Hi r/ShopifyeCommerce/ - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Every week for the past three years I've posted a summary recap of the week's top stories on this subreddit, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in to this week's top e-commerce news...
STAT OF THE WEEK: 66% of U.S. consumers are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 56% two years ago, according to a PYMNTS Intelligence report. 57% of the lowest-income consumers said they are grappling with insufficient funds and large amounts of debt. While a 10% increase in consumers living paycheck to paycheck might not sound like a huge increase when looking at a percentage, that translates into an additional 12.7 million households!
The Canadian government ordered TikTok to shut down its operations in the country due to national security concerns, following a national security review by authorities. The decision was made under the Investment Canada Act, which allows for the review of foreign investments that may pose a threat to national security. Here's the thing though… All the government did was ban the company from operating locally (ie: with offices). Canadians can still use the app! Minister Champagne said, “The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice.” TikTok offices in Toronto and Vancouver were staffed by employees who sold advertising and worked on the app.
Meanwhile in the U.S... Donald Trump's win in the presidential election has folks wondering, “What does that mean for the TikTok ban?” President Trump has been a major flip-flopper on the issue during the past decade: He was actually the first U.S. President to initiate the calls to ban TikTok over American privacy concerns, but flash forward 4 years and he joined TikTok himself and said he would never ban the app, this time around appearing more concerned with how a TikTok ban would benefit Meta. He told NBC in March, “Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.” Legal experts have casted doubt as to whether Trump can actually overturn the decision. G.S. Hans, a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, told Business Insider, “Because the law was enacted by Congress, I'm not sure how much wiggle room a future Trump administration would have to ignore it.” Then again, the Republican Party has secured control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, so it may not be as hard as he thinks.
Amazon has begun shipping Whole Foods products from 26 of its Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers, further blurring the lines between its two grocery businesses in a new set of experiments. But it's not stopping there… The company is also planning to build a micro fulfillment center at a Pennsylvania Whole Foods Market and stock it with Amazon Fresh household goods and groceries. Customers would place orders on their phones while they shop at Whole Foods, and then pick up the items at checkout. And as you might recall, a few weeks ago, I reported that Amazon built an experimental “Amazon Grocery” store inside a Chicago Whole Foods that offers brands and grocery items that Whole Foods normally wouldn't carry. The goal of the store is to remove the need for Whole Foods customers to have to shop elsewhere.
Amazon is offering customers a new immersive shopping experience called The Virtual Holiday Shop, which leverages 3D technology powered by Amazon Beyond to showcase a curated selection of top holiday gifts and interactive content. The shop highlights the top 100+ gifts, stocking stuffers, holiday decor, and premium products from brands like Beats x Kim Kardashian, Kate Spade, Bumble and Bumble, and Coach. The virtual experience also includes a Virtual Toy Shop, which spotlights popular toys from LEGO, Play-Doh, and Disney. Personally I find the virtual shop to be unappealing, cumbersome to navigate, and poorly curated. For example, one display wall showcased a single roller skate, a red beanie, a thermos, and ski goggles alongside a colorful kid's basketball, an herb seed pod kit, and a Polaroid camera. What store did I supposedly just walk into to discover this haphazard collection? Goodwill?
Block is scaling back its investment in Tidal, the music streaming platform it bought from Jay Z in 2021, and shutting down TBD, an arm of the business that previously set out to build a decentralized Internet called “Web5.” TBD was originally designed to be Block’s platform for developers, with a mission to create a more decentralized, secure and private internet. (Wasn't that the plot of Silicon Valley?) CEO Jack Dorsey said in a tweet in 2022 that Web5 “will likely be our most important contribution to the internet.” (Narrator: “It wasn't.”) The company instead intends to shift focus into Bitcoin mining and further developing its self-custody crypto wallet, Bitkey, which it started shipping in March, according to a recent shareholder letter.
Walmart will begin paying independent delivery drivers new undisclosed financial incentives to pick up online orders at its U.S. stores and deliver them to customers during the holiday season, as part of the company's plan to boost sales to upper-income households and compete with Amazon. Walmart relies on a loosely organized network of thousands of freelance drivers who download its Spark Drive app and make between $11-$13 per trip, which equates to around $21-$23 per working hour. The actual pay varies according to order size and distance. For example, according to Walmart, if an online shopper requests delivery to an apartment, or of heavy items such as furniture, drivers earn more (if they can fit a nightstand in their Toyota Corolla).
Ready for some smart glasses news?
