New Ecommerce Tools: July 9, 2024

Our rundown of new tools for merchants this week includes social commerce, flexible payments, luxury shopping, fulfillment, AI-powered pricing, and shopping in the metaverse.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: July 9, 2024

Walmart helps sell used collectibles. Walmart Marketplace is allowing sellers to list collectors’ items without incurring referral fees until September 30, 2024, along with additional perks. Sellers can (i) display the conditions of collectibles through a new grading system, (ii) build anticipation around a new drop by offering pre-orders for products, and (iii) select a preferred return policy: no returns, a 15-day return with sealed, or the standard 30-day Walmart return policy.

Walmart Marketplace

Captiv8 integrates with TikTok Shop. Captiv8, an influencer marketing platform for enterprise brands, has expanded its partnership with TikTok to include an integration with TikTok Shop. The integration into Captiv8’s Commerce Suite enhances its social commerce capabilities, strengthening efforts to advance the creator economy and maximize the earning potential for creators. The collaboration follows the recent launch of Captiv8’s Brand Exclusive Storefronts.

Klarna partners with Adobe Commerce on flexible payment options. Klarna, the buy-now-pay-later service, has partnered with Adobe Commerce to enable merchants to implement Klarna’s BNPL and other payment options, such as direct payments, pay-after-delivery, and installment plans. According to Adobe Commerce, consumers are embracing the flexibility of BNPL services, with Adobe Analytics data showing over 11% growth in 2024.

e.l.f. Beauty to sell physical items on Roblox. e.l.f. Beauty is testing real-world commerce, powered by Walmart, on the Roblox virtual universe gaming platform. e.l.f. has created a virtual kiosk within its e.l.f. UP! experience on Roblox, where U.S. visitors can purchase Roblox-exclusive limited-edition physical products. The e.l.f. UP! experience is developed in partnership with Egen (cloud development) and Supersocial (metaverse services).

e.l.f. UP! on Roblox

Luxury platform Senser expands to the U.S. Senser, a luxury shopping platform, is entering the U.S. market. Senser partners with over 2,500 brands across 60 countries, offering a curated selection of more than 500,000 luxury items. The platform serves over 2 million high-net-worth customers. All products are shipped directly from European boutiques, allowing consumers to purchase their desired items at 30-60% off retail prices while enjoying a VIP-level professional fashion service experience.

Mollie and Riverty partner on BNPL invoicing. Mollie, a Europe-based financial service provider, is partnering with buy-bow-pay-later provider Riverty, supported by Bertelsmann, the media company. Mollie customers now have an additional option to pay later — up to 30 days. Riverty’s solution is integrated with Mollie, allowing customers to activate it in their Mollie dashboard. Riverty is available for Mollie customers in Belgium, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Mollie now offers more than 30 different payment methods.

Dunnhumby unveils AI-powered assortment tool for products. Dunnhumby, a provider of customer data science, has launched an assortment solution, harnessing AI to enable retailers to identify and curate product ranges. Retailers can deliver localized assortments tailored to the unique preferences of a customer base. Retailers can use the planogram feature to optimize layouts based on customer behavior and implement merchandising rules, restrictions, and AI-powered predictive analytics to quantify product arrangements.

Dunnhumby

Google Merchant Center releases Merchant API Beta. Google has released the Merchant API Beta, an update of the Content API for Shopping. The Merchant API can help showcase products with new features, modular design with isolated sub-API updates, and improved alignment with Google’s API improvement proposals. It allows multiple API feeds, enhanced management of supplemental feeds, and support for other shopping feeds, such as promotions. New features include simplified promotions statuses, local feeds, and more.

Co-op partners with Walmart Commerce Technologies for online fulfillment. Co-op is partnering with Walmart Commerce Technologies to implement its online fulfillment technology, Store Assist. The app allows retailers to manage pickup, third-party marketplace, ship-from-store, and last-mile delivery orders all in one place. This streamlined omnichannel fulfillment workflow will enhance in-store processes and operations, remove the need for colleagues to switch between quick commerce apps or different devices, and allow for faster delivery times to support Co-op’s commerce growth ambitions.

Amazon Q in Connect utilizes step-by-step guides to assist customer service agents. Amazon Q in Connect, a generative-AI powered assistant for contact center agents, now recommends step-by-step guides in real time, which agents use to resolve customers’ issues. Amazon Q in Connect uses real-time customer conversations to detect their intent and provides a guided workflow to solve the problem.

HyperFinity launches AI-powered pricing for retailers. HyperFinity, a decision intelligence platform for retailers, has launched an AI-powered pricing product. According to HyperFinity, the tool presents data and insights in an easy-to-consume format, replacing spreadsheets. Users can model commercial scenarios based on price change decisions to understand margin impact as well as create AI-driven actions against every product in the range.

HyperFinity

13 Custom GPTs to Generate Content

Custom GPTs are versions of ChatGPT that OpenAI and its users create for specific tasks or topics. Custom GPTs offer innovative, time-saving shortcuts for businesses.

Here is a list of custom GPTs from OpenAI’s GPT Store to generate content. There are custom GPTs to produce images, videos, logos, graphs and slides, copy for ads and content marketing, and more.

Custom GPTs for Content

Copywriter GPT generates copy for marketing campaigns. Define your product’s campaign goal to generate copy and an ad.

Copywriter GPT

DALL-E is a text-to-image generative AI model developed by OpenAI. Generate images from text prompts.

Canva provides visual design elements, such as presentations, logos, and social media posts. Quickly generate a promotional poster for a sale or an inspirational social media story.

Logo Creator generates professional logo designs and app icons. Define the style, simplicity, and type of logo and then refine it.

Logo Creator

Write For Me is a tool for generating tailored, relevant content with a specified word count. Just specify the count and subject.

