Consumers preparing to go on vacation might peruse Amazon for the necessities: sunscreen, rafts, hiking backpacks –– you name it and the online retailer probably has it. Unless, of course, you were looking to book your lodging. But that’s about to change now that the e-tailer is reportedly gearing up to launch its own hotel-booking service that would compete with the likes of TripAdvisor and Booking.com.. [More]
amazon
Amazon Deploys Robot Army To Assemble Your Orders
By 11.20.14
While government regulations are keeping Amazon’s delivery drones out of American skies for now, the company is still looking for ways to remove slow, error-prone humans from the fulfillment process in order to save time and money. One cool piece of machinery that will help the company with the holiday rush are robots that don’t pick items off the shelves: they bring the shelves to the human order-pickers. [More]
Amazon, Hachette Reach Multiyear Deal To End Months-Long Feud Over E-Book Pricing
By 11.13.14
The months-long standoff between Amazon and book publisher Hachette appears to have reached a ceasefire with the groups signing a multiyear contract. [More]
Walmart Tells All U.S. Managers They Can Now Price-Match Online Retailers Like Amazon
By 11.13.14
It’s a war out there in the world of retail, and having the lowest prices around is a weapon every brick-and-mortar store has been trying to keep in its arsenal. Not so easy when online retailers like Amazon are constantly lowering prices. All that might change for Walmart, as store managers have been told it’s time to officially start price-matching Amazon and others. [More]
Amazon Echo: What Happens When You Put Siri Inside A Speaker
By 11.6.14
Have you ever been working in the kitchen, or just sitting on the couch, and wanted to update your calendar, find out the weather, or get the answer to a trivia question… but your phone or computer was out of reach? Amazon is hoping to cater to people in that situation — and anyone who enjoys talking aloud to electronics — with its newly announced Amazon Echo speaker. [More]
Amazon Extending Some Prime Benefits To Partner Sites
By 11.6.14
The way an Amazon Prime membership works right now, all of the perks of online shopping, like free two-day shipping, are benefits enjoyed only while purchasing goods on Amazon itself. But now Amazon is dipping its toes in the pool of friendship, as it’s joining up with partner sites to extend some of those benefits to shoppers buying stuff on other sites as well. [More]
The Future Of Amazon Same-Day Deliveries May Be In Taxis
By 11.5.14
The days when lumbering, hulking trucks ruled the world of package delivery might someday may come to an end, as the roads make way for smaller, lighter delivery vehicles. Amazon tested package delivery using licensed cabs in San Francisco and Los Angeles this fall, as it looks into using the vehicles to bring customers their goods. [More]
Amazon Adds Unlimited Cloud Photo Storage For Prime Members
By 11.4.14
In a bid to dangle a little something extra to attract customers and keep the ones it has signed up, Amazon is now offering unlimited photo storage in its cloud for members of its Prime subscription service. That includes any and all digital images, at no extra cost. [More]
Equipment Catches Fire At Amazon Warehouse, Your Stuff Is Fine
By 11.3.14
In the early hours of Saturday morning, there was a fire at the Amazon.com fulfillment center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Warehouse workers and the local fire department were able to contain the fire, no one was injured, and none of your stuff that you haven’t ordered yet was damaged. [More]
Forget Black Friday, Holiday Shopping Season Starts Tomorrow
By 10.31.14
While children and parents around the country are sitting around, regretting the huge amount of sugar and chocolate consumed tonight, the folks at Walmart, Amazon and other stores are not only busting out the holiday decorations, but reducing prices and offering short-term large-scale sales for early holiday shoppers. [More]
Walmart Might Begin Price-Matching Amazon, Other Online Retailers
By 10.30.14
It’s not uncommon for consumers to view items at a store and then purchase them for a lower price online. One of the nation’s largest retailers is apparently tired of losing those customers and may begin price-matching its online competition this holiday season; a trend retail analysts predicted less than a month ago. [More]
Amazon’s Kindle Scout Give Readers The Choice In Which Authors Gets Published – Kind Of
By 10.27.14
Despite its decidedly unfriendly-to-authors feud with a major publishing company, Amazon is touting a new program that provides an outlet for hopeful authors, while letting readers maybe, sort-of decide who’s worthy of being published. [More]
Amazon Takes $170 Million Loss On Fire Phone Flop
By 10.24.14
Despite Amazon advertising the device on every doorstep and dropping the price under a buck, the company’s Fire Phone, companion smartphone to its line of tablets and TV streaming devices, failed to catch on with the public. Maybe it was the AT&T exclusivity, or the fact that it runs a customized version of Google’s Android operating system, without access to Google’s app marketplace. [More]
USPS Gets Go-Ahead To Expand Deliveries Of Groceries & Other Stuff
By 10.23.14
Last month, the cash-strapped street urchin that is the U.S. Postal Service pleaded “more gruel, sir” to the Postal Regulatory Commission, asking for permission to expand its test of delivering groceries and other non-postal items during those wee-morning hours when mail trucks mostly sit idle. Today, the PRC granted the USPS its wish. [More]
Amazon Fresh Reaches East Coast But Only For Select Group Of Brooklynites
By 10.17.14
Residents of New York City jealous of their West Coast counterparts for receiving sometimes-fresh grocery deliveries from Amazon should pine no more. The e-tailer began deliveries of Amazon Fresh in a very concentrated area of the Big Apple today. [More]
Amazon UK Finds Use For Newspaper Distributors: Delivering Packages
By 10.15.14
Who visits every neighborhood on a daily basis? There’s the postal service, of course, but another group of drivers or distributors on foot come by early in the morning, making their deliveries while most people sleep. Most cities still have a daily newspaper, so why not take advantage of that to bring online orders to residential neighborhoods? That’s what Amazon wants to do in the United Kingdom. [More]
Amazon Opening Real-Life Stores In San Francisco, Sacramento
By 10.14.14
Amazon hasn’t officially confirmed that it is going to open a real-life store in New York City, though “people familiar with the plans” told the Wall Street Journal about the company’s planned , and there’s definitely something about to open in the space across the street from the Empire State Building. However, the company has confirmed that it’s opening two seasonal pop-up shops in San Francisco and Sacramento, California. [More]
Sears Apologizes For Selling Swastika Rings In Online Marketplace
By 10.14.14
After a third-party listing for a men’s “Thai silver Swastika ring” popped up on Sears’ online Marketplace, the company has pulled the “punk rock style” jewelry and has been busy apologizing to upset customers for selling it in the first place. [More]
