#204 – Shopify’s Boring Edition, Amazon Autos, and OpenAI Sora Turbo

by Shopifreaks | Dec 16, 2024 | Recent Newsletters

Hi Shopifreaks,

Before we begin, I‘d like to welcome Weglot to the Shopifreaks family as our newest official News Partner! 🎉🥳

Weglot offers the easiest way to translate your e-commerce website into 110+ languages on all major platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, WordPress, Wix, and more (including custom developed sites).

Weglot utilizes a mix of AI machine translation and manual review with the option to hire a professional human translator from right within your dashboard. Their platform integrates leading machine translation providers including DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft Translator, while using AI learning to choose the most accurate provider for each website and language.

Here are a few things that stand out to me about Weglot:

All translations can be manually edited via Weglot's dashboard. That way you don't have to give translators access to your website backend, which minimizes security risks and keeps your commerce metrics on a need-to-know basis.
Weglot brings vetted human translators right to your dashboard. No more having to peruse freelance websites, post jobs, and wait weeks for turnaround. Simply select the text you'd like to add a human touch to, choose your desired tone, enter any other instructions you have for the translator, and Weglot's team of pros takes it from there, delivering your translated content in 1-2 day turnaround.
Weglot handles much of the SEO heavy lifting. Their platform lets you choose between subdomain and subdirectory-based integration, and then automatically adds hreflang tags to your source code to inform Google about multiple versions of the same page, which improves your indexing. Their software also delivers your translated content directly from your website (as opposed to using JavaScript to layer the translation on top of your original language), which makes it possible for the translated content to be indexed by search engines. This one's very important to me as an SEO specialist, as many translator apps fall short in this area. (If that stuff is a bit confusing to you, feel free to reach out. I can help your company adhere to best SEO practices when going multilingual and/or international.)
Weglot remembers what you've already translated. This allows the software to detect newly added untranslated text to ensure that no content is ever left behind. It also encourages you to use the same translation for repetitive phrases throughout your website for consistency, with the ability to build a glossary of your most used terms.

How much does Weglot cost?

Weglot's pricing is based on the number of translated words and languages, starting with a free plan that includes 2,000 words and 1 translated language. From there, they offer monthly plans beginning from $17 that grow with you as you require more translations or additional languages. Weglot offers a no commitment 10 day free trial on any of its paid tiers.

What's the difference between Weglot and Shopify's free Translate & Adapt App?

That was one of my first questions, and it might be on your mind too! While Translate & Adapt may be great for beginners, it's not ideal when it comes to more complex multilingual setups. A few differences between the two apps:

Translate & Adapt has a two-language limit on auto-translations, with no option to purchase additional languages, whereas Weglot supports as many languages and markets as your store requires.
Translate & Adapt imposes a 100M character limit for auto-translations per year, which although is a lot, it oftentimes isn't enough for larger e-commerce brands with high content output.
Translate & Adapt doesn't always translate all of the content on a website such as reviews, comments, collection filters, and custom product page elements, whereas Weglot offers a robust set of integrations with 3rd party apps.
Translate & Adapt obviously only works on your Shopify website, whereas Weglot works across all your websites. For example, if you utilize Shopify for your e-commerce store and WordPress for the rest of your website, you can manage translations for both sites through your unified Weglot dashboard.

While Translate & Adapt is a great solution for some stores, Weglot is able to step in with more advanced capabilities and less language limitations for stores that need it.

A translated / localized website can help boost your traffic and introduce your products to new markets. If your store isn't speaking to your customers in their native language — you're missing out!

Here's how to go multilingual:

Get started with Weglot's free plan or a 10 day trial on any of their paid tiers (no credit card required).
Install Weglot's Shopify app, WordPress Plugin, or follow their simple integration instructions for other supported platforms.
Auto-translate your first language.
Make any manual edits you'd like (or hire a pro translator).
Publish your new language.

Thanks for becoming a News Partner, Weglot! Happy to have you guys on board and to bring your powerful translation tools to my readers.

And now, onto our regularly scheduled programming…

In this week's edition I cover:

Shopify releases The Boring Edition
Amazon launches Amazon Autos
OpenAI releases Sora Turbo
Shopify opens Shop Campaigns to non-Plus merchants
Wix introduces a free AI chatbot
WooCommerce reveals its plans for 2025
Amazon India joins the 15 minute delivery race
Meta joins Elon Musk's bid to block OpenAI from going for-profit
Bernie Sanders blasts Amazon worker safety in a 160-page report
Canada Post workers are ordered to return to work

All this and more in this week's 204th Edition of Shopifreaks. Thanks for subscribing and sharing!

