The eCommerce Minute is your daily dose of eCommerce, tech and retail news, with your hosts Bart Mroz and John Suder. The show is a production of SUMO Heavy, an eCommerce consulting firm with offices in Brooklyn, NY, and Philadelphia.
Ahrendts had served in the role at Apple for five years. Executive Director Deirdre O'Brien will assume Ahrendt's role.
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Amazon Live will feature hosts demonstrating products that are for sale on the platform.
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The coffee is a medium-dark whole-bean blend with “flavor notes of cherry and cocoa.” Each 8 oz. cup contains 7 mg. of hemp-derived CDB.
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Zipsell is a self-hosted platform that allows you to set up a fully-functional online store for selling digital products.
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The company is using a virtual simulation video game called “Spark City” to train its employees. The game puts employees in charge of a fictional dry grocery department and challenges them with making it run efficiently.
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Called WW Studio, Kohl’s will launch an 1,800 square foot studio within its store and offer wellness workshops. Kohl’s will also begin selling the WW Healthy Kitchen products, branded kitchenware, and cookware later this year.
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Dream Drive is a suite of apps for both driver and passenger, where users can accumulate points for vouchers for discounts.
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Walmart calls it “smart accessories for an untethered world.” It’s a private level line of tech accessories under the brand name “Motile.”
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Loop is a circular shopping platform that transforms the packaging of your everyday essentials from single-use disposable to durable, feature-packed designs.
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Parcel Guard is an anti-theft mailbox that can only be accessed by your delivery person and you.
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Pensa Systems has developed a drone that can fly around a store and examine items on shelves and in coolers.
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The Caper cart is an AI-powered smart shopping cart that lets customers skip the checkout line.
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Liquid Death is Austrian mountain water sold in cans. Mike Cessario, a West Coast agency creative, created the brand last year as a side project.
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The company is using the autonomous robot to deliver packages.
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According to the filing and claims, it’s “an example system for capturing and analyzing sounds in a shopping facility.”
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The new service will allow their customers to receive certain products on a schedule - weekly, monthly, twice a year, or any timeline of their choosing.
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Yahoo Finance reports that Whole Foods is taking a serious look at abandoned Sears and K-Mart stores.
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Those with higher scores get special perks for things like waived banking fees, elimination of deposits on rentals, and hotel bookings. WeChat Pay Points analyzes spending behavior and social media connections to formulate a credit score for even those without established financial history.
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The card, which is free to obtain and use, will allow Square connected businesses to withdraw and spend the money brought in via Square payments.
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Axios reports the online giant has partnered with brands including Folgers and Maybelline to send free samples directly to your home. The companies will target Amazon Prime subscribers based on the company’s massive collection of personal data on its users, including things like browsing, order, and engagement history.
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WeWork recently announced a $32 million investment in Laird Superfood, started by surf star Laird Hamilton.
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This new feature would let users do their own live videos to show products and do live demos.
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The Arby's subscription box unveiled at the announcement contained a store serving tray, an Arby's hat, a bacon scarf, and some Arby's temporary tattoos.
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Weebly Photo Studio lets you send products to Weebly to have the items professionally photographed. The service costs $75 per item.
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The advanced technology records microscopic differences in manufactured products then houses those recorded differences as "product fingerprints".
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Amazon is expanding their checkout-free Go stores to airports targeting busy travelers.
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The Snackbots are outdoor, self-driving robots on wheels making its way around college campuses delivering snacks and soft drinks.
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Eileen Fisher takes your used clothing and gives them new life.
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That’s what some folks at Amazon have dubbed products they are offering that sell for less than what it costs to buy and deliver.
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Users will be able to bypass the lines by letting a biometric kiosk scan their face when they’re ready to leave the rental car lot.
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The social media giant is in talks with HBO, Showtime, and Starz about adding streaming video. Facebook would offer subscriptions to these channels which users would watch within the Facebook platform.
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Their "Clever Cups" are reusable cups that include a contactless payment chip. Instead of cups being used for single-usage, the cups are for continuous use.
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The Season Three premiere of the eCommerce Minute.
