#185 – Etsy Prime, Temu protests, & BNPL’s future

by Shopifreaks | Aug 5, 2024 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks!

RIP to our stock portfolios this morning. Ouch! Of course, if you zoom the chart out, the S&P 500 is still more than twice what it was in March 2020, and 54% higher than it was in February 2020 (before the sharp pandemic-fueled drop) — so I think we'll all be okay. Rocket ships can't go up forever. Plus, us millennials wouldn't mind a few more buying opportunities in our adult lives!

This week I've got an exciting edition for you that covers:

Amazon's record-breaking delivery volume
Etsy's new Prime-like membership
Seller outrage at Temu headquarters
Wix's new AI blog writing tools
Google's glitch that exposed competitor data
The future of BNPL regulation
South Korea's $445M e-commerce rescue package
TikTok's e-commerce hiring spree
Amazon's culture unraveling post-Bezos
New recall rules for Amazon
eBay's dark patterns (or glitch)
Facebook's demographic trade with TikTok

All this and more in this week's 185th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

PS: Are you enjoying Shopifreaks? If so, please take a moment and write a Google Review. Your reviews help me reach more e-commerce professionals like yourself, and they make me feel good!

Stat of the Week

So far this year, more than 5 billion items have arrived the same or next day globally—a new record for Amazon and an increase of 30% YoY.

1. Etsy launches a Prime-like membership program

Etsy introduced its first-ever buyer membership program called Etsy Insider. The company says the Amazon Prime-like membership is part of a larger effort to change how consumers think of the platform, with a goal of making Etsy a place to begin their shopping journeys, instead of just visiting the site when looking for something very specific.

Etsy Insider will offer:

Free US domestic shipping on millions of items — good so far, standard
A birthday bonus – very cool, haven't seen another marketplace do that
Limited edition annual gift, designed by an Etsy seller – also very unique idea
First access to special discounts and select merchandise – like it so far
Double impact with Donate the Change – this gives to Etsy's nonprofit fund, which supports entrepreneurship

Etsy stressed in its announcement that the program comes at no cost to the Etsy seller community, and that benefits like free shipping will be funded by Etsy through the membership fee.

Can Etsy afford to do that?

Are they aware that Amazon effectively loses money by offering free shipping with its Prime Membership?

In 2023, global revenue from Amazon Prime subscription fees totaled $12.4B, but the company spent around $89.5B on delivery (some of which includes its warehousing and other logistics expenses).

And we're talking about Amazon here — meaning they do things to scale like no other. Plus they run their own warehouses and fulfillment network.

Are we about to see brightly colored Etsy trucks delivering to neighborhoods nationwide this year? Of course not!

Etsy will likely be reimbursing their sellers for the delivery fees they spend at couriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL — which means they won't have anywhere near the operational efficiency of Amazon when it comes to fulfillment. It'll be an absolute money pit — and one that Etsy can't afford given that the company is barely profitable.

Etsy is launching a closed-beta version of Etsy Insider to select buyers in the United States this September.

They did not share the price of the membership in the announcement, only mentioning that the monthly fee will be close to the cost of a latte, and that invitees will have the option to purchase an annual or seasonal membership.

I applaud the effort, but I don't see this being a viable plan for the company (at least the free shipping part). Nor do I envision that enough Etsy shoppers will purchase the membership to make it a significant source of revenue for the company. But prove me wrong Etsy! I'm rooting for you.

2. Temu sellers protest over platform fines and refund policies

Hundreds of Chinese sellers swarmed Temu's offices in Guangzhou, China last week to protest fines and refund policies that they said were destroying small merchants' profits.

Videos posted on social media showed crowds of sellers gathered outside the building chanting slogans like, “Your fines aren't fine!” and “Nǐ hǎo! Nǐ hǎo! We won't pay your fees now!”

Okay, well, I made up those slogans. I don't actually know what the protestors were chanting, but I'd imagine it was something like that.

The anger was directed at:

Temu's policies of fining merchants if they receive refund requests or complaints.
Temu refunding customers even if they don't send back the product.