Stat of the Week

Facebook global advertising revenue is on track to surpass $100B in 2024 and a global audience of 2.2B users. This makes Facebook the most-populous and best-monetized social media platform in the world.

1. Shopify releases Winter '25 Edition — “The Boring Edition”

Shopify released its full Winter '25 Edition — dubbed “The Boring Edition” — featuring 150+ updates designed to make merchants’ businesses run smoother.

If you're unfamiliar with Editions, twice a year, Shopify releases a mega showcase of its latest features called Shopify Editions. I've covered all of their Editions including Summer '22, Winter '23, Summer '23, Winter '24, and Summer '24.

I can't tell you how many times I've said something like, “I wish Shopify would take a break from adding new features and fix the the issues with their existing tools.” And now my dreams have come true! I hope that Shopify continues this “boring edition” tradition for years to come. As a developer and merchant, the updates contained in this recent edition are long-awaited and highly appreciated.

Here are some highlights from the Winter '25 Edition:

Checkout Blocks are now available on all plans, allowing merchants to offer customized thank you pages and integrated chat apps into the checkout.
Draft Orders now support Checkout UI extensions, Bundle orders, and checkout rules powered by Shopify Functions.
Customer Account Extensions, app blocks that help enhance a customer's account, can now be added directly into customer account pages, allowing features like order and return management, surveys, and self-serve functionality for quotes, invoicing, and bulk ordering.
Shopify Bundles are now able to be sold directly through Shopify POS, and metafields are available through POS. As an example use-case, a pet store can ask customers in store what type of pet they have, and create a metafield for “Animal Type” in that customer's profile.
Shopify Flow added new triggers for managing returns, additional marketing templates for setting up campaigns like abandoned cart or welcome e-mails, and segment triggers to automate workflows based on when a customer joins or leaves a segment.
Shop Campaigns are now available to merchants across all plans in the US and Canada. I've been waiting a long time for this one! More on this in story #4 below.
Fulfillment logic is now applied across more order sources including Facebook, Amazon, Draft order invoices, subscription orders, and order editing. Previously the rules that merchants set up to control order routing were only applied to online checkout orders.
Sidekick, Shopify's AI-enabled commerce assistant, is rolling out to more English language merchants around the world.
Shopify Finance brings Shopify's Balance, Credit, Capital, Bill Pay, and Tax services into one dashboard. I covered this in detail in November.
Shopify Search & Discovery now works with combined listings and category metafields.
Segments in Google Ads allow you to run campaigns on Google Ads that use your Shopify customer segments to more easily reach the right audience.
Semantic Search now works in additional languages.
Address Validation is now available across draft orders, shipping labels, customer profiles, and B2B company locations.

You can check out all of the updates here. There's definitely something for everyone in this Edition. Nice job, Shopify.

Which updates will have the most impact on your business? Hit reply and let me know.

2. Amazon launches Amazon Autos to sell you a car

Amazon announced its entry into the automotive market with the launch of Amazon Autos, a platform that will initially offer Hyundai vehicles to US customers.

Amazon Autos works as a middleman between buyers and car manufacturers, allowing vehicle shoppers in 48 US cities to browse, order, finance, and schedule pickup of a new Hyundai vehicle from their local participating dealer directly on Amazon.

The new service allows customers to:

Browse and search for available vehicles at their local dealer by make, model, trim, color, and features
Get an instant valuation and trade in their existing vehicle toward the price of the new car
See transparent, upfront pricing
Secure financing or pay in full
Complete the checkout process online
Schedule a pick-up time at the dealership

Fan Jin, global head of Amazon Autos, said:

“With Amazon Autos, we’re bringing the simplicity and ease customers expect from Amazon to car shopping, one of their largest purchases, while offering dealers a new channel to connect with a broad audience… It’s still early for us and we welcome customer and dealer feedback as we continue to add new functionality, expand to additional brands, and iterate on the customer experience.”

Amazon says that the platform offers dealerships “a new sales channel that connects them with millions of Amazon customers” — but is that true? Are people currently looking for cars on Amazon?

To be fair, at one point, people only searched for books on Amazon, and now they search for literally all consumer products. So it's not unlikely that Amazon will create a market for vehicles on its marketplace as well.

However I've got to ask — what's in it for the car dealerships?

