to reduce costs, increase win rates and recoveries, and provide insight into where the industry is going.
  • Understanding your cost structure. Many financial institutions charge fees upon receipt or when you respond, per page sent, as well as how it is sent. Understanding the fees you pay to represent a chargeback is critical to identifying if you should fight a chargeback in the first place.

Mitigating chargebacks requires an upfront, proactive approach as well as backend, improved focus.

3) What are some of the top warning signs or red flags that merchants can be on the lookout to help screen for fraudulent orders?

There are several potential warning signs for fraudulent behavior – here are some of the top warning signs or red flags to keep an eye out for:

  • Data: Data elements or combinations of data elements associated with past fraud or malicious activity
  • Uncommon Behavior: Out of pattern purchases and/or behavior, account updates that change email or phone numbers (may be a signs of an account takeover)
  • Scripted/bot attacks: Orders placed in milliseconds as compared against the general population
  • High risk indicators: Newly created email addresses, IP addresses from unusual countries, device attributes indicating the presence of malware or it has been rooted/jailbroken, excessive distance calculations, and many more

4) How can ‘friendly’ or accidental chargebacks be prevented (i.e. when a spouse or family member makes a purchase you’re not aware of and it’s reported as fraud)?

If there’s no malicious intent, merchants can navigate ‘accidental’ chargebacks with the below three preventative measures:

  • Enabling a second factor of authentication.  Many merchants and card issuers offer this capability to verify a purchase before it is authorized.  In this use case, a verification SMS message may be sent to a parent/guardian’s mobile phone to approve a purchase made by a family member enabling a real-time decision to be made, avoiding a potential chargeback.
  • Adding “Do not recognize” labels (lack of context about a purchase). Many accidental chargebacks arise because the descriptor language on a cardholder statement may be vague or not intuitive as to what was purchased.  To combat this problem, many issuing banks are augmenting their processes to increase the information displayed to the cardholder or available to their customer service representatives to help the cardholder better assess whether the charge is recognized or not.
  • Utilizing a service to provide more information to the issuer about the transaction.  These services help merchants get purchase, fulfillment, and policy data in front of the cardholder or Issuer customer service representative.  They take the form of additional data when you expand the transaction on the online statement, providing digital receipts showing purchase details, or simply allowing you to add your logo next to the purchase.

5) What are the strongest types of evidence/ proof a merchant or credit card company can have to help indicate whether a chargeback is invalid or fraudulent?

While this will differ for each card network based on their individual rules and policy requirements, generally speaking, the more compelling evidence a merchant can provide, the greater chance they may have to win a dispute. This could include:

  • Proof the card was present at time of purchase;
  • Proof the person making the transaction was an authorized user; and,
  • Proof the services or goods were provided/fulfilled

Understanding and providing compelling evidence will help ensure merchants have the best chance at winning these types of disputes.

6) What are the most common types of chargeback fraud?

Chargeback fraud occurs when an individual purposely files a chargeback after they have received the goods or services. It can occur for many reasons, but typically the most common cause is “buyer’s remorse” – when a consumer receives the goods or services they purchase, feels regretful about it and desires a different outcome.  Many times the consumer can fix this by speaking directly with the merchant but if that doesn’t result in a desirable outcome, they may turn to their issuing bank and open a chargeback.  Another common reason is descriptor confusion, which happens when a consumer looks at their statement and doesn’t recognize the charge.  Because the issuing bank displays the statement, their natural inclination is to dispute the charge instead of first contacting the merchant to better understand the details of a purchase.

7) Please explain how to prioritize which chargebacks to dispute?

This is at the merchant’s discretion but typically chargebacks are prioritized by:

  • Reply by Date (date by which a merchant must respond to the acquiring bank)
  • Amount (higher amounts before lower amounts)
  • Reason Code (why did the cardholder dispute the charge)
  • Card Network (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.)

8) Are there any types of alert services that track those who regularly engage in fraudulent chargeback activity? If yes, please explain.