A garment merchant from Guangzhou who attended the protest told Inside Retail that Temu introduced new penalties in April that can amount to up to 5x the value of a sale when customers return their purchases for a refund. The merchant said, “I’m fine if I must refund consumers … What vendors want is for Temu to stop fining us without a reason.”

Around 80 of the merchants were able to break through security and gather on the 30th floor of the office building, hoping to confront the company's top executives, but they were unsuccessful at securing a meeting. The Chinese media outlet Yicai reported that employees were told to stop working after the protesters entered the office, and that the merchants left after the police arrived.

Temu told the China Securities Journal that it didn't make money from fining its merchants, and that, “If fines are imposed, the proceeds will be given to consumers.”

Temu also told Business Insider that it is actively working with merchants on a solution.

In other Temu news… the retailer has soft-launched in Thailand, markings its expansion in Southeast Asia after first launching in Malaysia and the Philippines a year ago. Initially Temu Thailand will focus on unbranded items, with plans to introduce branded products in the near future.

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is concerned with the launch, noting that the arrival of foreign e-commerce platforms in the country has historically posed a problem for the Thai retail sector because the companies are very well-funded and equipped with technology that makes it difficult for Thai companies to compete. Thavisin ordered the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the Revenue Department, and the police to determine whether Temu is complying with Thai law and is paying required taxes. He also warned that any Thai officials who help foreign platforms evade taxes will be dealt with harshly.

3. Wix's new AI tools will write blog posts for you

Wix released a suite of AI-powered tools that can come up with content ideas and then turn those ideas into near-ready SEO-optimized articles. The tools enable website owners to:

Generate ideas for content
Create content outlines or full posts
Fine tune the content to resonate with their target audience
Enhance blog titles, images, and existing text with AI-driven suggestions
Add keywords to include for SEO, and the AI will incorporate them throughout the content
Create images from text prompts to complement the content
Write meta titles and descriptions

Einat Halperin, GM of Wix Blog, wrote in the announcement:

“One of the most effective tools to increase conversions, promote new products and events, and establish trust with customers are blogs. The challenge users face is ideating and consistently creating high-quality blog content. We see that on average sites with blogs get 86% more organic traffic compared to sites without blogs. With our range of new blog creation tools, we're looking forward to more users producing top-notch content.”

The Verge's Jess Weatherbed criticized the release, saying, “The result will be a web further filled with AI-generated garbage at the expense of legitimate, genuinely useful information.”

To be fair, Jess, this has already been happening with other AI tools long before Wix introduced these features into their platform. They're simply making AI more accessible to add new fuel to the dumpster fire known as the Internet in 2024.

4. Google Ads glitch exposes competitor data

Google Ads experienced a significant glitch that impacted advertisers' ability to manage campaigns and access performance data, and even worse, exposed sensitive information to competitors including item IDs, product titles, and Merchant Center information.

The glitch left merchants in a scenario where advertisers can potentially identify direct competitors by searching exposed product titles.

The issue was flagged on LinkedIn by Ingvar Kraatz, COO of Bidnamic, a shopping ads agency, and was subsequently reported by Search Engine Land. Kraatz wrote:

“At Bidnamic, we’ve noticed a significant issue in Google Ads reporting between July 30th and 31st, 2024. Our clients’ accounts are showing data that does not belong to them, including unrelated item IDs, product titles, and other Merchant Centre information (such as MC IDs).

To protect sensitive information, we have anonymized the data, concealing client details as well as the Merchant Centre, MCA, Store IDs, and item IDs from other companies. However, the data clearly points to direct competitors within the same vertical. By searching for specific product titles, we could identify which companies the Merchant Centre data belongs to.”

Kraatz later posted an update after two days:

“Google has taken down product-related reporting on Thursday, hours after Bidnamic reported the issue to Google. Unfortunately, this action has hindered further independent verification.

While Ginny Marvin from Google asserts that this problem is unrelated to the rollout of Merchant Center Next, it’s clear that a resolution is urgently needed. The incident has affected advertiser trust, and it is critical for Google to implement substantial measures to restore confidence.”

Google recognized the issue on their Ads Status page, noting that the issue was resolved on July 31st, but that they paused access to certain reports on Aug 1st. All reporting services were restored on the 4th.

