Week in Review: Amazon Wants You to Deliver

Amazon is trying to make delivery even faster by turning the U.S. into a Nation of Couriers… Who needs drones when you can have an Uber-like delivery experience? You think that’s crazy? Just remember the Roadie and Waffle House deal we wrote about in February

Here’s a look at the news, commentary and events that shaped the direct-to-customer world this week…

Marketing

share-this-icon-75X75Some executives from J. Crew are in hot water after they posted post-layoff party celebration pics to Instagram. J. Crew’s first-quarter sales were down 5%, by the way… Twitter is testing product pages. And it’s not just because we’re ready to shop the way Ellen DeGeneres shops… Product identifiers including brand name, manufacturer part number and more will be required for new eBay listings of branded items in “new” and “manufacturer-refurbished” condition within many categories starting June 29… This study by Yesmail suggests multichannel social media use is on the rise… Help wanted: Needle is looking for a public relations agency of record… Nuts.com selected Sidecar to optimize its Google Shopping campaignsMonetate says product recommendations are key to driving ecommerce performance. Evergage agreesNewEggBusiness has launched a loyalty program for B2B customers… Bass Pro Shops wants adults to “Teach a Child to Fish“… Rue La La is successfully reactivating its dormant customers…

Ecommerce

Add-To-Cart-Icon-75X75DSW is expanding its omnichannel capabilities and looking to build on its 2014 cross-channel results, a year after merging store and .com operations… Is ordering by text the next big thing for Dominos?… SuitePOS for NetSuite has been certified for Avalara’s sales tax automation solution… Hall of Fame golfer Eddie Merrins is now blogging for GlobalGolf.comPipettes has relaunched its ecommerce site. the relaunch makes it easier for scientific labs looking to purchase pipettes, benchtop equipment and related lab supplies to navigate… StellaService honored vitamin seller iHerb with its Elite Seal… Fahrney’s Pens has migrated its ecommerce site to Ability Commerce’s ERP Platform… MasterCard will offer tokenization services to merchants with app, ecommerce, and recurring billing card-on-file programs… Ecommerce continues to perform exceptionally well for Pier 1 Imports, accounting for nearly 17% of total sales in the first quarter.

Shipping and Delivery

shipping-delivery-75X75Amazon quietly expanded Prime to include items that will be shipped direct from the merchant… Amazon also plans to open a new fulfillment center in Dallas, the third in North Texas and the fourth in the state… Lenox is moving its Pennsylvania operations to Washington County, Maryland… Dayco Products plans to shut down its three distribution centers in Cumberland and Robeson counties in North Carolina by the end of the first quarter of 2016… A distribution center consolidation will allow HSN Inc. to trim 5% of its workforce, merging operations in Virginia with a center in Tennessee. The plan will cut 350 jobs and leave the company three distribution centers in Tennessee, California and New York… Ace Hardware Corp. will expand its Wilton, NY distribution center, adding 400,000 square feet onto an existing 800,000-square-foot facility. Work on the facility starts this fall… UPS has acquired Parcel Pro to bolster insurance of luxury goods shipments…

Cross-border

global-ecommerce-icon-75X75Toys R Us, Inc. has announced the completion of its new distribution center in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, France to support the company’s rapidly expanding ecommerce business throughout the country and in select sections of Europe… You say you want inexpensive contact lenses? India is the place to buy… Also in India, NASSCON has partnered with Symantec to build cyber security skills there… Korean cross-border shopping malls are tapping into the markets in Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, and Australia. Only 40% of consumers trust brands that don’t translate… Mobile device maker ZTE expects smartphone sales in Russia to triple this year. ZTE made that same prediction on the same day that China’s JD.com chose ZTE as one of its first partners to sell smartphones on its new ecommerce platform for Russia… One-day orders on June 18, the day of JD.com’s Anniversary Sale, increased more than 100% compared to last year. Borderfree, which was recently acquired by Pitney Bowes, has added 120 markets, including Nigeria and Kazakhstan…

Mergers and Acquisitions

mergers-and-acquisitions-75X75Authentic Brands Group, LLC announced it has acquired the iconic lingerie brand Frederick’s Of Hollywood… Four months after entering into a definitive agreement with Staples, Office Depot, Inc. shareholders almost unanimously agreed to the merger… Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company will acquire Metro’s department store group GALERIA Kaufhof and its Belgian subsidiary Inno for a transaction value of €2.825 billion, and expand its global ecommerce presence… Solutions provider Valid USA, Inc. has completed the acquisition of Marketing Software Company (MSC)… Connexity has acquired PriceGrabber… Unnamed sources tell Bloomberg News that eBay plans to sell its eBay Enterprise division by July 1, when the company will split its PayPal division… CVS Health will acquire Target Corp.’s pharmacy business for nearly $2 billion