Digital and e-commerce news - October 2022
Below you can find my selection of the most interesting digital and e-commerce news I have read and collected in October (plus the first days of November since this month I am a bit late). Have a good read!
Netflix new ad-supported tier is here and advertisers are keen on testing the channel. But ads won’t be the only thing limiting customers’ experience.
In November, Netflix launched its first ever ad-supported basic subscription. It is now live in more than 10 countries and, for $ 6.99, users get four to five minutes of ads per hour. Advertisers could target audience based on country, genre and they can even choose where they don’t want to present (e.g. shows with content not in line with their brand).
However, ads won’t be the only difference with other plans. Indeed, many titles inside Netflix catalogue will be blocked unless users will upgrade their plan.
Read more here.
TikTok could open, for the first time, an e-commerce supply chain system to support sellers growth and improve its social commerce experience.
TikTok is planning to build its own e-commerce operations in the US and help its sellers grow their sales on the app. In particular, by providing warehouse, delivery and returns support TikTok wants to push the growth of its Shop feature.
However, becoming a retailers does not come without challenges. Will brands be happy about sales happening outside their normal channels where customers could be tracked and engaged? In addition, planning the demand (and potential exploding trends) in advance could put a lot of pressure on the system.
Read the news here.
Klarna introducing new features for content creators and tools for enhancing its shopping experience.
Credits: Klarna
Klarna, the famous buy-now-pay later app, made some announcements aimed at being recognized not just as a payment app. The first release is a new app for creators and retailers through which they can collaborate. Retailers can message directly creators, send them products and track performances.
In addition, Klarna implemented two great e-commerce features: shoppable videos and a new search and compare tool. The cool ‘watch and shop’ feature already increased by 3x the click-through-rate of brands. While with the new search tool, customers can control goods on sale, deals, rankings, and other info for their online shopping.
Read more here.
In the US, Gmail will help users tracking their packages by recognizing order emails and tracking numbers.
How many time have you spent looking for the right email and then trying to understand where the shipment you have been waiting for so long was? Well, it will be soon an old problem.
Google just unveiled a new tool for Gmail that makes it simple to track orders you've placed. And to find out when the product will arrive, you don't even need to read the email. If users will opt-in, they will see additional indicators in their inbox showing when a package has shipped and when it’s expected to arrive.
Read more here.
Apple Card allows to deposit daily cash-back in a new high-yield Savings account with no fees and instant withdraw.
Credits: Apple
Starting from October, US Apple Card users will be able to save their Daily Cash and expand their rewards in a high-yield Savings account managed in collaboration with Goldman Sachs. In addition, users may add money to their Savings account through a connected bank account or from their Apple Cash balance. Finally, customers may also withdraw money at any time by making a fee-free transfer.
Read the news here.
Twitter’s rollercoaster weeks after Musk’s establishment and Facebook confirmed layoff.
Netflix has probably already acquired the rights to create a series on what has been going on in Twitter in recent weeks. Let's try to summarize the main (crazy) events:
On October 4th, Elon Musk finally agreed to buy Twitter for $ 44 billion and, a few weeks later, he walked into Twitter’s HQ carrying a sink (“let that sink in” Musk tweeted). In that same day (October 27th), he fired Twitter’s CEO, CFO, head of legal policy, and other managers.
On November 4th, Twitter started laying off 3,700 employees with an email. If an employee was keeping their job, they received an email via their work email — if they had been cut, they were notified on a personal address.
However, just three days later, some former employees were asked to come back since they were fired by mistake. In the meanwhile, things got juicy since Musk promised some new features like a new Twitter Blue experience for verified accounts.
So, with the new blue check marks available for some paying subscribers ($ 8), Twitter’s timeline started to be filled with tweets posted by apparently official accounts. Some examples of fake tweet that backfired on this paid blue marks feature? LeBron James said he was requesting a trade and Pepsi stated that Coke is better.
Credit: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto Via Getty Images / Screenshot: Twitter / @Pepico
In the end, as you might expect, the new paid verification feature has been suspended and Musk affirmed that bankruptcy cannot be excluded.
Twitter’s drama is not developing alone, since Meta has just announced that 13% of the global workforce (around 11,000 employees) will need to leave the company. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” declared Zuckerberg “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”
Read here for some news about Twitter and here for Facebook’s layoff.