Amazon is developing smart glasses for its drivers to help guide them to, around, and within buildings, in an attempt to smooth the final stretch of an order's journey to a customer's home. The glasses would provide drivers with turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen along their routes and at each stop, which could shave seconds off each delivery by providing left or right directions off elevators and around gates. Reuters sources said that the glasses are still in development and may take years to perfect. However, no better way to perfect the system than to have drivers wearing them! Similar to how Tesla's autopilot system learns and adapts from human drivers, Amazon's smart glasses system could gather data and create routes for future drivers based on today's deliveries.
Meta opened its first pop-up Ray-Ban smart glasses store in Los Angeles, hoping to test out whether it can move the needle with broader adoption by selling the glasses in-person. Meta calls the store “experiential retail,” having modeled it after the Meta Lab pop-up at Connect 2024 in October, which allowed event-goers to try on a pair of smart glasses to capture photos and videos.
Baidu (ie: China's Google) is preparing to launch its own AI-powered smart glasses soon, which will include cameras and voice interactions, much like Meta's smart glasses. Baidu's smart glasses will integrate with its existing services such as Baidu Maps and Baike, the company's Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia. The new product is anticipated to debut at the Baidu World event in Shanghai this week. Market availability is expected by early 2025.
Apple is also reportedly thinking about entering the smart glasses market, recently having gotten employee input on a range of existing smart glasses with plans to hold further focus groups. Apple is notoriously slow to enter new markets, but when it does, often knocks it out the park. Apple smart glasses that interact with Apple Intelligence and the rest of its hardware and software ecosystem could be a gamechanger for Apple users. Apple is also continuing to develop AirPods with outward facing cameras, which, in combination with the cameras on smart glasses, could turn Apple users into human Tesla cars.
BigCommerce conducted another round of layoffs, letting go of 10% of its workforce, according to LinkedIn posts by former employees. The move follows a round of layoffs in both 2023 and 2022 where the company let go of 7% and 13% of its staff respectively. BigCommerce also shared that it would be exiting some of its real estate positions and discontinuing software projects, but it did not provide specifics.
Walmart is testing technology in stores that lets customers open security locks for products using their cell phones, in an attempt to protect against theft without hindering sales. The company is rolling out the test to employees first, with discussions of extending mobile unlocking to Walmart+ members next.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers determined that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not personally liable in over two dozen lawsuits accusing his company of causing social media addiction in children. The plaintiffs, which include parents and school districts, say Zuckerberg “directed, participated in, knew of, and in fact, served as the guiding spirit behind Meta's tortious concealment and omissions,” however the judge said that they had insufficient evidence of the claims.
Amazon received regulatory approval to fly its new, smaller MK30 drones, which have a longer range and light rain capabilities, as part of its Prime Air program, and to do so beyond the visual line of sight of pilots. Matt McCardle, head of global regulatory affairs and strategy, noted in a LinkedIn post that for the first time, Amazon's drones are fully integrated into the Amazon Fulfillment Network and ready to provide delivery speeds of less than an hour.
WooCommerce is set to roll out a new logo in early 2025, according to its CMO Tamara Niesen, who said that the updated logo aligns with the company's new product vision. The logo showcases “WOO” in white letters against a deep purple background, occasionally animated to transition the logo into a shopping cart, with the “O”s doubling as wheels and the “W” as the cart.
The FTC charged Sitejabber, an online review platform, with violating its new fake reviews rules by using point-of-sale reviews to misrepresent what customers think about products. The agency said that Sitejabber “deceptively” punched up businesses' review counts by incorporating responses to questionnaires asking customers to rate and review their shopping experience, before they'd actually gotten any products or services. This is one of the FTC's first enforcement actions under its new rules banning companies from making or selling fake reviews.
Amazon Location Services released 17 new and enhanced APIs that expand capabilities for the Routes, Places, and Maps functionalities for developers. Apps that tie into its API can now access advanced route optimization, toll cost calculations, GPS traces snapping, and a variety of map styles with static and dynamic rendering options, and perform proximity-based search and predictive suggestions.
Some brands have found that TikTok Smart+, the platform's AI-powered automated advertising solution that launched in October, has delivered inconsistent performance and lacked clear revenue data beyond the basic campaign metrics like impressions, conversions, and ROAS, according to AdWeek. However other brands are reporting a 50% decrease in CPA, a boost in conversions by 47%, and lifting of overall ROAS by 42%. Just like any of the automated advertising solutions, including Google PMax and Meta Advantage+, results may vary.
