Welcome to RepricerExpress’ weekly round-up of the top five stories from the world of Amazon and ecommerce.
Coinstar and Amazon to let customers deposit cash to Amazon accounts at coin-counting kiosks: Taylor Soper at GeekWire reports that Amazon this week announced an integration with Coinstar, which is adding Amazon Cash deposit capability at its coin-counting kiosks. Amazon Cash debuted last year and lets people pay for products on its site without the need for a credit/debit card or bank account, and without any fees. Now at select Coinstar kiosks with bill acceptors, customers can deposit paper bills (not coins) into their Amazon Cash account for any amount between $5 and $500. There are no fees required to use the new service, which only requires a phone number for an Amazon Cash account. Continue reading…
Amazon is making it harder and harder to quit Prime: Dennis Green at Business Insider reports that last week Prime members were given another perk: big discounts at Whole Foods, to be rolled out at stores this summer. Amazon keeps adding perks just when customers might quit over rising prices. The value of Prime has risen steadily as Amazon has added more benefits to the program over the years. A recent JP Morgan analysis estimated that the service is actually worth $785 a year when everything it offers is counted together. That’s six and a half times the actual cost of an annual Prime subscription, even with the price increase. Continue reading…
Amazon is selling police departments a real-time facial recognition system: Russell Brandom at The Verge reports that documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California have shed new light on Rekognition, Amazon’s little-known facial recognition project. Rekognition is currently used by police in Orlando and Oregon’s Washington County, often using nondisclosure agreements to avoid public disclosure. The result is a powerful real-time facial recognition system that can tap into police body cameras and municipal surveillance systems. Continue reading…
Amazon made the Fortune 500’s top 10 for the first time ever: Kira Bindrim at Quartz reports Fortune released its annual Fortune 500 ranking of the US’s largest companies today (May 21), and while Walmart made history—it’s the first American company to boast $500 billion in annual sales—Amazon had its own coming-out party, making the top 10 for the first time. Jeff Bezos’ bookseller-turned-behemoth ranked eighth this year, up from 12th in 2017, a jump Fortune credits its rapid growth—revenue has increased $70 billion in two years—as well as its overseas expansion and the rise of Amazon Web Services. Continue reading…
Amazon is punishing customers who return too many items: Kate Taylor at Business Insider UK reports that Amazon is said to be barring customers the company thinks have returned too many items. The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday documented complaints that the ecommerce giant had barred customers who had returned items. Amazon apparently failed to alert the customers that they had returned too many items before the bans. The Journal spoke with two people and cited dozens more online who said they had been barred from Amazon, as well as others who received emails from the company after returning some items. Continue reading…
Bonus: Seller’s Guide to Amazon Product Reviews
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