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Lafayette - Circa December 2016: GameStop Strip Mall Location. GameStop is a Video Game and Electronics Retailer IV
GameStop Corp., an American video game retailer, headquartered in Grapevine Texas (U.S) made an announcement that it has just recently got into an agreement with RC Ventures LLC ( “RC Ventures”) that will advance the refreshment of the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”). RC Ventures, which is one of the Company’s largest stockholders, is managed by Ryan Cohen. The agreement calls for the immediate appointment of three new directors- Alan Attal, Ryan Cohen, and Jim Grube. They will stand for election on GameStop’s nine-member slate at the Company’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “Annual Meeting”), which is expected to take place in June 2021. They are appointing the Chewy.com founder and two other e-commerce veterans to its board as the ailing videogame retailer doubles down on digital sales.
The appointment of these 3 new directors is expected to bring deep expertise in e-commerce collectively, online marketing, finance, and also strategic planning to GameStop. These skill sets will enable the company to provide support to their priority of optimizing core operations and also creating a powerful and exciting ecosystem for games and entertainment.
GameStop’s Board of Directors will expand from 10 members to 13 members, being effective immediately. Lizabeth Dunn, Raul Fernandez, James K. Symancyk, and Kathy Vrabeck have each informed the Board that they do not intend to stand for re-election at the Annual Meeting. As such, the Board will be reduced to nine members following the Annual Meeting. The Company’s anticipated slate of director nominees for the Annual Meeting includes the following nine individuals: Alan Attal, Ryan Cohen, Paul Evans, Reginald Fils-Aimé, Jim Grube, George Sherman, William Simon, Carrie Teffner, and Kurt Wolf.
Mr. Cohen stated, “We are excited to bring our customer-obsessed mindset and technology experience to GameStop and its strategic assets. We believe the Company can enhance stockholder value by expanding the ways in which it delights customers and by becoming the ultimate destination for gamers. Alan, Jim, and I are committed to working alongside our fellow directors and the management team to continue to transform GameStop. In addition, we intend to bring additional ownership perspectives to the boardroom.”
Amazon and Walmart, one of the largest multinational American technology companies are making use of artificial intelligence (AI) to come out with a new way of handling refunds as per a report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Customers are free to ask for a refund. However, they might not have to return the item even if they are granted one.
This idea is made possible apparently with the help of the AI to cut down the efforts and along with costs for the companies, which have seen an extraordinary rise in activity because of the global pandemic.
According to WSJ, a Walmart spokesperson said the option given to the customers to keep the refunded is mostly for the items the company doesn’t want to re-sell. The option is also determined on a case-to-case basis which depends on the individual customer’s purchase history and the cost of processing the return. The return has to make economic sense to process the return else the product/item is given to the customer to keep.
Why such changes in the way returns are handled?
This new way of handling return has been taken into account after observing the flow of returns in 2020. The number of e-commerce packages returned has increased 70% as compared to 2019, and moreover, because of the on-going global pandemic, there are many customers who didn’t want to take the items to physical stores. In addition, the reason these returns are occurring in the first place is due to the rise in the percentage of e-commerce sales itself in general that were driven by the pandemic’s digital shift, since items sold online are typically more likely to be returned than goods purchased in stores.
Huge companies like U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS have all reported higher return rates this year, WSJ reported, and delivery firms are working with retailers to help get costs down through giving scan-able codes that some stores like Walgreens or UPS stores will accept from customers to process the returns.
In response to Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, a group of Amazon employees demanded the company to cease providing cloud services to Parler since it is a social media app popular with Trump supporters. The group of Amazon employees includes many higher-skilled workers at the company, including data scientists and software developers.
In a tweet on Saturday, employee advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said Amazon Web Services should “deny Parler services until it removes posts inciting violence, including at the Presidential inauguration.” AWS provides cloud services to Parler that host its website. “We cannot be complicit in more bloodshed and violent attacks on our democracy,” Amazon employees wrote in a tweet.
The reason Amazon Web Services (AWS) declared for putting an end to the services was the violence it posts on the site and that it did not believe Parler had any process in place to get them back on track. “Because Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and poses a very real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler’s account effective Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59 PM PST,” the company’s trust and safety team wrote in a letter to Parler.
The suspension would take effect on Sunday at 11:59 PM PST. This decision would mean that if Parler is not able to allocate a new cloud provider by Sunday night, the site will go offline for users.
Amazon is not the only company to cut ties with Parler in the wake of the deadly U.S. Capitol riot. Google on Friday removed Parler from its app store for Android users, Google Play Store. BuzzFeed News reported on Friday that Apple has threatened to pull Parler from its App Store.
Parler, founded by John Matz in 2018, has been in the spotlight in the past several days by acting as Trump’s allies since the platforms like Twitter and Facebook denied spreading any propaganda and tightened their moderation policies. Screenshots show posts on Parler—known as parleys— calling for Vice President Mike Pence to face a firing squad, and encouraging “Patriots” to return to Washington D.C. on January 19th with weapons.
AWS’s acceptable use policy states that it prohibits customers from using its services “for any illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive use.” Hence, Parler has been denied the services from the latest tech giant.
In response to the Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol where former U.S President Donald Trump publicly egged on and supported thousands of his supporters breaking into the building, online stores which were run by the Trump Organization and Trump campaign have been made to shut down permanently on Thursday by Shopify Inc., an e-commerce software provider.
Due to trump’s false claims that he lost to incoming President Joe Biden this November in this elections as a result of a “fraud”, his supporters descended Wednesday on D.C with the intentions of causing disruptions in the certification of the Electoral College vote, which formally certifies Biden’s presidential win. In support of this cause, windows and doors were broken down by Trump supporters. They didn’t stop even then. The Capitol building was barricaded and the supporters spent hours inside, waving pro-Trump and Confederate flags along with vandalizing offices and looting.
Shopify which empowers various e-commerce sites stated that the sites violated a policy that restricts the support of organizations or people “that threaten or approve violence to further a cause”. “As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump,” the company representative stated. All the users who searched or even visited sites like TrumpStore.com and sop.donaldjtrump.com have been notified that sites are now unavailable.