Let's be real about what's going to happen here…

Amazon entices auto manufacturers to sell on its platform with the promise of new customers.
Amazon leverages its relationships with initial partners to onboard other manufacturers.
Suddenly it's hard to get noticed on Amazon Autos, so advertising is introduced and Amazon begins to take the dealers' margins.
Amazon becomes a market leader in the automobile search space because they have more customers and inventory and better SEO than any individual dealer.
Amazon pits the dealers, who are now reliant on Amazon Autos, against each other and forces them to undercut each other on price so that Amazon Autos has the lowest prices of any platform.
Amazon eventually finds a way to bypass the dealers altogether, creating a direct-from-manufacturer model, like the kind that Tesla pioneered. Many US states prohibit automobile manufacturers from selling vehicles directly to consumers and require sales to occur through independently owned dealerships, but Amazon will lobby against those laws, alongside EV companies, and eventually have them changed.
And/or Amazon will turn its Delivery Service Partners into “auto dealers” to skirt the laws, creating dealership relationships directly with the manufacturers in order to offer Free Prime Delivery of new vehicles.
Dealerships will eventually find themselves asking, “Why the hell did I participate in Amazon Autos?” as they close their storefronts.
“Your margin is my opportunity” — isn't that what Jeff Bezos always said? Now we can all watch in real time as Amazon makes dealership margin their opportunity, following their same playbook of leveraging 3rd party sellers' inventory and infrastructure to build their market share before entering the market directly themselves.

Is history lost on Hyundai and any other manufacturers that partner with Amazon?

Steven Suh, general sales manager of South Bay Hyundai, said:

“Listing our inventory on Amazon is a game-changer for how we connect with car buyers. It allows us to showcase our vehicles to millions of daily shoppers, while setting our pricing upfront. We can now reach a large local audience with the convenient and transparent experience customers expect when shopping with Amazon. Customers come in excited to pick up their new car and we can build on those customer relationships from there. This experience really positions dealers for success in the modernizing economy.”

Yes, it's definitely a gamechanger Steven — but at what cost?

Today Steven and his Hyundai dealership get to enjoy the easy profits of being an early adopter, without realizing that they're paving the way for Amazon to control their market. “We can build on those customer relationships from there,” he said. The same way that 3rd party Amazon sellers get to build on relationships with their customers? Think about that.

Am I wrong? Hit reply and share your thoughts or join the convo on my LinkedIn post.

3. OpenAI releases its AI video generation tool

In February this year, OpenAI introduced Sora, its generative AI model that can create realistic videos from text prompts. Sora initially launched into private beta testing.

Now the company has launched a new version of Sora called “Sora Turbo” that it says is significantly faster than the model it previewed in February and released it as a standalone product at Sora.com to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users.

Users can generate videos up to 1080p resolution, up to 20 seconds long, and in widescreen, vertical, or square aspect ratios. They can also bring their own assets to extend, remix, and blend or create entirely new content from text.

How much is it?

Sora is included for Plus account holders at no additional cost, allowing up to 50 videos at 480p resolution or fewer videos at 720p each month. The Pro plan includes 10x more usage, higher resolutions, and longer durations. OpenAI says it's working on tailored pricing for different types of users, which they plan to make available early next year.

Is it any good?

You tell me! Check out this video I posted to LinkedIn earlier today depicting myself as a hero. Also check out Sora's Explore page which showcases recent videos from other users.

OpenAI admits that there are limitations to Sora at the moment, including often generating unrealistic physics and struggling with complex actions over long durations.

The company wrote, “We’re introducing our video generation technology now to give society time to explore its possibilities and co-develop norms and safeguards that ensure it’s used responsibly as the field advances.”

4. Shopify opens Shop Campaigns to all merchants in US & CA

Shopify made Shop Campaigns available to all of merchants in the US and Canada, an advertising tool that was previously only available to Shopify Plus merchants. I covered this briefly in story #1, but it's such big news, I wanted to go into more details as a headline story.

What is Shop Campaigns?

Shop Campaigns are advertising campaigns run through Shopify that target users within the Shop App.

Shopify describes them as “risk-free campaigns across platforms and borders to drive customer growth with Shop.”

Merchants only pay for conversions, when new or existing customers convert.
Shopify takes care of optimizing the creative, audience, and ad placements without the merchant having to create new assets.
Merchants choose which shoppers to target, such as New Customers only or Lapsed Customers who haven't shopped at their store in a while, and then they get access to the customer's data once they convert so that merchants can “own the customer” from there on out.
Merchants need to set a minimum budget that is equivalent to one order per day. So if a brand's customer acquisition cost is $50, then the minimum budget needs to be $50.

To clarify one thing — Shop Campaigns aren't driving traffic to the merchant's store, but rather, to their products and storefront within the Shop App. However once the customer makes a purchase through Shop App, they become part of the merchant's customer database and e-mail / SMS list (if they opt-in).