Image Generator specializes in generating images using a mix of professional and friendly tones. It can generate visual scenes for your product or design a logo.

AI Humanizer is a converter that humanizes AI-generated content. Create human-like content while maintaining meaning and quality.

AI Humanizer

Video GPT by VEED generates video for social media. Create a script and generate a video with AI avatars, text-to-speech, music, and stock footage.

Data Analyst, by OpenAI, analyzes and visualizes data. Upload data directly to ChatGPT, and then ask questions. Identify trends and generate charts to visualize the results.

Consensus is an assistant to research scientific literature and academic papers. Ask questions, then prompt it to create content based on the results.

Consensus

Video AI generates videos with voice-overs in any language. Quickly create a marketing or how-to video. Generate a script from text prompts, or convert text to video.

Fully SEO Optimized Article including FAQs produces search-engine-optimized content, including titles, meta descriptions, and tags.

Presentation and Slides GPT generates a presentation or slide deck to convey an idea or introduce a product.

Presentation and Slides GPT

New Ecommerce Tools: July 2, 2024

Every week we publish a list of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants. This installment includes updates on shoppable media, AI assistants, personalization, returns forecasting, installment payments, shipping platforms, discount ecommerce, and marketplaces.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: July 2, 2024

Shopify embeds AI across its platform. Shopify has introduced AI-related products during its semi-annual showcase, Shopify Editions. New features among the 150-plus updates include (i) an AI tool to suggest personalized replies to customer emails, (ii) Magic, an AI-powered media editor, now instantly suggests personalized and intelligent recommendations for all product categories, assigning the right attributes to new products, and (iii) AI image editing is expanding to everywhere images are used, including in the Shopify mobile app.

Shopify’s Summer ’24 Edition

Amazon to launch a discount marketplace. Amazon plans to launch a new section dedicated to low-priced fashion and lifestyle items, allowing China-based sellers to ship directly to U.S. consumers. According to a presentation by Amazon to select sellers viewed by CNBC, Amazon’s storefront will feature unbranded items, many priced under $20. Amazon will ship the products directly from China to the U.S. and deliver them to shoppers within nine to 11 days.

Bloomreach unveils Loomi AI features for ecommerce teams. Bloomreach, an ecommerce personalization platform, has announced new premium features for its proprietary Loomi AI to customize, optimize, and automate personalization across the customer journey. Premium features for marketers include AutoSegments to automatically identify high-value customer segments, an analytics assistant with a conversational interface, and a variant generator to reduce campaign creation and testing time. New search features include Loomi Search+ with semantic and vector search tech, visual search, and search in 33 languages.

ParcelLab launches Returns Forecast AI to improve visibility for retailers. ParcelLab, a provider of post-purchase experience software, has launched its Returns Forecast AI. According to ParcelLab, the new tool leverages AI to estimate inbound parcels for retailer warehouses, allowing retailers to (i) forecast returns volumes and identify trend changes more accurately, (ii) better plan warehouse resources, and (iii) reduce processing times and operational costs. Returns Forecast AI is designed for retailers to strengthen their ability to anticipate and mitigate the financial impact of returns.

ParcelLab

Target partners with Shopify to add third-party sellers to its marketplace. Target has partnered with Shopify to discover new brands and hot items for Target’s marketplace. Shopify will help the retailer discover hot items and make them available for Target’s online shoppers. Target plans to put some popular items found through Shopify on store shelves. Unlike Amazon, Walmart, and eBay, Target only allows brands to join by invitation. It has more than 1,200 sellers. Target says its seller and product count have doubled over the past year.

Pear Commerce secures $10 million to transform shoppable media. Pear Commerce, a retail ecommerce marketing platform for omnichannel brands, has closed a $10 million funding round led by Stage 2 Capital. The funding follows Pear’s recent product launch, Pear Connect, a shoppable ad unit that integrates where-to-buy technology directly into the ad. Pear Connect enhances existing social and display ad creative by serving the in-stock product and retailer combinations most likely to be selected using Pear’s daily inventory scanning technology and ad platform algorithms.

Data analytic platform Baresquare launches AI manager for ecommerce revenue optimization. Baresquare, an AI-powered analytics platform, has launched an autonomous ecommerce AI agent called Tywin. According to Baresquare, Tywin monitors marketing campaigns and customer experience errors, creates revenue forecasts and targets, performs competitive pricing and inventory analysis, and checks online for search engine optimization and external factors such as weather and news events. Users can upload existing revenue plans or allow Tywin to generate forecasts based on historical data.

Baresquare

Adverio launches Amazon PPC Management Services for ecommerce advertising. Adverio, a digital marketing agency, has launched its Amazon PPC Management Services, designed to elevate the advertising performance and sales of ecommerce businesses on Amazon. The offering aims to streamline and enhance the pay-per-click strategies for sellers, leveraging advanced analytics and an understanding of Amazon’s advertising ecosystem. Adverio’s Amazon PPC Management Services cover all aspects of pay-per-click advertising, from initial setup and strategy development to ongoing optimization and performance analysis.

Qoo10 launches Wish+ to expand international sales channels. Two ecommerce platforms, Asia-based Qoo10 and U.S.-based Wish.com, have integrated. The integration provides a unified ecommerce experience on the upgraded Wish+ site and an expanded product inventory to encompass suppliers local to users along with Asia-based brands and manufacturers. The move combines Qoo10’s ecommerce ecosystem of merchants in Korea, Japan, and India with Wish.com’s North America and Europe market presence and inventory of regional and China-based manufacturers.

