Marketplaces

This Saturday, Nov. 11, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will hold its annual Singles Day event, which last year grossed $17.8 billion (USD) in sales, up from $14.3 billion in 2015, according to a report from Fung Global Retail & Technology (FGRT). The 24-hour phenomenon has quickly become the world's largest shopping day, consistently surpassing…

Amazon.com has quietly started lowering prices by as much as 9 percent in recent weeks on certain products offered by third-party sellers, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Sunday. Until now, Amazon has controlled prices only on the merchandise it sells directly to consumers. Now, according to the report, it's discounting the items…

Everywhere you look, all you see is doom and gloom for retail. Foot traffic is in decline by 50 percent in recent years. Eight thousand-plus U.S. retail stores projected to close this year. Is this the beginning of the end? Hardly. We all know that people are doing more shopping than ever, but their shopping…

Ikea will soon sell its products through third-party online retailers in an attempt to reach more customers. A pilot program is scheduled to start sometime next year, the Swedish furniture retailer said Tuesday. The company is "curious" about what will happen as it plans to gather new insights from the pilot, Ikea spokesperson Josefin Thorell said…

As virtually all consumer product manufacturers and brand owners by now realize, the world is becoming increasingly e-commerce driven. While this paradigm shift has ushered in numerous opportunities for businesses, it also presents significant challenges. One of the most significant challenges businesses face in this environment is how to effectively enforce minimum advertised price (MAP) policies and uphold brand value in the face of a constant assault from diverters and unauthorized marketplace sellers advertising their products at prices that harm brands. What's becoming clearer each day is that even the most iconic brands must act swiftly and aggressively to preserve downstream sales and overall brand integrity.

A new piece of legislation working its way through Congress could alter the way commercial companies sell everyday products and services to the U.S. military and federal agencies. The bill, passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, would allow the Pentagon and other government agencies to buy directly from online marketplaces like Amazon.com,…

Amazon Prime Day marked the marketplace giant’s largest sales day ever, surpassing last year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With the growth of online marketplaces such as Amazon.com comes the proliferation of pricing violations. A new study from ORIS finds that third-party sellers on Amazon are undercutting minimum advertised price (MAP) by 13 percent, while…

How can small and midsized merchants succeed in an Amazon.com-first world? Wow, I get this question a lot! With Amazon Prime Day having passed and the retail giant putting almost $3 billion in sales on the board, this is definitely a hot topic and one I don’t see going away anytime soon. The answer to…

Amazon.com sellers owing an estimated $2 billion in uncollected sales taxes are being offered a chance to waive those charges. CNBC reports 13 states have come together to announce a new sales tax amnesty program for online merchants who sell on Amazon and other online sites. Starting August 17, sellers with potential tax liability can…

Sears has fallen on hard times in part because e-commerce has taken market share from the department store chain, but now the company is looking to use the growth in online shopping to its advantage. Sears announced last week that it will begin selling Alexa-enabled Kenmore appliances on Amazon.com. Sears CEO Eddie Lampert was hopeful…