Cached versions of the sites show that they had sold merchandise like $45 pairs of Trump-branded champagne flutes, $30 “Make America Great Again” hats, and a $24 poster of a cartoon of Mr. Trump punching into the air.
There are a few other sites that are still selling the merchandise, namely, OfficialTrump2020store.com and Trump-Hats.com. However, Shopify despite stating that it “does not tolerate actions that incite violence,” still appeared to be powering other sites selling Trump merch as of Thursday afternoon. The company highlighted the fact that it can be difficult to police other websites and then declined to further comment on these sites.
“Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause,” the Shopify representative said earlier on Thursday. “As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump.”
Close up of a cheerful young woman with toothy smile leaning by the glass fence text messaging on smartphone in a shopping mall.
Just as many start-ups are created as a result of finding a solution to any problem, this Atlanta-based Voxie was also created with the same mindset. This start-up began when there was a problem faced by the founder and CEO Bodgan Constantin himself.
It was at that time when Constantin was at his previous tuxedo rental startup Menguin (which was later on acquired by Generation Tux) where he had to market a product within a period of six-to-nine month sales cycle since customers were usually evaluating different options for their weddings. The E-mail marketing approach didn’t work for him as they would result in “worse and worse” open rates over time. So one day, he decided to just try texting everyone who signed up, introducing himself as “your personal stylist here at Menguin.” Not to his surprise, he got a lot more responses. However, the only challenge was having those text conversations across a large customer base. That’s how this start-up came into existence and now, in the present, it is announcing that it has raised $6.7 million in Series A funding — offers tools to help businesses automate and manage that process.
The founder of the company himself claims that as compared to other text marketing tools, messages sent through Voxie feel like a real, personalized conversation — even though 80% to 90% are actually automated, with the rest of the messages written by people. Furthermore, Voxie will enable businesses to send their messages from a normal 10-digit phone number (rather than the more common five-digit numbers used for marketing).
Though Voxie was initially built for large enterprise customers now it is being used by a lot of retail, restaurant franchise brands, and also main street brands since they need a better way to engage with their customers and store data.
Current Voxie customers include LG, Danone, Massage Heights, and Buff City Soap.
The funding, meanwhile, was led by Noro-Moseley Partners, with participation from Circadian Ventures and Engage Ventures, as well as Atlanta entrepreneurs Wain Kellum, Andy Powell, David Cummings, and Fred Castellucci. “Voxie leads the market as the only platform that allows brands to have personalized conversations with customers at scale, which we believe will be key for its target customers to succeed in a post-COVID world,” said Noro-Moseley’s John Ale in a statement.
The company is also planning to launch a ” reply to buy ” feature allowing its customers to place orders directly from their text conversations. And while Voxie is currently focused on SMS messaging, he claimed its vision is broader: “We want to deliver the right message at the right time via the right medium.”
Ueno, a creative design agency has been hired by Twitter to work along with Twitter’s own design and research teams.
Launched in 2014 by Haraldur Thorleifsson in Reykjavik, Iceland, this agency today employs dozens of employees working in Reykjavik, San Francisco, New York, and LA. In its previous years, it has worked on a number of projects for large brands and startups alike, including Google, Facebook, Reuters, Uber, ESPN, Sotheby’s, Walmart, Visa, NYT, Apple, Slack, and others. Startups that contracted the agency include Zero, Checkout.com, Superhuman, Tagomi, Strava, Cruise, Credit Karma, Boosted, and many more. (Ueno also worked on Clubhouse per its website, but not the same Clubhouse that’s competing with Twitter Spaces.)
The other clients that the agency belonged to Twitter somehow, Medium, and Jelly. The former is a publishing platform from Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, and the latter was a Q&A app created by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, which was later sold to Pinterest.
The news that Ueno will be joining Twitter was announced by Twitter Chief Design Office Dantley Davis also stating that Ueno comprises a highly experienced and innovative team of designers, strategists, and producers. In addition, he stated that the agency will enable Twitter to speed up the quality and execution of Twitter’s product experience.
The company also said it will be conducting a meeting with Ueno’s 50 global employees over the weeks to enable them to become familiar with their professional backgrounds and goals — essentially, to determine if they can fit inside Twitter’s design and research teams. That means Twitter may or may not end up hiring all 50.
However, Twitter has not yet revealed what projects it has in mind for Ueno yet. The thing we do know for sure is Ueno staff will end up embedded across key teams within the design and research organizations so they can work on top of product initiatives, including “conversational tools” and other upcoming features.
The giant online retail, Amazon has announced it’s purchased 11 new jets for carrying out its delivery functions. The four new Boeing 767-300 aircraft from WestJet will join the Amazon Air cargo network in 2021, and the seven aircraft from Delta will join in 2022, Amazon said Tuesday.
Sarah Rhoads, vice president of Amazon Global Air said in a statement: “Our goal is to continue delivering for customers across the U.S. in the way that they expect from Amazon, and purchasing our own aircraft is a natural next step toward that goal. Having a mix of both leased and owned aircraft in our growing fleet allows us to better manage our operations, which in turn helps us to keep pace in meeting our customer promises.”
The company’s collection of airplanes reached 70 midway through the last year. It stated that the expansion comes at a time when people are relying more on online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic.
By the end of 2022, the company told Bloomberg it expects to have more than 85 planes shuttling products across the US and other countries thanks to its recent acquisition of 11 Boeing 767-300 planes. Hence, in the coming years, the company can expect to grow its air fleet to include over 200 aircraft. According to Bloomberg, Amazon has always been quick to call out its continued reliance on companies like UPS and FedEx, even as it has added additional planes and delivery vans to its cargo operation. The company is likely to become a threat to its competitors. More than the number of aircraft involved, Amazon’s latest announcement is notable because it marks the first time the company has purchased, instead of leased, additional aircraft for its Amazon Air cargo operation.
Out of those 11 airplanes which Amazon just bought, 7 of them are from Delta, and the rest 4 from Canada’s WestJet. After they’re programmed and made fit to carry cargo, the latter four will start flying for the company later this year. Meanwhile, the Delta jets will join Amazon Air in 2022. As with all of its existing planes, Amazon says these new planes will be operated by contractors.
