The Ecommerce Weekly - 14 March 2022

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News

The big grey hairy elephant in the room for ecommerce has always been the behemoth of Amazon.

Its relentless drive to remove friction from on-line purchasing; its consistent squeeze to zero margins, and its game-changing fulfilment. Not only that - it now accounts for 40% of search!

So what is left and what is Amazon bad at?

Sometimes the vending machine analogy is a useful pointer. Amazon is super convenient and is there, in the right place, at the right time, serving you with ruthless efficiency.

But if your business is a brand that thrives on interesting content and a sense of community then you can absolutely beat this vending machine model. Other factors are also playing into this, including the cookie-less future, which will force a premium on first-party data.

Our conclusion?

Performance marketing is not dead but there does seem to be a renaissance of some possibly neglected channels such as SEO and content, as well as some cheap but highly experimental platforms like TikTok. Insta is also obviously hugely important to many brands.

As always, the sands of ecommerce and digital marketing shift and change. Soon we will, no doubt, be finding TikTok choreographer/managers...

"Tell me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn"

(Benjamin Franklin)

UK ECOMMERCE NEWS

UK Ecommerce Newsletter

Primark puts click-and-collect on radar as expansion gathers pace
(Reuters)

Greggs doubles down on digital and evening trading following profit boost.
(Marketing Week)

Yoox Net-A-Porter launches menswear resale service.
(Retail Gazette)

B&Q launches ecommerce expansion.
(Ecommerce Age)

Marks & Spencer has bought into activewear platform The Sports Edit.
(Retail Week)

888 Holdings' annual profit triples on online boom
(Reuters)

Nuffield Health and Careology team up for digital cancer support
(Digital Health)

Marks & Spencer to open Early Learning Centre concessions in stores.
(The Industry Fashion)

INTERNATIONAL ECOMMERCE NEWS

International ecommerce newsletter

BigCommerce helps Ted Baker with scalable ecommerce platform.
(eseller365)

Babylon digital health delivers 4x revenue growth in 2021.
(Business Wire)

Chili's opens ecommerce shop to celebrate 47th birthday.
(Marketing Dive)

Peloton Trials New Pricing Structure.
(Retail TouchPoints)

Ecommerce in Belgium was worth 11.7 billion euros in 2021,+ 33 %.
(Ecommerce News)

DIGITAL NEWS

Digital Image for newsletter

TikTok launches music distribution platform SoundOn
(Charged Retail)

Instagram stats that every social media manager should know
(Social Media Today)

Pinterest is launching something called Your Shop, a customized shopping page.
(Protocol)

Twitter adds new creator dashboard to help creators track monetization.
(Social Media Today)

TikTok is beta testing a program to allow crypto ads.
(Morning Brew)

Twitter shares new insights into rising topics of discussion.
(Social Media Today)

Instagram launches updated creator tags to provide more credit for content contributors
(Social Media Today)

IN THE MARKETS

In the markets newsletter

Getir eyes funding round at $11.8 billion
(Charged Retail)

Carlyle buys Italian motorcycle gear maker Dainese
(Reuters)

Gorillas finalises Frichti acquisition.
(Charged Retail)

Farmison sells majority stake to private equity investor Inverleith.
(The Grocer)

Sneaker e-commerce platform Kicks Crew raises $6M Series A
(TechCrunch)

Amazon to confirm unconditional approval for $8.5bn MGM takeover
(Charged Retail)

Acorns Hits Unicorn Status With $300 Million Raise.
(Dot.LA)

Startup Upstream raises $12.5 million for its ‘DAO in a box’ Web3 tools.
(Forbes)