Alert services help notify merchants when a dispute is about to be filed but a key challenge still remains: identifying habitual or suspicious fraudulent chargeback activity.  In partnership with our merchants, Accertify addresses this problem today by natively integrating fraud management and chargeback management capabilities into our platform. The fraud management side continually strengthens via feedback from the chargeback management side, which makes it more challenging for a habitual chargeback offender to get away with fraudulent behavior. Some merchants may implement due to advanced fraud screening that incorporates prior chargeback history and additional risk signals to make a determination to approve an order.

9) How is Accertify helping its customers deal with chargebacks?

Accertify helps merchants increase revenue recovery, reduce manual labor and cut costs, and improve the customer experience.  We do this by:

  • Providing a centralized platform and process, which helps merchants to manage their chargebacks.
  • Configuring the system to drive efficiency into merchant processes related to chargebacks.
  • Ensuring the platform comes with dashboards, reporting, and data analytics to help the merchant monitor their chargebacks in a proactive way.
  • Connecting the platform directly to the merchant and their banking partners and other service providers. This means merchants can automate the end-to-end process.
  • Allowing the merchant to proactively address the pre-dispute process by connecting to chargeback deflection and alert services.
  • Offering a full managed chargeback option where we do all the work and all the lifting on behalf of the merchant, for those merchants who do not have the time to manage chargebacks themselves.
  • Providing access to our best-in-class customer service and our decades of chargeback experience. This is represented by our 2020 NPS score of 76.

About Jeff Wixted

Jeff is responsible for leading the company’s global product strategy, and technical sales functions. Jeff joined Accertify in 2009 and has built and diversified Accertify’s Interceptas® Case Management Platform to address the complete payment lifecycle – fraud management, chargeback management, and payments. Jeff has helped grow Accertify from a small start-up to a global organization with a leading market share in the retail, travel and hospitality, and entertainment and ticketing industries. Jeff also serves as the Treasurer on the Global Board of Directors on the Merchant Risk Council, the preeminent fraud and payments organization focused on merchants. Prior to his current role, Jeff was the Director of Sales Engineering, responsible for leading a global team to present, position, and consultatively sell Accertify’s solutions.

Before joining Accertify, Jeff focused on building and leading pre-sales and professional services teams in the enterprise software space. Jeff has successfully led many start-up organizations through periods of hyper-growth and change and is skilled at building relationships with technical individuals as well as with C-level executives.

About Accertify

Accertify, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Express, is a leading provider of fraud prevention, digital identity, device intelligence, chargeback management, and payment gateway solutions to customers spanning diverse industries worldwide. Accertify’s suite of products and services helps companies grow their business by driving down the total cost of fraud, simplifying business processes, and ultimately increasing revenue. For more information, please visit www.accertify.com.

Haptik launches Buzzo, a multilingual voice assistance for enhancing digital shopping experience

Meet Buzzo - Haptik’s AI-driven Voice Assistant for eCommerce Brands!

Jio Haptik Technologies Limited, an Indian AI company which is a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Platforms has recently announced the launch of its brand new product called by the name- Buzzo. It is an AI multilingual voice assistant to improvise the digital shopping experience. It enables voice assistants for better search, discovery, and purchase for e-commerce websites and apps. With its launch, the company – Haptik brings the simplicity of an in-store assisted experience to apps and websites, navigating through the variety of product choices using a voice-enabled interface.

As per Forrester Research, e-commerce sales have surged by 20% in the US during the post-pandemic era due to which digital is now the most trending way of shopping for most of the millennials. However, searching through long product catalogs and finding the most suitable products continues to remain a cumbersome experience.

Buzzo uses Haptik’s cutting-edge NLU combined with product metadata such as filters, reviews, pricing, tags, etc. to understand a user’s requirements spoken in colloquial language and provide recommendations similar to an in-store sales agent. The AI assistant also knows how to nudge relevant upsells & cross-sells and add multiple items to the cart in single voice command, leading to a much faster overall checkout process.

This feature was first used in the implementation of JioMart which is one of India’s largest e-grocery platforms. Over a million end customers who have used the AI assistant showed a 50% rise in conversion rate from just searching for it to sales.

“Voice search has shown a lot of promise but has been limited in its ability to really drive transactions,” said Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder & CEO of Haptik. “The primary reason for this is the lack of domain expertise in the AI models along with a natural UX workflow. With Buzzo, we have taken close to a year to perfect this experience through multiple iterations. The initial results we are seeing with JioMart are extremely promising, and we are excited to take this product to other brands globally.”