As a part of a 3-year turnaround plan to modernize itself, Macy announced shutting down its 125 doors in 2020. Out of those 125, 45 store locations will meet their fate and will be permanently closed by the middle of 2021. The company has also notified its employees about this unfortunate news.
The move is part of a plan announced by Macy’s in February, before the corona-virus pandemic began, to close 125 locations by 2023. Macy’s will soon close 45 of the 125 stores it said last February it would eventually shutter a being a part of its “Polaris” plan. At the time, Macy’s said it would also cut roughly 2,000 corporate jobs and close several offices, including one of its headquarters.
“As previously announced, Macy’s, Inc. is committed to rightsizing our store fleet by concentrating our existing retail locations in desirable and well-trafficked A and B malls,” a Macy’s spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement. “To that end, we announced several store closures today that align with the guidance we provided in February 2020. These closures bring us closer to achieving the right mix of mall-based stores.”
The company declares that it wants to focus on its best stores in the most effective ways along with its e-commerce business, and in the coming years on new and smaller stores- a format which is being currently tested.
This move is not unexpected since approximately 40% of its revenue is coming from online business. Valid facts like its expense of running stores and a net loss of $4 billion during the first three quarters have also acted as a catalyst for the company to take this step.
Jeff Gennette, Macy’s CEO has planned the process, Polaris to bring its dead brand back to life and turn it into a billion-dollar business by investing in remaining stores and making them more appealing.
The CEO wants to stay away from the malls this time since they mostly struggle to achieve their targets whereas the business continued to boom at the strip centers occupied by the likes of Target and Old Navy. The brand, in June, dodged bankruptcy after securing around $4.5 billion in financing. The department store chain reported a quarterly same-store sales decline of more than 20%, as consumers cut back their spending on clothes and accessories during the pandemic. As of the third quarter of 2020, the retailer has operated 544 of its namesake department stores, along with 34 Bloomingdale’s locations, 19 Bloomingdale’s outlets, and 166 Bluemercury shops.
Warburg Pincus, an American private equity firm invests into boat an amount of $100 million as of Wednesday. Although bOAt the valuation at which funds were raised has not been made public, it declared that the fresh capital will enable them to defend and claim its leading market position and also widen its Research and Development (R&D) capabilities and product portfolio. In addition to this, the funding will also support the company’s efforts to create and maintain a manufacturing ecosystem under the guidance of the Make-in-India initiative.
“The investment is great news for not only the company but for the entire D2C (direct-to-consumer) sector. It has come at the right time as we make efforts to ramp up our manufacturing and global supply chain,” Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt, said in a statement.
Launched in 2016, boAt’s products range from earphones, earphones, smart-watches, speakers, travel chargers, and premium cables. It started with selling mobile cables and charges but in the present date, it has a demand of about 15,000 units a day selling everything from smart-watches, speakers to power banks. The company believes to have become a leading wireless headset brand in India. Currently, the company has around 150 employees on its team across its office both in Delhi as well as in Mumbai. Back in the year 2018, it had announced raising an amount of INR 6 crore from Fireside Ventures and also Rs. 25 crore from Innoven Capital.
BoAt not only is solidifying its position in the Indian market as one of the leading players, but it has also emerged to be the 5th largest wearable brand globally among its various competitors like Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Samsung, the company said citing IDC (International Data Corporation) data.
“We see a compelling growth story in boAt and believe the company is well-poised to build upon the strong leadership position it has carved out within the industry and stands to benefit from the secular tailwinds of e-commerce growth in India,” Vishal Mahadevia, managing director and head at Warburg Pincus India, said.
When at the one hand 2020 has been the year of digital commerce, contactless payments, and revamped retail structures, on the other hand, 2021 is going to revolve around business growth at the mercy of platforms.
Since there is a growing tendency towards the usage of more and more digital commerce, a balance between retail-customer experience and profit- revenue growth is to be maintained. Here’s where platforms come into the picture who are also mostly winning amid these pandemic situations.
All those retailers who digitally survived this year were mostly powered by the technological efforts of platforms. Not only did they survive but were hugely dependent on companies ranging from DoorDash to Square to Shopify. These commerce enablers have been business savers, but enterprises of all sizes are going to struggle to find the balance between costs, digital reach, and profits.
This year,2021 is going to be somewhat troublesome since rifts between businesses and platforms are just starting. For instance, Supermarkets are wrestling with Instacart, which enabled delivery networks during the COVID-19 pandemic but are passing along service fees in many cases. DoorDash and Uber are providing competition as is Target’s Shipt service.
There is no doubt that during 2020 that technology and digital commerce platform survived the pandemic wave. Mastercard SpendingPulse data illustrates how quickly retail and broader businesses went digital. For the 75 days of Christmas from Oct. 11 to Dec. 24 total retail sales were up 3%, a tally below National Retail Federation projections. E-commerce sales were up 49%.
However, once the pandemic waves vanish, will the businesses be able to pay these platforms out of their already bleak profit margins or another option being businesses will open their own delivery networks and fulfillment operations to keep more of the profits?
Many businesses including Shopify, Square, etc are in doubt about their pricing since they believe their customers to be price sensitive. They are worried about competition rivalry and that they would lose out on gross profits.
Ultimately, 2021 and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic may result in more build vs. buy debate among businesses. Although in 2020, digital building capabilities were not an option considering that they didn’t have investments in place but now the companies are surviving and looking for cheaper solutions. They are contemplating the power of platforms and the impact on profits.
Amazon said that it sold over billion items around the world making this holiday season the biggest one to date since customers turned to the site rather than venturing to the physical stores.
However, we will have to wait for the company’s fourth financial results coming around mid-to-late January to find out more specifications as far as the sales are concerned. “Through Cyber Monday, 2020 has been the largest holiday shopping season so far in our company’s history thanks to customers around the world,” Amazon wrote.
The following are some of the services which were provided by the company which made sales more accessible.
Package pick-up: “We delivered over 8 million items to alternative delivery locations this holiday season, including an Amazon Hub location, or Amazon physical retail store like Amazon 4-star, and Amazon Books.” This is an option where customers are not only given more ways to pick up their items (hence, more choices for customers) but it also avoids the need for last-mile delivery.
