A year after wading into the world of startups by partnering with more than 25 crowd-funding platforms and venture capital firms to offer up-and-coming sellers a place to showcase their unique products, Amazon announced today that it has finally partnered with the most prominent name in the crowd-funding arena, Kickstarter, to bring more than 300 products to the masses. [More]
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Amazon Testing “PrimeAir” Drone Delivery In UK
By 7.26.16
While Amazon hasn’t received the okay to begin using drones to make deliveries in the U.S., that isn’t stopping the e-commerce giant from trying the method in the UK. [More]
Woman Out $250 After Falling Victim To Comcast, Amazon Fake Promotion Scheme
By 7.26.16
Consider yourself warned: Scammers are taking advantage of the recent news that Amazon is selling access to Comcast services, faking calls from the cable company to steal money from unwitting victims.
[More]
Amazon & Wells Fargo Hope That A Partnership And Discounts Will Entice You Into A Private Student Loan
By 7.21.16
Pay $99/year — or $10/month — for an Amazon Prime membership and you’ll get a slew of benefits like free two-day shipping on thousands of items, free streaming Prime video access, and more. Soon, college-aged members will also be eligible for a 0.50% interest rate discount on new loans. [More]
Amazon Patents Way To Turn Lampposts, Church Steeples Into Drone Perches
By 7.19.16
For the past few years, Amazon has been working on plans that would unleash a fleet of drones to handle some deliveries – from unveiling a prototype that acts more like a “horse than a car” and a patent for propellers that tell bystanders to “look out.” Now, another recently released patent shows what those little flying machines might be doing while they aren’t ferrying your Prime deliveries: sitting on a lamppost. [More]
Prime Day Deal Expires Early, Amazon And Chase Make Good On It
By 7.14.16
On Tuesday, during Amazon’s Prime Day, festivities, the online retailer’s credit card partner Visa joined in the fun with a promotion where customers who made a $150 purchase using their Amazon-branded Visa card would receive a $30 discount. That’s an appealing bargain, and plenty of customers prepared to take advantage of it. What they didn’t do was read the fine print, or take it seriously, and a lot of customers missed out. [More]
Amazon: This Year’s Prime Day Was “The Biggest Day Ever” For The Company
By 7.13.16
Despite some customer complaints and competing discount events offered by rivals, Amazon says yesterday’s Prime Day was “the biggest day ever for Amazon.” Even bigger than the day it first learned to ride a bike. [More]
Retail Rivals Pulling Out Their Own Deals In Effort To Compete With Prime Day
By 7.12.16
Just because Amazon is calling today Prime Day doesn’t mean other retailers can’t offer their own discounts and deals, too. As such, a whole bunch of retailers are pulling out specials designed to lure shoppers today, while carefully avoiding any mention of “Prime Day” [More]
Amazon’s New Seattle Buildings: Part Workspace, Part Arboretum
By 7.11.16
Some companies provide employees with rooms full of ping-pong or foosball tables, TVs, and comfy napping pods as a way to relax or kick-back for breaks during the day. Amazon is reportedly taking a more zen approach to inspiring workers: creating a garden/jungle/conservatory-like new workspace. [More]
5 Things You Should Know About Amazon’s Issues With Counterfeits
By 7.8.16
When you see a brand-name handbag or laptop being sold on Amazon for well below its retail price, it’s hard to not hit the “Buy” button. But is it a good deal or just a counterfeit in brand-name clothing? [More]
Amazon Echo Users Can Now Set Spotify, Pandora As Their Default Music Service
By 7.7.16
Until now, if you wanted to tell Alexa to play a certain song using a music service other than Prime Music, you’d have to say something like, “Alexa, play ‘Hotline Bling’ by Drake on Spotify.” Those days are gone, as Amazon Echo users can now set their default music services to either Spotify or Pandora. [More]
Amazon’s Audible Creating Network Of Subscription-Only Podcasts
By 7.7.16
If you’re a big podcast listener, you may have wondered whether it would be possible to just pay up instead of listening to one more rambling ad spot for Audible, Blue Apron, or Stamps.com. There’s a growing number of options out there, and the newest one happens to be from Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook services. The company’s new service, Channels, charges a subscription fee for curated ad-free audio content that the company won’t actually call “podcasts.” [More]
Report: Amazon Is Planning Another Real-Life Bookstore In Manhattan In 2019
By 7.6.16
Back in 2014, Amazon signed a 17-year lease on office space with some retail floors across from the Empire State Building in Manhattan, and that led to delighted speculation that the company might open a real-life store to sell its own products and let local customers pick up their packages. Instead, the office space is just boring old office space. Now, reports are circlulating that a deal for an Amazon bookstore in Manhattan has been or will be signed. [More]
Is Amazon Removing List Prices From Product Pages?
By 7.6.16
It’s a time-honored tradition in retail to show shoppers just how much a deal they are getting by showing the “list” price next to the price the customer will actually pay. It’s a practice that online sellers, who can often offer deeper discounts than bricks-and-mortar stores, frequently use, but it looks like Amazon is quietly shifting toward showing shoppers only one price.
[More]
Nearly 501,000 Hoverboards Recalled Over Safety, Fire Hazards
By 7.6.16
Nearly five months ago, major retailer pulled “hoverboard” scooters from shelves after the Consumer Product Safety Commission said the not-actually-hovering devices were unsafe unless they met certain standards. Now the federal safety agency is announcing an official recall of around 501,000 hoverboards. [More]
What’s Going On When Your Amazon Package Gets Delivered By Some Guy In A Sedan
By 7.5.16
Amazon increasingly promises faster, quicker, more local delivery. UPS, FedEx, and the Post Office can’t handle all that, of course, so the e-retail giant turns to local couriers, its own Amazon-branded fleet… and, increasingly, folks who volunteer to drive your stuff around for a few bucks an hour. [More]
You Can Now Tell Amazon’s Alexa To Order Millions Of Prime-Eligible Items
By 7.1.16
Do you want to order a pallet of cat food and some bendy straws on Amazon? If not, don’t judge. If you do, it won’t matter if you’ve purchased those items in the past: Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa will no longer be limited to just reordering stuff you got before. [More]
Amazon Trying That Whole “Prime Day” Thing Again This Year
By 6.30.16
Last year, Amazon tried inventing a holiday all for itself. The day was dubbed “Prime Day,” and it was to be a day full of irresistible sales and promotions for Prime Members. In the end, it was something of a wash. But Amazon, undeterred, is now making it an annual tradition. [More]
