Commerce
Walmart to drop plastic mailers, let customers bring their own bags to order pickup
Walmart announced this morning it will be reducing plastic across its e-commerce operations in a number of ways, including shifting from plastic mailers to recyclable paper bag mailers and allowing cu
YouTuber Emma Chamberlain adds to coffee empire with ready-to-drink line
Chamberlain Coffee announced it is entering the ready-to-drink space with a line of cold brew lattes and adding a national retail presence in Sprouts and Walmart.
GetYourGuide books $194M at a $2B valuation with travel experiences back in business
The tourist industry is bouncing back after a rough couple of pandemic-stressed years, and in the case of some tourism and travel startups, its momentum is coming in at a pace that’s defying eve
SellerX acquires US e-commerce roll-up rival Elevate Brands in an all-share deal, raises $64M+
E-commerce aggregators have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the last several years to push ahead on strategies to consolidate a number of smaller online retailers. Now, the ag
Vartana lands a $20M investment to scale its sales closing platform
Vartana, a business-to-business (B2B) sales closing and financing platform, today announced that it raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Activant Capital with participation from Mayfi
MarketForce tightens its belt as tough times hit B2B commerce
MarketForce, a Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform to help independent corner shops source goods, once had an ambitious plan to grow the number of users on its platform to a million by the end of 2022, wit
Hostaway unlocks $175M to expand its vacation rental management platform
Tourism and travel have come roaring back into business post-pandemic, and today a startup called Hostaway that’s building technology for one segment of that market — those owning and/or m
NomuPay, formed from pieces of failed fintech Wirecard, says it’s raised $53.6M for cross-border payments
We still see regular updates on the calamitous fallout of the 2020 collapse of Wirecard, the now-insolvent fintech out of Germany that had built an elaborate house of cards on false accounting and mur
Coupang says no plans to enter India
Coupang doesn’t plan to enter the Indian market, the company said, refuting a local media report that claimed that the South Korean e-commerce firm had expressed interest in entering the South A
Wellplaece wants to put a smile on dentists’ face with new supply procurement marketplace
Wellplaece’s takes in a client’s ordering data and then enables the customer to make those specific purchasing behaviors across a large network of suppliers via one shopping cart.
Ambani’s Reliance targets Indian fashion e-commerce with low-cost model
Reliance Industries, run by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is gearing up to deploy a winning strategy from its past playbook for the fashion market: low-cost products. Ajio, Reliance’s ret
Bernstein pegs Reliance as India’s eventual e-commerce kingpin
The Indian conglomerate Reliance is poised to outpace Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart in the race for the country’s $150 billion e-commerce market, analysts at Bernstein projected in a scath
Jumia reaches lowest losses in four years under new management
Q1 2023 marks the first quarter Jumia’s new management implemented its strategy after riding out the blueprint of previous management in Q4 2022. The result? Jumia saw its losses decrease significan
Amazon backs Indian kids fashion brand Hopscotch in $20M funding
Hopscotch, an Indian brand offering fashion wear for kids, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Amazon amid the ongoing market slowdown and funding crunch that have significantly impacted
Laced, a UK-based resale marketplace for authenticated premium sneakers, raises $12M
The $79 billion sneakers (or “trainers,” for our U.K. readers) industry has spawned a lucrative resale market, expected to hit $30 billion by the end of the decade — up from $5 billi
Reliance’s Zivame customers say their accounts were hacked
Some customers of Zivame, an Indian online women’s intimate apparel store owned by Reliance Retail, have complained that their accounts were hacked, leading to the exposure of their personal inf
Google introduces Product Studio, a tool that lets merchants create product imagery using generative AI
At its Google Marketing Live event today, the tech giant announced that it’s launching Product Studio, a new tool that lets merchants easily create product imagery using generative AI. Brands wi
Datasembly grabs $16M to give brick-and-mortar retail pricing a big data intel boost
Online shopping often feels like a one-way street from the point of view of the physical retail world: e-commerce has a wider selection, it’s open all the time and there seems to be an endless f
The Shein-Reliance India alliance could offer inspiration for Chinese startups
Shein is partnering with Reliance to re-enter India, a strategy which, if proven viable, could set an example for startups grappling with the China backlash amid rising geopolitical tensions. The Chin
Reliance JioMart cuts 1,000 jobs and to eliminate thousands more, report says
JioMart, Reliance Retail’s online shopping platform, has laid off over 1,000 employees and plans to cut as many as 9,900 more roles over the coming weeks, according to a report, as the Indian re