Shopping through smart speakers (Alexa): with technological advancement, Amazon is putting its understanding of shopping behavior to use in its smart-speaker technology. “Alexa helped tens of millions of customers find the perfect gift for everyone on their list this year by providing gift suggestions and helping customers make and share lists, add items to carts, and make purchases.”
Uplifting third-party leverages- such a strategy allows Amazon to increase its reach and also help small and medium-sized ventures grow their business. As proof of this, Amazon says 71,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales so far this holiday season. But Amazon’s own brands also appear to have sold gangbusters.
In addition to this, numerous educational events were hosted by the company for small- and medium-sized businesses around the world, with more than 150,000 attendees, through programs like Amazon Small Business Academy.
Over the course of this year, Amazon has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of changing shopping habits due to the pandemic. This growth has fueled a massive hiring spree at the company, The New York Times reports, with Amazon adding 427,300 employees to its global workforce over the course of ten months.
While Amazon is the affiliate program of choice for many new affiliates, they’re not the only game in town when it comes to e-commerce platforms featuring millions of products.
eBay is another big player in that game.
Affiliate marketing is a referral program where sites pay commissions to affiliates who send traffic to their site which eventually results in a sale. In this case, eBay’s partners send their users to shop the eBay global marketplace. A percentage of those users will likely buy something after being referred to the company’s site.
The head of eBay’s affiliate marketing program explained the changes which the company made to the structure n 2020 in a little message to its members. Michael Lill, Director of eBay Partner Network (ePN), believed that although there were a certain number of challenges to be faced by the company due to the pandemic yet ePN had a busy and successful year.
eBay gave sellers an incentive for enrolling in the program – as of June 15, 2020. Sellers who are already enrolled in ePN receive commission-free sales when buyers purchase through the sellers’ affiliate link.
“We made great improvements to our program that built upon the launch of our new platform in 2019,” Lill said, listing some of the 2020 improvements as follows:
Faster reporting which in turn with reducing the time lag for partner earnings reports from 48 hours to 5 – 10 hours;
A new, simplified global rate card;
A new, modern Data Feeds platform with programmatic access, faster downloads, larger feeds files, and new fields such as Shipping Details and Global Trade Item Numbers;
An improved Link Generator with URL shortener and QR code options;
A new and improved Sales & Events widget, to help you easily find the most relevant sales and deals events;
A new Deal API, allowing you to search for and retrieve details about eBay deals and events.
In addition,eBay had also made some changes that were unpopular with some affiliates.
In May, eBay cut loyalty affiliate rates to zero commissions.
At the end of May, it announced another change that affiliates interpreted as placing limits on certain payouts.
In June, it announced it was killing the ePN Dynamic Feed Generator, a popular tool that did not require the use of APIs, in effect disabling RSS feeds, sellers reported.
Why the changes?
It is not hidden that eBay’s sales revenue has been going down the road. Hence, they have increased fees to bring in some extra revenue growth and are also reducing marketing expenses to level up the bottom line.
The United States Postal Services bags $ 10 billion as a Stimulus package was signed into law on Sunday, PostCom reported. There is a provision as a part of the law that converts $10 billion in borrowing authority for the Postal Service into a kind of “grant” where there is no requirement of prepayment if the money is used to nullify the impact of the pandemic.
The federal government of the US gives a loan of $10 billion to the USPS for pandemic relief, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. This $10 billion line of credit had been enacted as part of the CARES Act in March.
The funds of $10 B were allotted out of the $2 trillion pandemic relief package by Congress in March.
According to a statement from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, it was said that while providing relief to the USPS, there is a possibility that the funds might fall short of what is required. “In April, the USPS Board of Governors requested $25 billion in emergency funding to help combat revenue loss due to the pandemic,” the Union said.
Louis DeJoy, United States Postmaster General expressed his gratefulness to the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for working with him to come to common grounds and mutually acceptable terms and conditions. DeJoy said,m “Access to an additional $10 billion in borrowing authority will delay the approaching liquidity crisis.” DeJoy added, “ The Postal service, however, remains on an unsustainable path and we will continue to focus on improving operational efficiency and pursuing other reforms in order to put the Postal Service on a trajectory for long-term financial stability.”
The Postal Service issued the following statement from DeJoy about the legislation on Wednesday:
“On behalf of the 644,000 men and women of the Postal Service, I want to thank Congress and the Administration for recognizing both the essential role we play in serving the nation and the impact of COVID-19 on our operations. We will continue to work with Secretary Mnuchin and the Treasury Department to execute on converting the $10 billion borrowing authority to funding that we need as a result of the pandemic for operating expenses.”
Amazon, an American multinational technology company made an announcement on Wednesday that it is acquiring podcasting company Wondery, expanding its catalog of original audio content
Wondery is also an American podcast network launched by Hernan Lopez with backing from 20th Century Fox. Wondery’s mission is to bring a world of entertainment and knowledge to our audiences, wherever they listen. It has even produced some popular shows like “Dirty John,” “Dr. Death” and “Over My Dead Body.” The podcast producer and the network say it counts more than 10 million unique listeners each month.
This deal between the two digital platforms involves that Wondery will join Amazon Music which is one of the largest e-commerce music streaming platforms. Amazon music added a new feature of podcasts to its platform in the month of September. This acquisition raises the level of competition among other platforms like Spotify, Apple which lay the ground for dominance in the podcasting market.
Amazon is yet to disclose the acquisition price and other terms of the deal, yet reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal suggested that Wondery’s value was at $300 million.
The merge of the two companies marks a significant event, if only since it sets Amazon up in a better position to compete against Spotify, which has been acquiring networks and exclusive talent for over a year. Amazon states that the entry of Wondery doesn’t pose any kind of change to the existing structure of Amazon music and its shows- they’ll still be available through “a variety of providers.” However, Amazon is in the hope that buying Wondery will help them thrive and accelerate the evolution of podcasts by bringing creators, hosts, and immersive experiences to even more listeners across the globe.”
Moreover, amazon would not only promote Wondery shows over other programs but also put more marketing efforts, especially globally.
“With Amazon Music, Wondery will be able to provide even more high-quality, innovative content and continue their mission of bringing a world of entertainment and knowledge to their audiences, wherever they listen,” Amazon wrote.