Shopify President Harley Finkelstein posted on LinkedIn:

“Shop Campaigns is now available on all plans in the US and Canada. This means even more merchants can run risk-free acquisition campaigns on platforms like Shop, Google, and Meta, targeting new and lapsed customers with incentives in the Shop app. We just expanded Shop Campaigns to Google Shopping too.”

I'm very excited about this update. Leveraging Shop Campaigns has been one of my most highly sought after channels for non-Plus merchants, and I've already started running campaigns on some stores. I'll let you know how they go!

Will you be launching Shop Campaigns for your Shopify clients? Hit reply and let me know.

5. Wix introduced a free AI customer support chatbot for merchants

Wix introduced a new gen-AI tool called “AI Site-Chat” that is designed to serve as a virtual agent for customers. The tool enables businesses to answer customer inquiries and provide relevant information 24/7, including when there are no customer service representatives available.

AI Site-Chat works by integrating with the website's internal systems, allowing it to pull live data such as up-to-date product info and customer orders.

Wix says that the main purposes of the chatbots are to boost customer experience by being available 24/7, act as a sales assistant by delivering price and customized answers and recommendations to visitors, and capture leads by ensuring all customer inquiries are answered.

Yaniv Ben Simon, Head of Product for AI Site-Chat at Wix, said:

“Businesses can seamlessly use this feature to deliver real-time, conversational customer service, sales, and support in one place, and ultimately see reduced friction, increased engagement, and improved conversions. With many more features on the horizon, we’re setting a new standard for online business interactions and success.”

AI Site-Chat is initially available to Wix users in English and free to use, with the option to upgrade to a premium plan for unlimited usage.

In other Wix news… the company launched a “Do it. Yourself.” campaign that encourages entrepreneurs to follow through on plans and trust themselves to turn goals into reality. The campaign positions Wix not just as a website builder, but as a jumping-off point for success stories. You can watch the video on Instagram.

6. WooCommerce in 2025: Building a platform for the future

WooCommerce shared its vision for the future and key areas of focus for the upcoming year in a post entitled, WooCommerce in 2025: Building a platform for the future. I'll highlight the posts key points below:

WooCommerce's new High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) system demonstrates 5x faster order processing and 1.5x faster checkouts, freeing up developer time spent optimizing custom database solutions.
Their new block-based checkout gives merchants more control over their checkout experience, similar to Shopify's Checkout Blocks.
WooCommerce is bringing more commerce capabilities directly into the core product, such as the addition of built-in brand management functionality, which lets merchants create and manage brands for stores and assign them to products.
This example is part of WooCommerce's “more in core” shift, which is aimed at giving merchants a fully-integrated set of functionality out-of-the-box without having to rely on plugins and custom functionality solutions.
The “more in core” movement includes plans for making its payment, shipping, and tax services more native to WooCommerce core.
WooCommerce is developing an MVP for Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), which allows merchants to calculate profit margins for products and orders.
They are also planning to develop Back in Stock Notifications into the core product.

In other Automattic / WordPress news this week…

A group of WordPress contributors, including long-time core committers and community leaders, issued a call for changes to the governance of the open-source project, urging Matt Mullenweg to work with the community instead of continuing to act unilaterally.

In an open letter entitled Dear WordPress community: We stand with you, the contributors raised objections about governance, transparency, and decision-making processes of the organization, highlighting concerns about “double standards,” including Mullenweg’s lack of accountability under the project’s Code of Conduct and the executive director’s direct employment by Automattic.

The open letter follows an order by a California District Court judge for Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with its plugins. If you're out of the loop on what's going on between WP Engine and Automattic, TechCrunch has an article entitled The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained that offers an up-to-date account of the beef between the two companies.

7. Amazon joins the 15 minute delivery race in India

Amazon is joining the likes of Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart in India with its new quick commerce offering that promises to deliver everyday essentials in 15 minutes or less. The pilot program will begin in Bengaluru later this month, rumored to launch under the name “Tez” — which is a Hindi word that means “fast” or “quick.”

Amazon already operates Amazon Fresh in the country, which offers a two-hour delivery service, and the 15-minute service could help the company attract more grocery and everyday essential customers.

Amazon plans to use dark stores, which are small warehouses used to exclusively fulfil online orders, to support its quick commerce operations, but the company hasn't revealed how many dark stores it will set up or which cities will follow Bengaluru. Business Today sources suggest that further expansion will depend on the pilot’s success.

