Amazon plans to open a chain of grocery stores in the U.S. beginning with locations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. See whether Amazon competes with its own Whole Foods chains in the grocery arena.
eBay announced the resignation of President and CEO Devin Wenig, who said in departing after eight years at the helm that he’s been out of sync with the company’s new board, of which he was a member. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Scott Schenkel, eBay’s senior vice president and CFO.
Investigators from the FTC have begun interviewing merchants selling on Amazon’s third-party marketplace in an attempt to ascertain if the ecommerce giant is using anti-competitive practices, according to a report in Bloomberg. They’re asking merchants how much business they do on Amazon.com vs. other major marketplaces.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, and Bob Menendez, D-NJ, wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos questioning how Amazon chooses which products to put on its “Amazon’s Choice” recommendation list.
Prime Day saw 175 million items purchased by Prime members over the two days, according to Amazon, eclipsing its 2018 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined, while analysts pegged total GMV at $6 billion to $6.2 billion. See what other interesting statistics we found to paint a picture of the concocted “Christmas in July.”
Large U.S. retailers over $1 billion saw a nice Prime Day bump on July 15 according to data from Adobe Analytics, with a 64% increase in sales vs. a typical Monday, up from 54% last year. Smaller retailers under $5 million, meanwhile, realized a smaller 30% sales lift, Adobe said. Meanwhile, some checkout glitches recurred this year.
Prime Day, running for 48 hours on July 15-16, is expected to generate $5.8 billion in global sales, with an estimated 250 retailers drafting in its wake as more of them realize the huge potential. Also, Prime membership has grown to 105 million in the U.S., and electronics, home goods and apparel are the hot categories.
Amazon’s Prime Day 2018 became the biggest shopping day in its history, beating out Cyber Monday and Black Friday, resulting in a whopping 100 million products sold and an estimated $3.4 billion in sales. With the July event continuing to expand both on and off Amazon, it is critical for retailers and brands to have a strategy in place to win this year’s Prime Day, even when you’re not Amazon. Here are four ways to help retailers have an Prime Day strategy of their own.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), whose members include Walmart, Target, The Home Depot and Best Buy, wrote a 10-page letter to the Federal Trade Commission dated June 30 urging the FTC to look into competitive conduct by big tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.
Marketplace facilitators like Amazon, Etsy, Rakuten, Walmart.com and eBay, are now required in 10 states to collect and remit sales tax resulting from third-party transactions, and several additional states will follow suit. Preparation is the name of the game to be compliant with ever-changing tax legislation.