E-commerce solutions are a cost-intensive affair that demands a lot of time and effort for requirement integration to become an end-to-end solution for any enterprise. The decision to select the right platform for a specific type of business can be tricky but admittedly a very important decision for any business.
The effort put in researching the right platform could feel overwhelming, given the variables that one needs to consider but it is worth the pain. Choosing the wrong platform can have a more lasting and undesirable impact on the business.
For example, a business might want to offer more product lines than initially planned. But if the solution lack scalability, the company would end up incurring effort and costs switching to another platform.
Best Omnichannel E-commerce Platforms
Best omnichannel e-commerce platforms
There are hundreds of solutions present in the market. But in this list, you will find a comparative study of three of the market leaders and some of the best omnichannel e-commerce platforms category based on parameters that businesses often look out for. These platforms are:
Shopify
WooCommerce
Magento
Logicommerce
The features and characteristics of these platforms vary widely and hence, it is pertinent to keep in mind that each one of these is built keeping a different user segment in mind. And so, we shall be focusing on some of the key ideas that these platforms are built around like features, designs, customer support and pricing.
1. Shopify
Shopify
Shopify is a market leader in the true sense even though, at 20%, it has a market cap slightly lesser than WooCommerce. The commerce platform of Shopify is ideal for high-growth enterprise and high-volume brands.
Features – When it comes to delivering value, Shopify excels at it. Shopify is a subscription-based service which means there is no hosting or installation involved. For small and medium-sized businesses, it saves them a lot of hassle. It has both product management and order management features along with some basic customer management, which makes it a truly holistic omnichannel solution. Shopify offers hundreds of design themes and also provides custom CSS functionality. It is mobile friendly and has a POS ( point of sale ) system that lets customers pick-up the product from a store. Shopify also provides reporting features for sales and inventory.
Design – Shopify has really focused on its theme designs. Currently, it offers ten free themes and a wide range of paid themes starting at $160. Shopify themes are modern and interactive. The themes can cater to almost any product category. For businesses that are looking out for an attractive product showcase, Shopify wouldn’t let you down.
Customer Support – Shopify has a highly responsive 24/7 customer support system. When a user faces any issue, they can reach out to Shopify’s customer support through Live Chat, Email, Phone or their Twitter handle. In addition to these contact means, Shopify offers a detailed knowledge base where users can search for answers to their problems.
Pricing – Shopify has an array of plans from Basic to Advanced. The basic plan starts $29 per month which is billed yearly. As you ramp up your plan, you get more features like more users who can access the admin panel and lower transaction fees. For the features, designs and the support it provides, Shopify stiff pricing could still be a major decision point for small or medium-sized business.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce platform, primarily offered as a WordPress plugin. It offers a custom cart solution in addition to a product’s website content on WordPress. According to BuiltWith reports, WooCommerce is globally the most popular e-commerce solution with a market share of 25% and also one of the top omnichannel e-commerce platforms. Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, the user can put out the product listings through their current WordPress theme.
Features – WooCommerce is a standalone service that needs to be installed on a web server. WooCommerce also offers both product and order management features but needs third party plugins for customer management features. It is mobile friendly only up to the extent that the current theme allows but usually it suffices for most small businesses. The bandwidth depends on the host, unlike Shopify where it is unlimited. WooCommerce also offers standard reporting features.
Designs – As we have already mentioned that WooCommerce is offered as a WordPress plugin, there is no such thing as a store design on it. It has its pros and cons. The good news is that the user can keep using their current theme and put out product listing along with their website content. But if there are specific requirements as to how the products need to be showcased, WooCommerce might fall short on flexibility. Also, in most cases, the product listings are pretty basic and any specific requirement might need manual tweaks via CSS or third party plugins.
Customer Support – Since WooCommerce is offered as a free open-source plugin, it is difficult to expect a multi-channel customer support system. But doesn’t mean that there is no help out there in case of an issue. Being the most widely used platform does have its benefits. WooCommerce maintains a public knowledge base where users can look for answers themselves. Additionally, according to the WooCommerce support policy on their website, “We only support our Products, sold on WooCommerce.com“. But if the problem persists, users can find a lot of community help.
Pricing – This is the best part of WooCommerce. It is a free plugin. If the user isn’t afraid of finding a host, tweaking CSS and integrating third-party plugins, the only cost incurred is hosting which would be approximately $100 a year depending on the service provider.
3. Magento
Magento
Magento Commerce was historically the most used eCommerce platform for the better part of the decade. It still powers thousands of e-retail websites and business across the world but was overtaken by Shopify and WooCommerce in the last half of the decade. The recently launched cloud-enabled Magento 2 is adjusted more towards the omnichannel platform enterprise end of the market than Magento 1. The underlying architecture is way more scalable than before but the ownership costs have risen with it too.
Features – Like Shopify, Magento is a subscription-based service. It offers subdomain and hosting features. The users can also hook up their domain with the host. It has bundled the product and order management features and provides extensive reporting on sales with an analytics module. There are 100+ professional themes to choose from and it is also payment gateway enabled.
Designs – Magento doesn’t provide any designs as such except the core software. The user will have to externally plugin a theme from websites like Magento Connect or ThemeForest.
Customer Support – Magento’s customer support resembles that of WooCommerce. It doesn’t provide much support for its community edition which is free but for its enterprise edition, Magento offers support via Email and phone.
Pricing – Like we already mentioned, Magento offers a community edition which is a free service much like WooCommerce. But the enterprise edition of Magento has pretty stiff pricing that starts at $15000 for a year and can go up to $50000 for more advance features. This is one of the primary reasons why Magento’s future is in a haze at the moment even after Adobe’s inquisition.
4. Logicommerce
LogiCommerce is a headless B2B and B2C eCommerce solution in SaaS mode that offers cutting-edge technology through a fully unified platform.
One of the main advantages of Logicommerce is its ability to integrate multiple sales channels, including online stores, physical stores, mobile apps, and marketplaces. This enables it to provide a consistent shopping experience across various touchpoints, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and improved conversion rates.