5. The regulatory landscape of BNPL is unclear

In May I reported that regulation had finally come to BNPL in the US with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau declaring that BNPL lenders must provide consumers the same key legal protections and rights that apply to conventional credit cards, including the right to dispute charges and demand a refund from the lender after returning a product. The new regulation effectively labels BNPL lenders as credit card providers and says they must now meet the respective criteria under the Truth in Lending Act.

The CFPB set a deadline of Aug 1st for companies to adhere to the new rules and opened up a commentary period during the previous two months. Turns out from the comments that BNPL firms aren't happy.

Klarna argues that the CFPB's approach is misguided and that BNPL products are fundamentally different from credit cards and should not be regulated under the same framework. I shared similar sentiment when the news first broke.
Affirm also urged the CFPB to create specific rules for BNPL products rather than applying existing credit-card regulations. Affirm's Chief Legal Officer Katherine Adkins wrote, “Requiring BNPL providers to comply with rules designed for open-end credit cards creates compliance challenges and confusing outcomes for consumers. The actual information Affirm must include on the account opening disclosure is largely unhelpful and likely confusing.”
The AARP came out in favor of the rules in its letter to the CFPB, noting that it will protect older consumers from fraud and provide much-needed protections like transparency in pricing, disclosures, clarity on dispute resolution and refunds, and determination of whether a consumer can repay the debt before issuing the loan.

PYMNTS reports that a few key questions about the new regulation have yet to be answered:

What will the companies have to do to comply with new obligations to consumers — and when?
What might the impact be for BNPL users, and providers, too?
Will the fine tuning, and mounting costs of new regulatory oversight pose headwinds to innovation?

BNPL firms have requested that the rules take effect at the beginning of next year, petitioning the CFPB that “an extension is necessary for BNPL lenders to test and responsibly implement necessary changes before civil liability attaches to these additional requirement.”

I'm no fan of the BNPL industry — but in this case, they're right. I wrote when the news broke:

“It took over two years for that?

If you've been reading this newsletter long enough, you know that I've been a big proponent of BNPL regulation since the lending type first came into existence. Regulation is long overdue, and I honestly can't believe that BNPL companies have been able to skirt credit lending rules for as long as they have.

It's a bit strange that the CFPB took two years to simply label BNPL lenders as credit card providers, instead of using that time to come up with regulation specific to the lending type — but it's a start. A very late start, but a start nonetheless.”

I hope that the CFPB listens to the feedback, grants an extension, and uses the time to come up with a clear framework for BNPL regulation in collaboration with lenders. Frankly this should've happened years ago, but let's hope it happens now.

6. South Korea's $445M e-commerce rescue package

The South Korean government created a $445M rescue package to bail out merchants who used two e-commerce platforms owned by Qoo10 that have failed to pass on payments for several weeks.

The issues began in early July, when merchants on WeMakePrice and TMON — both owned by Qoo10 — began noticing that payments weren't being made on time. Qoo10 blamed the late payments on a glitch in its payment system, but the company could only hide behind that lie for a short period of time before their house of cards came toppling down.

By the end of July, TMON and WeMakePrice filed for court receivership, requesting that the court take control of their management.

Qoo10 CEO Ku Young-Bae apologized for the incidents and pledged to use his own assets to help compensate affected customers and vendors. He was subsequently banned by the Justice Ministry from leaving Korea until an investigation is performed.

Up to 60,000 merchants are believed to have been affected by the late / lack of payments, and the government believes that Qoo10 amassed $152M worth of unpaid transactions. Qoo10 told the Financial Services Commission that it plans to scramble together $50M to apply to the debt.

Ku Young-Bae also issued a statement offering to sell off his shares in the business to raise money to solve the matter, noting that his stake in Qoo10 was most of his assets. Can you imagine a CEO in the USA offering to do something like that? It would never happen! The US government would bail the company out and the CEO would get a bonus.

What's next for WeMakePrice and TMON?

