Amazon has mercilessly crushed bookstores, department stores, big-box retail and malls–and may wipe out shipping companies before all is said and done. It is certainly not a company to rest on its laurels, so analysis firm CB Insights crunched some data to determine what industries are most vulnerable. Here are the seven industries it thinks…
As Amazon seeks to make good on its one-day shipping promise, in part by breaking ground on a cargo hub outside Cincinnati, a majority of pilots expected to transport goods in and out of that hub have “little faith” they will be able to deliver under existing conditions. That’s according to an statement from the…
Software company Adobe is introducing Magento Commerce-branded stores, which it says will help Amazon sellers set up storefronts “in record time” and provide a superior experience to customers. The offering is available through commerce platform Magento, which Adobe acquired last year for $1.7 billion. It is now part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, which runs…
In Amazon’s early days, enterprising merchants carved out lucrative niches for themselves by identifying what wasn’t being sold on the site, sourcing those products at low prices and offering them as third-party sellers. This phenomenon helped the ecommerce platform serve more consumers while mitigating its risk and made Amazon the so-called Everything Store it is…
Free one-day shipping dominated the conversation during Amazon’s quarterly earnings call Thursday, but it wasn’t the only takeaway. Here’s what else we learned: 1. Amazon Advertising will provide more intel. Brian Olsavsky, senior vice president and chief financial officer, would not address questions about ad loads and inventory but said Amazon is experiencing “good advertising…
Amazon dropped a bombshell during its Q1 earnings call on Thursday–free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime is about to become free one-day shipping. In a Q&A with analysts, Amazon’s senior vice president and chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said the company has “significantly expanded our one-day eligible selection and also expanded the number of ZIP…
Amazon’s home access service Amazon Key is expanding to include in-garage delivery, which could be a sign Prime members weren’t quite ready to let strangers into their foyers to deliver packages. The expansion comes roughly 18 months after Amazon first enabled in-home deliveries. And while Amazon stressed multiple safety measures at the time, research showed…
It’s sort of the tech equivalent of those dueling banjos: Both Amazon and Google announced free, ad-supported music streaming on their respective smart speakers on Thursday. That means Echo owners in the U.S. can “listen to an ad-supported selection of top playlists and stations for free with Amazon Music” even if they don’t have a…
Amazon is trying to figure out how to accept additional payment options like cash at its heretofore cash-free Amazon Go locations, marking a big shift for the 10 stores and counting that were created specifically to allow shoppers to pay solely via an app. Amazon’s move was originally reported by CNBC, which cited comments from…
In an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the board of directors, more than 4500 Amazon employees asked the Earth’s most customer-centric company to become more Earth-centric by adopting measures against climate change. Pointing to Amazon’s history of “taking ownership of hard problems,” the employees said in the letter that the platform’s leadership…
Like Mary Meeker’s annual internet trends report, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ annual shareholder letter gets the industry all excited. Today, the internet behemoth’s 2018 shareholder letter is out. Last year, Bezos disclosed the number of Prime members for the first time ever. And while there weren’t any comparable bombshells in 2018, it is perhaps notable…
Multiple healthcare companies have announced HIPAA-compliant Alexa skills, promising adequate protection for consumers who use Echo devices for health and wellness. These new voice skills include the ability to manage prescriptions, find clinics, schedule or cancel appointments and get blood glucose readings and health tips. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of…
Amazon is reportedly developing Alexa-enabled earbuds to take on Apple’s AirPods. Analysts say it has a chance to succeed–but only if it learns from its mistakes with the Fire Phone. Citing “people with knowledge of the plans,” Bloomberg reported Amazon’s earbuds will have similar functionality (although the ecommerce platform is shooting for superior sound quality)…
Whole Foods said it is lowering prices on produce for all shoppers and doubling the number of weekly deals for Prime members starting April 3. The upscale grocer said prices will drop by an average of 20 percent on certain items. Examples include mangoes, cherry tomatoes and organic rainbow chard. Whole Foods also said it…
Citing a Wall Street Journal report that Amazon tested pop-ups in its app for its own private label products on the pages of competitors’ goods–touting similar items at lower prices–2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren repeated her call to break up big tech. “You can be the umpire or you can own a team–but you can’t…
Is Amazon worried its legacy will be tarnished as a bloated, profit-at-any-cost tech octopus with competition-crushing tentacles in every part of the commerce industry? If we look at previous versions of this play, it’s possible. In 2013, for example, the commerce behemoth dropped its price parity policy in the European Union–which prevented sellers on its…
Last week, news spread quickly that Amazon suddenly–and perhaps heartlessly–cut off thousands of vendors by simply not placing orders with them. This, in turn, prompted panic, as these companies would have no choice but to sell directly to Amazon customers or be forever estranged from 150 million unique monthly U.S. visitors. But fear not, Amazon…
In yet another sign Amazon is taking over the world, it is reportedly looking to open dozens of grocery stores in major U.S. cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia–and one in Los Angeles as early as the end of the year. That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited “people…
Amazon’s Dash buttons, the stick-around-your-house-to-tap-to-reorder buttons for consumer packaged goods (CPG), are now only available digitally. The physical iteration was perhaps ahead of its time–in fact, when Dash buttons were announced on March 31, 2015, there was some speculation they were an April Fools’ joke. By 2016, however, Amazon announced CPG companies had heartily embraced…
People are using Amazon Echo in so many different ways, and asking its AI, Alexa, so many different things, that the brand decided it was perfect for little vignettes. So, it’s rolling out more than a hundred 10-second spots, each with a funny little question or request of Alexa, in contextual and targeted digital, TV and social placements.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
