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E-commerce: Fiverr expands to Germany
E-commerce: Groupon stops selling goods
U.S global e-commerce marketplace Groupon has announced that they will no longer be selling goods as it wants to focus its efforts on the local experiences market opportunity. Groupon’s transformation follows their disappointing fourth quarter where they missed their sales target by 86 million euros. Analysts expected the company to make 653 million euros, but instead, they made 567 million euros. Groupon’s transformation will allow the company to focus on services and also to achieve a broader inventory, modernized products and provide new ways for merchants to partner with them.
J&P comments
The local experience market is estimated to be worth 930 million euros and migrates quickly from offline to online. Groupon’s decision to stop selling goods should be considered a strategic move rather than failure since they identified that business was declining at an early stage, which then led them to take a different route.
E-commerce: Online retail industry in Sweden grew by 13% in 2019 with Pharmacy Industry leading
Parcel service PostNord’s E-Barometer has reported that Sweden’s E-commerce market grew by 13% last year and was valued at a total of 87 billion Swedish kronor (8.24 billion Euros). The online pharmaceutical industry in Sweden was shown to be the most successful sector, with a growth of 36%. The E-Barometer also reported that 70% of Swedish people between the ages of 18 and 79 purchased at least one product per month online.
J&P Comments
As well as pharmaceuticals, product categories that experienced a large growth last year within Sweden’s E-commerce market were consumer electronics and clothes and shoes, which grew by 14% and 12%. These are not only prominent product categories in Sweden but in other EU countries, such as Italy, France, Germany and Spain.
E-commerce: Co-op extends same day delivery to 650 shops
British retailer Co-op has announced its plans to expand its same-day delivery service across 650 stores following the launch of its successful pilot in March last year. Co-op’s same-day delivery service will soon be available in cities including Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Liverpool and Birmingham. Digital Goodie which provided the platform for Co-op’s same-day delivery trial last year will also provide the framework for the company’s expansion.
J&P comments
Co-op’s same-day delivery service will offer consumers across the UK with more convenience, and enable them to compete with other local groceries retailers such as Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s which also provide a same-day delivery service.
E-commerce: Amazon launches new Customer Returns Tool for Sellers Using FBA
It has been announced on Amazon Seller Central that merchants enrolled in the FBA fulfilment program now have access to a new tool which provides more information on reimbursements and returns made by sellers’ customers. This tool is said to give sellers greater visibility into reimbursements and returns. A new feature in which customers can replace an item for free instead of waiting for a refund has also been introduced, known as “Amazon free replacements”.
J&P Comments
This new tool will not only benefit sellers by helping them to better track returns and reimbursements – it will also help them to evaluate which items are most frequently returned in order to understand why these items are returned.
E-commerce: JD Sports partners with Laybuy
UK sports retailer JD sports have added another ‘buy now pay later’ scheme to its store with its latest addition Laybuy. The new partnership will allow JD customers to pay for goods interest-free in six weekly instalments. JD sports already offers a number of BNPL services including Klarna and Cleapay, which demonstrates a customer demand for flexibility at the checkout.
J&P comments
Last week, J&P Accountants published Laybuy’s partnership with WHSmith, which also offers a Boos Option that allows shoppers to pay more upfront in case just in case their credit limit won’t cover the purchase. Furthermore, we also reported that two million shoppers in the UK had their credit scores damaged due to ‘buy now pay later’ schemes which had increased consumer debt.