Visa expands payment options for Amazon customers in Canada. Visa has announced a collaboration with Amazon to provide Canadian consumers with more choices at checkout. When shopping online on Amazon.ca or the Amazon app, eligible RBC and Scotiabank credit cardholders will now have the option to select “Installments enabled by Visa” as their payment method for qualifying purchases. This payment option enables eligible consumers to convert their purchases into smaller, fixed payments over a defined period.

ShipStation streamlines ecommerce shipping in Australia. ShipStation, a cloud-based shipping platform from Auctane, has launched new features to help online businesses in Australia streamline their shipping processes and enhance customer experiences. New features include inventory sync, deliver-by date, harmonization code import, checkout rate control, custom labels, GlobalPost Carrier integration, add-on marketplace, and more. ShipStation also released its High Volume Plan for retailers in Australia and New Zealand, tailored to meet the demands of enterprise parcel delivery.

ShipStation in Australia

New Ecommerce Tools: June 27, 2024

Once a week we publish a list of new products from companies offering services to online sellers. This installment includes updates on AI-powered search, subscriptions, social commerce, chatbots, local shopping, reverse logistics, live shopping, and retail media networks.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: June 27

Daydream raises $50 million in seed funding to build an AI-powered search engine for ecommerce. Daydream, an AI-powered platform designed to change how people shop online, has raised a $50 million seed round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures with participation from Google Ventures and True Ventures. Launching in beta this fall, Daydream will introduce its first shopping category, a personalized experience powered by a built-in search engine that offers a better way to find and discover women’s and men’s fashion.

Daydream

Amazon opens Subscribe & Save for seller-fulfilled orders. Amazon is expanding its Subscribe & Save program to seller-fulfilled products. Subscribe & Save offers discounts on frequently used products if buyers schedule future purchases. Amazon will automatically enroll eligible, replenishable products at the default discount set in Subscribe & Save settings. Previously set discounts for Fulfillment by Amazon Subscribe & Save will apply to a seller-fulfilled Subscribe & Save selection starting June 27.

TikTok introduces revamped location pages for local shopping and destinations. TikTok has enhanced the landing pages for select U.S. locations, including Boston, New York, and Texas. Instead of merely displaying videos tagged with a specific area, the platform now organizes content into categories such as “shopping” and “food & drink,” making it easier for users to find relevant videos. Additionally, a new “explore more places” button integrates with Apple Maps, providing a view of businesses in the area with details such as address and prices.

Captiv8 launches Branded Storefronts for social commerce. Captiv8, an influencer marketing platform for enterprise brands, has launched Branded Storefronts, which harnesses creator storytelling and personalized product curation to deliver a social commerce experience outside of social networks. Creators can now maintain a single storefront that enables all their social content to be shoppable. Branded Storefronts paired with Captiv8’s measurement and affiliate offerings allow companies to track, analyze, and optimize the shopper experience in real time.

Captiv8’s Branded Storefronts

Meta introduces AI chatbots, messaging tools, and a Threads API. Meta has introduced three products to help businesses and creators engage and grow. First, an AI chat feature (built with Meta Llama 3) for companies on Messenger will help consumers purchase products and obtain customer support. Second, using Ads Manager, select advertisers can soon create, organize, and send paid marketing on Messenger. Third, Meta is launching a Threads API to help businesses and creators manage their presence at scale.

Threekit launches Visual Discovery AI to help shoppers navigate ecommerce. Visual commerce specialist Threekit is launching Visual Discovery AI, enabling shoppers to explore product catalogs in a personalized way. According to Threekit, Visual Discovery AI can guide shoppers through educational brand experiences and technical product purchases. The search tool can interpret personal text or prompts and make associations based on user intent, producing personalized search results.

Reverse logistics solution firm ReturnBear expands into U.K. ReturnBear, a reverse logistics platform for ecommerce returns, is expanding its operations into the U.K. ReturnBear’s platform provides automated self-serve returns and optimized logistics strategies such as consolidated cross-border brand shipments, offering brands access to 1,000-plus Canadian locations, with processing hubs in Canada and the U.S.

ReturnBear

Target releases gen AI technology to team members. Target is rolling out a generative AI tool to team members at all of its nearly 2,000 stores. The tool, called Store Companion, is a custom gen-AI-powered chatbot that answers on-the-job process questions, coaches new employees, supports store operations management, and more. The initiative is part of Target’s broader strategic approach to using gen AI to empower its team, enhance the guest experience, and support the company’s long-term growth.

Button launches retail media inventory offering for retailers, publishers, and creators. Button, a commerce optimization platform, has unveiled a retail media offering, enabling retailers, publishers, and creators to access a retail media network. The inventory solution connects with ad platforms such as Microsoft Advertising and TripleLift, a programmatic ad platform. According to Button, the platform is designed to bridge the gap between retailers’ on-site advertising and the audience reach of publishers and creators. Retailers extend their on-site advertising capabilities to premium publisher and creator audiences while publishers and creators unlock a new revenue stream.

Live-shopping platform Voggt integrates with Amazon IVS Real-Time Streaming. Online marketplace Voggt, which combines live video and ecommerce, has integrated Amazon Interactive Video Service, a managed live-streaming service that uses the same streaming technology and global infrastructure as Twitch, the live-stream service. By implementing Amazon IVS Real-Time Streaming, Voggt says it dropped its average latency from 12 seconds to 60 milliseconds. Voggt averages 7,000 auctions and 300 shows per day on Amazon IVS, totaling around 30,000 live-stream broadcast hours per month.

Pacvue introduces AI integrations across its product suite. Pacvue, a retail media facilitator across marketplaces, has unveiled several AI capabilities to enhance its product suite. The new features include a copilot commerce companion, generative content for product images, AI review for real-time analysis, and AI insights for measurement and reporting.

