Shopifreaks E-commerce Industry News Recap 🔥 Week of Oct 28th, 2024

Hi LinkedIn - I'm Paul Drecksler and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter.

This is a summary recap of the 197th Edition published Oct 28th, 2024. Check out the full edition for links and sources and subscribe here.

STAT OF THE WEEK: 11% of U.K. shoppers account for almost 25% of online returns in the country, according to ZigZag and Retail Economics. These ‘serial returners' will send back an average of £1,400 of products this year, totaling £6.6B. More than a fifth of non-food purchases made online in the U.K. are now returned to the retailer.

Amazon announced that Prime members can now save $0.10 per gallon at approximately 7,000 bp, Amoco, and ampm gas stations across the U.S. Amazon calculates this to be around $70 in savings per year based on average U.S. driver statistics — which is nearly half the cost of an annual Prime membership. Amazon also wrote in its announcement that Prime members can expect even more savings on transportation-related costs next year including savings on electric vehicle charging. To activate the $0.10 per gallon savings, Prime members can connect their Prime accounts to their free Earnify account, which is a gas loyalty program from BP. From there they can use the Earnify app store locator to find the nearest gas station that participates in the savings.

Salesforce introduced its e-commerce storefronts on its Starter and Pro Suites, which begin at $25/user and $100/user per month respectively. Previously e-commerce storefronts were only available on higher tiers, like its Commerce Cloud offering. With the addition of digital storefronts in Starter and Pro Suites, customers now have access to e-commerce capabilities, in addition to Salesforce's sales, service, and marketing features, in a single, unified interface. Salesforce wrote in its press release, “Unlike fragmented standalone solutions, Salesforce ecommerce storefronts are built directly into a complete suite of CRM tools to improve business efficiency and enhance the overall buyer experience.” Currently, only customers in the United States are eligible for e-commerce storefront capabilities.

Poshmark officially reverted back to its original fee structure, effective Oct 24, 2024. The company wrote in its press release, “We made the recent fee change with the goal of helping you, our sellers, grow and earn more by balancing fees between sellers and shoppers. However, over the past few weeks we have seen that shoppers spent less on purchases as they shifted their spending from orders to fees, leaving our sellers with less cash in their pockets—despite the seller fee reduction.” Kudos to Poshmark for its decisive action! Granted, it never should have made the switch in the first place, but at least they didn't double down on the mistake. Poshmark will be returning to its original fee structure of 20% seller fee on sales over $15 and $2.95 for sales $15 and under.

Amazon is imposing price caps on what merchants can charge for their products on its upcoming Temu-rival low-cost storefront. Price limits include $8 for jewelry, $13 for guitars, and $20 for sofas, according to Amazon's messages to merchants, which included a list of 700 items and price caps. The price caps would represent a shift in strategy for Amazon, which historically has not set strict pricing limits for sellers on its platform — other than of course to demand that they sell their items at the lowest price on Amazon (compared to other marketplaces they might sell on). Amazon plans to ship orders to U.S. customers directly from its facility in Guangdong, China, while offering reduced seller fees on these direct-from-China orders. Shipping will take approximately 9 to 11 days, and sellers will be charged between $1.77 and $2.05 for shipping a four to eight ounce item. In comparison, domestic sellers pay between $2.67 and $4.16 to ship items of the same weight from local warehouses using FBA.

Walmart is now offering same-day prescription delivery in six states — Arkansas, Missouri, New York, Nevada, South Carolina, and Wisconsin — with plans to expand to 49 states by January 2025. Customers can bundle prescriptions with other items like groceries for a delivery fee of $9.95, or for free with a Walmart+ membership. The service allows customers to order both new prescriptions and refills directly from their local Walmart or online with multiple delivery options available that can deliver prescriptions as quickly as 30 minutes. Insurance discounts will be applied to the shopper’s transaction, just as they would when picking up a prescription in-store. Medications are securely packaged, and customers can track the orders in real-time and receive confirmation upon delivery.

Shein is launching its first branded credit card worldwide through a partnership with Mexican fintech Stori. The Shein Mastercard will offer 250 “Shein welcome points” and double points on all purchases made on Shein Mexico's website, plus points on all purchases outside of Shein, both nationally and internationally. Shein's choice to debut its first global credit card offering in Mexico underscores its commitment to the Latin American market, where Shein has exploded in popularity in recent years. The company is currently weighing plans to build a plant in Mexico and build out a distribution network in Brazil. Stori launched in 2018 with a mission of offering credit card products to underserved communities in Mexico. The company has onboarded more than 3M clients in Mexico in the last four years. The Shein card will only be available to new Stori clients and not existing ones, according to Stori's website.

