)Peak Season Coming Soon!
The most interesting news of last week was the third party seller’s sales growing by 60% to 3.5Bln during Amazon Prime Day. This shows the importance and growth of small and medium size enterprises on the marketplace
Also…
Zalando buy body scanning startup
Shopify Fulfillment Network gaining momentum
Walmart divides black Friday into 3 dates to manage demand
Quince launches ‘manufacturer-to-customer’ model
Nuvemshop (Latin American answer to Shopify) raises $30 million
Amazon says third-party sellers made more than $3.5 billion from Prime Day
“Amazon said third-party sellers on its marketplace earned more than $3.5 billion during this year’s Prime Day shopping event, an increase of nearly 60% compared with last year and a record for the small and midsize businesses that make up the marketplace”
It seems that the strategy to bring more and more 3rd Party Sellers to become the core of Amazon business is gaining momentum. At a time when Amazon faces a lot of criticism on their dominant position, these kind of data & results helps the company image…
Zalando Secures Deal To Buy Body Scanning Start-Up
“European online marketplace Zalando has announced the acquisition of Swiss computer vision technology company, Fision. The newly acquired business has a body scanning app and virtual dressing room product that enables online customers to see how their garment would fit on their body prior to purchase.”
The implementation of these kind of technologies is going to be critical for any online sellers. These technologies not only allow to grow the conversion on the platform but also reduce one of the biggest pain which is the amount of returned products.
Surging Online Sales Drive Growth for Shopify’s Fulfillment Service
“The Shopify Fulfillment Network that handles the storing, packing and shipping of goods for online sellers “enrolled more merchants and increased our fulfillment volume…by two-and-a-half times over Q1” in the second quarter, Thomas Epting, director of the network, told The Wall Street Journal.”
In June 2019, Shopify announced a 1Bln investment to build a logistics network to serve the 1M merchants it has on the platform.
In Sep 2019, the company purchased 6 river systems which is a robotic company showing the ambition of the company.
These strategic moves from SHOP show the importance of supply chain & logistics in order to be successful in this space (Amazon has been investing Billions every years for the last 25 years). Logistics is the new black and that’s why you see the investments in this space growing significantly!
Walmart divides Black Friday deals into 3 separate events that kick off online
As COVID is still impacting our daily life, companies have to find innovative way to perform effectively in Q4 as this is the most critical time of the year for any retailers.
Walmart strategy to split the sale event into multiple dates combined with online & offline sales is a great approach in my view as it will allow the company to ensure the volume will be spread into multiple dates as well as ensuring the safety of people while in stores.
“Walmart’s first Black Friday event will start online Nov. 4 and in stores Nov. 7 and feature toys, electronics and home products. The second event, focused on electronics such as TVs, smartphones, computers and tablets along with some items from other merchandise categories, will begin online Nov. 11 and in stores Nov. 14. And the third event will kick off online Nov. 25 and in stores Nov. 27”
Quince launches out of beta with new ‘manufacturer-to-customer’ model
As disintermediation continues, a “new” model is growing: Manufacturer to customer.
Quince plan to bring this model to 700 items including men’s and women’s apparel, accessories, jewelry and home goods.
“By working directly with factories, Quince says it’s able to bring the cost of luxury items down significantly, selling a cashmere sweater for approximately $50 instead of $150+, as you’ll often find with other brands. Quince works with more than 30 factories across the world.”
I think this model can allow to streamline the supply chain of many DTC companies as well as improve the costs.
StartUp of the week: Nuvemshop, a Latin American answer to Shopify, raises $30 million
The Shopify for Latin America is rather VTEX or Prestashop rather than Nuvemshop in my opinion! However, it’s Interesting to see that 2 weeks after VTEX raised $225M at a valuation of $1.7Bln, we are seeing more companies raising money in this space.
Nuvemshop power 65,000 businesses on its platform providing everything from billing and payment processing to logistics and shipping solutions transacting over $100 million per month in sales.
Cheers, enjoy
Nabil
Créditos de la imagen: Unsplas.com