Razor Group, a Berlin-based aggregator of top-selling brands, and Factory 14, the UK rollup which it acquired in 2022, are being sued by two companies and their founders — Kettlebell Kings and Tribe WOD — in interlocking charges of breach of contract and failure to live up to purchase agreements by not adequately funding their growth and expansion.
Let the Prime Day show begin! Or rather, make that shows, as Target and Walmart are once again offering up competitive summer bargain events as each tries to shake off the economic doldrums, steal the other’s thunder and stir up consumer interest in a raft of online savings. Amazon could use a win considering all the heat it’s facing, although expectations aren’t set high.
Talk of consolidation in the overcrowded Amazon aggregator space has come to fruition, as Berlin-based SellerX is acquiring Elevate Brands of Austin, giving the new company a combined portfolio of 80 Amazon brands, 40,000 products and a $431 million run rate. It was the second such deal after Suma and D1 Brands tied up in late May.
Just under a quarter of monthly Amazon Prime subscribers (23%) dropped the service for some period of time in the past year, with 41% having it for six months or less, most likely dipping in and out as their needs or checkbook dictate, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) data.
Not unlike Walmart, Qurate Retail Group has divested Zulily to focus on its core business. The once popular flash sale site, targeting young mothers with deals across brands and categories including apparel, home and garden and toys, was sold to Los Angeles-based investment firm Regent. It was purchased in 2013 for $2.4 billion.
eBay Managed Payments is now the method through which all transactions are processed on the platform. The aim was to grant sellers greater control over their online storefront. But what happens when buyers and sellers don’t see eye to eye? Does eBay’s Seller Protection platform protects all stakeholders evenly? What do sellers need to do to protect their business from illegitimate disputes? Read on.
Amazon is inviting other retailers to join an anti-counterfeiting cooperative, begun as a pilot program in 2021 to help stem the flood of illegitimate goods on its marketplace and across the industry, two weeks after filing three separate lawsuits against counterfeiters. The Anti-Counterfeiting Exchange (ACX) grew out of a 20211 pilot by a division of the Department of Homeland Security.
Wish, a once-popular online marketplace for a vast array of often bizarre, inexpensive goods that at one juncture proved to be phantom listings, has conducted a 1-for-30 reverse stock split, a move typically associated with distressed companies in danger of being delisted from an exchange. A 2022 expose found the company listed and sold items it knew didn’t exist.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy kept a positive tone while running down ways that Amazon has had to scale back its business to accommodate shifting conditions in his second annual shareholder letter, including reducing and reconfiguring its fulfillment network and dealing with a slowdown in cloud computing. The company is also trying to figure out a physical grocery model that works, Jassy said.
In a first, Amazon has filed three separate lawsuits against multiple parties it claims submitted thousands of false copyright infringement claims against legitimate sellers, seeking to have their products removed from the marketplace. It has also joined WWE and Cartier in other legal actions against counterfeiters.