Pacvue

New Ecommerce Tools: June 17, 2024

This week’s list of new products for ecommerce and omnichannel merchants includes generative AI, chatbots, digital payments, social commerce, subscriptions, media networks, and cryptocurrencies.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: June 17

Intuit Mailchimp previews AI-powered revenue intelligence system. Intuit has previewed its new revenue intelligence technology, a system of always-on predictive and generative AI models for marketers. The company’s Mailchimp platform will utilize revenue intelligence to deploy Intuit’s data through AI technology to benchmark customers’ marketing against industry-specific financial inputs from Intuit QuickBooks and marketing performance data points. It will recommend the right time to target customers and generate more personalized and revenue-driving content. Additionally, Mailchimp is announcing the continued expansion of SMS features in the U.K.

Intuit Mailchimp

eBay includes Venmo as a payment option. eBay is expanding its checkout by adding Venmo, the popular payment platform among Gen Z and millennials, with more than 90 million users. Buyers can pay for purchases with their Venmo balance or bank account, debit card, or credit card linked to their Venmo account. Sellers need only to offer Venmo as a payment method. The addition of Venmo continues eBay’s push toward tapping into a younger demographic.

Fast Simon launches Personalization AI Embeddings. Fast Simon, a provider of AI-powered shopping optimization, has launched Personalization AI Embeddings, creating vectors that feed Fast Simon’s AI model. According to the company, Personalization AI Embeddings leverage complex logic and multiple AI inputs, including color, category, image matching, text descriptions, customer activity, and location. Personalization AI Embeddings can improve search results, optimize collection assortment, and suggest product categories for the shopper.

Sendbird provides AI chatbot for Shopify merchants. Sendbird, a communications API platform, has announced an AI chatbot for Shopify. Powered by OpenAI’s latest large language model GPT-4o, Sendbird’s no-code AI chatbot connects to merchant store data via Shopify’s APIs. The connection allows it to answer frequently asked questions, make product recommendations, and provide support contact information, boosting customer satisfaction and transactions. Merchants can customize and test their AI chatbot before deploying it on their Shopify store.

Sendbird

Pinterest partners with Vtex to help brands leverage social commerce. Pinterest has partnered with Vtex, a composable commerce platform. The collaboration is designed to help large brands expand their social commerce footprint and connect with regional customers. Vtex’s platform lets its 2,600 global brands reach and engage on Pinterest, where customers can integrate their product catalogs, create pins, and run performance shopping campaigns.

Costco launches beta version of its retail media network. Costco will launch its own retail media network, currently in beta testing. The network will leverage data from the retailer’s 74.5 million members, including their purchase history. Costco can map individual purchases to shoppers’ households in-store and online. Ads will be served both on- and off-network.

Contentsquare announces an AI-embedded Experience Intelligence platform. Contentsquare, a digital experience platform, has announced its new Experience Intelligence platform, connecting four analytics features: Digital Experience Analytics, Digital Experience Monitoring, Product Analytics, and Voice of Customer. Additionally, Contentsquare has integrated AI-powered insights across its platform to streamline analysis.

Contentsquare

Trustly launches AI-powered recurring payments. Trustly, an open banking account-to-account payment platform, has unveiled an AI-powered recurring payments feature to help merchants handle repeat transactions through a single integration. The technology enables businesses to accept recurring transactions directly from customers’ bank accounts. It expands upon the capabilities of Trustly Azura, the company’s proprietary data engine. Trustly Recurring Payments is a pan-European solution available through a single API from one platform.

Google’s Search Console provides ecommerce data on product listings. Google has introduced a feature in Search Console that allows merchants to track their Image Search product listings. The new data is accessible through the Performance report under the Google Search Image tab, and includes impressions, clicks, and other key metrics related to product showcases. The new Search Console data provides businesses with a more comprehensive view of their product visibility.

FreedomPay launches independent payment processing referral advisory for merchants. FreedomPay, a payment solution provider for commerce, has launched Merchant Centric Acquiring, an independent advisory service available to merchants in the U.S. and Canada to deliver a more equitable payment system for their businesses. Merchant Centric Acquiring allows merchants to partner with FreedomPay to explore a range of pre-qualified processing providers.

Helio upgrades Solana Pay plugin for Shopify, enabling crypto payments. Helio, a crypto payments provider, has upgraded its Solana Pay plugin for Shopify. The plugin provides multi-token payments, allowing buyers to make purchases in Solana or other cryptocurrencies with automatic swaps to stablecoins, meaning merchants always receive USDC (a crypto) or another currency of their choice. Solana Pay enables Shopify merchants to tap active communities by allowing buyers to spend meme coins in their online stores.

Helio

New Ecommerce Tools: June 10, 2024

Every week we publish a rundown of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants. This installment includes updates on virtual-universe stores, customized checkout, multichannel management, AI website builders, cross-channel commerce, omnichannel fulfillment, product images, and global sourcing.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: June 10

Ikea to open a virtual store on Roblox. Ikea is opening a virtual store called The Co-Worker Game on the Roblox on June 24. The virtual store will allow people to immerse themselves in the world of Ikea, with a limited number of paid roles available. This is Ikea’s first foray into mainstream gaming.

Ikea’s The Co-Worker Game

Shopify acquires Checkout Blocks for customized checkouts. Shopify has acquired Checkout Blocks, a company offering a no-code solution that lets Shopify merchants customize their checkout. Checkout Blocks enables Shopify Plus merchants to add fields to collect additional data or show new information to their shoppers, control how delivery and payment options are displayed, and design fully branded checkouts. Checkout Blocks is offering its starter plan for free for all Shopify Plus merchants.