Quick commerce is rapidly gaining traction in India, with 91% of consumers aware of quick commerce platforms, and more than half already using them. A report from Meta shows that 57% of users are spending more on quick commerce platforms in the categories of grocery and personal care.

Amazon is entering the quick commerce market later than its rivals, who have already captured significant market share. When asked why Amazon took so long to launch, Samir Kumar, Amazon India's country manager, said, “We take our time to make decisions, but when we do, we aim to build a fine product. Our goal is to ensure safety standards for our associates and customers.”

The quick commerce sector in India is estimated to be worth $6B and growing rapidly.

8. Meta backs Elon Musk's bid to block OpenAI's for-profit shift.

Meta is supporting Elon Musk's effort to block OpenAI's conversion from a non-profit company into a for-profit one.

The company sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta claiming that the shift would have “seismic implications for Silicon Valley,” while also saying that Musk and former OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis are qualified to represent the interests of Californians in the matter.

Meta wrote, “If OpenAI’s new business model is valid, non-profit investors would get the same for-profit upside as those who invest the conventional way in for-profit companies while also benefiting from tax write-offs bestowed by the government.”

Wait, what's going on?

Earlier this month, Elon Musk filed an injunction against OpenAI, asking a judge to block its transition to a for-profit company. Musk has made a number of legal challenges against OpenAI, accusing it of betraying its non-profit mission in pursuit of investor profits.

OpenAI is fighting back. Last week the company released a series of internal documents that allegedly show Musk himself had previously pushed for it to become a for-profit entity. Musk has previously claimed he was misled that OpenAI would be purely nonprofit when he first invested in it, however, documents reportedly show that Musk had been pushing for the legal structure change since as early as 2017.

OpenAI published a blog post that outlines its defense and saying that Musk “should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom.”

9. Other e-commerce news of interest

Amazon manipulates its workplace injury data and rejected recommendations to improve safety conditions for its workers, according to a Senate investigation led by Bernie Sanders. The 160-page report digs into the company's “abysmal safety record” and claims that Amazon manipulates workplace injury data to make its warehouses appear safer than they actually are by cherry-picking statistics. The committee found that Amazon recorded 30% more injuries in 2023 than the warehousing industry average, and that Amazon warehouse workers were almost twice as likely to be injured than workers in other warehouses during the last seven years. Amazon said it cooperated with the probe despite Sanders’ “pre-conceived narrative” and that Sanders never responded to the company's invitation to visit one of its facilities.

Canada Post operations are set to resume tomorrow, December 17th, following a CIRB ruling confirming that both parties are at an impasse. As a result, the CIRB ordered employees to return to work and postal operations to begin again, while extending the terms of the existing collective agreements between Canada Post and the workers union until May 22, 2025 and putting forward an offer to implement a wage increase of 5% for employees. Wow, just in time for no-one's holiday orders to be delivered in time! Value Added Resource has an up-to-date timeline of events that have transpired between the postal service and the workers union.

Donald Trump's transition team invited representatives from Google, Microsoft, Meta, Snap, and TikTok to a meeting to discuss how to deal with online sales of drugs. The transition officials want to hear from the companies about their priorities and any barriers to addressing the issue.

Google is testing the ability to track prices, share, and save products from within Google Search and Google Shopping. Clicking the “Track Price” button enables push notifications and e-mails for price drops, while the “Share” button opens up social sharing links and the “Save” button adds it to your saved results.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and John Moolenaar, who serve on the House Select Committee on the CCP, are urging Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores ahead of the potential ban next month. Under US law, both companies must take the necessary steps to ensure they can fully comply with the requirement by January 19, 2025. The DOJ said that if the ban takes effect on Jan. 19, it would “not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok” by Apple or Google users who have already downloaded the app, but that the prohibitions on providing support “will eventually be to render the application unworkable.”

Total returns are projected to reach $890B in 2024, according to a report by the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns. Retailers estimate that 16.9% of their annual sales will be returned this year. More than two-thirds of retailers surveyed said that they are prioritizing upgrading their returns capabilities within the next six months.

Big tech companies are getting in line to kiss Trump's ring. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta, and Amazon have all pledged to make $1M personal or corporate donations to Trump's inauguration fund. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has an upcoming meeting scheduled with Trump, while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently said that the company is “turning the page” in regards to their relationship with Trump.

China's market regulator has directed PDD Holdings, the owner of Temu, to fix its refund-only policy, which allows consumers to get back money for goods bought from merchants without returning the products. Wu Libin, senior partner at M&T Lawyers, said, “The policy has been used by platforms to leverage their dominant position to attract consumers at the expense of merchants, leading to unfair practices and market distortion. Regulatory intervention aims to balance interests between platforms and merchants, while ensuring fair competition.”

