Amazon has expanded its Amazon Local services to include food takeout and delivery from participating restaurants in the Seattle area. This expansion directly positions companies like Seamless and GrubHub in Amazon’s crosshairs, as it looks to dominate the market. So far, the service has followed Amazon’s typical launch path, as the service is currently only…
Archives for online shopping
Google Express Pilots Fresh Deliveries and Subscriptions
Google Express has shortened its name, but broadened its services. Formerly known as Google Shopping Express, Google’s same-day delivery service announced expansion to Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C., in addition to its previous service areas of the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and NYC. The service is now available for subscription, offering unlimited deliveries of orders…
Whole Foods Promotes Instacart Partnership
In a lighthearted video, Whole Foods and Instacart extol the benefits of their new partnership. Want hard to find products or want to send groceries to your favorite college student? The service has you covered with rapid delivery. As detailed in our previous post, Whole Foods now offers online ordering and delivery via Instacart in…
Online Shopping Can Help Brick and Mortar Stores
“Webrooming” occurs when a customer researches or browses products online and ultimately buys in store; “showrooming” happens when a customer browses in store and buys online. Retailers apprehensively believed that “showrooming” would end their business at the start of the internet age. According to new research from Nielson, interestingly, 88% of U.S. consumers admit to…
Amazon Drops Price of Fire Phone to 99 Cents
Amazon drastically cut the price of its 32-bit Fire Phone to $0.99 from $199, in an attempt to increase the Fire Phone’s mediocre sales, only a few months after the phone’s debut. The price cut come strategically a few days before Apple’s announcement of a new iPhone and a new mobile payments system, Apple Pay….
Apple Announces a New Mobile Payment System, Whole Foods Signs Up
With the new announcement, Apple attempts to succeed where other mobile payment systems have quietly under performed, payment systems like Google Wallet and Softcard. Apple Pay will use near-field communication (NFC) to process the mobile payment. A customer can simply wave their mobile phone in front of a retail terminal and press their thumbprint on…
Forbes: Top 3 Shopping Trends
Retail is changing more now than in any time in history. For those of us trying to “aim where the ball is going,” predicting future trends is what it is all about. Forbes suggest that the top three trends are: Location-based Technology: Knowing where your customers are and how to use that information to engage…
On the Road: Postes Canada
During a recent trip to Quebec City, I spotted a red Canadian mail truck. On the side, in white letters, below the French version, I read “Delivering the Online World.” What a great sentiment! Since I haven’t mailed or received anything in Quebec, I’m not sure how well they are keeping up with the claim,…