In this super-sized episode John and Bart discuss the holiday break, take care of some podcast announcements and make their predictions for 2019.
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On this super-sized episode, Bart and John take a fond look back at some of the episodes from 2018 and look ahead to the trends and stories for 2019.
The eCommerce Minute will return with new episodes in January.
HiO is a new retail concept in Brooklyn is testing the idea that consumers will find value in discovering new brands through a brick-and-mortar experience.
Smart Touch is a smart screen that was developed by Alibaba and Damo Academy to assist visually and physically disabled individuals with mobile device tasks, specifically shopping tasks.
The task was part of a partnership with Adobe's annual analytics challenge where teams of students compete to win a $35,000 prize as well as potential employment.
District showcases items from about 140 retailers and features a dynamic real-time feed that presents shoppers with trending products tailored to each user based on past actions, as well as information shared with the app.
This holiday season, eBay is following Amazons lead and releasing a holiday toy catalog. The online retailer is putting out a Toy Book with the hottest gifts this year, as well as listings for rare and retro playthings from your childhood.
Facebook organized the 9 pop up stores to be part of The Market @ Macy's. The Market @ Macy's concept debuted earlier this year to provide space and exposure to small brands.
When it was all said and done, the total for this year was a staggering $30.8 Billion. That number topped the $25.3 billion record set in 2017 and shows a nearly 27 percent year-on-year rise. This is a huge number, of course, but smaller than the 39 percent year-on-year growth recorded in 2017.
CarePass members get free delivery on most prescriptions and online purchases, access to a pharmacist helpline, a 20 percent discount on all CVS-branded products and a monthly $10 coupon.
Jet.com's newly launched City Grocery offering is now selling Blue Apron meal kits, featuring menu offerings exclusive to Jet customers. This is the first time they've been available through an online retailer.
Just 20% of shoppers who placed an order on the site in the fourth quarter of 2017 placed another order a quarter later, according to data from Edison Trends.
Online marketplace eBay has filed a complaint in California Superior Court alleging that Amazon "perpetuated a scheme to infiltrate and exploit eBay's internal member email system" in order to "recruit high-value eBay sellers to Amazon." eBay is demanding a jury trial for the suit.
The coworking giant is partnering with designer rental service Rent the Runway. Rent the Runway is staging 15 drop-off points at locations in New York, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Miami.
Terminal is an all-in-one device that can process payments over Wi-Fi and print out receipts. The Terminal accepts chip cards inserted at the front, mag-stripe cards swiped along the edge, and the tap of a smartphone/smartwatch to make a mobile payment.
Last week, Lyft unveiled their All-Access Pass. The plan costs $299 upfront. Riders can take 30 rides each month, as long as those rides cost $15 or less each.
Deliverr helps business offer rapid delivery experiences for their customers and uses machine learning and predictive intelligence to determine which of its warehouses to store its client’s goods.
Walmart wants to know if its shoppers are stressed out. That's the idea behind a patent application for a biometric feedback shopping cart handle was recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
StoreMe is an on-demand mobile app that connects travelers and tourists with a place to safely store their stuff, from a few hours to up to seven days.
Lolli is a startup that wants you to earn bitcoin as you shop. Lolli's mission: Put cryptocurrencies like bitcoin into the hands of consumers, risk-free.
Lolli offers a browser extension for Chrome and Safari that so far pairs with more than 600 retailers, like Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Lucky Brand, Home Depot, Hotels.com, Jet.com, SeatGeek ,Walmart, Best Buy and ClassPass.
The Cafe X concept identifies and remedies the pain points of the coffee buying experience and then using robotics and automation to solve those issues.
Glasses USA has created a free app called Prescription Scanner that will allow you to scan and pull your current prescription right from your existing glasses.
The two patents describe a "virtual showroom" and a fulfillment system that connect shoppers equipped with VR headsets and special sensory gloves to a VR Walmart store.
IBM has secured a patent for a coffee drone that not only flies around public spaces to provide hot java but also may predict which people need a caffeine boost.
A real-life recreation of the iconic Kwik-E-Mart convenience store from the series has just opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The store was designed with the same look and feel from the animated series, and the store's creators said four years of planning went into the attraction.
