#187 – Klarna’s savings accounts, TikTok’s cash incentives, & FTC’s new rules to combat fake reviews

by Shopifreaks | Aug 19, 2024 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks!

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Before we get started today, I want to share the latest interviews from my What's Next Series, where I feature founders of notable startups in our space:

Learn how Trudy MacNabb, cofounder of Design Packs, helps Shopify merchants add customization superpowers to their existing themes.
Discover how Jarek Ostrowski created a new category of made-on-demand products with Distro, a producer of high quality wood decor that you can sell without inventory.
Alejandro Aguilar, CEO of Crossborderly, helps merchants ship internationally up to 50% cheaper while dealing with all customs, rules, and regulations.
See how Thibault BONNEFOY's My Stories app brings a familiar story-like experience to your Shopify product pages.

Thank you to the founders above for participating in my interview series. Please note that these interviews are non-sponsored content and just a way for me to learn about new apps and support startups in our space.

And now, onto our regularly scheduled programming…

In this week's edition I cover:

China couriers delivering 100B packages so far this year.
Klarna's new savings accounts & cash-back rewards
TikTok's cash incentives for referring creators
The FTC's new rules to combat fake reviews
SoundCloud launched an artist merch store
Amazon is testing omitting star reviews
X's battle with Brazil
TikTok's latest court filing
Nood's campaign against Google, Facebook, & TikTok
Spotify is competing against TikTok & Instagram with video ads
eBay's new search experience

All this and more in this week's 187th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

China couriers delivered over 100 billion parcels so far this year, hitting the milestone 71 days earlier than in 2023. This volume equates to 71.43 packages per person, 5,144 parcels per second, and 440 million packages per day. – According to the State Post Bureau

1. Klarna adds savings accounts and cash-back rewards

Klarna is giving customers the option to add money from their bank account to a new digital wallet called Klarna Balance. The company also introduced a cash-back rewards program where customers can earn up to 10% cash back when using the Klarna app to shop at participating retailers.

In Europe: Klarna already has a banking license and has offered similar services in Germany since 2021. Now it's expanding those services to other European markets including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain. It'll offer customers interest rates as high as 3.58% for savings.

In the US: Klarna doesn't have a banking license and is operating through partner banks. Its banking services will be limited and more comparable to a digital wallet than a savings account, as the money held isn't protected by the FDIC. There is also no interest offered to US customers.

Who are the mystery banking partners in the US? When asked, a Klarna spokesperson said, “We’re working with a number of partners to bring the product to market in the US. I’m afraid we’re not making the banks’ names public.”

Sounds great Klarna! So let me go ahead and transfer money from my HYSA that's protected by the FDIC into your Klarna Balance where my money is stored in a secret bank, I earn no interest on it, and my deposits are not protected. Great value proposition!

Klarna is making these moves and further expanding their product offering away from BNPL in anticipation of its IPO in the US, where it'll seek to raise $20B. The company is reportedly ready to tap Goldman Sachs to help lead its IPO, according to Bloomberg sources.

2. TikTok is offering cash incentives to attract new creators

TikTok users in the US who invite their creator friends to join the app can now get up to $300 in discounts or a $100 Amazon gift card for every new creator they refer. Users are rewarded after an eligible creator (YouTubers with 10K subscribers and Instagrammers with 100K followers) accepts and joins TikTok’s 1 Min+ Growth Program using the invitation code. Lia Haberman posted a screenshot of the message she received on Threads.

Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media today wrote that the incentive, “seems a little desperate, and a little like TikTok is running out of ideas for growth, given that it’s resorting to cash rewards and discounts to get more users across.”

Personally, I don't think that the move screams desperation. I'm a big proponent of offering referral commissions to grow memberships. However I question whether this particular promotion will be effective. Does TikTok think that YouTubers with 10k subscribers and Instagrammers with 100k followers haven't heard of TikTok before? And that the push they've been looking for is a sign-up link from a fellow creator?

At this point, if a larger video creator hasn't joined TikTok yet it's an intentional or calculated choice. Perhaps they make too much money on YouTube to want to spread their view count across TikTok, or they lack the capacity to spread themselves too thin across multiple networks.

My recommendation to TikTok is to focus on making your creator program as attractive as YouTube's, which generally pays creators more. That'll attract the creators you're looking for — no referral incentive required.

Hutchinson also shared that TikTok’s growth has plateaued, and is even declining in some regions. The app sky-rocketed to popularity in 2021, hitting one billion users, but the company has not provided an official update on its active user count since then.