Newegg launches SellingPilot, a multichannel marketplace management solution. Newegg Commerce, a marketplace specializing in consumer electronics, has launched SellingPilot, a marketplace management platform. SellingPilot connects with Amazon, Walmart, and others to manage product listings and orders. Using SellingPilot, merchants can (i) leverage AI tools to optimize product descriptions and keywords and streamline customer service, (ii) use email outreach and campaign creation for platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, and (iii) access timely competitive pricing data.

Bluehost WonderSuite unveils AI Website Creator. Bluehost, a WordPress hosting platform, has unveiled AI Website Creator, allowing WordPress users to leverage AI to create personalized websites with relevant content, images, and pages. Bluehost’s WonderSuite, with the AI Website Creator, is included with Bluehost’s WordPress hosting plans. It offers WordPress website building with intuitive AI onboarding (WonderStart), content and block creation (WonderTheme and WonderBlocks), ongoing AI assistance (WonderHelp), and ecommerce functionality to help small business owners sell more products (WonderCart).

Bluehost

Till Payments partners with BigCommerce on cross-channel commerce. Till Payments, a subsidiary of Nuvei, a Canada-based payment processor, has partnered with BigCommerce to deliver transaction processing capabilities for B2C and B2B brands. Till’s Online Checkout for BigCommerce enables merchants to accept payments, pre-authorize transactions, manage refunds, utilize 3DS2 authentication technology, accept multiple currencies, take payments with stored credit cards, and integrate an embedded checkout. BigCommerce’s multichannel merchants can use Till’s payments to unify in-store and online payment services.

Fintech Affirm expands payment offerings with “Pay in 2” and “Pay in 30” options. Affirm, a pay-over-time network, has announced two new payment options, Pay in 2 and Pay in 30. According to Affirm, the options deliver greater choice and flexibility to consumers utilizing Affirm’s app and provide affordability across a wider range of transactions.

eBay releases background enhancement tool for product images. eBay has launched an AI-powered background enhancement tool to help sellers produce product photos from everyday snapshots. The tool removes a background from an existing photo, leaving only the actual item for sale, and then places that item in an AI-generated backdrop selected by the seller. Background enhancement is available to iOS app users and will roll out to Android soon.

eBay’s AI-powered background enhancement tool.

“Alibaba Guaranteed” to simplify global sourcing for SMBs. Alibaba has launched Guaranteed to simplify global sourcing and provide a reliable supply chain for small and medium-sized enterprises in the U.S. Through Alibaba Guaranteed, buyers can source products at fixed prices with shipping fees included and guaranteed delivery dates. Alibaba will fulfill products sourced. Additionally, the platform handles finance and after-sales services, such as money back for order glitches and free local returns for defects.

Fulfillment platform OneRail acquires Orderbot for omnichannel fulfillment. OneRail, a last-mile delivery fulfillment service with a network of 12 million drivers across North America, has announced the acquisition of Vancouver-based Orderbot, an enterprise inventory and distributed order management platform. According to OneRail, the acquisition combines Orderbot’s inventory and order management capabilities with OneRail’s OmniPoint cloud-based last-mile operating system and delivery network, creating a comprehensive solution that streamlines fulfillment processes, reduces costs, and improves order accuracy.
​​
Mastercard partners with identity platform Trulioo to streamline onboarding. Trulioo, a global identity verification platform, has partnered with Mastercard to streamline consumers’ digital onboarding on apps and platforms. Trulioo will leverage Mastercard’s Identity solutions to power its Person Match and Risk Intelligence products, providing additional identity insights and risk scores through a customizable dashboard. Trulioo states this will diversify its suite beyond API-based products and enhance consumers’ onboarding processes. The collaboration also augments Mastercard’s Onboard Risk Check product by including Trulioo global business identity verification services.

Bloomreach partners with Valantic and Commercetools to form B2B Accelerator. Bloomreach, an ecommerce personalization platform, has announced an expansion of its partnership with digital consulting company Valantic and composable commerce platform Commercetools through the launch of B2B Accelerator. The Accelerator enables B2B brands to integrate a composable tech stack, including Bloomreach’s Discovery site search. According to Bloomreach, businesses on Accelerator will reduce time to market and time to value and mitigate risks associated with transitioning to composable commerce.

Bloomreach

New Ecommerce Tools: June 4, 2024

This week’s list of new ecommerce tools for merchants includes updates on drone deliveries, social media marketing, point-of-sale systems, conversational AI, fulfillment, brand-influencer partnerships, and multichannel management.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: June 4

Pinterest expands inclusion fund with Shopify to include small businesses. The Pinterest Inclusion Fund and Shopify’s Build Black and Build Native initiatives have joined forces to support small businesses, independent publishers, and boutique creator agencies from historically marginalized communities.

Pinterest Inclusion Fund.

Amazon expands drone deliveries following FAA approval. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has given Amazon Prime Air additional permissions to operate its drones beyond visual line of sight, enabling it to serve more customers via drone and scale its delivery operations. Later this year, drone deliveries will begin integrating into Amazon’s delivery network, meaning drones will deploy from facilities next to its same-day delivery sites.

Walmart expands its InHome delivery service. Walmart is expanding its InHome delivery service to an additional 10 million U.S. households, including those in California. Customers in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ontario can now access the delivery convenience. In addition, Walmart is expanding the service to include customers in Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia, bringing the total scale of InHome to more than 50 markets covering over 45 million homes.

Klaviyo launches TikTok integration to boost ad efficiency. Klaviyo has announced an integration with TikTok, enabling businesses to sync their Klaviyo lists and segments to TikTok Audiences. The capability empowers brands to enhance their return on ad spend, deliver personalized advertisements, and build high-impact lookalike audiences to attract new buyers.