TikTok is taking the Canadian government to court. Last month the federal government ordered TikTok to wind down its operations in the country following a national security review. Now TikTok Canada has filed notice of application for judicial review, which is an official legal challenge to the decision. Regardless of the outcome, Canadian citizens will still have access to the app. The order simply requires TikTok to cease business operations in the country, which TikTok says will lead to an unnecessary loss of jobs.

JD.com's founder Richard Liu has been quietly running the e-commerce group from London for the past several years, despite having stepped down as chief in 2022, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Liu's direct reports regularly travel from China for meetings with the billionaire, who also spends time in Dubai, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, to confer with him about company management and important decisions on investment strategy and overseas expansion.

Shopify app extensions including admin links, checkout extensibility, and theme app extensions can no longer be used to advertise apps, promote related apps, or request reviews, according to a recent change by the company, which Shopify offered no explanation on why. CEO of KnoCommerce Jeremiah Prummer explained via a LinkedIn post how removing the ‘powered by' message from his company's free tier means losing their greatest organic growth lever.

Google and Samsung unveiled a mixed-reality headset, challenging Apple and Meta in the space. The collaboration launched a new version of Google's Android software for XR, short for “extended reality,” alongside a Samsung-built headset code-named Project Moohan, taken from the Korean word for “infinite.” The new Android will allow companies to design their own XR devices, including headsets and glasses, while taking advantage of Google's latest AI advances. The hope is to replicate the success Google had with mobile Android across the VR / AR space.

Also in the world of wearable tech... Solo launched its AirGo Vision smart glasses, featuring visual recognition powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o. The AirGo Vision glasses start at $299, the same price as the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and can identify and answer questions about people, objects, and text seen by the camera, as well as translate text into different languages, provide directions, and give the user information about what they're looking at.

A growing number of Chinese e-commerce merchants are selling their products on Russian online marketplaces as exporters increasingly look to find new markets and avoid western tariffs. Several Chinese suppliers told FT that they were registering local Russian e-commerce stores, which requires opening a Russian bank account, paying for in-country warehouses, and receiving payment in roubles.

Amazon has begun to remove merchandise such as t-shirts, hoodies, and mugs that bear the words “deny, defend, depose,” which were terms written on bullet casings found at the site of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The company said that the products violated their guidelines, but didn't mention exactly which guidelines those were. Free Luigi merchandise has been popping up all over e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and GoodShirts.

Klarna was hit with a $46M fine by Sweden's Financial Supervisory Authority for breaches in anti-money laundering regulations. The investigation, which spanned from April 2021 to March 2022, revealed shortcomings in Klarna's risk assessment and customer due diligence processes, determining that they failed to adequately evaluate the potential use of products and services for money laundering or terrorist financing. Sebastian Siemiatkowski is probably like, “We have AI that'll fix that now!”

Amazon Teamsters authorized strikes at two facilities in New York following Amazon's refusal to recognize their union and negotiate a contract addressing the company's low wages an dangerous working conditions, according to the union. The strikes come after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters called on Amazon to agree to bargaining dates for a union contract by Dec 15th.

TikTok Shop, which first launched in September 2023, is outperforming Shein and Sephora among US shoppers when it comes to consumer spending. A new consumer trends report found that 45% of surveyed Americans have bought something on TikTok.

eBay and Klarna are expanding their partnership to key European markets including the UK, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain with more markets coming soon. eBay users in those markets can now take advantage of Klarna's BNPL payment options, while Klarna users can now resell items bought through its app on eBay with automatic listing details and images.

TikTok Shop is offering US users $50 shopping credits for inviting friends to join the app. The promotions are appearing on users’ “For You” page. The program is similar to the rewards program that TikTok offered in Europe earlier in the year, which paid users for their activity in-stream, but TikTok was forced to pull that campaign in August after the EU Commission began looking into it as a potential violation of its Digital Services Act. Sounds like TikTok is real concerned about that US ban…

Amazon delayed the deployment of Microsoft Office suite for a year as the two companies work to resolve Amazon's concerns about the security of the bundle of e-mail and productivity software. Microsoft signed a deal last year to provide Amazon employees with Microsoft 365, replacing the company's long time use of Office installed on its own servers, but Amazon paused the rollout after Microsoft discovered that a Russia hacker group gained access to some of its employees’ email accounts.