It's likely that Qoo10 will be able to financially recover after some restructuring, but repairing its reputational damage with merchants is a different story. TMON and WeMakePrice were already struggling to compete with competitors like Lazada and Shopee, and it'll take a major revival to earn back trust and market share.

7. TikTok is going on an e-commerce hiring spree

TikTok is looking to hire a handful of workers in the US to enhance its shopping experience with features like virtual try-ons and generative AI shopping tools, according to jobs posted in its portal.

The new hires will focus on building tools for “product creativity generation” and the “generation and optimization of product materials,” as well as virtual try-ons and other shopping features.

TikTok's job postings make it clear that the company is prioritizing its TikTok Shop and competing harder in the US market, as about a third of its current US job openings are for e-commerce roles right now.

In other TikTok news… TikTok Shop is raising its seller commission fees in the UK from 5% to 9% in September as it focuses on building the “marketplace of the future” by prioritizing live commerce and shoppable content. The company is also introducing a “seller missions” program, which enables UK sellers to reduce their fees if they create a target number of TikTok live or shoppable videos.

TikTok also plans to launch a co-funded free shipping model in September, enabling sellers to offer free shipping by sharing part of the cost. The initiative aims to increase order conversions by expanding the range of products available with free shipping for customers. Sounds like it's thinking like Etsy!

Lastly in the world of TikTok, the US Justice Department and the FTC filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok and ByteDance for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits website operators from knowling collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13, unless they obtain consent from those children's parents. According to the complaint, TikTok knowingly permitted children to create accounts and view / publish videos on the platform, while collecting and retaining personal information from the children.

8. Amazon's management rules are unraveling post-Bezos

Jason Del Rey, author of Winner Sells All (great book), and Fortune writer, published an expose entitled “Jeff Bezos' famed management rules are slowly unraveling inside Amazon. Can they survive the Andy Jassy era?”

In the article, Rey, through interviews with current and former Amazon employees, breaks down how the culture at Amazon has changed, what's responsible for the shift, and the obstacles ahead for Amazon as a result. I'm going to share a few highlights from the article below, but I highly recommend that you give it a read to get a behind the scenes look at the cultural changes happening at the world's biggest online retailer.

Amazon famously has 16 leadership principles — formerly 14 until adding “Strive to be Earth's Best Employer” and “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility” prior to Jassy taking over as CEO.
Many employees felt that the new principles were a marketing ploy and devalued the rest of the principles, as Amazon was facing scrutiny at the time over its labor and environmental practices.
Employees believe that ordering workers back to the office post-pandemic violates one of Amazon's sacred tenets to “hire and develop the best.”
And by announcing the mandate with little warning, Andy Jassy betrayed his duty to “earn trust.”
Interviewed executives and managers say that Amazon's key principles and practices remain core, but have become less universally agreed upon.
Insiders say the leadership principles have become weaponized, diluted, or applied inconsistently.
Some insiders believe that the culture has eroded in recent years as Amazon hired many executives from outside the company, who have used the principles “as weapons to put those who aren’t favorites in their place,” while employing other principles to build up their favorites.
One employee said his superiors frequently wield “disagree and commit” to quash any level of pushback, even before a plan has been agreed upon.
Most workers who spoke to Fortune don't point to the Bezos-Jassy transition as the main fault line, and instead blame the disruption caused by the pandemic and the subsequent doubling of Amazon's headcount in two years.
Those who joined right before or during the pandemic had little time to learn and adapt to the culture, which is fundamentally harder through videoconferencing.
Others point blame to the fact that many longtime veterans at Amazon have left the company in recent years, and that there were not enough people left to teach the culture to new hires.

To my Amazon readers — do you agree with Rey's assessment of the cultural shift happening at your company? Hit reply and let me know.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission ruled that Amazon is responsible for handling recalls of unsafe products sold on its site and must improve its process. The regulator said that Amazon's alerts were not sufficient to convince its customers to stop using certain recalled products and ordered the retailer to submit a new plan for how it will respond. The decision follows its lawsuit against Amazon in 2021 for distributing more than 400k hazardous items, including faulty carbon monoxide detectors.

