Digital and e-commerce news - September 2022

Below you can find my selection of the most interesting digital and e-commerce news I read and collected in September. Have a good read!

Q-Commerce is moving outside grocery and rolling out new services.

In Stockholm, Foodora (Delivery Hero) users can now request a dry cleaning pick-up service, a cleaner for their house/car, or a doctor consultation call in less than 30 minutes. Read more here.

My bit

Q-commerce players are experiencing minor growth in grocery delivery services after Covid, but they can rely on 1) a solid base of users accustomed to new shopping behaviors and 2) new online trends (e.g. online health and mental services). Do we really need everything in less than 30 minutes? What could be the next crossroad between q-commerce and digital/physical products?

Walmart launches virtual try-on feature to let customers be their own model.

Credits: Walmart

After acquiring Zeekit 2021, Walmart has now enhanced its virtual try-on service with a new feature called “Be Your Own Model”. Now, customers can upload a photo on Walmart’s app and the new neural network-powered feature will analyze images of garments and rework them to create a customized dressed image. In this way, users can see themselves as models and try more than 270,000 different garments. Read more here.

Amazon unveils new marketing services for its sellers.

Amazon is never tired of listening to customers’ feedback and innovating. This time, during the Accelerate conference, Amazon announced new marketing tools that could help sellers to accelerate their growth. In particular, we are speaking of:

1) Tailored Audience. A new tool that will allow sellers to target repeat, highest spending, and new customers with customized communication about new offers, deals, etc.

2) Customers ask Alexa. A new box inside Seller Central where brand owners can provide more info about their own products to help Amazon’s voice assistant to answer customers’ questions.

3) Buy with Prime marketing features. After launching the new service in April, Amazon is pushing its adoption through funding co-branded ads and thanks to sponsored ads redirecting customers to brands’ own websites.

You can find the news here.

Google Maps implements new features for checking vibes and for eco-friendly routes.

With the new Neighborhood Vibe feature, Google Maps allows users to check instantly how are the vibes in a chosen area before getting there. Is it stylish? Does it have good food? Google wants its community to be more engaged also through photos, videos, and information. Read here about it.

In addition, Google is pushing to cut down emissions thanks to the expansion of eco-friendly routes in Europe. With this feature, users choose the vehicle they are using (such as a gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric) and receive an estimate of how much gasoline or energy will be used along a certain route, defined as the most eco-friendly one. Learn more here.

Adobe ‘bets’ $ 20 billion on Figma acquisition.

“If you can’t fight them, join them”. This is what Adobe should have thought when proposing the $ 20 billion deal to buy Figma, one of its biggest competitors in the digital design world. While this massive acquisition could land on the desk of antitrust authorities, the digital design community is waiting to see how Figma will be integrated with Adobe’s products suite. Figma has always been seen as a disruptor. It challenged the big corps with its browser-based and collaborative features. So, Figma's four million users may still want that feeling of independence and flexibility or they could leave.

Read the news here.

A new partnership between WhatsApp and Salesforce will bring new ways to communicate with customers.

Credits: Salesforce

Salesforce’s users can now communicate instantly with their customers through WhatsApp business. Indeed, a new Kantar research suggests that 66% of customers prefer to interact with businesses through conversational and instant interaction. So, with this API integration between WhatsApp and Salesforce CRM, the two companies are helping businesses to build more personal and customized relationships with their customers.

Read more here.