It seems like just yesterday we were dreaming of a mega-luxury online retail platform where we could buy all the designer brands our wallets will never be able to afford. That’s probably because it was one day ago that reports began to swirl that online merchants Yoox and Net-A-Porter were thinking of merging to create one big high-end shopping destination on the interwebs. [More]
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Net-A-Porter In Deal Talks With Online Retailer Yoox
By 3.30.15
Amazon’s foray into the luxury apparel business may be over before it even began. Just a week after reports surfaced that the company was in talks to buy high-end retailer Net-a-Porter for $2 billion, the smaller company confirmed it’s seeking a possible deal with someone else. [More]
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Amazon Officially Launches Program Connecting Customers To Local Service Providers
By 3.30.15
Amazon’s quest to touch every aspect of consumers’ lives continued today as the company rebranded and officially launched a program connecting customers with local service providers for repairs, installations or other jobs around the house. [More]
Amazon Reportedly In Talks To Purchase Luxury Online Retailer Net-A-Porter
By 3.27.15
Amazon appears to be on the cusp of its largest purchase ever with the potential purchase of luxury online retailer Net-a-Porter. [More]
Amazon Expands One-Hour Prime Now Deliveries To Dallas
By 3.26.15
The list of cities in which consumers can get one-hour delivery service on a plethora of products like paper towels, shampoo, books, toys and other essential everyday times from Amazon now includes Dallas. The company’s Prime Now, which already services Miami, Baltimore and New York City, is available to customers enrolled in Amazon Prime, which costs $99 a year and comes with free two-day shipping on thousands of items. [Amazon] [More]
Toys ‘R’ Us Can’t Beat Discounters On Price, Invites Everyone Over For Play Dates
By 3.24.15
Toys ‘R’ Us has a problem: they’re a specialty store that people love, but they must compete with mega-discounters like Walmart and online vendors like Amazon on price. When they can’t do that and still make money, how are they to survive? The company’s new idea: get kids in the door by creating an experience, not just a place to buy toys. [More]
Amazon’s Streaming Gaming Service Twitch Says It Might Be The Latest Victim Of A Data Breach
By 3.24.15
The long list of data breaches got a bit longer on Monday after Amazon-owned game streaming company Twitch determined hackers may have gained unauthorized access to some users’ account information. [More]
FAA Clears Amazon To Start Testing Delivery Drone Flights
By 3.20.15
Amazon is getting one step closer to the company’s dream of delivering packages by air, as the Federal Aviation Administration has given the company the go-ahead to start testing drones outside. [More]
Amazon Expands One-Hour Delivery Service To Baltimore, Miami
By 3.19.15
It seems that so far, Amazon likes its new one-hour delivery service, which first debuted in New York City in late 2014. So much so that it’s expanding Prime Now service for household products to Baltimore and Miami. [More]
Target Introduces Extended One-Year Return Policy
By 3.18.15
While 90 days might seem like enough time to decide whether or not those sheets really match your bedroom decor, Target seems to think you might want to think on it a bit longer than that: The company announced today that it will offer customers a one-year return window for select items.
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TV Viewership Down 10%; Industry Blames Streaming Video
By 3.11.15
Even though many of us have hundreds of channels to choose from on cable or satellite, we’re choosing to watch less live TV. But it’s not just because we’ve all decided to go outside and take up steeplechase; it has a little something to do with the availability of subscription streaming services. [More]
Amazon Launches “Exclusives” Store For The Things You Didn’t Know You Needed
By 3.11.15
If you’ve ever searched high and low to find the perfect present for your odd cousin Bob only to find that everything you see in the store is generic or just wouldn’t fit his unique personality, then you’re the type of consumer Amazon aims to please with its latest store. [More]
Police: Former Amazon Employee Siphoned Off $18,000 In Gift Card Balances
By 3.9.15
When you send someone a gift card, you do so under the assumption that no one with access to the card has been draining any of the balance. That’s what we assume when having a card sent to the recipient, or when mailing it ourselves: why check to make sure the whole balance is there? Police say that a woman fulfilling Amazon gift card orders took advantage of this for a few years, draining $18,000 in Amazon gift card balances to her own cards. [More]
Why Is Amazon Mom Called Amazon Family Outside Of The U.S.?
By 3.3.15
Amazon does business in many different countries, and knows how to market to people all over the world. The Amazon Mom program started a few years ago, providing special discounts and fast shipping on items needed for babies. Yet why is it called “Amazon Mom?” Most primary caregivers are mothers, but there are plenty of children being raised by single fathers or two fathers: don’t they buy diapers, too? [More]
Amazon Reportedly Adds “Ship To Cuba” Option In Preparation For Restored Diplomatic Ties
By 3.3.15
If it wasn’t enough that Americans traveling to Cuba might now be able to bring back Cuban rum and cigars from their travels, those in Cuba may soon be able to order goods from Amazon, or at least get things shipped to them. [More]
Amazon Imagines A Future Where Delivery Trucks Print 3D Products At The Curb
By 2.27.15
There can be a lot of worry over getting a package from Amazon delivered successfully — but what if your item never had to travel farther than the distance between the curb and your door? Amazon has filed a few patent applications in an effort to perhaps make curbside 3D printing a reality for the future. [More]
Amazon’s In-House Kindle Scout Publishing Platform Set To Release First 10 Books Next Month
By 2.24.15
Four months after Amazon launched a crowdsourced publishing platform that allows Kindle readers to kind-of, sort-of have a say in what unpublished books and hopeful authors reach their devices, the company is set to release the first 10 Kindle Scout titles next month. [More]
Target Reduces Free Shipping Requirement To $25, Now Cheaper Than Walmart & Amazon
By 2.23.15
Consumers no longer have to drop $50 to qualify for free shipping on Target.com. In an attempt to stay competitive with other online retailers, the big box store reduced the minimum requirements for free shipping to $25. [More]