YouTube brought its affiliate program to India, letting creators tag products in their videos and earn referrals with select retail partners. The program is initially partnering with Walmart-owned Flipkart and fashion retailer Myntra, which will be opening up their product catalogs for video creators to tag within their videos, Shorts, and live streams. To be eligible for the affiliate program, creators must have their channels listed in the partner program and have at least 10,000 subscribers. India is YouTube's biggest user base with over 476M users.

Amazon is testing a new homepage for its shopping app on Android and iOS in the U.S. The redesign offers bigger, brighter graphics, more personalized product curations, and an emphasis on horizontally scrolling carousels to present various collections. Other improvements include Enhanced Personalization and Recommendations, such as Amazon displaying matching sheets and pillow cases after someone buys a comforter, a Window Display, which is a carousel banner at the top of the app that displays recommendations, deals, new Prime Video and Amazon Music releases, and seasonal finds, and a Buy Again Hub, which consolidates frequently purchased items into one location and allows customers to add their own go-to products.

The FTC's new rule banning fake online reviews is now in effect, allowing the agency to seek civil penalties against those who knowingly violate it. Specifically the rule bans reviews and testimonials attributed to people who don't exist or are generated by AI, people who don't have experience with the product or service, or reviews that misrepresent an experience.

Meta quietly implemented “automatic adjustments” across several advertising accounts, giving its system authority to make significant changes to ad campaigns without explicit advertiser approval. The system can pause or activate campaigns, adjust budgets up or down, consolidate ad accounts, and make other changes without notifying advertisers. Advertisers can opt-out of the changes in their advertising settings.

Wayfair launched a new customer loyalty program that work across its full family of brands including Wayfair, AllModern, and Birch Lane. Wayfair Rewards will cost $29/year with perks that include 5% back in rewards on all merchandise (with some exceptions). The rewards never expire as long as customers maintain their membership.

Klarna launched a Gift Card store in the U.K., enabling consumers to purchase gift cards from brands like Airbnb, Argos, and IKEA using Klarna's BNPL payment option. The platform includes features such as personalized notes and scheduled delivery options. The company plans to expand Gift Cards to additional EU markets this year.

Amazon is shutting down Amazon Today, a service that offers same-day delivery from mall and brick-and-mortar retailers using the company's contracted Flex drivers. Retailers that used the service include Office Depot, Staples, Petco, PacSun, GNC, Fabletics, and Kate Hudson. The bulk of the program will be shut down by Dec 2, with select partners able to continue fulfilling orders through Jan 24th.

Temu has been selling goods in Vietnam without a license since early this month. The Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency shared that it did not receive Temu's application for a license until Oct 24th. Although Temu has yet to officially announce its entrance into the Vietnamese market, local consumers can download the app and make purchases. 

Meta and GoFundMe partnered up to help nonprofit campaigns standout on the Instagram feed with a “polished look” designed to build trust and credibility, including real-time progress metrics and a new donate button that directs supporters to the nonprofit's website or donation page. GoFundMe will also integrate into Instagram Stories, making it an easier sharing option for users. The new features will be available in the U.S., Australia, Ireland, Canada, and the U.K.

Amazon sellers can now filter business reports data by up to 100 ASINs at a time in Seller Central. Previously searching business reports by ASIN required sellers to download their data and filter it offline, but the new search capabilities simplifies the process and improves sellers' ability to manage ASIN analysis within the dashboard.

Square added new features designed to help beauty and wellness professionals with their sales, customer service, and back-office operations. New features include Packages, which enables clients to purchase service in bulk, a No Show Fee, and Service Costs, which enable sellers to track service costs by default spend or percentage. Other additions include customized online bookings, a text us button that helps sellers consolidate and manage client inquiries, and New Versus Returning Client Indicator labels.

Shopify's new customer accounts login page is finally branded. Previously merchants were only able to customize the page with their logo, leaving customers feeling like they'd been directed to another site. Now the page inherits the checkout editor's styles.

BigCommerce hired three new executive leaders: Doug Hollinger, new senior VP of go-to-market strategy, who comes from Accenture where he led B2C commerce strategy. John Huntington, senior VP of global partnerships, who comes from Siteimprove, where he was SVP of global alliances and channels. And Ryan Means, new senior VP of global services, who joins the company from Merkle, where he was SVP of technology. 

Amazon's senior VP in charge of the company's worldwide grocery stores business, Tony Hoggett, is leaving the company after almost three years at Amazon. During his time at Amazon, he brought together and oversaw all of Amazon's grocery businesses, including Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go, and the company's grocery partnerships.

