While buy now, pay later and social commerce have dominated retail headlines lately, two more recent announcements demonstrate contactless payments remain a retail priority. Just three months after bringing its cashierless technology to a Fresh grocery store in Bellevue, Washington, Amazon announced plans to expand the contactless payment option to its Whole Foods chain. At…
Amazon shoppers will soon be able to delay payments on big-ticket items through a new deal the ecommerce giant has signed with buy now, pay later provider Affirm. The partnership will give Amazon customers the option of spreading payments for certain purchases of $50 or more into monthly installments with no late fees or hidden…
Amazon’s third-party marketplace has helped transform the ecommerce platform into the single-largest source of online goods for American consumers. But that transformational growth has come at a cost. On one end of the spectrum, shoppers have more than 500 million products to choose from, which is far more than any physical retailer could ever stock….
Amazon has been busy. Between transitioning to a new CEO and engaging in a corporate space race, the business giant also found time to reflect on its corporate values and what it stands for in the world. After unveiling a series of new principles, Amazon wants to “strive to be earth’s best employer” by creating…
The world’s largest retailer, Amazon, has experienced continued growth. Notably in the last two years, it has acted as a lifeline to many around the world when physical shopping was not possible and its entertainment platform was in higher demand than ever as people were forced to stay home. As a result, Amazon has remained…
In Amazon’s latest stroke of compassion, it has gifted subscriptions to the royals who evidently needed them most: a princess confined to a tiny tower and an ancient Egyptian queen. Top line The campaign was created by Amazon’s in-house creative team, as well as UK agency Joint London and advertising company Hungry Man. With an…
Amazon’s Build It program, which debuted in February to test the waters of product development with a trio of potential connected devices, is putting a decidedly chic twist on its smart speaker. Top line This time around, the ecommerce platform is partnering with fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to potentially produce limited edition designs for…
It seems fitting that notorious workaholic Jeff Bezos’ last day as CEO of Amazon falls on a federal holiday. Bezos said he chose the day for “sentimental” reasons. Amazon was incorporated exactly 27 years ago today, July 5, 1994. Bezos and Amazon have changed in countless ways since the early days, as the viral “I…
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a formal investigation into fake reviews carried by Amazon and Google to determine if laws have been broken by “insufficient” action being taken to protect online consumers. The manipulation of reviews can have the ability to impact businesses’ star ratings and raise their prominence in terms of display…
Amazon’s seventh annual Prime Day helped generate $5.4 billion in online shopping sales for the retail industry on Day 2 for a total of more than $11 billion for the 48-hour event. That’s according to data from Adobe’s Digital Economy Index. It also puts Prime Day 2021 in the pantheon of marquis shopping dates like…
Prime Day 2021 has made a triumphant return to the summer and is once again proving why Christmas in July sales used to be popular. Shoppers are spending–and not just with Amazon–even though better discounts await later in the year. Here are the main takeaways for the first 24 hours of the annual sales event….
Six years after the first Prime Day, Amazon’s annual summer sale spurs brand marketers to spend more on the platform to get in front of shoppers looking for deals, but its influence is growing. In addition to driving copycat sales, Prime Day is also now impacting ad spend on other retail media networks. Amazon, the…
After a year without social engagements, Americans may understandably be a little rusty when it comes to small talk. That’s why Amazon has armed its voice assistant Alexa with tips “for having more engaging conversations with confidence” from Akash Karia, author of Small Talk Hacks. To start a conversation, Prime members with Alexa-enabled devices may…
It could be a lyric from an Alanis Morissette song, depending how you define ironic these days. If office supply retailer Staples succeeds in its latest $1-billion bid to buy rival Office Depot’s consumer business, it may well be a merger that came a few years too late. “The space has been crushed by Walmart…
It’s no secret that Amazon has its fingers in a lot of pies. From trying to reinvent broadcast TV during its first-ever NewFronts to taking on Thursday Night Football a year early, the tech giant continues to move far past its initial purpose as an online bookseller. But it’s still a top online retailer, and…
Ten years after its debut, Star Wars Day–the unofficial holiday celebrated on May 4–is now on par with major retail moments like Christmas, Halloween and the release of the Star Wars movies. That’s according to ecommerce platform Pattern, which found demand for products from the franchise got a big boost–at least on Amazon–on May the…
Key Insights [Other retailers effectively capitalized on the sales event for themselves. Retailers are ready for holiday shopping, but consumers have a lot of distractions. Amazon is typically coy the morning after Prime Day, offering allusions to its success with broad strokes. 2020 is no exception. Amazon called Prime Day 2020 the “two biggest days…
Mom-and-pop bookstores around the country are taking on Amazon in a sharp-elbowed stunt that uses lookalikes of the retail behemoth’s ubiquitous cardboard boxes as a trolling medium. The program, called #BoxedOut on behalf of the American Booksellers Association, comes from DCX Growth Accelerator, an agency known for punking a group of fashion influencers with $20…
Key Insights Amazon hasn’t offered discounts on gift guide items–toys included As in years past, Echo devices are hot DNA testing kits are also popular, but with a twist. After a three-month delay, Amazon’s mid-summer, turned early fall, sales bonanza is finally underway, assuming a new title as the unofficial start of the holiday season….
As Amazon’s sixth annual Prime Day approaches, so does the unofficial start of the 2020 holiday shopping season. Much remains to be seen, including how much consumers are willing to spend before Halloween and how this will impact the remainder of Q4. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. But we…
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.