Klaviyo

Razorpay POS launches Q-Zap for queueless in-store shopping. Razorpay, an India-based payment platform, has introduced Q-Zap, a comprehensive suite designed to revolutionize in-store payments with Razorpay POS. Q-Zap features handheld devices to accept cards and Unified Payments Interface anywhere in stores, kiosks, and vending machines for self-checkout, plug-and-play integrations with over 80 billing partners, and customized backend integrations and front-end apps.

PayPal to build an advertising platform and accelerate consumer product innovation. PayPal has announced leadership appointments to create an advertising platform to help merchants sell more products and services. According to PayPal, the new advertising business will use customer insights to build a personalized platform to drive better performance for merchants while presenting consumers with compelling offers.

New Rakuten+ to connect brands with high-value shoppers. Rakuten, a Tokyo-based cash-back shopping platform, has announced Rakuten+, a membership program for designer brands to connect with engaged Rakuten members. Rakuten+ will offer brands access to its most loyal and active shoppers of designer fashion. These curated shoppers will earn at least 10% cash back on participating brands and retailers year-round, providing designer brands with an opportunity to grow their audiences.

Rakuten

Scurri acquires conversational AI platform HelloDone. Delivery management platform Scurri has announced the acquisition of HelloDone, a U.K.-based conversational AI platform for retailers and brands. HelloDone’s platform answers post-purchase customer queries on channels such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. This enables retailers to automate responses via AI-powered chat for immediate resolutions at scale.

Baidu introduces tools for its mobile ecosystem. China-based online search giant Baidu has announced advances across its mobile products, including Search, Wenku, and the Baidu App — all integrated with large language models and Ernie agents. The revamped Wenku, an integrated platform for document archiving and content creation and sharing, provides over 100 multimodal AI features.

Logie launches AI tools for brand-influencer campaigns. Logie, an AI-powered platform for brand-influencer partnerships, has announced tools to create partnerships for Amazon Prime Day. According to Logie, its intelligent platform leverages AI to identify the most relevant influencers for each brand. This ensures brands align with creators who have the right audience, brand affinity, and content style to deliver impactful campaigns. Logie also empowers creators with access to brand collaborations within their niche.

Shopware and ChannelEngine launch Shopware Multichannel Connect. Shopware, an open-source ecommerce platform, and ChannelEngine, a marketplace integration and management platform, have launched Shopware Multichannel Connect, enabling Shopware merchants to sell across online marketplaces. Shopware Multichannel Connect automates sales on over 950 marketplaces (e.g., Amazon, Zalando, Bol, Otto, and eBay). The integration simplifies the management of product information, inventory, orders, and pricing from a central location.

Shopware

New Ecommerce Tools: May 29, 2024

Every week we publish a rundown of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants. This installment includes updates on generative AI, product images, page speed optimization, automated marketing, digital payments, omnichannel management, and the metaverse.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: May 29

GoDaddy expands Generative AI Prompt Library capabilities. GoDaddy has expanded its Small Business GenAI Prompt Library. Business owners now have access to more than 185 prompts, with 43 new prompts added across five new categories. A clip-to-copy icon makes transferring an AI prompt from the library to a chatbot easier. GoDaddy has also expanded access to its GenAI Prompt Library in India, alongside a Spanish-language library in Mexico, Colombia, and Spain, as well as a Portuguese library in Brazil.

GoDaddy’s Small Business AI Prompt Library

Shopify applies for a patent on personalized AI-generated images for ads. Shopify has filed a patent application for “tuning AI-generated images.” This patent would seemingly expand on the company’s existing AI tools, allowing merchants to personalize AI-generated images used in advertising. Shopify’s system collects data from a merchant’s online storefront, such as product images and categories. The models train on large sets of “regularization images” of products in the same category. The system would then allow merchants to generate and edit photos of their products.

WP Rocket’s WordPress plugin can optimize LCP Core Web Vitals. WP Rocket, a WordPress page speed performance plugin, has released a new version to help publishers optimize for Largest Contentful Paint, a page speed metric that shows how quickly the main content of a web page is loaded. This latest version of WP Rocket contains Automatic LCP optimization for on-page elements from the main content so that they are served first, raising the LCP scores and providing a better user experience.

Walmart launches Realm with influencer-led virtual shops. The new Walmart Realm is a digital shopping experience with influencer-led virtual shops in immersive worlds. Three initial virtual shops highlight fashion, beauty, and home products selected by popular creator partners. The shops are (i) So Jelly, an underwater playground, (ii) Y’allternative, a gothic Western destination, and (iii) Go Chromatic, a futuristic metallic world. Walmart Realm also includes creators’ social content and three mini-games inspired by the featured products.

Walmart Realm

Google invests $350 million in India’s ecommerce giant Flipkart. Google is investing nearly $350 million in Flipkart, the Bengaluru-based and Walmart-backed ecommerce marketplace. “Google’s proposed investment and its Cloud collaboration will help Flipkart expand its business and advance the modernization of its digital infrastructure to serve customers across the country,” Flipkart said in a statement. The funding round led by Walmart values Flipkart at $37 billion.

Wunderkind launches AI-powered Autonomous Marketing Platform. Wunderkind has launched its AI-powered Autonomous Marketing Platform and its first application, Studio, which brings self-service tools to the creative workflow for marketers. Wunderkind’s Autonomous Marketing Platform leverages AI to streamline the marketing build, reporting, and optimization process. The generative AI capabilities in Studio empower marketers to optimize messaging, based on Wunderkind’s observation across trillions of consumer interactions.

Fast Simon launches GenAI Hybrid Search for ecommerce search results. Fast Simon, a provider of AI-powered shopping optimization, has announced GenAI Hybrid Search, a tool to deliver accurate and relevant search results. GenAI Hybrid Search combines keyword and vector search with multimodal AI, which leverages various data types, including text and images, to give AI more context. According to Fast Simon, the combination reduces the incidence of “no results” and produces more relevant responses, even with long-tail queries or queries with similar semantic meanings but different keywords.

