Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Monday, May 5, 2014
Amazon And Twitter Unite
David Murphy writes that Amazon has unveiled a partnership with Twitter which may signal that the future of shopping lies in your social media feed.
Starting today, Twitter users can link their accounts to an Amazon account, and automatically add items to the shopping cart by responding to any tweet with an Amazon product link bearing the hashtag #AmazonCart. Customers never leave the Twitter feed, and the product is waiting for them when they head over to Amazon.
It's potentially a new business model for Twitter, which so far has relied on sponsored tweets for revenue, but has struggled both with growth and figuring out a way to make money off its 255 million monthly active users. For Amazon, adding another convenient way for its consumers to buy products just fuels its primary business.
An Amazon spokeswoman said Twitter doesn't get revenue from the items added to the shopping carts through #AmazonCart, but declined to further discuss its relationship with Twitter.
"We are certainly open to working with other social networks," said the Amazon spokeswoman. "Twitter in particular offers a great environment for our customers to discover product recommendations from artists, experts, brands and friends."
A Twitter spokesman wasn't immediately available to comment.
Customers who have already linked their Twitter and Amazon accounts will be notified with a reply tweet from @MyAmazon and get an email from Amazon when an item is added to the cart. Customers who haven't yet linked their accounts will receive a tweet reply asking them to do so to enable the feature.
It's not clear, however, whether consumers will embrace #AmazonCart. Because all tweets are public, people risk publicizing their purchasing decisions by responding to a Tweet with that hashtag. The program could also lead to advertisers sending out more tweets with Amazon product links.
Amazon makes clear on its site that the tweet only adds the item to your cart, and isn't a confirmation for purchase. You would still have to go to Amazon later to check out and pay for the product.
Amazon customers in the UK can use #AmazonBasket to add items to their shopping carts starting today.
Google And Amazon Same Day Delivery
Tiffany Hsu writes Google and Amazon are going head to head over Los Angeles shoppers, launching same-day delivery services in the area within days of each other.
Google said Sunday it is expanding its Google Shopping Express program to West Los Angeles and Manhattan from the Bay Area, where the offering began last year.
The service allows shoppers to go to google.com/express and shop for items to be dropped off in a time frame chosen by shoppers. Google will accept orders until 4 p.m. for delivery in the final window of 6 to 9 p.m.
There's no minimum purchase, surcharge or markup, according to Google. For now, users can sign up for a 6-month free trial or pay $4.99 per item for so-called a la carte shipping.
Google said it is still evaluating how to price the service and will allow customers to opt in to a longer-term subscription once it does.
Google is using third-party delivery agents trained through an in-person program the company calls "Courier University" that teaches agents how to greet customers at the door and how to use the mobile shopping app.
The couriers will wear Google Shopping Express uniforms and, for the most part, drive Google-branded vehicles.
"Los Angeles is a great next city for us to expand to after the San Francisco Bay Area," said Tom Fallows, product management director for the service. "While it shares many of the same attributes in terms of customer preferences and lifestyles, there are also some new challenges for us to explore, such as Los Angeles' famous traffic conditions."
In the Southland, the service will be available to residents of Culver City, Inglewood, Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice, West Los Angeles and Westwood. Customers will be able to access products from Costco, Guitar Center, L'Occitane, Smart & Final, Staples, Target, Toys R Us and Walgreens.
Google said it plans to expand the program soon to Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista and West Hollywood.
In January, Google tested the service using its employees in the Santa Monica area. The program originated in the Bay Area, where Google is already competing with similar services from EBay and Walmart.
Los Angeles is far from an online-shopping badlands. On Friday, e-commerce giant Amazon said its own same-day delivery service was available in the area.
Amazon shoppers have access to more than 1 million items, visible by clicking the "Get It Today" filter on the left panel of Amazon's website or consolidated on amazon.com/sameday.
Many products can be ordered as late as noon for delivery before 9 p.m., the company said.
Subscribers to Amazon's Prime service will pay $5.99 per order, regardless of how many items are being purchased. Non-subscribers will shell out $9.98 to have the first product shipped, followed by a 99-cent charge for each additional purchase.
The service also kicked into motion in San Francisco, Seattle and Phoenix on Friday, Amazon said.
In June, Amazon unveiled its AmazonFresh same-day and early-morning grocery delivery service in Los Angeles after operating the program in Seattle since 2007.
The company started working with the U.S. Postal Service in November to make Sunday deliveries to Los Angeles and New York customers.
The service allows shoppers to go to google.com/express and shop for items to be dropped off in a time frame chosen by shoppers. Google will accept orders until 4 p.m. for delivery in the final window of 6 to 9 p.m.
There's no minimum purchase, surcharge or markup, according to Google. For now, users can sign up for a 6-month free trial or pay $4.99 per item for so-called a la carte shipping.
Google said it is still evaluating how to price the service and will allow customers to opt in to a longer-term subscription once it does.