Buzzo is available for use for e-commerce brands for numerous shopping categories including grocery, electronics, apparel, beauty, furniture, and more.

TikTok along with Shopify expand into 14 additional countries, intensifying its approach

It is pretty obvious as we look around that social commerce is heating up as a huge payments trend this year. Social commerce combines embedded and contextual payments with relevant content that’s proven to increase sales within a (mostly) seamless CX.

With the action getting intense that Shopify’s past with TikTok is expanding to 14 additional countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The expansion of TikTok’s Shopify channel to a global audience — which now includes Australia, Canada, the U.K, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam — gives even more merchants access to self-service tools to be discovered by TikTok users and to optimize their marketing campaigns.

With the Biden administration lowering the volume on talk of TikTok bans, there’s a “before the gold rush” electricity in the air as other social giants pile in, including embattled Facebook.

As news of the Shopify-TikTok expansion hit, so did Facebook’s announcement that it too is doubling down on social commerce with new features for the contextual shopper. There was a report in February about Facebook’s new feature “shop” enabling retailers to sell on the platform and also to integrate selling from Instagram too. This feature is available in both Canada as well as the U.K. Facebook Shop allows retailers “to create a single online selling presence on the platform and to sell from user’s feeds. It also will be closely allied to the company’s other social media selling tools on Instagram, which it launched last year,” adding that Facebook is also connecting to loyalty programs and will be adding shoppable product tags to videos.

Pinterest, not to be left out continues to perform strongly due to continued user growth and improving monetization of users. It is in continuous efforts to make its platform more shoppable, with innovations along with enhanced metadata.

If Shopify and TikTok are setting the bar at the moment — and it appears they are — then expect copycats and emulators to follow in the path the two are blazing.

Related: TikTok planning to dive into e-commerce and goes in fierce competition with Facebook

Drinks.com acknowledges the complex alcohol sales matrix and also validates it

There is a perception that the head of a major wine delivery service would be worried about the possibility of Uber’s $1.1 billion acquisition of 60-minute alcohol ordering platform Drizly, but for Drinks.com Co-Founder and CEO Zac Brandenberg, that’s not the case.

On the contrary, this situation is seen as a huge motivator for a budding industry that grew 80 percent during the pandemic, and also as a validation of an opportunity that stays unmet as of now.

“Conveniently for us, we don’t compete with Uber,” Brandenberg said in a recent telephone interview from his office in Los Angeles. “The Uber-Drizly competition is going to be DoorDash, goPuff, and Instacart,” he said, noting the last-minute impulse market is aimed at an entirely different consumer. “That’s the customer that is traditionally shopping in a retail store. Like if Uber wasn’t there, or Drizly wasn’t there, I would be walking down the street to my local liquor store or I’d be getting in my car and driving over to a local store to buy that product. It’s a different type of customer and a different way of buying products.”

People want to shop differently. Sometimes they don’t always need something in an hour. So whether consumers want to buy in-store, online, have it delivered in an hour, or handpick specialty items that are shipped to their home in one or two days, the key driver is providing consumers with more choices and meeting them where they want to buy.

“You would hope that by offering more mediums for consumers to purchase, and more forms of engagement, that their aggregate purchasing volume is going to grow,” Brandenberg said.

He also acknowledged the fact that alcohol sales face a complex regulatory combination that differs from state to state and as well as separate rules for off-premises retail sales and the laws that restrict what can and what cant be delivered. “You have existing hurdles that have proven to be difficult to navigate for years on what can be sold, when, and to who,” he said, pointing to the differing “chain of custody” laws that exist in the states

Brandenberg put a situation that if he were to go to Costco.com right now, he could click on pretty much anything and have it at his door in two days, but affirmed that he can’t get a case of wine. “That’s ridiculous as that’s going to be something that’s completely expected by consumers, it just hasn’t been powered and enabled yet”, he said. “I can’t believe that a Costco or Trader Joe’s is going to sit back forever and have this huge beverage alcohol business in their physical locations and not look to meet the needs of customers who don’t want to walk into a store anymore,” he added.

