This holiday shopping season promises to be another marathon for e-commerce brands, filled with the expected twists and turns that a three-month shopping period brings. Although, while an extended shopping period might sound like good news for e-commerce brands wanting to capitalize on the season, one already prominent thorn in the side threatens to dampen the mood: inexpensive online marketplaces.

In the face of a global downturn in the luxury market, identifying new avenues for innovation has become a pivotal challenge for leading luxury brands. China’s luxury market is transforming, characterized by the rise of new consumers, accelerated digitalization, and shifting consumption patterns, each having a significant impact on the industry. As the birthplace of fashion trends in China, Xiaohongshu has emerged as the go-to social media platform for brands looking to establish a foothold in the Chinese market, engage in meaningful conversations with consumers, and drive growth.

Amazon, in its quest for greater efficiency, has developed new systems to shave seconds off each package delivery and to help customers make faster buying choices, even for new product types that they may know little about. The company announced Wednesday it has created spotlights within its trucks to guide delivery people to packages for each stop along a route.

The technology, which Amazon is calling Vision Assisted Package Retrieval, works by shining a green light on packages so that the deliverer does not have to waste precious seconds reading labels.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed ahead of Amazon Prime Day, a new AI feature from the e-commerce giant may help you score everything you want, even the items you don’t yet know you want to buy. Amazon announced this week that customers will have a more personalized experience when shopping by employing large language models (LLMs) to match individual preferences and provide more relevant product information.

Ikea is planning to rival online furniture resale platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Shpock with the launch of its new peer-to-peer marketplace.

The Swedish giant is trialling a platform which allows customers to sell their unwanted Ikea pieces in Madrid in Spain, and Oslo inNorway, before looking to expand the model to more cities.

Global retail boss Tolga Öncü explains the vast majority of home furnishings that are being sold between consumers are Ikea products and as such, “there is a big opportunity to help facilitate that, with more easy access to Ikea data about those products”.

The back-to-school season is upon us, and for retailers, it represents a golden opportunity. As the second-largest shopping event of the year, back-to-school shopping provides a crucial chance for brands to boost their profitability. Americans spent a staggering $135.5 billion on back-to-school and back-to-college shopping in 2023, and this figure is projected to skyrocket to $189.7 billion by 2028. We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to help digital marketers leverage Google Ads, Amazon Ads, and paid social to make the most of this peak period.

A visit to the Amazon “Just Walk Out” lab revealed the omnichannel giant’s visionary and open approach to its cashierless shopping platform. I recently had the opportunity to participate in a press tour of the labs and offices where Amazon develops its “ Just Walk Out” checkout-free shopping platform, which is both used by Amazon and licensed to third-party retailers.

While I have already covered the new multi-modal artificial intelligence foundation Amazon is using to support Just Walk Out (which itself is based on  generative AI technology), in this week’s column I want to take a closer look at a few strategic elements underpinning Amazon’s growth-oriented technological approach to frictionless shopping.

What is the most important thing for marketplace sellers? Exactly, the Buy Box! If you don’t have the Buy Box for your products on marketplaces, you are at an enormous competitive disadvantage. Between 50 and 80% of all sales go to the Buy Box on marketplaces (depending on the marketplace). So how can a retailer increase the chances of winning the Buy Box?

This article serves as your strategic playbook, offering a balanced blend of insights and actionable strategies to conquer the Buy Box across Europe’s most important marketplaces such as Amazon, Zalando, Cdiscount, Bol.com, etc.