Fast Simon

Google launches generative AI tools for product images. Now on Product Studio from Google, merchants can generate product images that match a unique brand style. Upload an image with an aesthetic, add a prompt describing the scene, and within moments Product Studio will generate campaign-ready content. Product Studio can also create videos from just one photo. With just the click of a button, animate components of still product images to create short videos or playful product GIFs for social media.

OneStock raises $72 million for omnichannel order management. OneStock, a provider of order management systems, has announced a $72 million investment from Summit Partners. OneStock provides a platform to manage end-to-end order fulfillment and visibility, empowering retailers to offer a “buy anywhere, deliver anywhere, return anywhere” experience. The funding will be used for international expansion, particularly into the U.S. market. OneStock is an Adobe Gold Partner and an official integrated partner with Shopify.

eBay launches Recommerce Day for pre-loved shopping. On May 21, eBay ran its inaugural Recommerce Day, celebrating the release of its annual 2024 Recommerce Report, measuring eBay seller and buyer insights and motivations around pre-loved shopping. Recommerce Day featured a takeover of the eBay home page with opportunities to learn more about recommerce, find pre-loved deals, and participate in an eBay Live program featuring used items. Throughout the day, followers had opportunities to win pre-owned and refurbished prizes during the eBay livestream.

Visa partners with SKUx to ease digital payments for clients. Visa has partnered with digital payments provider SKUx to provide improved payment experiences to selective merchants and consumer packaged goods companies leveraging SKUx’s solutions. These solutions address various client needs, such as customer acquisition, loyalty programs, consumer care, and recovery. Visa clients can access the digital payments platform of SKUx and improve B2B and B2C payment flows for merchants.

SKUx

New Ecommerce Tools: May 21, 2024

This week’s list of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants includes updates on tax compliance, accessibility, inventory, social media management, cross-channel order fulfillment, chargebacks, and direct-to-consumer management for perishable-goods brands.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: May 21

Avalara expands partnership with Shopify to enable global tax compliance for merchants. Avalara, a provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation, has expanded its partnership with Shopify by joining the Shopify Tax Platform. According to Avalara, through the expanded partnership, Shopify merchants of any size can easily manage and automate global tax compliance. By joining the Shopify Tax Partner Platform, Avalara can now serve all Shopify customers with their global tax compliance requirements, including sales tax, value-added tax, exemption certificate management, 1099 and W-9 issuance, property tax, and more.

Avalara

Zoovu releases tools for accessible ecommerce experiences. Zoovu, a developer of AI-powered ecommerce experiences, has released tools to create product discovery that comply with level AA of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. The features include making it easier to provide live video and audio captions, 4.5-to-1 contrast ratios to ensure text is readable by those with color blindness, up to 200% text resizing, and simpler navigation with consistent menus and buttons.

eBay launches feature to simplify listing resale clothing. eBay has launched a “resell on eBay” feature to simplify the process of listing pre-owned clothing. The feature will be integrated into Certilogo’s Secure by Design digital ID, which can be accessed by scanning a smart label on connected products. eBay plans to extend the resell service to more brands using Certilogo digital ID and make it a default feature of its Secure by Design technology.

Ecommerce startup Purple Dot raises $10 million to reduce unsold inventory. Purple Dot, an ecommerce pre-order and waitlist platform, has announced the closure of a $10 million Series A funding round led by European venture capital firm OpenOcean. Purple Dot’s pre-commerce solution enables brands to sell earlier, helping them reduce inventory risk and store less. Purple Dot states the cash will enable it to continue building the platform and expand its reach to more brands and industries.

Purple Dot

Astound Digital and Shopify partner to boost outcomes for retail brands. Astound Digital, a producer of digital experiences for brands, has announced a strategic partnership with Shopify. The partnership will combine Astound’s knowledge of retail and Shopify’s unified commerce offering aimed at helping retailers break down silos between channels such as D2C, B2B, and point of sale. The partnership includes training and certification on Astound’s capability to support customers beyond online commerce.

Mastercard and Salesforce announce an integration to transform transaction disputes. Mastercard and Salesforce have announced a new integration to speed up the resolution of transaction disputes and reduce associated costs. The partnership will integrate Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud with Mastercard’s dispute resolution services, providing a powerful one-stop shop for intake, managing disputes, reporting, and preventing chargebacks. Mastercard’s services include Ethoca Alerts, which provides near real-time notifications when a financial institution raises a chargeback, and Ethoca Consumer Clarity, enabling purchase insights to issuer teams.

Highperformr secures $3.5 million to help B2B businesses amplify their social presence. Highperformr, a social AI platform for B2B businesses, has secured $3.5 million in seed funding and launched its product, Highperformr for Teams, designed to help B2B companies streamline their social media workflows. The funding round was led by Venture Highway, with participation from Neon, DeVC, and notable angel investors. The investment will be used to develop Highperformr’s native AI capabilities further and to build a distribution network.

Highperformr

Poshmark launches Promoted Closet marketing tool. Poshmark, a fashion resale marketplace with real-time social experiences, has launched Promoted Closet, a paid marketing tool to help sellers accelerate sales and drive engagement with their listings. Available in the U.S., Promoted Closet leverages machine learning to match shoppers’ search terms with promoted listings, ensuring relevancy and enhancing sellers’ ability to earn on Poshmark. Sellers can set a weekly budget and let it run, unlocking listing-level data reports, including impressions, clicks, and insights.