Online mattress startup Casper is planning to open 200 retail stores over the next three years, including 18 “pop-up” locations that will become permanent.
Co-working giant WeWork is getting into retail, with the launch of WeMRKET a “modern retail space” that will be piloted at WeWork 205 Hudson in New York City.
Walmart is teaming up with driverless car company Waymo on a one-store test project that will allow shoppers who ordered groceries online to be shuttled to and from the store in Waymo vehicles.
The clothes are equipped with smart-chip technology and offer rewards for people who participate in on-the-go experiences, creating a micro-community of brand ambassadors.
The surfboard was designed in Tesla's design studios “in collaboration with Lost Surfboards and Matt “Mayhem” Biolos.” According to the product description, the board features a finish similar to the company's cars, and a top that's reinforced with carbon fiber.
Payments processor Worldpay has come up with a solution to combat fraud with a new prototype system that secures proper payment before completing deliveries.
The tool, part of the Amazon app, is able to identify and match around 100 types of screws, bolts, and nuts, then show you matching parts in its catalog.
Walmart is looking to chip away at one more core service that Amazon Prime Members enjoy – streaming video. Insider sources reports that the service could be priced at under $8 a month.
Facebook is diving deeper into eCommerce, and soon there's one more thing you'll be able to buy: Movie Tickets. Starting soon, Facebook users will see a new tab on the pages called Movies. The Movies page will give users options to purchase movie tickets through AMC, Fandango, or Atom Tickets.
The showroom features photo galleries and lets potential car buyers view and compare different Hyundai models. The showroom includes price comparisons, reviews, vehicle details, test drive bookings, the ability to check dealership inventories and other Shopper Assurance elements through Amazon Vehicles, the automaker said in a news release.
Novelist Riley Costello has created a new way to sell apparel and home goods as her fans read her last novel. She's even trademarked the process as 'Shopfiction.'
Kohl's announced last Wednesday that it would begin hiring seasonal workers for the back-to-school, fall and holiday shopping season earlier than its ever done before.
The Swedish retailer Ikea announced a new collaborative line of products called SPANST. The collection features furniture and accessories but also streetwear-styled clothing in collaboration with Chris Stamp, the LA-based fashion designer.
The program gives new partner companies discounted rates on fuel, insurance, and delivery vans, as well as expert guidance and driver training from Amazon.
Chinese eCommerce giant JD.com pulled in $24.6B during their annual 618 Shopping Festival, held this year June 2 to the 18th. That number set a new record for the festival, with a whopping 37% increase over last years festival.
Thanks to an integration with SeatGeek, Sports teams and musicians can sell tickets directly to fans via their Snapchat Stories. This marks the first ticket buying integration within the app.
Walmart has introduced a new private label wine collection called Winemakers Selection. It includes ten wines sourced from California, France, and Italy.
Macy's has announced its partnering with electronics discovery store b8ta to expand it's Market @Macy's pop-up shops within Macy's stores. Part of the deal includes Macy's taking a minority stake in b8ta, which also helps brands build out physical stores.
According to a new patent filing, the rideshare service is working on a plan to detect whether a ride customer is hammered or not before they climb into the car.
Jetblack is a personal shopper service where you'll simply text a request to have Walmart fulfill your needs, by purchasing the item and shipping it to you for same or next day delivery.
Quiddity is a new video-based review and lifestyle site that combines video, product details and "inspirational content" to create immersive experiences.
Gravy is a new app that combines gaming, shopping, and fundraising in one app. It's self-described as 'the first shopping game show you play on your phone'.
Each night at 8:30 pm, Gravy live streams a show that gives audiences the chance to compete for discounts on new, innovative products and win cash prizes, all while raising money for charity.
The codes, dubbed "Smile Codes" can be scanned by customers with the Amazon app to reveal instructions on how to use their Amazon package boxes for arts and crafts.
Eleven James, often referred to as 'The Netflix for Watches' is an online subscription rental service for luxury watches. Founded in 2013, it offers curated watch collections to both men and women for a flat monthly subscription.