Google is using third-party delivery agents trained through an in-person program the company calls "Courier University" that teaches agents how to greet customers at the door and how to use the mobile shopping app.
The couriers will wear Google Shopping Express uniforms and, for the most part, drive Google-branded vehicles.
"Los Angeles is a great next city for us to expand to after the San Francisco Bay Area," said Tom Fallows, product management director for the service. "While it shares many of the same attributes in terms of customer preferences and lifestyles, there are also some new challenges for us to explore, such as Los Angeles' famous traffic conditions."
In the Southland, the service will be available to residents of Culver City, Inglewood, Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice, West Los Angeles and Westwood. Customers will be able to access products from Costco, Guitar Center, L'Occitane, Smart & Final, Staples, Target, Toys R Us and Walgreens.
Google said it plans to expand the program soon to Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista and West Hollywood.
In January, Google tested the service using its employees in the Santa Monica area. The program originated in the Bay Area, where Google is already competing with similar services from EBay and Walmart.
Los Angeles is far from an online-shopping badlands. On Friday, e-commerce giant Amazon said its own same-day delivery service was available in the area.
Amazon shoppers have access to more than 1 million items, visible by clicking the "Get It Today" filter on the left panel of Amazon's website or consolidated on amazon.com/sameday.
Many products can be ordered as late as noon for delivery before 9 p.m., the company said.
Subscribers to Amazon's Prime service will pay $5.99 per order, regardless of how many items are being purchased. Non-subscribers will shell out $9.98 to have the first product shipped, followed by a 99-cent charge for each additional purchase.
The service also kicked into motion in San Francisco, Seattle and Phoenix on Friday, Amazon said.
In June, Amazon unveiled its AmazonFresh same-day and early-morning grocery delivery service in Los Angeles after operating the program in Seattle since 2007.
The company started working with the U.S. Postal Service in November to make Sunday deliveries to Los Angeles and New York customers.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Google Is Building A Same-Day Amazon Prime Competitor, “Google Shopping Express”
The link to the full story is here
Google is stealthily preparing to launch an Amazon Prime competitor called “Google Shopping Express.” According to one source the service will be $10 or $15 cheaper than Amazon Prime, so $69 or $64 a year and offer same-day delivery from brick-and-mortar stores like Target, Walmart, Walgreens and Safeway (though no specifics were mentioned by our sources).
When and if it launches, the product will be a competitor to Amazon Prime, eBay Now, Postmates’ “Get It Now” and even smaller startups like Instacart.
We’re hearing that the project is being run by Tom Fallows, an e-commerce product manager at Google, and is an effort to focus Google’s e-commerce initiatives. Google Wallet and Google Shopping need a focal point, and serving as a “store shelf” to big-name retailers could be that in. Google has been scrambling for a way to capitalize on its advantages in the space — the fact that it’s arguably one of the first places people visit when they want to find a product — for a while.
If the Google Shopping Express service debuts publicly, and we have no reason to think that it won’t, this would mean that the company could capitalize on its recent acquisitions of both BufferBox and Channel Intelligence to dominate the online-to-offline retail market. Google could possibly use its BufferBox delivery lockers to facilitate the ease of shipment — like what Amazon has been testing in Seattle, New York and the UK. It could use Channel Intelligence’s data-management platform to coordinate sales and delivery.
We believe Google employees may already be dogfooding the service, but we have little information as to how partnerships are handled and how subscribing works. You know where to find us if you do.
Google is stealthily preparing to launch an Amazon Prime competitor called “Google Shopping Express.” According to one source the service will be $10 or $15 cheaper than Amazon Prime, so $69 or $64 a year and offer same-day delivery from brick-and-mortar stores like Target, Walmart, Walgreens and Safeway (though no specifics were mentioned by our sources).
When and if it launches, the product will be a competitor to Amazon Prime, eBay Now, Postmates’ “Get It Now” and even smaller startups like Instacart.
We’re hearing that the project is being run by Tom Fallows, an e-commerce product manager at Google, and is an effort to focus Google’s e-commerce initiatives. Google Wallet and Google Shopping need a focal point, and serving as a “store shelf” to big-name retailers could be that in. Google has been scrambling for a way to capitalize on its advantages in the space — the fact that it’s arguably one of the first places people visit when they want to find a product — for a while.
If the Google Shopping Express service debuts publicly, and we have no reason to think that it won’t, this would mean that the company could capitalize on its recent acquisitions of both BufferBox and Channel Intelligence to dominate the online-to-offline retail market. Google could possibly use its BufferBox delivery lockers to facilitate the ease of shipment — like what Amazon has been testing in Seattle, New York and the UK. It could use Channel Intelligence’s data-management platform to coordinate sales and delivery.
We believe Google employees may already be dogfooding the service, but we have little information as to how partnerships are handled and how subscribing works. You know where to find us if you do.
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