ECOMMERCE

Brick-and-mortar stores are crucial to supporting a retailer's e-commerce growth.  

There's more disruption in the mattress category at retail.    West Elm has entered into a partnership with hot online mattress company Leesa Sleep, which will replace another hot online startup — Casper — as the home furnishings retailer's official mattress partner. The news come on the heels of Casper's announcement that it will open up more than a dozen pop-up stores in cities nationwide.

Best Buy and Macy’s are stepping up their same-day delivery efforts as they continue to bolster their defenses to compete with Amazon and other rivals.    Best Buy announced on Thursday it is expanding its same-day delivery of online orders from 13 metro areas to 27, with more to come. The retailer expects that customers in nearly 40 cities will be able to take advantage of service for the holiday selling season.  

Amazon is wasting no time in leveraging its ownership of Whole Foods Market.   Amazon Fresh has made “hundreds" of new items from Whole Foods' house brands available online. Merchandise includes fancier fare and bath products from Whole Foods Market, staples from 365 Everyday Value, and pet foods from Whole Paws, according to CNBC.  

Amazon isn't as dominant as is widely believed — at least not according to a new report from Moody's Investor Services.   

Based on its recent bold expansion into the grocery segment, Amazon is primed to give food and beverage e-commerce a shot of adrenaline.   This was according to “U.S. Grocery Market Focus: The Amazon Food Shopper,” a report from Packaged Goods.    According to the firm’s estimates, Amazon's 2016 online food and beverages sales, including AmazonFresh, is at $1.5 billion. This volume is expected to rise to $2.3 billion in 2017, giving the company a 19% share of the online market.

As much as today's shoppers want convenience, they also prioritize saving money and will make time to uncover the best deals online and offline.     Over half (53%) of consumers indicated they invest over two hours a week looking for deals and savings across all sources, according to a survey from Valassis. About 25% of millennials and moms spend over four hours a week in their search for value.  

Amazon’s newest move could take voice-assisted ordering to new levels.   The online giant is joining forces with Microsoft to integrate the companies' two digital assistants. This will allow Amazon’s Alexa to activate and talk to Microsoft’s Cortana device, and vice-versa.