Features: LogiCommerce offers over 200 advanced native B2B and B2C functionalities, including multi-currency system, multi-invoicing company, sales agent management, customized catalog per user group, SEO tools, inventory and warehouse management, and multi-shipment system, among others. In addition, it seamlessly integrates with third-party solutions such as Marketing Automation, Artificial Intelligence tools, WeChat mini-programs, payment gateways, and over 300 selected applications.
Designs: LogiCommerce offers custom designs to meet unique needs. It allows you to create immersive and engaging design experiences on any device and reach your customers wherever they are. Design is not only about beautiful graphics, but it must also be functional and user-friendly across all devices. LogiCommerce features an ultra-intuitive and easy-to-use BackOffice, which greatly simplifies everyday eCommerce tasks.
Customer Support: LogiCommerce offers 24/7 global customer support, allowing you to concentrate on expanding your business while they handle all other aspects.
Pricing: LogiCommerce has all of its prices published on the web, making its pricing policy completely transparent and free of hidden costs. It offers two plans, depending on the needs and requirements of each business, starting from 39€ per month.
There are other solutions like BigCommerce and Wix that has smaller share when compared to the platforms mentioned here but they stand their ground.
But at present, Shopify comes out a clear winner based on its offerings and pricing. If a user doesn’t have a website, Shopify should be the place where they set up their shop.
During these pandemic situations, when everything else had come to a sudden halt, the e-commerce business labels did not leave their people. Since people are still hesitating to shop in the malls or brick-and-mortar stores, shoppers have shifted to online platforms in 2020 for holiday presents. The previous year, 13% of overall retail sales were accounted for by e-commerce during the peak holiday shopping period from November 1 – December 24. However, according to Mastercard Spending Pulse, that number observed an increase to 20% this year.
COVID-19 accelerated many trends, including brands looking more toward third-party sellers. Amazon is of course emerging as a dominant force in this arena, set to top $52B in gross merchandise volume by 2023.
This pandemic will lead to an additional $40 B in online holiday revenue over November and December 2020, according to new data from Digital Commerce 360. Pre-pandemic, this level of digital holiday shopping wasn’t expected to be reached for another four years. For the first time, more than a quarter of holiday sales will occur online in 2020. In fact, US consumers are expected to spend a collective 43.3% more with online retailers this holiday season, a total of $198.73 billion. That’s a 26.1% increase in web penetration, up from 19.2% in 2019.
With the hike in the e-commerce business, 57% of purchasing managers are spending more on marketplace e-commerce sites, with 22% spending significantly more.
The ongoing global situation has accelerated a shift towards being a more digital world and triggered changes in online shopping behaviors that seem likely to have lasting effects. The Covid-19 has changed forever how people shop online, according to a survey of about 3,700 consumers in nine emerging and also developed countries. It is seen that people shop online more frequently and rely on the internet for not only news but also health-related information and digital entertainment.
Mastercard also states that holiday shopping kicked off earlier than ever before – in mid-October, and it found online sales grew 49% between October 11 – December 24 compared to the same period in 2019. Mastercard found that was in part to retailers offering special promotions “early and often.”
Senior advisor to Mastercard Steve Sadove said, “American consumers turned the holiday season on its head, redefining ‘home for the holidays’ in a uniquely 2020 way.” The former CEO of Saks Incorporated said consumers shopped from home for the home, leading to record e-commerce growth.
Shopify is easily one of the most popular e-commerce options for people launching their online store. The problem is that this isn’t a perfect solution, especially if you’ve reached a point in your online store where you need to grow further.
There are plenty of features that Shopify may be missing, which isn’t an issue for those starting out but can be a major problem as you grow, such as being unable to update stock and a lacklustre blogging platform. It’s also extremely difficult to scale your options in new categories.
If you have found that Shopify no longer meets your needs, you need an option that is easy to migrate to and will scale to meet whatever your needs are at any specific moment. These are 5 of the best Shopify alternatives for you to consider.
With BigCommerce, you get the flexibility that you get with a simple drag-and-drop editor and streamlined multi-channel selling.
While there are only a few free theme offerings, these are versatile themes that can be used across various industries and are actually pretty high quality and sleek considering they are free.
The streamlined multi-channel capabilities allow you to manage all of your stores on various sites like Facebook, Pinterest, eBay, and Amazon.
There are different plans for you to choose from, depending on your need and budget. The plans can start as low as $29.50 per month and go up to $249.95 per month.
There are limited annual sales volume, which means you will need to upgrade plans if you earn more than $50,000. If you forget to, BigCommerce will automatically upgrade you.
There are some pros and cons for you to consider with BigCommerce.
Pros
Offers users a one-size-fits-all solution for your e-commerce needs
Multi-channel selling
Many integrations
No extra transaction fees
Cons
Can be expensive if you have a high volume store
Limited customization options
No one-click post-purchase upsells options
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce
One of the first things you’ll notice about this option is that it is free, however, you will have to factor in that this isn’t its own platform so you need to also find a place to host it.
With all of the fees associated with hosting your own website, it could cost you up to an additional $200 not counting any monthly fees for hosting if you don’t pay annually. There are premium options you can invest in, which gives you more functionality. The free option may be sufficient enough for you, especially to start off with.
This is a WordPress plugin, which if you already have WordPress you can add onto your existing page. It can be easier to install and use if you use WordPress. An appealing consideration with WooCommerce is that you own your platform, which gives you more control over the website. Any add-ons you choose to invest in for your store is only a one-time payment, which is unlike the regular payments Shopify requires.
One thing that makes 3D Cart stand out is the fact that it’s a cloud-hosted platform that offers plenty of great features with prices that are flexible enough to meet your budget. What makes this option truly incredible is that it allows for unlimited product storage, giving you the scalability that you are looking for.
You can expect to pay between $19 and $229 per month for 3D Cart. With the monthly fees, you can access basic SEO tools, excellent security, subscriptions, abandoned cart emails, and other amazing features that make running your store easier.
With so many great features, this could be the perfect option for you to look at for your e-commerce needs. However, you should consider the pros and cons before taking the leap to this platform.
Pros
Payment support for over 70 payment gateways
Great store speeds/fast load times
Unlimited listings
Web design service in-house
Cons
Slower service
Lacklustre mobile UX
Outdated themes
Often issues when upgrading
4. Magento
Magento
Magento is a great option to consider because this is a free downloadable open-source platform that has a lot of amazing features.
