Digital and e-commerce news - July 2022
Here below you can find my selection of most interesting digital and e-commerce news that I have read and collected in July. Have a good read!
Amazon Prime Day 2022 results are out and it was, of course, the biggest Prime Day event ever.
Credits: Amazon
2022 Prime Day event (July 12 and 13) was Amazon’s biggest Prime Day ever. More than 300 million products have been sold globally (+20% vs 2021), for a total of $ 12 billion in sales. Amazon shared that Prime members worldwide purchased more than 100,000 items per minute with Consumer Electronics, Home, and Amazon Devices as some of the best-selling categories. Prime Day also generated more than $ 3 billion in sales for small businesses.
This year, Prime Day was live for Prime members in 20 countries, with Sweden and Poland as new joiners. In addition, it was the first time with Amazon Live, Amazon’s live-streaming, that in the US reached more than 100 million views.
Read more here.
TikTok starts selling fresh food in the UK.
Credits: TikTok
In the UK, TikTok users can now shop for fresh food directly into the app. Indeed, many food brands (Pasta Evangelists is one of them) launched this service which allows customers to complete the order inside the brand page and receive it from the brand itself. The #FoodTok tag has reached more than 26 billion views, so brands can exploit this visibility to improve their content with creators and offer exclusive deals.
Read the news here.
YouTube is partnering with Shopify and launching new shopping features.
Social commerce continues to evolve and YouTube wants to stay ahead of the game. Thanks to a collaboration with Shopify, YouTube creators (US, Brazil, India) can now include instant purchases of products inside their videos. Viewers can complete the purchase while watching the video, so creators can retain their viewers. In addition to this, merchants could leverage this new service also on YouTube Live and inside their page, where they can add a Store tab with all their products.
Read more here.
The 2022 European E-commerce Report is out with some interesting insights.
Thanks to the Centre for Market Insights of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences we can now have a look at what happened in 2021 in the European e-commerce panorama. Key highlights:
In 2021, e-commerce grew to € 718 bn (+13% vs 2020). Expected growth rate for 2022 is lower (+11%) with a final turnover of € 797 bn;
The sector generates 1 out of 7 jobs in Europe (26 million people) and it is expected to reach 30% of total retail turnover by 2030;
Western Europe is the leading region for e-commerce turnover share (63%) and value (€ 449 bn). However, Northern Europe has the highest share of e-shoppers (86%).
Light version (105 pages) of the report here.
Instagram launches the new in-chat payments function.
Credits: Instagram
Is not a secret that Meta is focusing a lot on e-commerce and this last Instagram feature is a confirmation. Since July, Instagram users can now shop directly from posts and complete in-chat payments. Customers can easily get in touch with a verified merchant, ask questions directly, make the purchase, and complete the payment within the same thread. Payments will go through Meta Pay.
Read the news here.
The dark side of uncontrolled pandemic growth is now hitting a lot of tech companies.
In the past few months, we have read about tech start-ups laying off their employees in the name of profitability or changes in strategy (probably just some inflated growth expectations?). Unfortunately, this trend continues and other tech companies like Shopify, Robinhood, and Netflix started cutting their workforce. Many other companies are freezing their hiring (Google, Apple, Microsoft).
In this article from Bloomberg you can explore how staffing needs are changing in the tech industry.
Amazon acquires iRobot, Roomba vacuum cleaner producer, for $ 1.7 billion.
Everyone was expecting Amazon to reduce its commitment to its own devices, but the news of Amazon acquiring iRobot with an all-cash deal of $ 1.7 billion comes as a surprise. With more than 30 million units sold in 2020, iRobot focus is to make customers’ lives easier with innovative products. The same customer-centric approach for which Amazon is famous. According to Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices:” We know that saving time matters, and chores take precious time that can be better spent doing something that customers love. Over many years, the iRobot team has proven its ability to reinvent how people clean with products that are incredibly practical and inventive […] I’m excited to work with the iRobot team to invent in ways that make customers’ lives easier and more enjoyable”.
However, this deal raised the attention of antitrust and privacy policy experts. After Alexa and Ring, Roomba can bring a lot of data about customers’ homes. So the two companies must convince regulators that they are maintaining the proper privacy safeguards.
Read the news here.