X withdrew its money transmitter license in New York this past April, according to new information provided to Arstechnica by the New York Department of Financial Services, which also confirmed that X has since not resubmitted the application. Ars noted that X could launch X Payments without New York and other states, but that users might be confused about where they can and cannot send money. As of recent, there hasn't been any updates from X about its payment plans. 

Birkenstock launched its own country-specific e-commerce website in South Korea, laying the foundation for further expansion in the north Asian market. Additionally, the company introduced its ‘My Birkenstock' membership program to the Korean market, which gives members access to the latest collections, birthday vouchers, and other benefits.

USPS instituted a peak season rate hike that runs from Oct 6th through Jan 19th, but the increased fees are just now hitting eBay and other resellers who purchase postage through the USPS' Connect eCommerce program. eCommerceBytes noted that Connect eCommerce rates are often not synchronized with its regular rate hike schedules, and that USPS does not publish its Connect eCommerce rate changes externally, so sellers must be on the lookout for changes on the partner sites.

Meta struck a multi-year deal with Reuters to use its news content to provide real-time answers to user questions about current events in its Meta AI chatbot, marking the first news deal that Meta has brokered for its AI products. Answers to user queries about news will cite Reuters' stories and link out to its coverage, and Reuters will be compensated for access to its journalism.

TikTok inked a new deal with UnitedMasters, a key distribution platform for independent artists, giving it access to their full catalog of music. The partnership will provide greater exposure for UM musicians, while also providing commercial opportunities for independent artists via TikTok's Commercial Music Library. TikTok established a similar partnership with DistroKid earlier this year.

Webflow unveiled a new feature called Webflow AI Assistant, a tool that can produce content and design elements for websites based on text prompts. When users enter in a prompt, the AI assistant references the existing design and drafts suggestions that fit the brand.

X is now charging companies who access its API an additional $1 per month for each account that connects, in addition to the minimum $42,000 access fees that the platform started charging in 2023. The change is forcing companies like Publer to start charging users for each account they connect to X through the service. X already takes more than one-third of Publer's revenue each month from the $42,000 API fee, but now it wants more.

BigCommerce partnered with Nuvei across North America, Europe, and APAC, to allow merchants to access Nuvei's suite of omnichannel payment solutions. Nuvei's offering will provide BigCommerce customers with payment acceptance, pre-authorization, refund management, advanced 3DS2 technology, multi-currency support, stored credit card processing, and embedded checkout integration.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) voted to strike if necessary, with the strike mandate going into effect after November 2 unless a negotiated agreement is reached with Canada Post, over disagreements surrounding working conditions, employee benefits, and the need for modernization. Both sides are under pressure to avoid disruptions that would affect millions of Canadians this holiday season and worsen Canada Post’s financial situation.

Empire Company Limited, a Canadian food retail company and parent company of Sobeys, partnered with both Instacart and Uber Eats to complement Voilà, its existing online grocery home delivery service. The partnership will roll out at Empire brands including Sobeys, FreshCo, Farm Boy, and Longo's, starting in Ontario with plans to expand delivery across Canada.

OnBuy, a U.K.-based online marketplace exclusively for 3rd party sellers, is launching its Cashback Marketplace across 14 countries in Europe by the end of this year, with U.S. expansion planned for next year, marking its first major push beyond the U.K. since launching in 2016. The company anticipates substantial growth from its increased footprint – in excess of 10X over the next few years.

57% of small businesses have tried AI for marketing, according to a report by LocaliQ that surveyed 730 small business owners. 52% are using AI for content creation, 39% for social media management, and 34% to power chatbots. 61% of business owners indicated that they are using AI to save time, and 50% said they are using it to generate ideas. 

More than 84% of the dollars North American consumers spent online in 2023 were with the top 50 online retailers, with Amazon taking almost half of them at 39.3%. An overwhelming majority of online sales in North America comes from USA, which accounted for 94.3% of the $1.170 trillion in online purchases by North American shoppers last year, with Canada and Mexico roughly splitting the difference. 

TikTok's EU user base grew by 8M, up to 150M, in the past six months, according to its most recent Digital Services Act disclosure. The report also showed that TikTok removed 22M pieces of content from Jan to June 2024, mostly for reasons linked to sensitive or mature themes, and that it banned more than 5M accounts. 

Plus 12 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Ghost, a members-only B2B marketplace for excess retail merchandise, raising $40M in a Series C round led by L Catteron, bringing its total amount raised to $95M just over a year after raising $30M in its Series B round.

I hope you found this recap helpful.

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See you next week!

Paul Drecksler