In other TikTok News… The company rolled out group chats that support up to 32 participants, aiming to enhance user interaction by allowing friends and family to connect more easily on the platform and eliminate the need for third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp to share and discuss videos.

🔥 Partner News

Amazon's recent updates to its FBA refund and reimbursement policies significantly shorten the timeframes for filing some claims. Getida published updates discussing the changes, their implications, and how sellers can best prepare.

3. The FTC announced final rules to combat fake reviews and testimonials

The FTC announced final rules to combat fake reviews and testimonials by prohibiting their sale or purchase. The new rules will also allow the agency to seek civil penalties against known violators.

FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote, “Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors. By strengthening the FTC’s toolkit to fight deceptive advertising, the final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.”

The final rules prohibit:

Fake or False Consumer Reviews, Consumer Testimonials, and Celebrity Testimonials – This rule not only prohibits review marketplaces from selling fake reviews, but also prohibits businesses from buying the reviews, an important distinction that puts both sides of the fake-review equation on blast.
Buying Positive or Negative Reviews – Prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives for writing a particularly positive or negative review. From what I'm understanding, merchants can still offer an incentive for writing a review, but can't expressly or implicitly dictate the tone of the review. This one may need some additional clarification from the FTC.
Insider Reviews and Consumer Testimonials – This one prohibits employees and their friends and family from writing reviews for the company without disclosing their relationship.
Company-Controlled Review Websites – Prohibits a company from misrepresenting that a website it controls provides independent reviews that include its own products or services. So for example, voting your own products #1 by a third-party blog that you control.
Review Suppression – Prohibits a business from using legal threats, physical threats, or other forms of intimidation to prevent or remove a negative consumer review, as well as bars a business from saying that the reviews on its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted, when in actuality some reviews have been suppressed based on their ratings or negative sentiment.
Misuse of Fake Social Media Indicators – Prohibits anyone from selling or buying fake social media followers or views generated by bots or hijacked accounts.

Fines could reach as high as $50,000 per violation.

How will the FTC enforce these new rules?

The answer to that question is TBD. Some of the practices mentioned above are so rampant in e-commerce and other industries that enforcement may be near impossible. Especially the rule about friends and family not leaving fake reviews! How will the FTC know that a plumber's brother-in-law left a five star review?

The final rule announcement follows an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking announced in Nov 2022 and a notice of proposed rulemaking in June 2023. The FTC also held an informal hearing on the proposed rule in Feb 2024 — so these rules aren't coming out of thin air. The rules will become effective within the next 60 days.

4. SoundCloud launches an artist merch store

SoundCloud launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store that will allow artists to sell their own designs and fan merch. The first edition of the store features designs from Wiz Khalifa, Denzel Curry, wolfacejoeyy, Bktherula, Armani White, and other people I've never heard of before.

Here's how it works:

The artist submits a design.
Soundcloud creates mock-ups for them.
SoundCloud produces the goods for the artist and lists the items on the SoundCloud store.
From there SoundCloud handles fan engagement and social promotion for the merch.
The service currently does not take any fee from the artists and passes on 100% of the profits from sales.

That is definitely different than how I thought the store would operate when I read the headline.

Given how SoundCloud caters to independent artists, I assumed that the merch store would be independently operated by the artists themselves. In other words, I figured the artists could simply upload their designs and launch their stores in minutes.

However to start, it appears that SoundCloud is catering towards larger artists on its platform and controlling more of the design and output process. I think this is a smart move, as it creates a better designed and more curated store, and subsequently a better first impression for first time shoppers, as opposed to creating a POD mega-store filled with low resolution crappy designs from music artists who don't know the first thing about putting out a t-shirt design.

Perhaps SoundCloud will open the platform for artists to DIY their designs in the future, but for now, I like the approach.

The new merch store will open to fans in the US, Canada and Europe at launch.

5. Amazon is omitting star ratings from search results

Amazon is experimenting with removing customer star ratings from its product search results page, which the company says could make it easier for shoppers to scan its selection of products. Either that, or Amazon is inadvertently admitting that most of its reviews are fake / paid for and wants to put less emphasis on them.

Amazon told Fortune that the “limited test” only affects a small set of products and only affects the search results page, while the star ratings and review count totals are still available on the individual product pages.

Judah Bergman, founder at Jool Baby, shared a screenshot on LinkedIn of what this new streamlined results page looks like.

Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti confirmed to Fortune that the change is a test and not the result of a software bug, but did not offer any information about the results of the testing so far, or about how long the company plans on conducting the tests.

Last year in August, I reported (story #5) that Amazon was testing a star rating system in India, Germany, and other regions that showed a product's weighted average rating as single yellow star next to its image in search results. It also only showed the percentage of 5-star ratings the product had received, as opposed to the number of 5-star reviews. The system made it difficult for customers to tell at a glance whether a product's average rating was 5 or 3.5 because both scenarios were represented by a single small yellow star.

It's not uncommon for Amazon to test new ways to display ratings and other user interfaces, and testing a feature doesn't indicate that Amazon will be rolling out the new system to everyone.

Do you think hiding star ratings on search results is a good or bad thing for customers? Hit reply and let me know.

6. X is closing its headquarters in Brazil, but keeping service active

X is closing its operations in Brazil, but keeping the social media service available in the country for the time being, according to a post from its @GlobalAffairs account, which wrote:

“Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions.

Despite our numerous appeals to the Supreme Court not being heard, the Brazilian public not being informed about these orders and our Brazilian staff having no responsibility or control over whether content is blocked on our platform, Moraes has chosen to threaten our staff in Brazil rather than respect the law or due process.

As a result, to protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately.”

Then the post got increasingly political and told Brazilians that they have a choice to make:

“His actions are incompatible with democratic government. The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.”

X published pictures of a document allegedly signed by Moraes which says a daily fine of 20,000 reais ($3,653) and an arrest decree would be imposed against Rachel Nova Conceicao, an X representative, if the platform did not fully comply with his orders.

Brazil's Supreme Court, where Moraes has a seat, told Reuters it would not speak on the matter and would not confirm nor deny the authenticity of the document shared by X.

Musk, in a post on X on Saturday, wrote, “The decision to close the X office in Brazil was difficult, but, if we had agreed to @alexandre’s (illegal) secret censorship and private information handover demands, there was no way we could explain our actions without being ashamed.”

This isn't Brazil's first scuffle with X:

Earlier this year, Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts that had been accused of spreading fake news.
Later, Elon Musk said he would reactivate the accounts and called Moraes' decisions “unconstitutional.”
This caused Moraes to open an inquiry into Musk.
Musk later reversed course and told Brazil's Supreme Court that X would comply with the legal rulings.

7. TikTok says it's being singled out by the US government

TikTok is urging a federal appellate court in Washington DC to block the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which will effectively ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance doesn't divest the app to an American-owned company by April.

TikTok calls the statute “the most sweeping speech restriction in this country’s history” and claims that it “singles out and shutters a speech platform used by 170 million Americans.”

In its new filing last Thursday, TikTok's legal team claimed that the US is illegally singling out TikTok and that the government's fears are speculative and lack hard evidence.

TikTok attorney Alex Berengaut wrote in the filing, “The government cites no evidence of this supposed Chinese control—and its contention is flatly wrong.”

The Justice Department’s legal papers include large sections that have been redacted for containing classified information, and the DOJ has previously asked the court to keep key evidence under seal since it involves a “top secret” classified designation.

Lawyers for the DOJ said, “The government is not trying to litigate in secret, but rather to litigate in public to the greatest extent possible, while still providing the Court with access to the classified information that informed the government’s national-security judgments that are central to this litigation.”

The only thing the DOJ has publicly stated in Thursday’s filing is that “an entity founded and based in China and subject to Chinese laws controls TikTok’s recommendation algorithm.”

Whether it's right or wrong that TikTok should be banned, it infuriates me that the same politicians that want to ban TikTok are now using the app for their campaigns. Pick a lane.

8. Nood ads censored by Google, Meta, and TikTok

Nood, an American bra brand known for its adhesive bras, nipple covers, and boob tape, is spearheading a campaign to shed light on the adverse impact of advertising policies enforced by Google, Facebook, and TikTok.

In the past year, Nood claims that its business has been negatively impacted by having their products and ads categorized as sexual in nature, indecent, or inappropriate, which has resulted in censorship, shadow bans, and removal of their advertisements. A few examples include:

Google classified Nood's content as sexual because its images showed the “lower or outer curve of the female breast,” which the brand uses to showcase its nipple covers. Google says this falls under “partial nudity.”
TikTok banned Nood from its landing page and ads due to artwork featuring breasts, which led to broader restrictions on any products associated with breasts.
Meta took down some of the company's ads, which Nood says has resulted in “substantial financial losses and hindered growth.” Nood says that Meta's policy doesn’t separate nudity from sexuality. An image with Nood’s nipple covers shown on a woman was censored, while the same product demonstrated on a male body was approved.

