Ecommerce Weekly

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. Amazon's Prime Air drone delivers first package to customer: Sky News reports that Amazon has successfully delivered its first package to a customer using a drone. This week, the company released a video showing a drone taking off from a warehouse and flying below 400ft over fields to deliver the package outside his home 13 minutes later. The drone drop took place on 7 December and contained a bag of popcorn and an Amazon Fire TV stick. Under Amazon's Prime Air service, the company aims to make deliveries in 30 minutes or less. Continue reading... Five reasons Amazon Go isn’t necessarily the future of shopping: Lisa Lacy at The Drum reports why she believes Amazon Go won’t necessarily revolutionize shopping as consumers know it. Firstly, she says, Amazon did not invent seamless shopping. While Amazon may be branding this type of shopping, it cannot take credit for the concept. In fact, Jason Snyder, CTO of brand experience agency Momentum Worldwide, said seamless shopping has been [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. Amazon just launched a cashier-free convenience store: Natt Garun at The Verge reports that Amazon has opened its first grocery store without lines or checkout counters in Seattle. Amazon Go, lets shoppers grab the items they want and leave. Amazon Go works by using computer vision and sensors to detect what items you’re taking out of the store and charging them to your Amazon account. Continue reading... Amazon's Music Unlimited family plan comes to the UK: Matt Brian at Engadget reports that Amazon's Music Unlimited has extended its subscription to include a Family option which costs £15 a month or £149 for a full year and allows up to six people to stream to their heart's content. Amazon customers now have four plans to choose from. Continue reading... Amazon's Snowmobile will let you upload stuff by the truckload – literally: Alex Hearn at The Guardian reports on the AWS Snowmobile, a large truck carrying a shipping container which holds a mobile data centre that can [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. Amazon places cap on non-Amazon verified purchase reviews: Chris Dunne at FeedbackExpress reports Amazon is continuing its efforts to stop false feedback by announcing that buyers will only to be able to leave five reviews a week for items not bought via the online store. Amazon has said, "You can submit a maximum of five non-Amazon Verified Purchase reviews each week, starting on (a) Sunday. If we find unusually high numbers of reviews for a product posted in a short period of time, we may restrict these products to Amazon Verified Purchase reviews." Continue reading... 7 ecommerce trends that worked in 2016: Jason Ford at The Drum reports on ecommerce trends that failed and those that worked including responsive design and mobile commerce, website speed and performance as well as usability testing and customer experience. Continue reading... UK Amazon marketplace sellers to reach £1.8 billion in exports sales: Ben Stevens at Retail Gazette reports that Amazon has announced that third-party sellers on Amazon UK are [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. Meet Brand Central, Amazon's secret, new plan to squash counterfeits: Ben Fox Rubin at CNET reports that Amazon is going on the offensive against counterfeits with Brand Central, a suite of digital tools under development to help sellers protect their brands from fakes and knockoffs. The effort comes as Amazon filed its first-ever lawsuits against alleged counterfeit sellers with more suits expected. Details about Brand Central remain vague at this stage. Continue reading... The Grand Tour breaks Amazon Prime video audience record: BBC Newsbeat reports that according to Amazon, the first episode of The Grand Tour has become the biggest premiere on Amazon Prime, overtaking The Man in The High Castle. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos said, "The guys are back, doing what they do best." As well as bringing record audiences, on the day The Grand Tour was released, new Prime membership sign-ups exceeded all previous days, with the exception of their Amazon Prime Day. Continue reading... Amazon UK/EU Long Term Storage Fees: Chris Dawson [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. Alibaba smashes all Singles Day sales records: Chris Dawson at Tamebay reports that Alibaba smashed all sales record on their annual 11/11 Singles Day, with sales of RMB 120.7 billion ($17.79 billion) in gross merchandise volume in just 24 hours. Thats up around a third on last year’s Singles Day and across 235 countries and regions. Other records smashed were RMB 98.97 billion ($14.6 billion) in GMV generated on mobile devices and 657 million delivery orders. Continue reading... Amazon takes counterfeit sellers to court for first time: Ari Levy at CNBC reports Amazon has filed lawsuits against counterfeit sellers, after a number of sellers complained that knockoffs were killing their sales and endangering consumers. On Monday, Amazon filed suit against a group of sellers for infringing on athletic training equipment developed by TRX. In a second case, Amazon sued sellers who are offering fake versions of a patented moving product called Forearm Forklift. Continue reading... eBay hikes seller fees for Half.com up by 200%: Ina [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. [Infographic] Alibaba Singles’ Day 2016: Chris Dunne at FeedbackExpress reports that Alibaba chalked up a record $17.79 billion (120.7 billion yuan) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) on Singles Day', an increase of 32% year-on-year. Growth rate was lower than the 60% experienced in 2015. In the first five minutes, the Chinese ecommerce giant processed $1 billion on its mobile payment platform, Alipay. Across Alibaba's ecommerce platforms, mainly Tmall.com and Taobao Marketplace, some 1.04 billion payment transactions were processed, compared to last year's 710 million. Continue reading... Amazon Global Store launches for cross border tax paid shopping: Chris Dawson at Tamebay reports that Amazon have launched Amazon Global Store to enable sales to consumers from Amazon sites around the world. In a similar manner to eBay’s Global Shipping Program, consumers can find and buy products from Amazon in the US on Amazon UK. Delivery takes place in as little as two days with goods customs cleared on your behalf, easy returns and UK customer service. Continue [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. New Amazon ‘Simplify Global Selling’ pilot to remove VAT obstacles: Chris Dawson at Tamebay reports that Amazon are piloting a new Simplify Global Selling programme in an attempt to make it as easy to sell to overseas customers, as it is to those in the UK. Amazon know that global selling can be complex for sellers and offer to translate listings and through Fulfilment by Amazon. Continue reading... One of Amazon's earliest investors just made a $30 million bet on Hollar, the online dollar store: Biz Carson at Business Insider UK reports on David Yeom, who made a big bet that the dollar store experience that he loved could work online too. It sounded like a bad business idea at the time but Yeom has proved the doubters wrong so far. Hollar's growth over the past year has attracted the eye of one of Amazon's earliest investors, Kleiner Perkins. Continue reading... Black Friday 2016: Amazon's Deals Store puts Kindle Voyage, Roku streaming stick and more [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. eBay.com replacement and exchange return options: Chris Dawson at Tamebay reports that eBay.com have announced new returns capabilities are now live on the site enabling sellers the option to manage replacements and exchanges as well as a straight refund option. You can now offer buyers the option of receiving a replacement or exchange instead of a full refund. This can take place either in your return policy when listing, or at the point that your buyer contacts you through eBay My Messages or when requesting a return, you will have the option to offer a replacement or exchange at that time. Continue reading... Zalando trials ecommerce offering to retailers: Dan Wilson at Tamebay reports that German fashion online retailer Zalando is opening itself up to sellers. For the first time, local retailers can connect to the Zalando Platform with minimal technical effort via the external partner software “gax-system”. Zalando is big news over on the continent (although it does also operate in the UK) and [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. eBay continues shift to “Amazon-esque” business: Katie Roof at TechCrunch reports on eBay's third-quarter earnings. The company brought in revenue of $2.22 billion, an increase of 6% year-on-year. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 45 cents, slightly above the analyst consensus of 44 cents. Adjusted net income was also down from the same period in the year before, as sales and marketing and other costs increased. While its financials were up, the stock fell more than 7% in early after-hours trading. Continue reading... Amazon plans to launch broadband service in UK: Cara McGoogan at The Telegraph reports that according to reports, Amazon is considering the addition of broadband to its ever-growing lsit of products available on its premium subscription service. The ecommerce company is considering plans to become an internet service provider in Europe. Offering its Prime film and TV streaming along with broadband would create a competitive offer that could rival the likes of Virgin and Sky in the UK. Continue reading... Amazon [...]

Welcome to Ecommerce Weekly, SellerExpress' review of the top ecommerce, Amazon and eBay news from around the Web this week. Win six months free Amazon repricing from RepricerExpress: With the holiday season fast approaching, our friends at RepricerExpress have decided to run a fantastic competition where one lucky Amazon will win a six-month subscription to RepricerExpress Amazon repricing software. The competition is open to both new and existing customers.  Find out more... Amazon's Spotify rival competes on price: BBC News reports Amazon has launched a second music streaming service in the US. Amazon Music Unlimited is being offered at a discounted price if its use is restricted to the company's voice-controlled speakers. Echo owners who take this option would pay less than half the monthly fee of an Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play or Tidal subscription. Continue reading... Amazon to add 120,000 workers for holidays: Joshua Jamerson at The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon.com plans to hire 20% more seasonal workers (120,000 up from 100,000) for its US warehouses this holiday season. Continue reading... Has Amazon.com FBA stopped taking on new sellers? Dan Wilson [...]