This is an ideal option for those e-commerce businesses that fit into the mid-sized to large range, particularly if you have your own programmers that work with your business.
If you have experience with coding or have someone who is experienced in it, you can access a lot of different advanced customizations for your store.
It’s important to know that this is only an option that should be considered by those people who have more advanced coding or tech skills. Beginners may struggle with this platform because it isn’t a plug-and-play option.
Where this platform shines, in addition to its features, is that you can get a flexible and scalable platform that can be customized and optimized to your business’ specific needs.
These are some pros and cons for you to think about.
Pros
Thousands of options for responsive designs and extensions
Plenty of payment gateway options
Awesome SEO tools
Great tools for inventory management
No monthly fees
Cons
Not ideal for beginners/people without coding or tech skills
Does require you to host it
Requires user to have coding skills
5. Wix
Wix
Wix is an option that you may have heard about, but not really sure what it offers you. Wix excels at simplifying creating an online store. You get everything that you need to set it up thanks to the easy-to-use interface.
Best of all, there are affordable plans that can help you get the Shopify alternative you need, in a price that works best for you.
With Wix, you have access to over 100 stellar templates, plenty of apps, theme options that are highly customizable, and anything else that users of all skill levels could possibly need.
When setting up your site, you could use their ADI assistant or the Wix Editor. With ADI, the website will suggest a configuration for your store based on how you answer their questionnaire.
The Wix Editor gives you complete control over the site and its customization. However, it’s still incredibly easy to use since it primarily uses a drag-and-drop approach to design. The pricing plans here can range from $5 per month to $24.50 per month.
These are the pros and cons of choosing Wix.
Pros
Drag-and-drop editor
Tutorials for beginners and self-learners
Plenty of great features
Over 100 templates to get a completely unique design
Can use several different payment gateways
Free plans available, with Wix branding on sites
Cons
Bandwidth
Traffic limits
Limited apps when compared to Shopify
Lack of SEO
Shopify is the popular e-commerce solution for a reason, but this isn’t the best option for everyone especially a growing business. Any of these options can be the perfect Shopify alternative for you to consider when Shopify just doesn’t work for your needs.
The benefits of switching from a single-channel or multi-channel retailing model to omnichannel model are endless.
Both buyers and sellers are increasingly drawn towards the streamlined cohesion associated with selling across multiple integrated sales channels. When it comes to choosing which platform to go with, Magento is always a solid choice.
Perhaps the most well-known, most renowned platform, Magento Commerce ranks as one of the top enterprise eCommerce platforms on the market.
Magento Commerce boasts advanced customisation, a fantastic community and a massive 4600+ available third-party extensions and plugins.
5 Best Omnichannel plugins for Magento
In this article, we’re going to be looking at some of these plugins. Without further ado, let’s dive into some of the top omnichannel plugins for Magento.
Magento Commerce Order Management (MCOM)
Magento commerce order management
Magento Commerce Order Management, or MCOM, is, without a doubt, one of the best omnichannel plugin solutions available for Magento.
This modular, cloud-based solution centralizes all aspects of its user’s inventory, order and fulfillment processes conveniently to the Magento backend.
Part of what makes Magento Commerce Order Management one of the best omnichannel plugin solutions for Magento is the simplicity and customisability it affords users regarding sourcing, processing and fulfilling orders.
MCOM’s item sourcing engine makes it easier to batch and source orders in real-time and its flexible fulfillment system offers warehouse, dropship and click and collect options (amongst others) to buyers.
At the same time, sellers enjoy an automated order fulfillment process divided into five simple steps; Verify, Prepare, Pick, Pack, Deliver.
Overall, the key difference between omnichannel and multichannel retailing is the level of personalization that comes with the omnichannel method. Your customers should know that your brand is consistent, credible and cohesive.
MCOM’s integrated order management system optimizes brand consistency by providing a more personalized experience for potential buyers with its built-in single customer view. Furthermore, MCOM improves customer service with advanced tracking, cancellations, and refunds/exchange.
MCOM can be installed and set up externally if needed and users are also offered one whole year of MCOM support, free of charge, with round-the-clock, unlimited and invaluable advice and assistance from the experts. In your search for the best omnichannel plugins for Magento, start with MCOM.
Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence
Omnichannel eCommerce software platforms such as Magento offer a holistic analytic database. This means that your entire brand’s analytics are in one convenient place. They allow you to analyse individual customer behaviours, such as the likelihood of them making a sale versus dropping out at the order phase.
Magento Commerce Business Intelligence (BI), is a cloud-based data management and visualisation plugin which takes the guesswork out of analytics. BI offers an integrated, centralised data pipeline/cloud-based warehouse technology for extensive management autonomy.
BI collects and merges data from the user’s base, extensions and third-party tools which allows them to harness their data in a way which provides valuable insights into customer trends and behaviours.
BI makes it easy to monitor business health and longevity across multiple sales channels, making it one of the best omnichannel plugin solutions available with Magento.
Customise and standardise your business metrics with one convenient report builder, extending the use of your export capabilities. Create stunning visualisations with dynamic scatter and bubble charts (x, y and z) and schedule and send analyses directly to your team’s inbox.
Magestore Magento POS
Magestore Magento POS
Maintain cohesiveness across your online and offline stores with Magestore Magento POS. This top omnichannel plugin for Magento allows users to run up to 200 POS at once, which means faster payment.
Connect all of your stores, suppliers and warehouses, and get real-time inventory updates with automated entry.
Furthermore, you can implement loyalty rewards programmes using this plugin. This system allows you to automatically reward customers at the point of sale, forging a truly personalised, efficient omnichannel experience for both buyer and seller.
Magestore Magento POS then simply allows customers to pay with their reward points, as well as multiple other commonly used gateways such as PayPal, credit card etc.
This means customers no longer face barriers to payment – they have no excuse not to complete the sale! As an added benefit of this plugin, checkout takes less than 10 seconds for the customer.
Simplify order fulfilment with Magestore Magento POS’s dropship service, allowing you to save money on fulfilment management.
Convert sales with ease with Magestore Magento POS with its smooth and intuitive UX and interface. Like BI, the user receives free 24/7 support and advice from expert developers for the first year of use.