Astrid Montalta, CEO and founder of Nood, wrote in a statement:

“As female founders, we already have the odds stacked against us. Less than 3 percent of venture capital funding goes to female-founded companies, and less than 10 percent of female-founded businesses are able to grow revenue over 100,000 US dollars. Facebook, Google, and TikTok all claim to support the empowerment of women; however, by automatically sexualising a woman's body, they discriminate against and penalize female founders who create products for women, only compounding an already dire statistic for success.”

This one's tough to judge.

On one hand, I understand where Nood is coming from. Just because their products are made for women's breasts doesn't intrinsically make their products sexual in nature.

On the other hand, some of Nood's ads are objectively sexualized, designed to make the viewer think at first glance that the woman is topless, only to look closer and discover that she's wearing a skin tone nipple cover. Many users wouldn't consider this type of content appropriate for their feeds, and platforms have a responsibility to their users (and other advertisers) to only show content that adheres to their community guidelines.

Where are Meta, TikTok, and Google supposed to draw the line?

I understand Nood's struggle, but nipple covers and adhesive bras aren't the only industries that run into content policies on advertising platforms when demonstrating their products. Should a company that sells penile sheaths be able to showcase their products on male genitalia in their Facebook Ads since the product is medical and not sexual in nature?

Plus, other companies like Boomba and Victoria Secret seem to advertise their similar products without much fanfare. From the few examples of ads that I saw, it feels to me that Nood may have been pushing the envelope with their ads in regards to these platform's guidelines and got upset when Meta, TikTok, and Google determined that they crossed the line.

Nood could certainly get creative and find ways to advertise their products that fit within the community guidelines of the platforms they advertise on instead of playing the victim card.

However I'm making these judgements just based off images from their website and ad examples I saw in the Facebook Ad Library. It's very possible that some of Nood's less revealing ads have been unjustly censored by these platforms. And anyone who's advertised before knows that appealing platforms' decisions is all but impossible.

What are your thoughts? Hit reply and let me know or join the convo on LinkedIn.

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Spotify is attempting to compete with TikTok, Instagram, and other video networks for video ads, according to a leaked deck which revealed that the music-streaming service is seeking a larger slice of video ad budgets. Spotify reported its most profitable quarter ever after a 13% increase in ad sales and 12% growth in subscribers to its premium tier, but ad-sales growth slowed from an 18% increase in Q1. Advertising currently makes up 12% of Spotify's total revenue, and the company wants to get that number to 20%.

eBay redesigned its search experience to make it more intuitive and “visually rich” featuring larger, higher-resolution images, streamlined navigation, and a more modern layout. The new main search page makes large product images the focus point, while the new Shopping View replaces the previous gallery view, providing a full-width display without sidebar ads so that shoppers can browse visual categories like clothing, shoes, accessories, and jewelry.

More than one-third of back-to-school shopping happens online now, with Amazon capturing more market share and dethroning Target as the second-biggest retailer for back-to-school supplies behind Walmart, according to a report by Numerator. E-commerce accounted for more than 37% of school supply shopping in 2023, up from 23% in 2019.

TikTok started allowing alcohol advertisements in the US under a new policy that permits alcohol and alcohol-branded merchandise to be advertised to users 25 years old and older. Despite the updated rules, TikTok's policy on branded content remains the same, which prohibits influencers from promoting alcohol and requires alcohol brands to disable comments on their posts to avoid interaction with underage users.

The Biden administration unveiled new rules and efforts targeting consumer annoyances ranging from hard-to-cancel subscriptions, long insurance forms, and not being able to get a human customer service agent on the phone in a reasonable amount of time. The new “Time is Money” initiative is aimed at cracking down on endless hold times or deliberately complicated procedures that cost consumers.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told students at Stanford University that they should use large language models to replicate TikTok's algorithm and “steal” the company's intellectual property, and that everything would be fine as long as they had lawyers to sort things out. He later asked for the now-deleted video to be taken down and clarified his comments by saying, “So in the example that I gave of the TikTok competitor, and by the way, I was not arguing that you should illegally steal everybody’s music. What you would do if you’re a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, which hopefully all of you will be, is if it took off, then you’d hire a whole bunch of lawyers to go clean the mess up, right? But if nobody uses your product, it doesn’t matter that you stole all the content.”