UPS has teamed up with electric vehicle manufacturer Arrival to roll out a "pilot fleet" of electric delivery vehicles in London and Paris. The new light-weight EVs have zero tailpipe emissions, 150-mile battery range, and advanced safety features.
Amazon's 'Pay' payment system has been struggling to gain large-scale adoption. So the commerce giant has decided to pass along the discounts they get on credit card fees along to retailers if they agree to implement the payment service.
Walmart has outbid Amazon for a $16B stake in India's e-commerce giant Flipkart. Flipkart's board has approved the deal to sell a 77% stake of the company to Walmart.
At the 2018 Facebook f8 developers conference last week, the company rolled out new features to augment the Messenger platform to help brands sell more.
Apple's first foray into the smart speaker market hasn't been going so well. Despite rave reviews for its sound quality, Home Pod sales have been disappointing, according to a report by Bloomberg.
For the first weekend of the annual Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, Amex created a shoppable AR component in the Coachella app. The AR experience allowed cardholders to buy select merchandise using the Coachella app's AR camera anywhere on the festival grounds.
On a typical day at Amazon HQ in Seattle, employees share their space with as many as 6,000 of their four-legged friends. Every day is bring your dog to work day, a longstanding tradition at the e-commerce company.
Target is piloting a reorder service that's powered by smart devices in your home. It will monitor things like toilet paper, hand soap and paper towels, and reorder the items when supplies get low.
Nordstrom is opening a men’s store in New York City that will operate 24 hours a day. The store will offer a variety of services at the store, including overnight in-store pickup, a self-service return kiosk, shoe shining, and “sneaker cleanings.”
Club retailer Boxed has launched a premium-perks program similar to Amazon Prime that provides free priority shipping, price-matching for competitors, and other benefits for subscribers. Boxed Up costs $49 a year after a free 30-day trial.
If you're visiting Costco anytime soon, be prepared for a treasure hunt. The rotisserie chicken and cheap vodka purveyor allegedly designs its store layout to purposely confuse their customers.
Target and Google teamed up for a voice-activated coupon on Google Assistant. The coupon was for a $15 offer for Target orders placed on shopping service Google Express via Google Assistant.
Most retailers are visible on social media, but might not be posting the messages customers really want.
This is according to The Social Shopping Report, a study conducted by Astound Commerce Insights.
Kohl's Chairman, President, and CEO Kevin Mansell says that the partnership has so far been successful, noting that driving traffic has been Kohl's No. 1 priority for the last two years.
Shoppers are making more quick trips to Whole Foods stores that have installed Amazon.com lockers, research from location data advertising firm inMarket showed.
Alibaba and Ford have unveiled a car vending machine in Guangzhou, China. The car facility came about as a result of a partnership signed two years ago between the eCommerce giant and the car maker.
The unstaffed, digital vending machine is called the Super Test-Drive Center and houses dozens of Ford vehicles in the multi-story building.
Google has announced a new program called Shopping Actions that will allow users to purchase items through Google Assistant and shopping ads in search results.
Despite Walmart’s disappointing Q4 results, Marc Lore told the crowd at ShopTalk 2018 that they're staying the course, and that he's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Retailer Macy's has created a unique Instagram hack to promote their Spring 2018 campaign. The campaign is called 'Remarkable You" that helps customers via Instagram put together outfits with help from influencers and Macy’s stylists, according to a news release.
37% of U.S. consumers are willing to pay more for a product or service providing that they can get a superior shopping experience with mobile, according to a recent study.
The company has recently announced it now can design and prepare pre-sale products like shoes in five days or less, rather than the typical 18-month process.
According to a report by finder.com, Americans who drink alcohol regularly admit to purchasing while under the influence — an estimated 68 million people, drawn from their study of 2,000 American adults.
A study released by OC&C Strategy Consultants expects voice shopping to surge over 1,900% to $40 billion, up from the current number of $2 billion today.
Last week, the carmaker sent the new Tesla Semi heavy-duty truck on a voyage, carrying battery packs from the Gigafactory in the Nevada mountains to the car factory in Fremont, California.
BONUS EPISODE: People around the country are mourning the loss of a piece of their childhood today, following yesterday's announcement that Toys 'R' Us will close all 800 of its U.S stores.
