Read original story on: Gizmodo
The growing power of ecommerce is bleeding into brick-and-mortar retail. Walmart has reportedly informed managers of its roughly 5,000 stores across the US that they can match prices with Amazon.com and other online retailers. As 21% of US respondents use a smartphone to research online in their purchase journey, according to Google’s consumer barometer, we expect more practices like this to be formalized in retail stores to combat the showrooming effect.
Read original story on: THR
A theater production called The Noir Series running this weekend in Los Angeles has managed to be both a stage play and live Internet TV: tickets are available to see the show in person while special “online viewing tickets” for live streaming are also available. It’s an interesting twist on companies such as BroadwayHD and Broadway Near You that have been working to bring hit Broadway shows to movie screens around the world. These dual models could potentially open up new revenue streams for the struggling theater business.
Read original story on: TechCrunch
Amazon is now extending the benefits of its Prime membership to other digital stores, starting with British retailer AllSaints. Besides granting free next-day shipping to Prime members, Amazon is also incorporating products from AllSaints’ web store into its search results. If this arrangement continues to spread, Amazon Prime could very well become the VIP pass of ecommerce.
Read original story on: The Next Web
PayPal has officially launched a new Pay After Delivery service in U.S, which allows PayPal users pay for their goods up to two weeks after online purchases are made. New partnerships with Burger King and GoDaddy were also announced to assist the launch. Facing increased competition from Apple Pay and alike, PayPal needs such new features and partnerships to help it stand on its own, once it spins off from eBay.
Read original story on: The Verge
Starbucks will be tipping its toes into ecommerce next year with plans for launching an on-demand delivery program in select markets. The delivery service will be available to loyalty program members through a new “Mobile Order and Pay” app, set to debut later this year. Given the success its mobile app has enjoyed, along with the rise of on-demand economy, it seems reasonable for Starbucks to double down on mobile-focused initiative.
Read original story on: Re/code
With Apple Pay going public this week, it looks like mobile payment is undoubtedly l’air du temps ( fancy French for “all the rage right now.”) Not to be left behind, online marketplace Etsy will start offering free credit card readers to some of its U.S. sellers as part of an effort to extend its reach beyond the Internet and explore a new revenue stream (Etsy charge 2.75 percent of each transaction). The Square-esque dongle will be used in conjunction with an Etsy app to allow sellers to accept credit card and debit card purchases. So next time you visit a hipster craft fair, prepare to swipe your card on one of these.
Read original story on: Statista
Amazon reported disappointing quarter earnings on Thursday, missing both revenue and profit estimates. And it seems like the lackluster sales of the Fire Phone is to blame, primarily. Not only did Amazon take a $170 million write-off related to the phone’s weak performance — in addition, Amazon’s prime cloud business is currently locked in a price war with Microsoft and Google. Still, the holiday season is upon us, and as the chart from Statista shows, the E-Commerce giant always bounces back pretty well during the fourth quarter, especially with three pop-up stores opening to assist the holiday shopping this year.
We have seen a lot of brick-and-mortar retailers going digital by opening online stores, but it is rare to see a digital retailer to open a physical store (Warby Parker and Piperlime are among the few who have done it). So it’s come as quite the surprise that Amazon, the No. 1 ecommerce site in the States, is opening its first brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan just in time for the holiday-shopping season. The store, located across from the iconic Empire State Building, will reportedly function as a mini-warehouse, with limited inventory for same-day delivery within New York, product returns and exchanges, and pickups of online orders. As it’s right in the neighborhood, we’ll be keeping a close eye on its development.
After some successes with native content advertising, BuzzFeed is moving into new territory. Earlier this week, the viral content site debuted its first foray into ecommerce-enabled content with a L’Oreal sponsored post that features a click-to-buy link for readers to purchase products that are relevant to the post. Such integration could help BuzzFeed and the sponsors better quantify the impact of branded content, but whether it can successfully drive up digital sales remains to be seen.
Reddit, one of the biggest content sharing sites in the world, has raised $50 million in Series B on a $500 million valuation and, in a surprising move, plans to give back 10% of the round’s equity to the user community through its own cryptocurrency. With this move, Reddit could potentially revitalize its community while also introducing some new “freemium” features linked with its its own “reddit money”. This, in turn, could potentially open up a new revenue stream should Reddit decide to allow exchange with fiat money.
