Another busy week in the world of e-commerce!
- Amazon acquires Selz, a Shopify competitor
- Locus Robotics join the Unicorn league
- Olive launch Sustainable e-commerce packaging
- Klarna fintech goes into live shopping
- Walmart plan to invest 14Blns automation this year!
- Valoreo raise $50M to grow LatAm e-commerce brands
Amazon: Amazon acquires Selz, a Shopify competitor
Amazon acquires Selz, a Shopify competitor that helps small businesses build online stores https://t.co/B5JWrLGapg
— CNBC (@CNBC) February 16, 2021
The Everything store = The Everything Company!
Amazon has bought Selz, an Australian company that makes tools that enable businesses to more easily launch their own online stores. With this acquisition, Amazon is going stronger after
Shopify core business which is to enable Direct To Consumer brands to sell online!
Amazon quietly acquired the e-commerce platform on Jan. 15, but it didn’t publicize the acquisition. “We have signed an agreement to be acquired by Amazon and are looking forward to working with them as we continue to build easy-to-use tools for entrepreneurs,” Martin Rushe, CEO and founder of Selz, said in the blog post.
The Amazon Empire continue to expand!!
Robotics: Locus Robotics has raised a $150M Series E
Massachusetts-based Locus Robotics today announced a $150 million Series E. The round, led by Tiger Global Management and Bond, brings the firm’s total to around $250 to date, and values the robotics company at $1 billion.
Read more: https://t.co/QXxDO0xIDr#tech
— Phillip Lord (@philliplord1) February 17, 2021
Robots coming soon!!
Pandemic = Ecommerce boom + interest in automation + Social Distancing = Locus
Locus is one of the leading companies in flexible automation with 4,000 robots deployed across 80 sites. I’m a huge fan of what the company does as it allow to increase efficiencies and productivity without having to invets large amount of money!!
The future will be certainly built on flexible automation rather than on large fixed infrastructures
Sustainability: Jet co-founder Nate Faust is building a more sustainable e-commerce experience with Olive
Jet co-founder Nate Faust is building a more sustainable e-commerce experience with Olive https://t.co/zhESYyTJr7 by @anthonyha
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) February 17, 2021
Sustainability is King!
The guy who co founded Jet.com, Diapers.com and Soap.com is launching a new venture aiming at solving a major sustainability problem! One single use packaging!
The company called Olive consolidates shopper’s purchases into a single weekly delivery in a reusable package. The company works already with hundreds of different apparel brands and retailers, including Adidas, Anthropologie, Everlane, Hugo Boss, Outdoor Voices and Saks Fifth Avenue!
It will be interesting to see how the company perform as Amazon is going after being faster, this kind of services will be longer to reach consumers.
Sustainability VS Speed? What will you go for?
Payment: Swedish Payment Company Klarna Takes On QVC With Push Into Livestream Shopping
Klarna has built an $11 billion business offering financing to young shoppers. Now it’s getting into … livestream shopping. https://t.co/PEvkrUFYIp
— Lauren Debter (@laurengensler) February 18, 2021
Finance is Shopping
Once upon a time, TV was the place to advertise products and QVC was the place to go for live shopping. Fast forward to 2021, Live shopping through social network & social commerce is booming! China is leading the way when it comes to live shopping but we are starting to see many countries and companies trying to get into this! It’s so popular that even the Swedish fintech firm Klarna is planning to host its won first-ever livestream shopping event in the US next month in a partnership with Cosmopolitan! The event will include retailers such as Macy’s, Adidas, Saks Off 5th, and Bluemercury will offer exclusive deals during the 48-hour virtual event, dubbed “Hauliday,” starting March 1.
Stat of the week: $14 Bln
Walmart is planning to invest $14 billion in automation and omnichannel technologies in 2022!!! That’s the price to pay to compete with Amazon and growing ecommerce volume!
StartUp of the week:
Valoreo closes on $50M to roll up LatAm e-commerce brands
Valoreo closes on $50M to roll up LatAm e-commerce brands1: https://t.co/MlsL6MnbtJ
— Juan Iraola (@juaniraola) February 16, 2021
Valoreo, a Mexico City-based acquirer of e-commerce businesses, announced Tuesday that it has raised $50 million of equity and debt financing in a seed funding round. This is one of the largest seed funding in LATAM.
The company is joining a new breed of startups which is acquiring and growing small but promising third-party merchants, and building out their own economies of scale.
The company acquires merchants that operate their own brands and primarily sell on online marketplaces such as Mercado Libre, Amazon and Linio. The company targets brands that offer “category-leading products” and which it believes have “significant growth potential.” It also develops brands in-house to offer a broader selection of products to the end customer.
This is a proven business model which is already scaled in US & Europe with companies like Thrasio, Perch, Branded, Berlin Brands Group, SellerX, Heyday and Heroes! A growing space!!
Nabil Malouli is VP, Global E-commerce for DHL Supply Chain where he leads the innovation, strategy and product development of its e-commerce fulfilment and last-mile solutions.
Photo credit @ https://twitter.com/LocusRobotics