Amazon's Prime Day beat other retailers' summer promotional events in regards to loyalty and participation. Amazon customers spent a record $14.2B during the event, which marks an 11% increase YoY, and 84% of shoppers who made purchases during the summer events only bought items at Amazon. However when it came to average spend per customer, Wayfair had the lead with $281, followed by Walmart at $101, Amazon at $89, Target at $76, and TikTok Shop at $53.

Flipkart introduced a platform fee of Rs3 (around 4 cents) on its marketplace, following in the footsteps of quick commerce companies Swiggy, Zomato, and Zepto. The fee is uniform across basket sizes and has not yet been introduced for Flipkart Grocery or its travel site, Cleartrip. The company says that the fee is a nominal charge to “sustain efficient operations” and improve user experience.

Walmart and its drone delivery partner DroneUp are ending drone delivery in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Tampa to focus on perfecting the delivery model in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is emerging as the capital of drone delivery in America. 70 employees are losing their jobs in those cities, and the reduction will cut DroneUp's delivery service to 15 Walmart locations including 11 in Dallas, 3 near Bentonville, and one in Virginia Beach, where DroneUp is based. Two weeks ago I reported that 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.

eBay is giving buyers the ability to cancel their orders before the items get marked as shipped, which means that sellers better update the tracking information on orders quickly. Currently buyers can use the cancel order button in cases where they purchased the item within the last hour and the seller has not shipped yet, but now there will no longer be a 1-hour limit, and the button will be available until tracking information is added. What a horrible policy! Now sellers have to monitor their eBay dashboards in real-time while picking and packing orders in fear that the buyer will cancel before they have a chance to update the order with tracking info? Can we just put eBay out of its misery at this point?

X has been ordered to pay €550k in compensation to a former senior executive in Ireland for his unfair dismissal following Elon Musk's acquisition of the company. Back in November 2022, Musk had sent all staff an e-mail prompting them to “click yes on the link below” if they want to be part of the new Twitter, and the company says that former employee Gary Rooney resigned when he failed to tick the box. However Rooney claimed that it required him to agree to new and unspecified pay and conditions within a one-day deadline.

Radio ads beat Facebook by 2.6x in consumer attention, according to a new study by Adelaide. The firm's study revealed that to achieve the same level of attentiveness that $1,000 spent on AM/FM radio advertising provides, an advertiser would have to spend $1,313 on X or $2,635 on Facebook. The study also found that radio ads nearly match the attentiveness levels of television.

Thailand's government is inviting key e-commerce platform operators to discuss the impact of low-cost imported products from China, following a resolution instructing state agencies to find new measures to ease the impact of the influx of Chinese products on local manufacturers. Various regulatory agencies from Thailand will join the meeting with the e-commerce companies, which will include representatives from Lazada, Shopee, and Temu.

Zepto, an India-based online grocery delivery service that delivers orders within 10 minutes, is working on expanding its product selection from 10k items to more than 20k items within a month, preparing for the upcoming festive season in the country. In addition to groceries, Zepto currently lists a limited range of general merchandise, cosmetics, electronics, toys, and home goods, but it plans to increase its selection of items in those categories as India approaches Diwali.

TikTok launched a pilot program in partnership with NCMEC that will display Amber Alerts directly within the For You feed, providing more coverage to missing persons in the app. The new program will initially begin in Texas before expanding to other regions. Do you think TikTok will play that annoying Amber Alert sound? Or will they use trending music? The latter would be a much better way to keep users from scrolling past the video.

Pivotree, a global company that helps build and manage digital platforms for commerce, data management, and supply chain, partnered with Shopify as a technology partner to implement and migrate enterprise customers to the Shopify platform. The new alliance will enable large global brands to transition to Shopify more easily from legacy platforms.

Turkey is the latest country to raise customs duty rates and reduce de minimis in an attempt to give local retailers a leg up against Shein and Temu. President Erdoğan signed the new law, reducing the de minimis exception from $164 to $33, effective August 21st, while increasing the country's import duty on European packages from 18% to 30% and the tax rate on goods originating from outside the EU from 30% to 60%.

