Retail news roundup — 27 April 2018
Amazon
You probably know the deets: Prime membership will go $99 -> $110, 3P unit mix up to 52%, global sellers represent 25% of that. Amazon loves third party sellers — the revenue from 3p seller services accounted for 18% of total sales. It’s also important to note Amazon just updated their app to serve international shoppers better (better display of pricing, shipping costs, etc).
The small print is that Amazon is not making the big bucks on retail, but on advertising (up by 126%) and Amazon Web Services, which has a comfortable 20% margin.
Also, FYI, Amazon EU FBA fees have changed today.
If any client is sad about how selling on Amazon would ruin their branding, show them this chart about how easier it is to first convert a customer on Amazon than anywhere else on the internets.
In other random Amazon news, now they do home security services, they will have a home robot out by 2019, and the next delivery they decided on is Amazon Key In-Car — when your car is parked in a public place, Amazon will put your orders in your car’s trunk. (I had to double check the date that this wasn’t an April Fools article.) Also, they are really all about launching Amazon Fresh in India — Amazon already has 100 million subscribers there and they want to sell “avocadoes and potatoes” to all of them.
Best Buy is becoming a merchant on Amazon’s site.
eBay
eBay has forecasted its earnings, investors are disappointed — even though their total gross merchandise volume rose 13% in Q1. But investors are worried if eBay can stay relevant next to Amazon. On its end, eBay is pushing towards AI and augmented reality to make the site more fun, and plans to add more home goods and apparel.
This is a really good overview of what’s happening with the eBay shops. New template coming in May, custom pages will probably disappear this year.
Starting this week, if an eBay account is below standard, there will be an additional 4% fee.
PayPal just invested in Dosh, a fintech startup that pushes loyalty programs — this is important, as it might show that in the future, a merchant on eBay will have ways to influence customer loyalty.
Random
75% of UK online shoppers buy from overseas retailers and marketplaces — 60% because of the price (duh).
Boohoo’s sales have doubled, while Debenhams’ have dropped. Debenhams is now pushing for better taxation of online retailers, such as Boohoo. Primark doesn’t have this problem with an overall revenue growth of 8%.
Reddit is building their advertising business — they can become a pretty important player.
Snapchat is testing unskippable six-second ads before stories — and they are pushing another redesign to make more people watch stories. In slightly related news: over 90% of Facebook’s revenue is coming from mobile.
Pinterest can now filter beauty tips results by skin tone: this sounds frivolous but it shows how much money Pinterest is willing to invest in the beauty industry.
Now there is a drone delivery service that finds where you are and gives the package to you directly. If drones following you around until you sign your Amazon order doesn’t give you nightmares, nothing will.
