With Amazon launching new month-to-month Prime membership options, which include access to its streaming video and music libraries, and upcoming price hikes for its own streaming service, Netflix seems to be feeling the heat of competition burning just a little bit hotter. [More]
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Are Amazon’s Month-To-Month Prime Memberships Ever Worth The Extra Money?
By 4.19.16
Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it was making its Prime membership program — which includes access to the Prime library of streaming video and music, discounted and expedited shipping, and other benefits — available on a monthly basis in two different forms. Instead of the annual all-encompassing fee of $99 (which comes out to $8.25/month), shoppers have the option of either $8.99/month for Prime Video only, or $10.99/month for full access to the program. So does it ever make sense to go the monthly route or should Amazon shoppers just ante up for the annual subscription? [More]
Amazon Launching Standalone Video Service For $9; Allowing Monthly Prime Access For $11
By 4.17.16
While Netflix and Amazon Prime have been seen as the two main competitors in the subscription streaming market, it’s been difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison of the two because Amazon has long charged a yearly fee for Prime, and even then the Amazon subscription also includes other benefits like discounted shipping. But now Amazon appears to be taking dead-aim at Netflix with a monthly, streaming-only version of its video service that is less-expensive than the competition. The e-tailer is also looking to expand its Prime membership my making it available on a month-to-month basis. [More]
Forget The Internet — H&M Wants To Double Its Number Of Retail Stores
By 4.6.16
With traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers continuing to lose ground to online sales, and longtime mall mainstays like Sears and JCPenney either closing locations or selling off floor space, the trend is definitely toward smaller retail footprints and focusing on the web. But the CEO of one of the world’s largest clothing retailers plans to buck that trend in a big way. [More]
Amazon Opening Prime Now Same-Day Delivery Service To Web Users This May
By 4.4.16
As of right now, the only way for customers to use Amazon’s Prime Now — which provides same-day delivery for household items and local restaurants and stores — was with the service’s mobile app for smartphones. That is set to change in May, a new report says, with the e-commerce giant taking Prime Now to the Web. [More]
Amazon Files Patent For Talking Drone Propellers That Tell You To Get Out Of The Way
By 3.31.16
While we don’t know all the details of Amazon’s long-anticipated Prime Air delivery drones just yet, we can guess at some of the specifics along the way. And if a recent patent application the company filed means anything, the drones may have a few things to say. [More]
Amazon Adds More Dash Buttons For Condoms, Chips, Energy Drinks
By 3.31.16
For almost exactly a year now, users of Amazon’s ordering gadget, the Dash button, have been able to quickly restock their supply of nearly 30 household products like Tide, Cottonelle, Bounty, and Ziplock. Today, the e-commerce giant announced it would add close to 100 additional products — many not of the household variety — to the line-up, including Energizer batteries, Stayfree feminine pads, Peet’s Coffee, Red Bull, Doritos, and Trojan condoms. As was previously the case, the gadget can be purchased for $4.99, but for a limited time Amazon will provide customers a $4.99 credit for each Dash button they buy. [Amazon] [More]
Amazon Bans The Sale Of Substandard USB-C Cables
By 3.30.16
Faulty USB-C cables – usually those purchased from a third-party as a replacement for the cords that typically come with your electronic devices – have been known to cause issues for consumers, from frying their gadgets to starting small fires and even being attributed to one death. Amazon, in an attempt to ensure you’re not on the receiving end of one of those unreliable chargers, has banned the sale of certain “rogue” USB type-C cables. [More]
Amazon Improves Developers’ Ability To Use Alexa In Their Own Devices
By 3.23.16
While most of us only hear about Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa when it comes to the Echo speaker — and its new smaller versions — app developers have been able to tap into the tech via the Alexa Voice Services tool for their own devices, like alarm clocks or speaker systems. However, the capabilities available through the service weren’t as robust as those found in the Echo — until now. [More]
Amazon Executive: Actually, We Don’t Have Any Big Corporate Office Supply Contracts Yet
By 3.23.16
Staples and Office Depot want to pledge their future and their fortunes together in corporate matrimony, and the Federal Trade Commission objects to their union. The companies and the Federal Trade Commission are making their cases before a federal judge, and the key question in this merger seems to be whether large corporations plan to buy their office supplies from Amazon in the future. An Amazon executive testified that they haven’t signed any major companies, and aren’t really pursuing big corporate contracts. Yet. [More]
Amazon Sues Executive Leaving To Work For Target Under Non-Compete Agreement
By 3.22.16
Last month, Target announced that they had hired a top executive in supply chain and logistics who was a longtime Amazon employee. He was scheduled to start his new job in Minneapolis next week, but Amazon has filed a lawsuit to prevent him from starting, citing a non-compete contract that he signed in 2012 and confidential information that the executive, Arthur Valdez, shared during his job interview. [More]
Staples, Office Depot, And FTC Make Opening Arguments In Merger Hearing
By 3.21.16
Today was the first day of the federal court hearing where Staples and Office Depot are making their cases about whether a proposed merger of the two companies would be beneficial to or terrible for consumers. Today, both sides made their opening arguments. The FTC is concerned about possible price hikes for consumers, and the two office supply companies are concerned that Amazon is going to crush them. [More]
Amazon Really Does Sell Everything, Opens Cable Store To Resell Comcast
By 3.21.16
Someday, you will be able to buy your house and everything in it from Amazon, much like Sears a century ago. Perhaps to prepare for that day, Amazon is now selling Comcast’s Xfinity bundles in its new Amazon Cable Store, and the store setup implies that they’ll be adding carriers in other areas soon. [More]
Amazon Officially In the Air Freight Business; Acquires 10% Stake In Cargo Partner
By 3.21.16
Only weeks after making a deal with cargo company Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) to lease a fleet of 20 planes to use for shipping packages, Amazon is now a part owner of the company. [More]
Got An Older Kindle? Update Your Device By March 22 Or It Won’t Connect To The Internet
By 3.21.16
Unless you’re happy reading the material that’s on your older Kindle right now forever and ever, you’ll want to heed Amazon’s advice, and quick: some e-readers will need to be updated by March 22, or they’ll lose the ability to connect to the Internet. [More]
Free Shipping Not Actually Zero-Cost Or Zero Effort, And FedEx Wants Retailers To Pay Their Share
By 3.17.16
We’re nearly two decades now into the e-commerce era. Shop everywhere! Shop from your phone. Shop from your tablet. Shop (during your breaks, of course) from your work computer. But all that online shopping shares one thing in common: unless 3D printers become a lot more like Star Trek‘s replicators, and a lot more affordable, all those goods ordered in the cloud have to get to actual consumers on good, old-fashioned planes, trains, and trucks. [More]
Amazon Teams Up With Fitbit, Makes Alexa A Fitness Guru
By 3.17.16
Amazon Echo’s personal assistant, Alexa, can serve as your financial advisor by paying your Capital One bill, your personal chef by ordering Dominos, and now she can act as your personal trainer. The smart speaker now works with health tracking company Fitbit to provide users with details about their daily fitness routine. [More]
Offshore Gambling Operation Accused Of Laundering $2M Using Amazon Gift Cards
By 3.15.16
Amazon gift cards aren’t just for buying stuff online anymore: according to a Department of Homeland Security investigator, they’re also the method of choice for an offshore gambling website’s money laundering operation. [More]