Alibaba is launching an AI-powered conversational sourcing engine in September, which will synthesize information on its website, interpret sourcing needs using natural language processing, and match buyers with products and suppliers with improved accuracy. Alibaba says that the new approach tackles the inefficiencies of conventional search methodologies, which are often time consuming, manually intensive, and involve laborious data categorization processes. I'm curious if the engine will ultimately “choose winners” based on which products and suppliers currently have the best data and reviews, and subsequently drive more business to a smaller pool of vendors.

Brick and mortar stores like Walmart and pharmacies locking up their toiletries is good for Amazon, according to CEO Andy Jassy, because the loss prevention practice is pushing more customers to shop online with Amazon instead of asking employees to unlock a glass case. In a Harris Poll from last November, 71% of shoppers said glass cases made them less likely to frequent a store, and Joe Budano, the CEO of Indyme, told Axios that the cases can cause sales to drop between 15% and 25%.

P.Louise, a UK_based cosmetics company that sells makeup and skincare products, broke the UK record for the most revenue generated on TikTok Shop by a UK brand after earning £1.5M in just 12 hours. The previous record was held by fellow beauty brand Made By Mitchell, which sold $1M in 24 hours last month.

Is eBay using dark patterns to deceive customers? Value Added Resource reports that eBay is displaying a section of ads titled “Sponsored Items From This Seller”, but that the items are not actually listings from that specific seller. The oddity, which could also just be a glitch in eBay's system, was noticed by users across listings from various sellers.

Glossier, a millennial beauty and skincare brand, launched a shoppable scavenger hunt across New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, as part of a collaboration with Shopify's Shop App. When fans found posters and scanned a QR code, they were directed to Glossier's store within the Shop App where they could order the new product called Boy Brow Arch from Aug 2nd to Aug 5th, as long as they're within one of those three cities. The campaign leveraged Shop's geo-gated location tech so that anyone outside of those areas wouldn't have access to the new product until its wider launch on Aug 6th.

Facebook is experiencing a resurgence among Gen Z users, while TikTok is gaining traction with Baby Boomers, according to a report by eMarketer. The number of Gen Z Facebook users in the US is expected to jump from 33.9M users in 2024 to 40.5M users in 2028, while 1M boomers in the US are expected to adopt TikTok in the next year, bumping that age group up from 8.7M to 9.7M users.

Albertsons and Instacart are expanding their partnership to include nationwide pickup and delivery in as little as 30 minutes via a virtual store called Albertsons Rapid, as well as offering same-day delivery for Haggen Food & Pharmacy in Washington. By the end of August, pickup for orders placed through Instacart will be available from more than 2,000 Albertsons locations including Safeway, Albertsons, Shaw's, ACME, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, and Vons.

Meta is continuing to run ads on Facebook and Instagram for illicit drugs, despite a federal investigation into the practice. After clicking on the ads, users are taken to a third-party site or messaging app, such as Telegram, to facilitate the purchases. The Wall Street Journal reports that it found dozens of ads in Meta's Ad Library during the month of July.

Twitch is revamping its mobile app to display a TikTok-like feed front and center, which displays videos the user might like, instead of videos from creators that they follow. Last August, the company experimented with this type of discovery feed, which it rolled out to all users in April and is now making the new landing experience in the app.

Digital ad platforms in the US saw slowing ad spending last quarter, according to a new report from Tinuiti. Ad spend on Meta rose 10% YoY in Q2, down from 16% in Q1, while Google grew by 14% YoY, down from 17%. Walmart, on the other hand, saw advertisers boost their spending by a whopping 45% YoY, which marks its fifth consecutive quarter over 30% growth.

Additional US States are exploring the idea of taxing e-commerce delivery fees for road repair revenue. Proposed solutions include collecting a percentage of the fee consumers pay to have e-commerce packages delivered to their homes or offices to pay for road repair and related projects. Colorado and Minnesota previously passed bills that collect a percentage of e-commerce delivery fees for fixing roads, bridges, and transportation infrastructure, and now Washington, New York, Ohio, and Nevada are considering similar legislation.

41% of TikTok users say creators' content on the platform feels authentic, and that the authenticity transfers to the brands they represent. 55% of users say they are more likely to trust brands when they hear about them from creators, as compared to other ads in their feed, according to a new report by CreatorIQ.