Related: Uber creates opportunity through movement; acquires Drizly, alcohol delivery startup for $1.1 B

In the post-covid era,building a more stronger e-commerce platform is what Etsy CEO hopes for

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 16: General atmosphere as Etsy rings the Nasdaq Opening Bell in Celebration of IPO at Nasdaq on April 16, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images for NASDAQ)

Although  Etsy CEO Josh Silverman along with everybody does not know what’s going to happen with the coronavirus pandemic this year, yet he hopes that his company will “outpace e-commerce overall.”

Etsy is an American e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft supplies and tools.

“None of us have a crystal ball,” Silverman said on “Squawk Box,” one day after the online marketplace reported much better than expected fourth-quarter earnings and revenue.

Etsy has been a big shot of the stay-at-home economy during Covid. E-commerce grew at over 40% year over year, and yet Etsy grew 2.5 times the rate of e-commerce. Silverman acknowledges the fact that during the year, e-commerce grew at a crazy rate.

Etsy’s full-year 2020 revenue amounted to $1.73 billion, up 111% year-over-year, while net income rose 264% to $349 million. Gross merchandise sales on the company’s marketplace — known for its independent artisans who offer a range of products — increased to $10.28 billion last year. That’s up from $4.97 billion in 2019.

The company, however, declined to issue full-year guidance due to the pandemic, offering it instead on a quarter-by-quarter basis. For the ongoing first quarter, Etsy said it expects revenue between $513 million and $536 million, significantly better than the $383 million Wall Street had been anticipating.

When discussed the company’s post-covid earnings, it was concluded that Etsy has already accomplished its 2023 business goals three years ahead of schedule. This has all been made possible due to the accelerated adoption of the online shopping trend. Considering the situation, the company also started essentially important new product categories on its marketplace, for instance, face masks.

However, the company’s CEO sees two competing forces for its position during the post-covid era. On the one side, there exist millions of people who typically shopped at brick-and-mortar stores before the pandemic has started buying goods online. On the other hand, retail will make up a smaller portion of consumer spending as a complete economic reopening occurs and more people return to eating at restaurants and traveling.

“What I don’t know — and what I don’t know that any of us know — is what’s going to happen to consumer spending overall as restrictions ease,” Silverman said. “What I do know is that if you look over the long term, if you’re looking at 2022 and 2023 and beyond, e-commerce is bigger and stronger, and we’ll be bigger and stronger I believe as a result.”

With a vision to open more digital opportunities, TikTok opens its self-serve ad platform for Canada

TikTok, a china-owned content creation application has recently released an announcement that its self-serve ad platform is now available to operate to all businesses in Canada which marks the latest expansion in its growing business plan.

They have marked a significant milestone in the evolution of the brand for businesses in Canada. They are now launching new advertising solutions for SMB(s) making it seamless, easy, and more efficient for brands to meaningfully connect with the TikTok community. In Canada, with the introduction of self-serve advertising tools and the availability of TikTok’s new Shopify channel, they are continuing their support to advertisers at each step of the campaign creation process.

This new feature looks very similar to the same on other social networks and is also easy to use. It will feel familiar to the social media managers who have run the campaigns before. TikTok had actually made an announcement for the global growth of the platform in July 2020. Hence, it has been available to some of the Canadian businesses for a while, but now, all the brands will be able to make use of this feature to run campaigns. Furthermore, the company is also making its Shopify channel accessible for vendors in Canada, in addition to the U.S.

As TikTok explains, “The channel will help Shopify’s merchants across the country create and run campaigns directly geared toward TikTok’s highly engaged community. Through this partnership, we’re making it easier for Shopify merchants to tap into the creativity of the TikTok community, be discovered, and optimize their marketing campaigns.”

The new options will enable a major evolution and open doors to more digital marketing opportunities on the platform for Canadian brands. Moreover, TikTok is also hosting a virtual summit for ventures in Canada which will take place next month. It will include workshops, education sessions as well as interviews with business owners and also TikTok experts to assist brands to make the best use of the platform.

The project of this platform is anticipated to reach to billion users in 2021. However, at the same time, TikTok needs to firmly establish its business foundations to maximize its revenue opportunity and also ensure that its top creators are able to monetize their efforts effectively. If the brand is able to keep its users happy, it will help to maintain the long-term viability of the brand, while generating business income and solidifying its operations.

