Instagram has launched an in-app checkout feature for retailers, which lets customers tap, view and purchase products from a brand’s shopping post, providing another revenue stream for the Facebook-owned company on top of advertising.
Every company that dives into the world of ecommerce starts with the platform that works best for them at the time. Here is how to know whether it is time for a new ecommerce platform.
Expanding on the success of its return bars in shopping malls, Happy Returns has created in-store kiosks where retailers can let customers do self-service returns, with a number of major chains kicking the tires as a possible launch partner. See how the solution works to solve the issues related to in-store ecommerce returns.
Target reported a strong fourth quarter for ecommerce with digital sales up 31%, hitting $5 billion for the year, a five-fold increase since 2012. Overall comp sales were up 5.3% in Q4 on traffic growth of 4.5%, but revenue was flat at $23 billion.
Late to the ecommerce game, Marshalls is launching an online store later this year, its parent company, TJX Companies Inc. announced during its fourth quarter earnings call.
Ecommerce home furnishings giant Wayfair increased its fourth quarter sales 40.6% to $1.99 billion, but saw its Q4 net loss balloon to $143.8 million, nearly doubling the $72.8 million loss from the same period in 2017. The company accentuated the positive, emphasizing its holiday season and flash sale performance to analysts.
Walmart continues to see strong topline growth in ecommerce, with online revenue increasing 43% in the fourth quarter and 40% for the full year. But profit in the channel remains elusive and losses are expected to continue this year based on investments in infrastructure, people, online grocery and Store No. 8 initiatives, executives said.
Given the rapid pace of change, how forward looking are your operations and fulfillment strategies, and are you pursuing the right ones? Ecommerce Operations Summit (April 9-11, Columbus), is an excellent way to evaluate emerging trends. Here are some highlights we found in the conference agenda, and why they’re beneficial.
Amazon, bowing to local opposition, is backing out of a planned East coast headquarters in Long Island City, NY. Opponents of the $3 billion in tax breaks and incentives gained more fuel when it was learned Amazon will pay no federal income tax for the second year in a row. Plans are on track for facilities in Arlington, VA and Nashville, TN.
Designed for web-first, monolithic commerce platforms are generally hardwired to their desktop and mobile front ends, and are not designed for contextual device or use case specific experiences now expected of them. Enter microservices architecture, solving the pain of legacy architecture and siloed systems. Here’s how it works.