Visa credit card users around the world of all types including Discover, Monzo, Capital One, and others are reporting mysterious $1 or $0 charges from Shopify-charge.com appearing on their bills, even when they did not attempt to purchase anything. Shopify-charge.com is a legitimate website operated by Shopify that informs users that the charge came from a subscription fee or purchase at a Shopify store. Shopify recently suffered a third-party data breach at one of its vendors, but experts are unsure yet if that is related as the breach did not contain credit card of payment information.

Workers at Amazon's only unionized warehouse in the US, located in Staten Island, elected new union leaders, marking the first major change for the labor group since establishing an alliance with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2022. Conner Spencer, a prominent organizer with the union who recently led a dissident group that sued the union last year to force a new leadership election, will take over the leadership role from Chris Smalls, the former Amazon worker who spearheaded the union.

Speaking of unions… Apple reached an agreement with unionized employees at its Towson, Maryland retail store that could secure them better pay, job protections, scheduling improvements to support a work-life balance, and a more transparent disciplinary process. The Towson location became the first Apple Store in the country to unionize in 2022, and in May this year, voted to authorized a strike against the company after unsatisfactory negotiation outcomes. The outcome is that workers will be given average raises of 10% over the life of the contract, and starting pay rates for most positions will go up.

eBay Buyers are frustrated with the latest update to the app that inserts intrusive ads into their purchase history. When customers open their purchase history, they are now seeing an ad on every other line in the top 5-10 items, with some seeing hundreds of ads mixed throughout their history, which makes tracking purchases difficult.

TikTok launched a new App Center for business users, which features a collection of third-party tools that can help brands maximize their performance in the app. TikTok says that these apps have been featured because they offer “lightweight solutions,” as opposed to more comprehensive SaaS tools that are better suited for bigger brands.

The DSP rivalry is heating up between the industry's top three contenders, according to AdAge. In recent months, Google and Amazon focused on their DSPs in upfront sales presentations, while Google has also been offering incentives on spending (which it's never done in the past). Meanwhile, The Trade Desk, which is significantly smaller than both rivals, has been changing strategies in recent years to account for signal loss on the web, unveiling new tech to tap more directly into the ad supply of publishers.

Meta is courting actors and influencers like Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina to have their voices be a part of its AI offering, hoping to wrap up deals quickly so that it can develop and show off the new voices at its Meta Connect conference in September. Apparently Meta didn't learn its lesson on employing celebrities the first time, because less than a year after its debut, Meta has quietly shuttered its celebrity chatbot program (the one where you could talk to Snoop Dogg and Kendall Jenner), despite having paid top creators as much as $5M for their likeness. Meta says that it used the lessons from building those celebrity chatbots “to understand how people can use AIs to connect and create in unique ways,” and that it will further their mission to enable every user to have their own AI.

The mayor of College Station, Texas is urging the FAA to slow down an effort by Amazon Prime Air to expand its drone delivery operations in the city after residents expressed concerns to the City Council regarding drone noise levels, particularly during take-off and landing. He asked the FAA to delay approving an increase in the number of deliveries and expanded operational hours until additional noise mitigation efforts are implemented.

Amazon filed a federal lawsuit accusing a group operating on Telegram of stealing more than 10,000 items through fraudulent returns. Amazon claims that since the beginning of 2023, the group known as Chin Chopa, has posted over $1,260,464 in screenshots as proof of refunds received. The lawsuit does not identify the operators of the group, but it does name seven US defendants and one Canadian who are accused of using and promoting the illegal-service to obtain the products.

Flipkart integrated its various fintech services into a single vertical named ‘Flipkart Pay,' which now includes services like UPI, bill payments, insurance, and co-branded credit cards. The company has been expanding its fintech offerings over the past few months, launching a bill payment service in July and a new payments app called Super.money in June.

UPS published a rate update, revealing that its surcharge fees will jump twice during the upcoming holiday season, first in September and then again in mid-November. The 2024 holiday surcharges are reportedly pricier compared to previous years. UPS CEO Carol Tomé told analysts on a recent call that it anticipates a peak volume that justifies the pricing.

