Welcome to RepricerExpress’ weekly round-up of the top five stories from the world of Amazon and ecommerce.
Amazon investigates claims staff are leaking data for bribes: Julia Kollewe at The Guardian reports that Amazon is investigating claims that employees have taken bribes for leaking confidential sales information, particularly in China, as it battles to stamp out fake reviews and other seller scams. Employees are offering internal data, via intermediaries, to independent merchants selling their products on the site to help them increase their sales in return for payments, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sellers, brokers and people familiar with internal investigations. Continue reading…
Amazon launches ‘Storefronts’ as it promotes smaller US businesses: David Reid at CNBC reports that Amazon has opened an online store where shoppers can buy specifically from US small and medium-size businesses. Unveiled on Monday, “Amazon Storefronts” is accessible from the Amazon.com homepage and directs shoppers to nearly 20,000 American shops across the 50 states. Online customers can search for goods through 25 product categories, such as back to school, home, kitchen, pet supplies and books. Amazon vice-president Nicholas Denissen said the ecommerce giant was showing its commitment to small and medium-size businesses as well as “championing their success”. Continue reading…
Amazon opens its first cashier-less Go store outside of Seattle: Shannon Liao at The Verge reports that Amazon is opening its first cashier-less grocery store outside of its hometown of Seattle. The new store is opening in Chicago today. Like the other stores before it, it’s open long hours (from 7AM to 8PM), and it doesn’t have any checkout lines. Amazon has three other Amazon Go stores, all in Seattle, that it launched between 2016 and this year. They’re each the size of a small convenience store, which is far smaller than the average US supermarket. Similar to a 7-Eleven, Amazon Go mainly sells ready-made lunches, drinks, snacks, frozen dinners, and basic groceries. Continue reading…
Amazon launches in Turkey: Joe at Marketplace Pulse reports that this week Turkey became Amazon’s 14th global marketplace after launching in Australia in December. According to our research, the marketplace launched with over 1,200 sellers on day one, all based in Turkey, mostly in the tree largest cities Istanbul, Ankar and İzmir. Sellers have already made more than two million products available. Turkey represents company’s first European launch outside the European Union (EU) market. Continue reading…
Two-thirds of Amazon Prime members would try banking: Hugh Son at CNBC reports that About two-thirds of Amazon Prime members would try a free online bank account from the ecommerce giant, according to a report from consultant Bain & Co. That’s considerably higher than the percentage of regular Amazon customers (43 percent) or non-Amazon customers (37 percent) who would try an account, indicating strong loyalty to the Prime bundle of services. Expectations have been high since it was reported in March that Amazon is in talks with banks including J.P. Morgan Chase and Capital One to create a checking-account-like product for its customers. Continue reading…
Bonus: How to Get a #1 Physical Product Bestseller on Amazon
Quote of the week:
“Always deliver more than expected.”
Larry Page, Google
Happy weekend!
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