With Mother’s Day right around the corner, many consumers are frantically Googling “2018 Mother’s Day gifts” to come up with last-minute ideas, often needing to sift through pages of search results to find that perfect gift. But what if that search could be interactive, personalized and, well, conversational? Conversational commerce could be the future of…
One of the worst parts about online shopping today? Tracking a package. Whether it’s copying and pasting a dreadfully long tracking code or being prompted to log in using an often faulty link, the experience of following the shipment of a purchase can be tedious. Improving this process often requires a heavy investment that many…
Flipkart must feel like the belle of the ecommerce ball. FlipKart, the Indian ecommerce marketplace, “has approved an agreement to sell about 75 percent of the company to a Walmart Inc.-led group for approximately $15 billion,” according to Bloomberg. Flipkart generated $3.1 billion in revenue last year. Walmart said it had no comment. This comes…
BuzzFeed, the media queen of viral content on the internet is back at it again with a new debate on the right meaning for the acronym “IMHO.” Only this time, it’s also turning the moment into merchandise. In a post published on May 2, BuzzFeed writer Lauren Yapalater asked readers to weigh in (via a…
Another day, another ecommerce pop-up shop experience. This time, though, it’s not luxury shoes or a mattress company. It’s Brandless, a relatively new(ish) startup that sells everyday grocery and household essentials like tissues, toothpaste and tortilla chips for $3 (and donates a meal to Feeding America with every purchase). However, unlike other pop-ups that center…
Thanks to Amazon’s latest shareholder letter, we know its formidable Prime subscription service now has 100 million members who order more than 5 billion products a year. Competing retailers have rolled out comparable two-day (and faster) delivery options, but Prime sets a high bar with streaming movies, TV and music, as well as access to…
The recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, as well as the looming rollout of GDPR, are sending the marketing world into a speculative tizzy. There are a few early ramifications that have been starting to come to fruition that are having a material impact on the ability of brands, publishers and influencers to conduct business…
The retail world is shifting like a pair of tectonic plates. One is erupting upward, with retail titans soaring to new heights and delivering innovative shopping experiences inspired by insight and fueled by data. The other plate is being pressured downward, with long-established stalwarts of the economy being driven to extinction. Toys “R” Us and…
Amazon Prime members with compatible vehicles from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Volvo can have packages delivered directly to their cars. In-car delivery is available in 37 U.S. cities and surrounding areas–including Atlanta, Austin, Houston, L.A., Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle and Washington, D.C.–and to customers with a compatible 2015 or newer car model with…
On-demand delivery service DoorDash is the latest last-mile partner to join forces with Walmart as the retailer seeks to bring online grocery delivery to 40 percent of the U.S. by the end of the year. DoorDash will focus on the Atlanta metro area to start and said it will add more markets in the coming…
The very first banner ad on the Internet–for AT&T on Wired in 1994–had a click-through rate (CTR) of 44 percent. Now that the novelty has worn off, that rate is more like 0.05 percent. Add augmented reality (AR), however, and it may be a different story. Taking a page from the leader of the free…
For the first time in Amazon Prime’s 13 year history, the membership numbers are in CEO Jeff Bezos’ annual shareholder letter, along with other statistics around the Prime business that show the company’s dominance in ecommerce. Amazon Prime’s 100 million (and counting) worldwide members shipped more than 5 billion products with the service in 2017….
Instagram first, sell afterwards: that’s an ethos that more ecommerce companies are adopting as they go offline. Opening physical stores (or pop-ups, showrooms, whatever) has become a viable path for some of the biggest digital ecommerce darlings, like Everlane, Glossier, Warby Parker, Bonobos and Casper, to name just a few. The trend however doesn’t just…
To understand the future of retail and its ever-evolving intersection with technology, look no further than Daft Punk. Early on, Daft Punk tried to convince the world that they were technology rather than humans. To prove the point, their live performance consisted of the two robots perched atop an enormous pyramid of screens, blaring lights…
Snapchat is opening up the floodgates, letting advertisers bring real-life shopping experiences to the digital platform. The camera company is introducing three new features, dubbed “Shoppable AR,” to its augmented reality lenses: the “website,” which lets consumers tap a button and open up a webpage that can promote a product or sign-up page; a “video”…
In an attempt to create “a cleaner and more modern digital shopping experience,” Walmart teased a site redesign that will be available starting in May. Further out, it will also include specialty shopping experiences like the home specialty experience it launched in February. And while these changes offer promise to appeal to a broader audience…
Four months into the legalization of cannabis in California and consumer sentiment is positively high. A new report from Eaze, a cannabis ecommerce platform, details findings from about 5,000 Eaze customers about their thoughts on marijuana post-legalization. More than half (52 percent) said that legalization has made it easier to talk about using cannabis; 65…
Rarely does anyone write about Amazon without including the word “giant.” Research shows that 43 percent of all online retail purchases were conducted through Amazon in 2016. Incredibly, this scary growth continues as Amazon’s net sales grew by more than $10 billion between the third quarters of 2016 and 2017. Just because something is big…
Walmart has added logistics company Postmates to its list of grocery-delivery partners. The two will serve customers in Charlotte, N.C. In March, Walmart said it planned to tap into its network of more than 18,000 personal shoppers and crowdsourced delivery services to offer grocery delivery to 40 percent of U.S. households by the end of…
Target is investigating how laminated cards advocating for white supremacist groups ended up in boxes of diapers it sold. In a blog post, the Anti-Defamation League said it has received at least two complaints, including a Target customer in Washington, D.C., who found a card reading, “It’s Okay to be White.” “We sincerely apologize and…
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