How to Snap Out of Amazon “Stockholm Syndrome”

| Jan-Christopher Nugent

Stockholm Syndrome is what happens when stressed-out captives sometimes end up copying and relating to their captors. In a similar fashion, are we seeing something like an “Amazon Stockholm Syndrome” for retailers and consumer product brands? Is Amazon, by dint of its major influence, forcing others to copy them?

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Pattern Raises $225M, Sees Acceleration as Path to Success

| Mike O'Brien

Pattern, which helps brands expand and grow revenue on marketplaces and other channels, has raised $225 million, bringing its total valuation to over $2 billion as it sees its role as a market accelerator as a more logical path to success than the growing ranks of Amazon brand aggregators.

Amazon Kicks Off Peak Holiday Season Two Months Early

| Mike O'Brien

Amazon has announced a raft of Black Friday-like deals designed to jumpstart the holiday spend quite a bit ahead of time and draft ahead of the rest of the retail pack, capturing early consumer interest and hopefully easing some of the massive network strain later in the season.

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SKUx Creates Digital Currency to Battle Coupon Fraud

| Mike O'Brien

Fintech startup SKUx is looking to create a new category of digital payment to address rampant fraud in online coupons, offers and promotions by using a distributed public ledger system to create serialized, one-time payments that can be tracked and traced.

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Square/Afterpay and the Broader BNPL Trend

| Mike O'Brien

BNPL has caught on more broadly in other markets but it’s certainly poised to catch on here. Square’s pending $29b acquisition of Afterpay is certainly a major indicator, as are other deals. What is the significance of Square/Afterpay, and where is BNPL headed? Rob Galtman, a director at Fitch Ratings, gives us his take.

MCM CommerceChat podcast

Livestreaming Shopping: The New Virtual Mall?

| Mike O'Brien

The last 18 months of lockdowns and restrictions have made it hard for consumers to shop at stores, eliminating the pleasure of leisurely, impulse buying, seeing a product or speaking with an associate. The answer to this problem may be livestreaming shopping. Is it the mall of the future? We talk to Jared Blank of VTEX to learn more.

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Ecommerce Fraud Increasing, But Help Is On the Way

| Mike O'Brien

From account takeover to friendly fraud, phishing, spoofing, counterfeiting, chargebacks and more, there are many ways for fraudsters to disrupt and derail ecommerce. This special report from Multichannel Merchant takes a deep dive into current fraud trends and explores solutions and steps you can take to safeguard against it.

E-Commerce Growth: Emerging Markets Are Key

| Mario Shiliashki

There has never been a better time to be in e-commerce. Multiple factors have combined to bring us to the tipping point for e-commerce adoption, resulting in more opportunities than ever before for online and omnichannel merchants.

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Monoliths vs. Microservices: Decision Time for Ecommerce Brands

| Derek O'Carroll

Monolithic architecture is notoriously inflexible and difficult to scale, as any business that has tried to integrate it with other tech platforms and APIs can attest. Increasingly, brands are growing tired of big bills for relatively small changes, slowdowns and crashes and other disruptions, leading many to explore the option of microservices.

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Best Buy Focusing on Future Success Through Inclusion

| Mike O'Brien

Companies need to be more inclusive and diverse to remain competitive by attracting upcoming generations, while creating opportunities where they don’t exist today, said Mark Irvin, Chief Inclusion, Diversity and Talent Officer. He made his remarks during a keynote presentation at Ecommerce Operations Summit 2021 in Nashville.