Amazon announced its plans to enable over $80B in cumulative e-commerce exports from India by 2030, which is 4x more than its pledged of $20B by 2025. The effort will be driven by a combination of enabling exports through Amazon's Global Selling program and through sourcing Made-in-India products to be sold on its global marketplaces. I can't wait to hear what Shri Piyush Goyal has to say about that!

A group of Amazon shareholders submitted a proposal to add Bitcoin to the company's balance sheet, urging the company to learn from MicroStrategy, which heavily invested in the cryptocurrency, resulting in an increase in its share price. The proposal wrote, “MicroStrategy — which holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet — has had its stock outperform Amazon stock by 537% in the previous year. At minimum, Amazon should evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 5%, of its assets in Bitcoin.” That's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever read. If shareholders want to diversify into Bitcoin, sell some of your Amazon stock and buy some Bitcoin! You don't need Amazon to do it for you.

European regulators asked Google to provide more information about a secret advertising partnership with Meta that skirted the company's rules on how minors should be treated online, which could lead to a formal investigation. Officials are looking into a series of ad campaigns promoting Instagram to teenagers on YouTube and have ordered lawyers for Alphabet to review and collate data, presentations, internal chats, and e-mails related ot the ad campaigns.

Instagram launched a global rollout of “trial reels” after experimenting with the feature back in May. Trial reels enable creators to test new ideas for videos on new audiences before expanding to their followers. The reels are shown first only to non-followers so that creators can gauge performance insights for the first 24 hours after publishing, before deciding whether to share it with their actual followers. I'd be publishing all my reels that way! Sounds like a great hack to reach non-followers and subsequently gain new followers.

Amazon's online pharmacy could generate $2B in revenue this year, according to the financial firm Evercore. A record 45% of Amazon customers surveyed said they were “extremely interested” or “very interested” in buying online medications from the company, up from 34% last year and from 14% in 2020, marking the largest YoY increase in purchase intent in eight years.

10. Seed rounds, IPOs, & acquisitions

Zalando, a German online marketplace specializing in fashion and beauty products that operates across 25 countries, agreed to buy rival About You, a German online fashion retailer founded in 2014, for €1.2B, in a bid to dominate Europe’s e-commerce market. The three founders of About You will continue in their current roles, and the two companies will continue to exist separately on the frontend, while seeking efficiencies across logistics and payment infrastructure. Zalando said it expects the deal to generate around €100M a year in synergies and cost-savings in the long run.

One, the startup bank that is majority owned by Walmart, is raising more than $300M in a round led by Walmart and Ribbit Capital, valuing the bank at $2.5B, according to Bloomberg sources. One aims to provide financial services to Walmart's hundreds of millions of customers and its 1.6M employees, currently offering installment loans, debit cards, payment services, and early wage access for Walmart employees.

Loop, a returns management platform for e-commerce brands, acquired Wonderment, a customer experience and advanced order tracking platform for Shopify merchants, for an undisclosed amount. Through the acquisition, Loop expands its offering with capabilities such as automated shipment tracking, delay alerts, and customer notifications, providing Shopify customers with more unified commerce operation insights and minimized friction.

Mirakl, a French software company that enables retailers to launch and manage their own digital marketplaces, acquired Adspert, a German adtech startup specializing in AI-driven advertising optimization, for an undisclosed amount. Through the deal, which is Mirakl's third acquisition in three years, the company aims to target brands and sellers that want to spend money on e-commerce ads through its acquired demand-side offering.

Culture Circle, an Indian luxury e-commerce platform that specializes in sneakers, streetwear, and high-end fashion, raised $2M in a round led by Info Edge Ventures. The company plans to use the funds for global expansion, technology improvements, and enhancing its marketplace for luxury goods.

Numia, an Argentina-based startup that helps Latin American companies integrate their customer service channels into one platform using AI, raised $3.5M in a round led by Cometa. Numia's platform connects to bank kiosks and tablets as well as software like Salesforce and Genesys, allowing companies to pick and choose which integrations they want to connect. They plan to use the capital for marketing, sales, and hiring, as well as improving and building out their tech.

Insider, a multi-channel customer experience platform that enables businesses to deliver personalized cross-channel experiences by connecting data across various channels, raised $500M in a Series E round led by General Atlantic. The company plans to use the funds to invest in its AI strategy and expand its talent base and geographic presence in Latin America.

Mark Zuckerberg sold $153.2M worth of Meta shares so far this month, adding to the more than $2.2B worth of shares he's sold over the last year. Meta's stock has risen 82% this year to an all-time high, and the company has reached a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion, joining Apple and Amazon in the four comma club.

