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.
The UPU on Wednesday approved a compromise plan that will let countries set their own inbound postal rates, avoiding a threatened pullout by the U.S. that would have caused shipping chaos ahead of the peak holiday season. The U.S. can begin imposing self-declared rates next July, with others following in 2021.
Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime on the grocery side, Delivery Unlimited, is expanding nationwide, the company said, reaching 1,400 U.S. stores now and 1,600 by the end of the year. The program had been piloted in Houston, Miami, Salt Lake City and Tampa, and will now be in all 200 markets where grocery delivery is available.
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.
Adding robotics capabilities to its new fulfillment service launched in June, major SMB ecommerce platform Shopify is acquiring 6 River Systems for $450 million, the companies announced, making it the first platform firm with this capability for its ecommerce seller customers worldwide.
Amazon once again hit the number-one spot in terms of brand loyalty as it did in 2018, according to Brand Key’s annual Loyalty Leaders survey, beating out major players like Google, Samsung and Apple atop the list. Here are other retailers that made the loyalty list.
Amazon and Home Depot will become tenants of a new state-of-the-art, three-story warehouse and fulfillment center in Seattle from logistics giant Prologis, part of the huge push to fulfill ecommerce within a day in major urban markets, according to the Wall Street Journal. Three other such buildings are going up in New York City.
Amazon and Walmart will continue to slug it out atop the world of global e-grocery food sales, with the ecommerce giant projected to pass the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer by 2024 with revenues of $15 billion, compared to $14 billion, according to a new report from research firm Edge by Ascential. The projected CAGR through 2024 is 13%.
Walmart is offering three-hour delivery for certain home goods and technology products in Mexico, as it battles Amazon in the major Latin American market, according to Reuters. The new service covers 12,000 items including laptops, cell phones, televisions and clothing irons and is supported by two new ecommerce fulfillment centers.
Target has now expanded its Drive Up curbside pickup service to about 1,750 stores in all 50 states, a first in retail, two years after its launch as an insourced offering when a pilot failed with an outside provider. Just weeks ago,Target announced an expansion of the service to 1,500 stores in time for the busy back-to-school season.