Gorgias raises $29 million for AI-powered customer experience for ecommerce. Gorgias, a customer experience platform for ecommerce brands, has announced $29 million in additional seed funding, led by SaaStr and Alven, with participation from Horsley Bridge, Amplify, Shopify, Sapphire, CRV, and Transpose Platform. Gorgias will utilize the funding to expand its suite of AI tools, including Automate for customer support. According to Gorgias, ecommerce brands can now exceed customer expectations with instant on-brand answers to customer questions.

CedCommerce launches MCF Connector, simplifying cross-channel order fulfillment. CedCommerce, a multichannel enabler, has launched MCF Connector to streamline cross-channel order fulfillment for non-Amazon sellers. Merchants can connect their Shopify, eBay, TikTok Shop, and custom platforms to MCF. This centralized platform allows for streamlined order and inventory management, eliminating the need to juggle multiple systems.

Grip launches Pulse, a next-generation order management system for perishable goods brands. Grip, a provider of perishable supply chain technology and fulfillment, has introduced Pulse, an order management system and multi-directional dashboard for ecommerce brands. Pulse offers features for D2C brands that ship frozen and refrigerated items, including real-time inventory management, batch number traceability, SKU-specific tracking, live carrier tracking data, and multi-directional updates with Shopify and other point-of-sale systems. Bands can monitor daily shipments, refrigerant usage, and inventory movement without custom middleware and spreadsheets.

Grip

New Ecommerce Tools: May 14, 2024

Every week we publish a rundown of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants. This installment includes updates on shoppable video, digital payments, returns management, AI-powered pricing, generative AI ad tools, and advertising for marketplace merchants.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: May 14

BigCommerce launches B2B Edition Buyer Portal. BigCommerce has launched the open-source B2B Edition Buyer Portal, now available for single and multi-storefronts with localized buyer experiences, including language, content, pricing, and promotions. From a single backend, merchants can curate tailored purchasing experiences based on a buyer’s specific region, industry vertical, and unique buying processes, as well as integrated servicing experiences specific to sectors, including warranties, customer support, and product servicing.

BigCommerce

Meta launches enhanced generative AI features for advertisers. With Meta’s new AI features, advertisers can create full image variations inspired by original ad creatives with text overlay capabilities and a dozen popular font typeface options. Image expansion is now available on Reels and feeds across Instagram and Facebook. Also, the text generation feature creates variations for the ad headline in addition to the primary text.

Loop integrates returns management software with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Loop, a returns and reverse logistics platform, now supports merchants on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, expanding its footprint beyond Shopify’s ecosystem. Merchants operating on Salesforce Commerce Cloud will gain access to Loop’s returns management software to promote item exchanges, synchronize order data, automate returns processes, leverage Loop’s analytics to ensure efficiency, and more.

Amazon Ads announces three streaming TV ad formats. Amazon Ads has unveiled an expanded suite of interactive and shoppable ad formats for Prime Video with remote-enabled capabilities for living-room devices. In the upcoming broadcast year, brands can use shoppable carousel ads to help viewers browse and shop multiple product variations on Amazon during ad breaks in shows and movies on Prime Video. Brands can also use interactive pause and trivia ads in Prime Video TV shows, movies, and live sports.

Amazon Ads

Digital payments platform Checkout.com launches Flow to optimize payments. Checkout.com, a global digital payments provider, has launched Flow, utilizing customizable building blocks to help businesses present the right payment methods to customers. Flow enables merchants to enter new markets by easily integrating new payment methods and improving security by staying up-to-date with PCI compliance, GDPR rules, and card scheme requirements. Flow also optimizes input fields to capture payment information in the correct format to reduce cart abandonment.

Google launches Performance Max for Marketplaces. Google Ads has launched Performance Max for Marketplaces to help merchants reach customers and drive product sales on marketplaces without needing a website or Google Merchant Center account. Available only on select marketplaces, Performance Max uses Google’s automation so that products can also be advertised across all Google Ads channels, including Search and Shopping.

Spresso launches BigCommerce app with AI-powered pricing. Spresso, a provider of AI-powered ecommerce tools, has launched its Pricing Intelligence app available through the BigCommerce marketplace. The integration enables BigCommerce merchants to activate Spresso’s pricing intelligence technology. Merchants can integrate AI-powered pricing with just a few clicks.

Spresso

eBay launches “Ask Me About” series. eBay has announced the launch of a series called “Ask Me About,” replacing its “Monthly Chat with eBay Staff” program. According to eBay, the new series is designed to bring sellers closer to eBay’s operations and provide insider insights. The introductory episode will focus on product research, featuring the product research team with responses to questions submitted in the previous week.

Wix launches AI Portfolio Creator. Wix.com, a website builder, has announced the launch of AI Portfolio Creator, which enhances how users create and showcase an online professional portfolio. Users select the type of portfolio they would like to create and upload the desired work to showcase. Once selections are made and images are uploaded, the AI Creator quickly organizes and generates project options with clustered images, suggested titles and descriptions, and customizable layout options.

dotCMS and DSS Partners announce integration with Intershop Commerce Platform. dotCMS, a content management platform, and DSS Partners, a digital consultancy and system integrator, have launched a strategic integration between dotCMS and Intershop’s Commerce Platform. The integration eliminates the need to build a custom CMS integration in Intershop. Users can work within the Intershop platform while leveraging all the capabilities of dotCMS.

CedCommerce launches a free integration tool for European sellers in partnership with AliExpress. CedCommerce, a multichannel enabler, has announced a collaboration with AliExpress. This free integration tool provides a gateway for ecommerce sellers using platforms such as WooCommerce, Prestashop, and Adobe Commerce, enabling them to connect their stores with AliExpress, offer their product catalog, and sync and fulfill the orders from the ecommerce store itself. Using CedCommerce, sellers can maintain centralized control over inventory levels, list products in bulk in a single click, and simplify order processing and fulfillment.

CedCommerce