Related: TikTok planning to dive into e-commerce and goes into fierce competition with Facebook

(Guide) How to Run Multiple Shops on Etsy?

(Guide) How to Run Multiple Shops on Etsy

With its more than millions of sellers, Etsy is growing every day. If you are the one who is solely focused on selling the handcrafted and vintage items on the e-commerce platform, then you must know the name of Etsy. Or maybe you already have a selling account on Etsy. However, are you thinking of growing your online e-commerce business a bit more? Then Etsy has everything to offer you. You might have heard of multiple Etsy shops or maybe are thinking of starting multiple shops here. Then what is holding you back? The thoughts of how to manage multiple shops on Etsy? Then you are at the right place. Here we are going to guide you on how you manage multiple shops so easy to get more profit while expanding your business. Read on:

What is Etsy?

Etsy is an ever-growing online marketplace with more than 2.1 million sellers. Etsy specifically showcases the products which are handcrafted and vintage to give the artists a very reliable way to market their creations and collection. It offers more than 43 product categories.

While you are thinking of leveraging your online business in a very effective way, Etsy serves you the proper marketplace for that. Whether you want to extend the possibilities for your business, Etsy lets you make a profit-driven decision to get more revenue.

Why sell on Etsy?

For every small business, Etsy is a worthy option. It is one of the top marketplaces that enables you to maintain and set your store up at ease. This platform allows you to focus on customer relationships, product development, and promotions. Besides being an affordable platform, you can easily get started with Etsy.

Etsy listing tools are available so that you can integrate your Etsy with more selling channels and expand your business. In addition, it brings you an improved management system and cuts off a lot of repetitive work.

Etsy multiplies your presence and lets you reach more customers. You can focus on specific audiences, test different prices, test the store titles, and try different strategies.

What’s All About the Idea of Multiple Shops on Etsy?

Whether it can be difficult enough to reach out to more and more customers with just one storefront. Also, the process is quite uncertain. Starting multiple stores on Etsy enhances the possibilities for reaching out to more and more customers.

You can easily opt-out for multiple storefronts on Etsy to give your business more boost. While you are more focused on creating more and more creative pieces, you can offer many of the products to your customers to become a significant marketer.

The best thing you can do is grab this opportunity to open another shop on Etsy. as the category differs, you can easily try your hands in a variety of categories. For example, you create nice jute work bags which people like much and buying them rapidly. For a change, you have created a jute work vase, and people love this creative piece, and you become the bestseller. So why should you let this opportunity go when you can have more out of it?

How having Multiple Shops on Etsy Solve Your Variety of Problems?

If you think that one shop is not enough for your online e-commerce business, then you can use the multiple shops in Etsy to boost your sales. Here is how it benefits:

You Can Sell Different Types of Products

If you want to sell products that are completely different in terms of the niches, then having only one account is not at all a profitable one. You can end up in a complete mess if you are trying to sell a variety of products using your one selling account. Thus picking multiple shops for various niches gives your storefront a very organized look.

Selling Becomes Easier for the Products which have Different Terms of Use

In case all the goodies in your shop that you are using for commercial purposes can often arouse confusion. For this, you can switch to the multiple shops to keep separately two shops to let your shoppers avoid confusion while shopping.

Let’s You have Digital and Physical Products at the Same Time

Usually, customers do not read the listing description. They usually tend to mix up between the physical and digital products while buying. You can easily sell them from two stores to avoid huge confusion for your customers. This also reduces your negative feedback, which lets your business become more preferable for the customers on Etsy.

How many shops can you have?

You are allowed to possess more than 2 Etsy shops. For opening a new Etsy shop, you will need to register for a new account with a new email address for every shop. First, however, you need to make sure that every account meets the seller policy of Etsy.

Things to keep in mind before opening another shop

There are a few things that you need to keep in mind before you opt for another new Etsy shop. They are as follows:

  • For opening a new Etsy store, you will require a different email address, and you must avoid the same email id that you have used for your 1st store.
  • To manage your different Etsy shops, you will need to log in from different website browsers.
  • Etsy does not allow for duplicate shops, and if found, it may remove you from the marketplace.
  • You cannot sell the same product listings in a separate shop. Instead, put the titles of both of your shops in the Etsy public profile.
  • In your account profile, you will have to mention the name of your other Etsy shops.