X's estimated ad revenue dropped $238M so far in 2024, which can only be described as an “epic fail” by Elon Musk. Advertisers have spent almost $744M on X during its first six months of 2024, which is 24% lower than the $982M spent in the first half of 2023. Apparently telling advertisers to “go fuck yourself” isn't a great way to get them to up their ad spend.

In other X news… a US District Judge in Texas recused himself from a lawsuit filed by X after NPR drew scrutiny to the judge's investment in Tesla. Judge Reed O'Connor reported receiving a dividend from Tesla in 2022 of $15,000 or less. In his two-sentence order stepping aside from the Musk case, he did not offer an explanation.

The European Union asked Meta for information about the way it shares data from its social media platforms with researchers, a request relating to a probe that officials launched earlier this year into Meta's compliance with the region's Digital Services Act. Through its request, the EU is seeking more details about Meta's Content Library, a web portal that allows researchers to access certain information about user posts on Facebook and Instagram. Meta has until Sept 6th to provide the information.

Mercari, the Japanese marketplace that allows users to buy and sell new and used items, is making Japanese inventory available to shoppers on its US marketplace, and opening a retail store in Los Angeles. The company said that Mercari x Japan is a new product offering that will open up direct access to inventory from millions of Japanese sellers with products like apparel, sneakers, handbags, toys, comics, and more.

Rivian paused production of its electric van, which it built for Amazon, due to a parts shortage that began earlier this month. The company declined to say exactly which components were in short supply, which is pretty smart, as I'd imagine other folks would start buying those parts up right away, furthering the shortage. Rivian did not provide a timeline for when it'll begin production again.

Shein hired former EU commissioner Günther Oettinger to navigate regulatory hurdles in Europe and bolster its lobbying efforts in the region ahead of its London IPO, as the EU considers new import duties that would impact its business. Shein spent about $2.5M on lobbying in the US and EU last year.

58% of crypto ads on Facebook are for scams, according to a new report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which shocked no-one. The report alleges that Meta is well aware of what is going on and chooses to turn a blind eye. The ACCC has decided to sue Meta over the issue, claiming that the company refuses to take the matter seriously and only generates action when asked or warned to do so.

Temu overtook eBay to become the 2nd most visited e-commerce website in the world, which is especially wild given that most of Temu's sales happen within its app. Temu also beat out Amazon for budget-conscious consumers in a new report, which found that shoppers who purchased from both marketplaces think that Temu is cheaper, but Amazon is more convenient.

Hellmann's, the maker of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and other condiments, is launching the world's first (and probably last) mayonnaise-inspired fragrance that “smells like greatness” in a partnership with NFL quarterback Will Levis, its new brand ambassador. Levis famously put mayo in his coffee when he began working with Hellmann's last year, and now the two companies are trying to see just how gross they can take things. You can watch the commercial here.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Revolut, a London-based neobank that recently secured a banking license in the UK, hit a $45M valuation via a secondary share sale as it inches towards an IPO. The company was valued at $33B in July 21 when it raised $800M in a Series E round, and has not raised primary capital from investors since.

Komerce, an Indonesia-based e-commerce enabler for SMBs, acquired and merged with RajaOngkir, a real-time shipping cost calculator and API integration platform. The deal enables Komerce to provide more comprehensive and integrated solutions to its clients, particularly for large enterprises that require API integration to manage their product shipments.

Trove, a resale platform that works with brands like Patagonia and Levi's, acquired Recurate, a competing resale platform, for an undisclosed amount. Trove specializes in a fully managed model of resale, handling the entire secondhand commerce journey start to finish on behalf of its clients, whereas Recurate offers brands a peer-to-peer resale model that doesn't require inventory management or photographing listings, allowing for an easier integration of resale into an existing e-commerce platform.

Reliance Retail, India's largest retailer in terms of revenue, acquired Kiko Milano, an Italian cosmetics brand that offers makeup and skincare products. This marks the second global beauty and cosmetics brand acquired by Reliance Retail, following its acquisition of LVMH-owned Sephora's India business from Arvind Fashions last year.

Jumia, a Berlin-based technology company that operates an e-commerce marketplace in Africa, sold 20M American depositary shares and raised more than $100M. The company will use the funds to accelerate its growth trajectory as it heads towards profitability.

Avon Products Inc was granted approval to access part of a $43M debtor-in-possession financing package as it navigates Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The approval allows Avon to draw $12M immediately to fund its ongoing operations and bankruptcy case as it attempts to stabilize during bankruptcy and complete the sale of its non-US operations to its Brazilian parent company, Natura.