Facebook's algorithm censored businesses from Coulsdon, England due to the town's name having the letters “LSD” in it. Pages for local theaters, hardware stores, history groups, and residents' associations have been affected by the censorship, which Facebook said is now fixed. In 2021, Facebook had incorrectly censored and banned users who posted about Plymouth Hoe, a landmark in the coastal city of Plymouth. Makes me wonder how the folks in Booger Hole, West Virginia and Dickshooter, Idaho are doing…
The EU's Consumer Protection Cooperation Network notified Temu that it has infringed upon consumer laws by promoting practices that “may mislead consumers or unduly influence their purchasing decisions.” The allegations come just days after the European Commission launched a formal investigation into the company over potential violations of the Digital Services Act, which centers around the company's potential sales of illegal goods and addictive design.
Australians with high risk of gambling and alcohol addictions are being “force fed” Meta ads for that content, according to a study by University of Queensland, which found that gambling and alcohol ads can be served up many times in a short period to folks who are most vulnerable to temptation. The study found that some users had been tagged by Facebook with 89 different alcohol and gambling related interests, and that 201 alcohol companies and 63 gambling companies had in turn shared data with the platform about those people, which allowed further ad targeting.
TikTok published a guide to help marketers capitalize on their “Q5 opportunities,” which is the time period immediately after Christmas when consumers look for post-holiday bargains. The company wrote, “Consumers aren't done spending once the holidays end—they're just getting started. Armed with gift cards, holiday cash, and New Year's resolutions, consumers remain in shopping mode well into January.”
In leadership shakeups this week… John Lagerling, CEO of Mercari US, announced that he is resigning his position at the end of the year, with founder Shintaro Yamada stepping in to lead both Japan and U.S. operations of the company. StockX's current CEO Scott Cutler will also be stepping down at the end of the year, with co-founder and current COO Greg Schwartz taking over in 2025. Estee Lauder appointed Stephane de La Faverie as its next CEO, effective Jan 1st. And OpenAI hired Caitlin Kalinowski to oversee its AI robotics effort.
India's financial crime agency raided offices of some sellers operating on Amazon and Flipkart in an investigation into alleged violations of foreign investment rules, particularly bypassing laws that ban marketplaces from selling their own products. The raid comes a few weeks after India's antitrust body found that the two companies and their sellers violated competition laws by giving preference to select sellers on their platforms.
Amazon India launched its Amazon Clinic in the country, a telemedicine service that provides online consultations for over 50 medical conditions. The service allows users to consult with a specialist for as low as ₹299 (around $3.54 USD), and consultations can be booked directly through the Amazon app. Wow, that's a good price. Can American consumers book appointments too?
The U.S. government renewed its calls for Italy to repeal its domestic web tax, a 3% levy introduced in 2019 on revenue from Internet transactions for digital companies with sales of at least €750M if at least €5.5M are made in Italy. The U.S. considers the scheme unfair discrimination because it mainly targets U.S. tech companies. Italy intends to maintain the tax for now, waiting for the new Trump administration to show its stance on the matter before taking any action.
Flash, the India-based payment management service that tracks all your online purchases, announced that it is entering the U.S. market, giving American customers the ability to manage their online spending in one place and earn rewards, such as gift cards and cash back. Up until now, Flash has only been available to users in India. The company was started in 2022 by Flipkart's former senior VP, Ranjith Boyanapalli. Next on the company's roadmap is a global version of the app, set to launch in mid-2025.
The U.K. announced plans to apply a higher rate of tax to large distribution warehouses used by retailers like Amazon, targeting properties with a ‘rateable value' of over £500,000, which is based on an assessment of the property's annual rent. Brick and mortar retail shops have seen a steady decline since COVID, with an average of 38 stores per day closing so far in 2024. The new tax aims to level the playing field by easing the burden of business rates on property-intensive sectors.
67% of parents intend to use BNPL to finance the holidays this year, according to a study from Splitit and Pymnts, with clothing and accessories to make up 60% of purchases. 40% of consumers indicated that they plan to use BNPL for self-gifting during the holidays. LOL, that's just a cute way to say “buying yourself stuff.”
In February 2014, Facebook bought the messaging app WhatsApp for $19B, which is 19x what it paid for Instagram two years earlier, and now the acquisition is finally starting to pay off. During its Q3 earnings call, Meta said that WhatsApp was the primary driver of a 48% YoY spike in non-advertising revenue from its family of apps, mostly driven by WhatsApp's business messaging product, which lets companies pay to chat with customers.
Plus 13 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including print-on-demand companies Printful and Printify merging, and OpenAI purchasing the domain Chat.com to house its ChatGPT app.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition:
https://www.shopifreaks.com/canada-bans-tiktok-amazons-virtual-holiday-shop-driver-wars-heat-up/
What else is new in e-commerce?
Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on r/Shopifreaks/.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com
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