Meta agreed to a $1.4B settlement with Texas for allegedly violating biometric privacy laws in the state and collecting and using biometric data from millions of Texans. The settlement is the largest ever obtained by a single state and marks the first settlement under Texas's Capture the Use of Biometric Identifier Act, which was enacted in 2001 to protect individuals' biometric information.

Security researchers uncovered a sophisticated information-stealing fraud network, dubbed “Eriakos” after the CDN used by the threat actors, that lures victims to fake web shops via Facebook ads. The specialist claimed to have discovered 608 fraudulent e-commerce websites under control of a single actor or group, mostly registered in China.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Covariant, a maker of AI software used in industrial robots, received takeover interest from Amazon. Covariant's software would provide Amazon a way to power all their robotic automation through one platform. Covariant has previously raised $245M from investors and was valued at $625M in 2023.

Fiverr, an Israeli-based freelance marketplace, acquired AutoDS, a provider of a subscription-based end-to-end solution for dropshippers that includes product research, sourcing, inventory management, and automated fulfillment. Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman said that the acquisition is another step forward in the company's transformation from a marketplace into a solutions provider. AutoDS will remain independently operated and the two companies will work together to maximize synergies between their offerings.

Kemitt, an Egypt-based marketplace for furniture and home accessories, raised an undisclosed amount in a recent funding round, and subsequently announced its expansion into Saudi Arabia. The company was founded in 2018 to manage all aspects of manufacturing, overhead, and last-mile logistics, and will use the funding to enhance its UI, scale logistics, and diversify its product portfolio.

Sennder, a German freight forwarding provider, acquired the European ground transportation assets of C.H. Robinson, a logistics giant in the EU, for an undisclosed amount rumored to be around €900M. C.H. Robinson is estimated to be the second-biggest logistics provider globally after Amazon, with a market cap of over $10B. The acquisition is expected to double Sennder's annual revenue to €1.4B.

Lumi, an AI platform founded by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick that enables users to create and publish their own comic book stories digitally and physically, raised $4M in a round led by Seven Seven Six, the early-stage VC firm launched by Reddit co-founder Alex Ohanian. Lumi shared in their press release, “Currently, a few large corporations dominate the narrative landscape, limiting the diversity of stories told. Lumi aims to open the funnel, enabling anyone to access storytelling superpowers, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and equitable world.”

Shopify acquired ChannelApe, a cloud-based inventory management platform that helps businesses manage stock levels and create product listings across multiple channels, for an undisclosed amount. As of the announcement, the company is no longer accepting new customers. It's unclear at the moment whether Shopify's plans are to continue running the service independently or shut it down and incorporate ChannelApe's features into their backend.

Cartona, an Egyptian B2B e-commerce platform, raised $8.1M in a Series A extension led by Algebra Ventures, bringing Cartona's total Series A to $20.1M. The company will use the funds to grow its market share in Egypt by deepening its operations in fast moving consumer goods, hotel, restaurant, and cafe / catering categories, as well as look to expand into other regions such as Saudi Arabia.

Canva, a graphic design platform, acquired Leonardo.ai, a gen AI content and research startup, for an undisclosed amount, as the company looks to broaden the scope of its AI tech stack. All of Leonardo.ai's 120 employees will be joining Canva, excluding the executive team, and Leonardo will continue to run independently of Canva for the time being.

Capitaliply, a US-based rollup company, acquired RecurrinGO!, a Shopify subscription management app, for $1.1M, with plans to invest an additional $1.5M to enhance the app's functionality over the next two years. RecurrinGO! currently enables over 3,000 stores to sell products as subscriptions, primarily across the USA, Canada, and Europe.

Altana AI, a New York-based supply chain management startup that gives customers insights and visibility into managing their global value chains, raised $200M in a Series C round led by US Innovative Technology Fund, bringing its total amount raised to $322M and valuing the company at $1B. The company's platform uses AI to analyze data points through the supply chain to spot anomalies and risks, which has become necessary as governments have introduced new trade restrictions, climate, national security, and other policies.