Inventory Management
Magento Inventory Management
This indispensable omnichannel plugin for Magento allows users to track and manage inventory across multiple platforms, sales channels, devices and locations.
Magento Inventory Management ensures that all stock is exactly where it needs to be when it needs to be!
This plugin is purpose-built for retailers who are growing quickly, meaning progress will not be slowed down by warehouse and stock delays.
Sell more, sell quicker, all whilst lowering inventory and fulfilment costs. All inventory management is controlled from one, single-view inventory system.
Track your stock in real-time, accurately and efficiently, avoiding the costly customer service faux-pas of overselling. Inventory Management lets you know exactly when you need to reorder to ensure a seamless, automated routine.
Customise your inventory system to differentiate your brand and win over customers. This system is simple, reliable and cost-effective. Keep stock balanced, purchase at the right time and plan smarter with detailed, easy to comprehend reports.
Manage a single product catalogue across all channels, syncing up products, channels and inventories to eliminate errors, save time, and save money.
Manage tiered pricing and discounts effortlessly, enhance stock with Magento Barcode Managing and maximise profits with balanced stock levels.
Transfer inventory seamlessly and track Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to measure the actual profit margin on your products. Grow profitably while eliminating wasted time and resources.
This plugin goes hand in hand with the Business Intelligence plugin – using these two tools, you can stay ahead of the curve and keep stock in proportion to customers’ ever-shifting demands.
Adobe Commerce Cloud
Adobe Commerce Cloud
Adobe commerce cloud is a versatile tool built from the ground up to compliment Magento’s suite.
Some of the features that make it an industry-leading plugin are its mobile centricity – this uses existing browser capabilities to make a seamless, app-like experience for shoppers.
Commerce cloud can also link your Magento store directly to Amazon, making it easier than ever to sell your products on the worlds largest online marketplace, all managed from the familiarity of your own storefront.
Adobe Commerce Cloud also has integrated B2B Functionality. This allows you to deliver a premier class shopping experience to your customers by making use of real-time personalisation for each customer, as well as a suite of optimization tools to improve order value and conversion rates.
This article features five of the top omnichannel plugins for Magento, with Magento Commerce Order Management (MCOM) recommended above all others.
One of the major benefits of subscribing to a membership plan with Magento, over other eCommerce platforms, is the wide range of omnichannel plugins and extensions available to users.
Whatever stage your business is at, Magento is highly scalable, and has a multitude of options available to build a bespoke, optimised sales solution.
TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance. The social media platform is used to make a variety of short-form videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education, that have a duration from 3 seconds to 1 minute (3 minutes for some users).
If TikTok is used just right, one can introduce their business or product to a huge audience. In fact, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, TikTok has 500 million users worldwide, and it was the most downloaded app for Apple in Q1- 2018.
When the application was launched, it started off as a platform to showcase short, often silly videos basically for entertainment purposes. TikTok’s emergence as a mainstream social media staple also poses an opportunity for early adopter brands and businesses, many of which are seeing surprising results from having a presence on the app. TikTok is starting to be called a destination for short-form mobile video. As per Hoot Suite, this platform had 800 million active users as of October 2019 and been growing fast since then, with average users opening this application more than 8 times a day.
Wyzolw’s State of Video Marketing 2020 reports that the number of businesses using video as a marketing tool has increased from 61% in 2016 to 85% in the current year, 2020.
TikTok has newly launched Small Business Resource Centre for marketers as it continues to expand its business offering and advertisement options. It includes a range of case studies, creative tools, and explainers with the purpose to aid SMB’s tap into the fast-growing app. There exist a variety of creative tools like video templates and smart video soundtracks.
As stated by TikTok:
“From success stories to creative tools and free webinars, it has everything you need to grow your small business on our platform.”
TikTok has had been a roller-coaster ride, from being a total ban on the app in India and an ongoing legal battle for its survival in the US. Yet, despite all the challenges it has faced, TikTok has continued to grow and is on its way to reaching a billion users in the year 2021.
There was an announcement on Thursday by The State Administration for Market Regulation which declared an antitrust investigation to be made into Alibaba, a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce. China will also direct the tech giant’s Ant Group affiliate to meet in the coming days, regulators said on Thursday, in the latest blow for Jack Ma’s e-commerce and fintech empire.
The market regulator stated that the investigation is mainly due to suspected monopolistic practices, including the company’s strategy of forcing merchants to sell exclusively on its platform and skip rivaling platforms, a practice called “pick one of two” in china.
This investigation into Alibaba had been announced just recently after complaints. The company’s shares fell down more than 8% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday.
On the very same day, Xinhua reported that Ant Group (formerly known as Ant Financial and Alipay), Alibaba’s affiliate, has been summoned by a group of finance authorities to discuss its “compliance” work. Ant, which operates the popular Alipay e-wallet and works as a middle platform for financial services and customers, has pledged to take measures to curb debt risks after Chinese authorities abruptly called off it’s colossal initial public offering last month.
“Today, Alibaba Group has received notification from the State Administration for Market Regulation that an investigation has been initiated into the Company pursuant to the Anti-Monopoly Law. Alibaba will actively cooperate with the regulators on the investigation,” Alibaba said in a statement.
Alibaba said that it will totally co-operate with the regulators for its ongoing investigation and also that the company’s business operations will remain normal.
“This is China’s first antitrust investigation into a Chinese internet company for abusing its market dominance,” said Scott Yu, an antitrust expert at Zhong Lun law firm. “In a worst-case scenario, Alibaba could be fined up to 10 percent of its previous year’s sales”, he further added. The lawyers believe that the government already had some evidence to support its case and that’s how the formal investigation could initiate.
The regulators have some evidence but it will be very hard to determine the company’s monopolistic behavior and its punishments as said by Yu Jianhua at Shanghai-based DeBund Law Offices. It is also believed that this antitrust probe has become an important issue concerning the country’s (China) overall situation.
LogiCommerce
affiliate, has been summoned by a group of finance authorities to discuss its “compliance” work. Ant, which operates the popular Alipay e-wallet and works as a middle platform for financial services and customers, has pledged to take measures to curb debt risks after Chinese authorities abruptly called off it’s colossal initial public offering last month.