How do You Open Multiple Shops on Etsy?

While thinking of opening multiple shops on Etsy, you need to follow the right process. How to open a second Etsy shop? Well, for that, you need to have an Etsy shop on this platform first. Here is what you can do to start your Etsy shop:

Step 1: First, you need to click on the “sell on Etsy” from the drop-down menu that appears with your avatar.

Step 2: After that, you need to navigate through the area of “open your Etsy Shop”.

Step 3: The next thing you need to do is you need to move on to the setup for the shopping preference while selecting your shop’s country, language, currency, and time settings.

The shop language comes with the default language that you can use for your store. Well, you are not going to be able to change it later, so pick carefully. However, you can add the translations of the other languages post the launch of your store.

It is important to pick the right country for your shop. Also, focus on the currency that you are going to pick for the price listing. It also comes with the currency conversion fees for your bank’s currency if it’s different from your shop’s currency.

While picking the time commitment, select whether you are having a full-time job or part-time.

Step 4:  After this, you have to choose the name of your shop. The name is important to create an identity for your store. Pick a name that rightly reflects the personality and products of your shop. The name needs to meet the Etsy requirements.

  • It has to be 4-20 characters in length.
  • There should be no profanity.
  • No spaces or special characters should be there.
  • Not the name which is already in use by an existing Etsy member
  • Make sure you are not infringing with any other trademark.

Step 5: Now, you need to fill up your shop details by adding all of the products for the listing.

Step 6: After that, you need to choose how you want to get paid for your shop. If you are eligible for the country, you need to use Etsy payments. Etsy payments are going to give buyers more options to pay for the order and consolidate with all the payment-related information in the Etsy payments account. In case your country is not eligible for Etsy payment, you can use a PayPal account to accept the payments.

Step 7: Now, you can set up the billing option for your store. Based on which country you are in; you can enter your credit or debit card to open your shop on Etsy. Cards like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Carte Bleue are eligible for this. In case there is any authorization charge to verify the card that you have entered, it is going to be verified with the charge that is going to be dropped from the statement.

Also, you can add any prepaid card to your account. After finishing all the sections, click on ” Open your shop” to open more than one Etsy shop.

How to Open a Second Etsy Shop?

As now you know how to open your account on Etsy, now is the time to know how to open a second Etsy shop? For this, you need to register a new account with another email address.

Step 1:  From Etsy.com, you need to click on ” Your account” from the home page of Etsy. Then you need to navigate your shop name from the Shop manager area.

Step 2: Then, you can simply sign out.

Step 3: Now go to sign in again. Then you need to register.

Step 4: Then, you need to enter an email address that is not associated with your first Etsy shop. Then you need to enter your name and then create a password. Then simply tick on the “register”.

Step 5: Then simply click on the “Sell on Etsy”.

Step 6: Now, you need to navigate to ” Open your Etsy shop”.

Step 7: Now simply follow the above-mentioned steps to open your second shop on Etsy.

How do You Properly Manage Multiple Shops on Etsy?

Well, opening multiple shops on Etsy may be easy. However, managing it may not be as easy as opening. Some of the errors can show up. Here are some of the difficulties you might face:

Managing Multiple Shops

Running your multiple Etsy shop in different locations and for different products can be difficult. You need to spend a lot of time switching between the stores and updating them properly, which can make your sale boosting a bit cumbersome.

Human Errors

Human errors are very common to occur while you are going to maintain it all by yourself. Not handling it properly can lead to various problems.

Manual Uploads

The multiple accounts require multiple product uploads. If you are listing your products in bulk, then you need to put the description and details of the products one by one for every account, which can be very tiresome.

Unautomated System

An automated system can be a real area of pain for you. While handling more than one account, multiple problems can occur due to mismanagement in the inventory. If there is no automation, you may have to struggle with this.

So how do you solve it? Well, not to worry. Here are some of the tips that you can follow:

Consider having Multiple Browsers

Try to keep the system well managed. It is better to log in to each of your stores from a variety of browsers. You can use browsers like Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, or other browsers to manage more than one shop for your Etsy store management.