Upbound Group, a retail financing company that owns and operates lease-to-own brands like Rent-A-Center, acquired Brigit, a cash-advance fintech that last month settled charges that it had received customers with promises of instant cash advances up to $250, for an undisclosed amount. Brigit's co-founders will continue to lead its team after the acquisition, and the company will continue to operate under its existing branding.

Gigs, a Switzerland-based telecom-as-a-service platform that enables businesses to launch and manage their own branded mobile services, raised $73M in a Series B round led by Ribbit Capital. Gigs gives companies everything they need to launch a mobile service in a single platform including APIs, hosted checkouts, multi-currency payments, and AI-powered customer services, shortening the time-to-market and reducing the costs of embedding mobile services into digital products.

Snapmint, an India-based BNPL startup, raised $18M in a Pre-Series B round led by Prashasta Seth of Prudent Investment Managers, at what the company claims is almost 3X the valuation of its last funding round. The company plans to use the capital to enhance its technology, launch new BNPL products, and onboard new merchants.

Shein's IPO was delayed as it waits for the UK's financial regulator to approve its public offering after it received challenges about the company's supply chain. The Financial Conduct Authority is checking the retailer's supply chain oversight and assessing legal risks after an advocacy group challenged the listing that was filed in June. Britain's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner also flagged concerns over a Shein IPO over allegations about the company's labor practices at its suppliers.

Laam, a Pakistan-based fashion marketplace, raised $5.5M in a round co-led by Disrupt.com and Zayn VC. The platform currently offers a catalog of over 100k items including casual, ethnic, and formal wear from almost 1,200 sellers, all based in Pakistan. Laam provides logistics, supply chain infrastructure, and warehousing to sellers, as well as inventory forecasting technology.

Cart.com, a Houston-based e-commerce platform, acquired OceanX, the wholly owned fulfillment operations arm of Guthy-Renker, a California-based direct marketing company that specializes in health and beauty products. The acquisition increases the company's fulfillment warehouse network and expands the e-commerce firm into new market segments.

Tulip, a Toronto-based provider of integrated clienteling and POS solutions, acquired Humankind, an e-commerce clienteling solution provider. Clienteling is a retail strategy where sales associates use customer data, such as purchase history and preferences, to build personalized, long-term relationships and customer loyalty. Through the acquisition, Tulip gains Humankind's e-commerce product and its clients, including MM LaFleur and Dermstore.

Gen Digital, which operates a suite of cybersecurity brands including CCleaner, Norton, Avast, Avira, AVG, LifeLock, and ReputationDefender, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MoneyLion, a NY-based fintech that offers banking, borrowing, and investing solutions, for around $1B. Through the deal, Gen Digital aims to extend its identity solutions to offer “comprehensive financial wellness,” leveraging MoneyLion's personal finance platform which offers money management and credit-building services.

Fat Zebra, a Sydney-based global payments platform that enables businesses to accept online payments with real-time fraud detection, acquired Pin Payments, a Perth-based online payment solutions company that enables small businesses to accept card payments without a merchant account, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will expand Fat Zebra's offering and further strengthen its position across Australia and New Zealand, where Pin Payments services over 13,000 businesses.

Aampe, a San Francisco-based AI platform that enables businesses to deliver personalized messaging and user experiences by deploying intelligent agents that learn user preferences, raised $18M in a Series A round co-led by Theory Ventures and Z47. Aampe's platform deploys a unique AI agent to follow each user, continuously learning how that person interacts with the product so that it can drive more optimized interactions for users. The company says its AI agents can serve digital products ranging from sports and fitness applications to fintech and entertainment services.

Thryv, a Texas-based provider of end-to-end client experience software and marketing solutions, acquired Keap, an Arizona-based CRM and automation platform for small businesses, for an undisclosed amount. In the future, features from Keap will be available to Thryv customers within the Thryv platform, and over time, customers will see more integrations between the two companies.

Interpublic Group (IPG), a NY-based global advertising and marketing services company, acquired Intelligence Node, a Mumbai-based e-commerce intelligence platform, in a deal valued at nearly $100M. Through the acquisition, IPG will integrate the company's data streams into its existing and future commerce solutions, strengthening the company's ability to build and deploy agile commerce solutions.

WPExperts (formerly WooExperts), a Pakistani company that offers WordPress and WooCommerce development services, acquired the Advanced File Manager plugin from Modal Web, for an undisclosed amount. The Advanced File Manager plugin has over 100,000 active installations on the WordPress Plugin Repository with a 4.8-star rating. WPExperts plan to implement enhancements to both the free and pro versions including features such as an activity log, a code editor, user role-based access, and group-based access.