It is probably not a coincidence that Amazon Payments and PayPal both announced record number of users following what’s been the most successful holiday season for mobile commerce. With great technology comes great responsibility, and Amazon Payments and PayPal have both risen to the challenge of providing a seamless user experience as mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay gain prominence.
Reuters reported Tuesday that payment volume through Pay with Amazon service on other retailers’ sites rose 150% in 2015 from a year earlier. The average size of an order was $84 during the same period. Amazon did not provide total value of those sales or other financial detail, other than an average order size of $84.
PayPal said it grew its active account base by 6.6 million in the fourth quarter, ending the year with 179 million active customer accounts. PayPal processed 1.4 billion payment transactions during the quarter, which translates to 27 payment transactions per active account, an increase from 25 transactions per active account compared to the same period last year.
PayPal attributes its growth to a few things: First, the acquisition of Xoom Corporation, which helped accelerate its growth in the global remittances market with a leading mobile innovator in this space (and add 1.6 million active customer accounts to the PayPal platform). It also expanded its technology platform, and further solidified its role as the operating system for digital payments worldwide, by signing business deals with new partners, including First Data, Alibaba Wholesale, and Facebook Messenger, giving PayPal expanded opportunities to increase customer engagement and gain market share.
Amazon attributed its successful growth to, well, nothing… But, hey, that’s Amazon…
Meanwhile, Multichannel Merchant has its own news regarding both Amazon and PayPal this week:
- Melissa O’Malley, PayPal’s Global Merchant and Cross Border Trade Initiatives, will deliver the opening keynote at Multichannel Merchant’s Growing Global 2016 April 13-14 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, OH.
- ChannelAdvisor and Multichannel Merchant are offering up a free webinar on Wednesday, February 3, that will recap the top changes Amazon made in 2015 that affect sellers now. You can click here to register for “Everything Amazon: How to Keep Up with the Latest Changes,” and to find out more information on this free webinar.
– Intro by Multichannel Merchant Managing Editor Tim Parry.
Here’s a look at this weeks’ news, commentary and events that shaped the direct-to-customer world… and more… And after you’re done reading this, please take our MCM Outlook 2016 survey. You may win a $500 American Express gift card!
Marketing
Are you leveraging your marketing database? This new report by Multichannel Merchant gives you and inside look on how to do that….Amazon to debut Superbowl Ad with actor Alec Baldwin…Calvin Klein launched new global campaign asking shoppers to tell it, “I __ in #MyCalvins, encouraging shoppers to fill in the blank and engage with the brand by using their own words…Are you thinking of your product page as the equivalent to a store associate? This blog post by Curalate offered 3 Best Practices for Ecommerce Product Page Design … When the weather outside is frightful, it’s important to segment your emails for weather-related events, this blog post by Listrak offers some good tips.
Ecommerce
Demandware and eBay Enterprise have announced an alliance to develop a fully enabled omnichannel solution… Here are some good insights into why Walmart has decided to consolidate its ecommerce and store operations. … While finding that ecommerce transactions increased 21% during the 2015 holiday season, ACI Worldwide also found that fraud was on the rise in the period, especially for buy online, pickup in store and e-gift cards… Yottaa launched the Customer Experience Index (CEXi), designed to help online businesses benchmark web performance and user experience…
Operations
Uber is entering the same-day delivery market with UberRush, but Forrester’s Sucharita Mulpuru doesn’t see customers craving to get things immediately from retailers including Nordstrom, Rent the Runway, 1800Flowers, Cole Haan and Google Express… Ecommerce marketplace startup Jet.com has opened a 160,000-square-foot distribution center outside of Reno, NV, while FedEx plans to open a 300,000-square-foot facility in Baltimore, on the site of a former Bethlehem Steel factory. … Amazon has leased a 17,500-square-foot building in its hometown of Seattle that could be used for a distribution center – or is it something else? Meanwhile the company launched Prime Now in Liverpool, England. … What safety stock? Macy’s has launched Pick to the Last Unit (P2LU), which allows it to fulfill orders even when there is only one item in stock, at the store or online. The RFID-based technology is from Tyco Retail Systems. … A federal judge in New York has dismissed an anti-racketeering lawsuit that alleged FedEx Ground inflated package weights and improperly charged shippers duty fees for shipments into Canada.
… And more
So, Circuit City is making a comeback, and new owners Ronny Shmoel and Albert Liniado envision 5,000 to 10,000 stores in the next five years…Going against the trend of brick-and-mortar consolidation, Under Armour plans to open 200 new store locations in 2016, according to its CEO. …Etsy will open a shop in Macy’s Herald Square location in New York City… Quiksilver confirmed U.S. plan for reorganization…Swanson Health Products acquired by Swander Pace Capital… Alibaba Group posted some impressive quarterly sales figures… 1-800-FLOWERS.com Inc. reported strong operational growth for the second quarter… The volume of wine shipped from wineries to consumers increased by 8.5% in 2015. … Quicksilver expects to emerge from bankruptcy on or around the week of February 8.