Shoppable social video is coming of age, and we can look to recent shopping events as proof that consumers are ready and willing to shop via social platforms. MikMak is one company that's making this a reality.
Many people last week reported hearing unprompted laughs from their smart speaker devices. The laughs were occurring randomly when nobody is using the device, or in response to a request to turn on or off lights.
Amazon has been quietly expanding a program over the past few months in which some of its delivery providers take a picture of where they put your package.
Apple is holding a "Lose Your Wallet" shopping event in Los Angeles, giving discounts to users using the Apple Pay payment service at select retail locations.
eBay has unveiled a new "Under $10" page featuring millions of products priced $10 and under to compete with Amazon and the growing dollar store trend.
Online eyeglass retailer Warby Parker has big ambitions for brick and mortar retail. The company, founded in 2010, is looking to have nearly 100 retail locations across the U.S. this year.
Walmart is launching its own private-label mattress and bedding brand that will be sold exclusively online, part of the giant retailer’s effort to bolster its e-commerce business.
Coworking giant WeWork is launching a partnership with J.Crew to host a panel discussion series at select WeWork locations in New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Walmart will now require suppliers to deliver goods exactly on time or face fines, in an effort to keep inventory low and shelves stocked as it battles Amazon.com
Swyft vending machines will soon link customers who order certain goods online with delivery services like Uber and Lyft that will ferry the order to your door.
CVS Pharmacy said it would stop “materially” altering beauty images in brand-created marketing materials that appear in stores, online and on social media.
UX analytics from ContentSquare analyzed over 29 million online shopping sessions across 14 retail accounts during the 3.5 month holiday to get a sense of what items people are abandoning in their carts - and why.
Walmart continues to explore ways to reach new customers. Their tech incubator is reportedly in the early stages of piloting a shopping service and at wealthy New York City moms.
We take a look at the winners and losers in eCommerce for 2017 and make our predictions for 2018. This is our final show for 2017, will be back on January 2, 2018.
Poland’s lawmakers have approved a law that will phase out Sunday shopping by the year 2020, as the government pushes ahead with what it sees as a return to Roman Catholic values. The bill passed despite criticism that it may eliminate thousands of jobs.
More people than ever doing your holiday shopping online. And that’s putting extraordinary pressure on package delivery services like UPS and FedEx as they face unusually high daily package volumes.
Macy’s said last week that it had a strong start to the holiday season, and would hire an additional 7000 seasonal workers to help with the heavy customer volume in the weeks before Christmas.
Amazon’s Alexa for Business allows users to book conference rooms, begin video conferences, and print documents among a multitude of other common office tasks.
Retail giant Walmart, DHL, and others have pre-ordered the new Tesla Semi’s for testing. The new trucks will be 20% more efficient than a standard diesel fuel truck.
Walmart has been quietly raising prices on their website for consumer goods in an effort to boost profits, drive store traffic and compete with Amazon.
Kroger wants to be known for more than groceries. The supermarket chain announced Friday morning that it’s launching an apparel brand in the fall of next year.
It is surprising move, Amazon stated last week that it was ending it’s Fresh delivery service in several states. Amazon stated that deliveries in selected areas would stop on November 30.
Based on feedback from customers, Target will dial back the presence of Christmas signs and displays at the front entrance is of their stores until after Thanksgiving.
Burberry is the latest luxury brand to experiment with augmented reality, adding AR to its smart phone app as fashion retailers look for new ways to engage with big spenders online.
A recent survey noted that 68% of mobile users want to do more than just browse and shop on e-commerce apps: they also want access to offers, deals, rewards programs as well as a AR capabilities.
The retailer is testing out shelf-scanning robots in more than 50 stores across the US. Their sole purpose is to scan the shelves, looking for sold out, missing or missed placed items.
Despite the fact that many Black Friday sales now begin on Thanksgiving, numerous stores remain reluctant to open their doors. Over 75 well-known retailers are expected to be closed.
Target took aim at Amazon and Walmart on Monday, announcing it will offer free holiday shipping starting in November and offer over 1700 items priced at $15 and under.