This week we’re featuring an upcoming webinar focusing on the topic of Organizational Design for the Platform revolution, in particular, how to develop a solid staffing plan for a marketplace business. With the readership for this audience mostly being digital commerce professionals, this topic should be interesting whether or not your organization currently uses the marketplace model.
Moving to industry news, Walmart is driving innovation with AI and robots as the retail and grocery giant has automated more than half of its distribution centers in the US as part of a partnership with Symbotic. In India, Paytm, a payments startup huge for its value in the market, has raised billions of investment through public offerings. Under the “useful guides category”, Shopify has launched an introductory guide for Marketing on Instagram, in which displays a few strategies, motivations and tips for generating visibility through the platform. Read on for these stories and more…
Notable news from the past week
Webinar – Organizational Design for the Platform Revolution: Staffing a Marketplace
The popularity of the online marketplace model has seen more and more enterprises platforming their business. One of the foremost challenges of these new marketplace businesses has been accurately forecasting initial staffing and planning for longer-term organizational design needs. With a marketplace business differing significantly from traditional ecommerce, particularly with the added ecosystem of third-party sellers, this is often new and uncharted territory.
Walmart is bringing its robotics efforts to the next level by automating 25 of its 47 regional distribution centres through a partnership with Symbotic. The new capabilities will help the retail giant speed up intake, boost accuracy and change how it handles freight at the upgraded facilities.
Indian digital payments giant Paytm files for $2.2 billion IPO
Digital payments giant Paytm, one of India’s most valuable startups, plans to raise up to $2.2 billion in an initial public offering, it said in draft papers submitted to the country’s market regulator on Friday.
The Critical Role of Ecommerce Marketplaces
Digitization allows people to run an online business from their bedroom without renting large warehouse space, let alone going into debt to build up inventory. The flip side is that an off-the-shelf ecommerce shop can get lost in the online traffic. Without marketplaces and SEO knowledge, sellers have limited chances of an acceptable ranking in search engine results. A single product in a single shop in the infinite expanse of the web is unlikely to be found easily.
Ecommerce Europe – Largest marketplace sellers account for 88% of GMV
Large marketplace sellers play an essential part on online platforms. They contributed 88 percent of marketplaces’ Gross Merchandise Value during the first quarter of this year. But small and medium-sized sellers are on the rise: they doubled their contribution in that same period and even tripled in the past year.
Apple And Goldman Sachs To Launch Apple Pay Later, A Buy Now Pay Later Service
Bloomberg reported that Apple and Goldman Sachs are partnering to launch a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service through Apple Pay called Apple Pay Later. The service, which relies on Goldman Sachs as the lender for instalment loans, will give Apple Pay users an option to spread payments for their purchase across four interest-free payments made every two weeks, or across several months with interest.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s inclusive marketing efforts start from within
Many brands are striving to better reflect real-world diversity to strengthen their relationships with consumers. For Anheuser-Busch InBev, that work begins internally. Jodi Harris, global vice president of marketing culture and capabilities at Anheuser-Busch InBev, talks about what the company’s inclusivity efforts look like and what it is focusing on in H2 2021.
Getting Started : A Beginner’s Guide to Instagram Marketing
Back in the time when eCommerce was nascent and dial-up internet was still the only option for many, online stores weren’t all that great, and sellers didn’t need to obsess over design. The competition just wasn’t there. When you’re the only merchant around offering a particular selection of products, your target shoppers simply have to accept the flaws of your website. Things have changed since then. The internet of the present day would seem barely recognizable to someone from the early 2000s, even if they were well versed in technological advancements.
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