Switch to the Etsy App

You can use the “sell on Etsy” app. Simply download the app from the app store. You can easily manage your orders from here. Also, you are going to receive the messages and the notifications for each of the shops in a very organized way.

Use One Email Box for All Shops

It is better to host your Gmail via google apps for your plan. Using one email box makes the entire job easier for you.

Use One Free Business Bank Account for All Shops

You can search around to find a free account with free checking. You can have different checking accounts for some of the stores with the same account. This makes accounting very easy.

Use IFTTT to Create a Spreadsheet for All the Orders

Managing your orders can be challenging if you are not doing it with track keeping. You can have a receipt setup that can connect with your Gmail and google sheets. While any new email comes with the Etsy order confirmation, it is automatically going to write the Pending Etsy Order in the spreadsheet. After the shipping, you can delete the lines to make your job easier to manage.

What are the benefits of opening multiple Etsy shops?

When you open multiple shops on Etsy, it boosts your performance:

Selling different kinds of products

In case you sell products that belong to different niches, it may be a turn-off for the people, and your users may not stick to you because everything is a mess. So, you may open multiple Etsy shops for selling multiple kinds of products.

Selling products having different use

With different Etsy shops, you can sell personal-use items and commercial-use items in different shops. It prevents the shoppers from getting confused.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the same web browser for both my Etsy shops?

Most of the browsers are not going to allow you to sign in for multiple Etsy accounts at one time. Thus it is better to use more than one browser for your different storefronts with each account. This relieves you from the task of signing in and out frequently.

Can I run two Etsy Shops?

Yes, You can easily run more than one or two Etsy shops. For this, you need to open more than one account from different browsers and with different product niches to give your business a new upfront.

Can I delete my Etsy shop and start over?

Etsy does not allow you to start over with a shop that is permanently deleted. In case you have to start a completely new one. If you want to close your shop and continue using Etsy as a buyer, you can simply do this. You can reopen a new shop at any time.

How many sellers are there on Etsy?

Etsy has more than 2.1 million active sellers as per the reports of 2020.

How much do the average sellers make on Etsy?

Usually, an average of Etsy sellers reports an average income of $56000 annually. Up to 65 percent of sellers, though, earn less than $100 every year from their Etsy shop front.

Conclusion

Whether you are already having one account on Etsy and thinking of starting multiple shops on Etsy, or you are new in this field, the idea is good. To give your business very new growth in this profitable marketplace, try out new and effective ideas. This not only grows your business but also gives you a very organized selling experience and lets you create a very effective user experience. Hopefully, the above-mentioned guide is rightly going to help you to have more revenue rate on Etsy.

Best Buy focuses on e-commerce considering the pandemic online sales spike; reduces store size

Best Buy Co., Inc, an American multinational consumer electronics retailer is growing its test of a brand new store format that reduces the space for customers to browse by nearly half to focus more on getting digital orders out the door, according to people familiar with the move.

The electronics retailer is experimenting of how retailers are bringing a change to their business models to keep up with the sharp rise in e-commerce during the pandemic. The company plans to shift stores in one or two more markets to the new setup, reducing square footage used for shoppers to about 15,000 square feet from an average of 27,000 square feet, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the move hasn’t been announced.

Headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota, Best Buy’s new format in, the first test provides additional space to prepare digital orders for pickup or delivery from the store.

At present, the company’s online sales almost tripled last quarter, but it said demand could slow over the holiday season after Americans started shopping early for gifts. At the same time, the company is cutting some jobs at its stores, the Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 10. The remaining employees in its roughly 1,000 U.S. locations are getting trained to work in more parts of the store, which the company said: “will drive efficiencies in labor planning and cost.”

The new stores would have smaller sales floors which will have only fewer items on display, a shift from the heyday of Best Buy, when there were seemingly endless rows of televisions, computers, and cameras were always showcased. In a few locations, some of the additional floor space could be devoted to the retailer’s Geek Squad service desk. While it’s unusual for Best Buy, or any retailer, to play with its store layout during the holidays, Chief Executive Officer Corie Barry said in November that it was “imperative to move quickly.”

Although Best Buy all of its stores are temporarily closed early in the pandemic yet by the end of June, they will be re-opened.

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