Cha-Ching Weekly Series
Welcome to the first edition of Cha-Ching Weekly, a weekly series of funding news relating to eCommerce owners, businesses, and platforms in the space.
This week, we saw:
- Shopify is now partnering with Walmart, Amazon better watch out
- Zycada comes out of stealth, claims to offer the fastest online shopping experience in the world
- Latest boom in eCommerce encourages stores to find a balance between convenience and user security for customer loyalty
1/3
Common Enemy
Shopify is now partnering with Walmart, Amazon better watch out
Shopify, the eCommerce platform that supports online stores and businesses, has announced its partnership with Walmart. The deal will add 1200 Shopify sellers on Walmart’s marketplace this year. It will also allow merchants from Shopify to access customers from the world’s largest retailer; every month, almost 120 million people visit Walmart’s website.
While Amazon remains the undisputed leader in the eCommerce space, Walmart is beefing up the competition with some serious offense strategy. A surge in demand from Covid-19 shopping also fast-forwarded the deal between the two parties, according to sources.
Phil, from Fortune.com, writes on the issue, “the number of new stores using Shopify’s e-commerce platform rose 62% in the first six weeks of the lockdowns begun in March, compared with the six prior weeks.” Walmart expects to capitalize on this growing demand with third-party sales that come with a fee and shared/passed on delivery costs.
2/3
Faster Shopping
Zycada comes out of stealth, claims to offer the fastest online shopping experience in the world
A new startup named Zycada came out of stealth last week, raising $19 million in funding. They are working on a bot-technology that accelerates content delivery and interactive elements on eCommerce sites.
Focusing on a metric called Time to Interactive (TII), the time it takes for interactive elements of a page to load (like the Buy Now button), Zycada reports, “90% of customers will abandon the online shopping experiences if page load times exceed 3 seconds.” Websites are constantly attempting multiple functions from collecting cookie data about our preferences, loading images and advertisements, and offering web content, however, these functions and features don’t work in unison most of the time, creating lag in user experience.
The company claims to reduce TTI to 500 milliseconds, 10 times faster than the current speed at Amazon’s site, allowing it to offer the fastest online shopping experience in the world. Reporter Kyle, from Venturebeat.com, quotes Zycada CEO James Brear, “Our goal is to democratize e-commerce, allowing thousands of retailers to compete with and beat Amazon. We’re not just leveling the playing field, we’re giving these retailers a leg up on their biggest competitor.”
3/3
Ease vs. Protection
Latest boom in eCommerce encourages stores to find a balance between convenience and user security for customer loyalty
The pandemic-induced rise of eCommerce is old news. What is new is the dilemma online shop owners face in authenticating customer’s identity across digital channels given the rise in online shoppers.
A McKinsey and Company report claims, “When consumers find the authentication process easy, they use digital services 10 to 20 percent more than customers who are frustrated by authentication.” Users want their information and identity protected but will also abandon the cart if they have too many authentication hurdles; millennials especially want a seamless and secure digital banking experience says Bill, from The Financial Brand.
How does one find the balance?
Using phone cameras to verify IDs, utilizing mobile-friendly account log-ins and push notifications could be some of the solutions worth implementing. Omnichannel notifications and device/phone number recognition also help create a digital experience free from frustration, encouraging customers to stay loyal. Financial services like Mastercard are also ramping up its accuracy and fraud detection given similar concerns across all digital businesses.
