If ecommerce platform Amazon was a hero from ancient Greece, it might be Achilles, the demigod warrior who appeared unbeatable on the battlefields of Troy. As anyone familiar with the origin of “Achilles heel” knows, his well meaning mother hoped to save him from his fate, which was to die in the Trojan War, by…
Believe it or not, Amazon did not create the mid-summer sale with Prime Day. Instead, it took a pre-existing concept, rebranded it, and now, according to figures from savings site RetailMeNot, as many as 250 other retailers are following suit. Each retailer, of course, adds its own spin–staring a day earlier, ending a day later,…
Alibaba may have cut Amazon’s Taylor Swift victory lap short, announcing plans to take its Singles Day countdown gala global this year on 10 cable networks in China, Southeast Asia, Africa and North America. To be fair, the Prime Day concert was streamable in 200 countries, but Alibaba’s timing at the very least is interesting–and…
During most of the year, a good rule of thumb for Amazon advertisers to target ads is using customer intent: previous search, browsing and purchase behavior. The reason is simple: Amazon has a heck of a lot of shopper data. This is true 365 days a year, but Prime Day is not just any day–or,…
Millennials may have killed Amazon’s interest in them. That’s mostly in jest, of course, but as younger consumers start to leave the proverbial nest and/or expand their spending power, Amazon seems eager to make sure Gen Z knows the benefits of Prime membership this Prime Day in particular. Amazon did not respond to a request…
Livestreaming platform and Amazon subsidiary Twitch is hosting a live shopping show for its “favorite made-up holiday,” Prime Day, on its Twitch Presents channel, which it said “promises to be unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed…but, like, in a good way.” The two-day program, Twitch Sells Out, will stream two 12-hour broadcasts each day from 10…
With the announcement of an upcoming Prime Day concert headlined by Taylor Swift, 2019 may be the year Prime Day finally becomes a true event. Until now, it has invariably drawn comparisons to Alibaba’s Singles Day, but in terms of both sales and star power, there really was no comparison–Alibaba’s countdown gala to its 24-hour…
Thanks to Amazon, Americans have a new acronym to look forward to: BOPUARA, or, Buy Online Pick Up at Rite Aid. (Or, if we’re going to use the precedent set by BOPIS, maybe it’ll be BOPARA.) In all seriousness, Amazon announced a new network of staffed pickup points, called Counter, at partner locations like drugstore…
Details are starting to emerge about Amazon’s fifth Prime Day, which will kick off July 15 at the stroke of midnight PT and, over the following 48 hours, become the longest-running Prime Day. Each year it gets a little bigger, a little longer and a little more star power. Yet even though Prime Day is…
The recently filed lawsuit against Amazon’s Alexa Voice Services fascinates me. It alleges that Amazon is recording children who use Alexa without appropriate consent. It’s a legal technicality. Even though mom or dad bought the Echo, put it in the house and taught the kids to talk to it, Washington and several other states require…
With the announcement of its AI-enabled StyleSnap feature, which allows customers to use images to search for clothing, Amazon joins platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Google and Bing in marrying visual search and commerce. Insiders say the nascent tool is still a work in progress, but they believe it will help Amazon capitalize on its…
Almighty Amazon’s plans almost never seem to go wrong, with few exceptions, like the Fire phone–and now we can add food delivery to the list. A rep confirmed Amazon is pulling the plug on Amazon Restaurants, the company’s ill-fated division looking to cut into entrenched services like Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash. Amazon Restaurants shutters…
At its AI event in Las Vegas last week, Amazon executive Jeff Wilke debuted Prime Air’s newest electric drones to much fanfare and said he expected to be “delivering packages via drone to customers within months.” And while that may be true for some consumers, Amazon does not yet have the regulatory approval it needs…
Amazon reportedly has its eye on Boost Mobile, the pay-as-you-go carrier that T-Mobile and Sprint have promised to divest themselves of to assuage concerns that their merger would result in a monopoly. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters said Amazon is interested in taking Boost off the other carriers’ hands, because Amazon could then…
In 1984, Domino’s 30-minute delivery was a revolutionary offer for pizza, which arrived by cars. Today, the stakes are higher, literally and figuratively. And it just so happens Amazon revealed its latest Prime Air drone design on Wednesday, which it says can fly up to 15 miles–but the packages it ferries must weigh less than…
Facial recognition is getting more glamorous as ModiFace, the L’Oreal subsidiary that tracks facial features for makeup simulations, is bringing its virtual try-on technology to L’Oreal lipsticks on Amazon. This means customers can use the cameras on their phones to see how different shades look in videos and selfies. According to an announcement, the AR-based…
At first blush, CFO Brian Olsavsky’s casual mention that Amazon is shifting to one-day shipping as the standard for Prime members seemed like the biggest news in ecommerce since the company announced free shipping on all 2018 holiday orders. The they’ve-done-it-again awe isn’t entirely unfounded; the shift may very well help Amazon make a dent…
In a surprise buried in its Echo Show 5 announcement, Amazon said users of all its voice-enabled devices will be able to use verbal commands to delete Alexa’s recordings. Users will have the option to specify at least two periods of time: “everything I said today” and “what I just said.” However, according to the…
Amazon wants its third-party sellers to store more merchandise in its warehouses to ensure it has enough inventory of popular products to execute one-day shipping, so it is offering discounts on monthly storage fees up to 75%. That’s according to an email to independent sellers from Fulfillment by Amazon, the service in which Amazon stores,…
Amazon shareholders voted down two proposals impacting its facial analysis technology, Rekognition, during the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Seattle on Wednesday. They sought to restrict the sale of Rekognition to government agencies, stemming from concerns the company “is enabling a surveillance system readily available to violate rights and target communities of color.” The first…
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