eCommerce

In announcing its Costco-like membership model, Jet.com (yet to launch as of this writing) has positioned itself as the latest type of online retail marketplace. Considering that online marketplaces really go back to the days of CompuServe, Prodigy and Earthlink (extra points if you know what “dial up” means), I’ve been struck by how much marketplaces have been in the news lately. Think about Alibaba’s jaw-dropping $9.3 billion sales on Singles Day (Nov.

An early Easter helped Stein Mart post an impressive 7.9% boost in same store sales for the first quarter.

Stein Mart reported sales of $244.4 million for the nine weeks ending April 4, a 10.6% increase over that period the year before. The sales growth was especially strong in March, according to the release.

The company reported $155.8 million in sales for the five weeks ending April 4, a 14.2% increase over that time the year before. Same store sales were up 11.2% for March. 

Amazon’s Prime membership is starting to crowd out traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, according to Forbes.

The magazine reports that research consultant Millward Brown Digital found that consumers with Prime accounts –- of which there are reportedly 40 million subscribers –- are less likely to visit other retail sites when making online purchases.

New York -- Brand consultancy Interbrand has come up with a fascination list of “must sees,” or 10 inspiring retail experiences (as of April 2015).
 
Here are the company’s picks:

• Selfridges, London

• Dover Street Market, London and New York

San Francisco – Jins Eyewear, Japan’s largest eyewear brand by volume, will open its first U.S. store on April 10, in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood. The 4,900-sq.-ft. space will house more than 1,200 different styles of Jins exclusive eyewear.

San Francisco – Alibaba.com has collaborated with e-commerce platform to Bigcommerce deliver an integrated shopping experience for sourcing products from Alibaba.com’s network of Chinese wholesale suppliers. The Alibaba.com Wholesale solution is immediately available to Bigcommerce’s 70,000 stores, and online merchants can now access and purchase a collection of more than 30,000 products from about 300 of Alibaba.com’s Gold Suppliers in China with scope to expand to more than three million products from thousands of Gold Suppliers.

Mountain View, Calif. – Google is reportedly planning to launch a service that will compete with Amazon Home Services later this spring. According to BuzzFeed, Google will integrate a new product into its core search functionality that will directly connect users searching for service providers such as plumbers and electricians to the providers.

Seattle – Amazon.com styles itself as a provider of everything its customers need, and that extends to software development. Amazon has selected Seta International as an official Amazon Software Solutions Provider.

Boston - Americans are more likely to subscribe to Amazon Prime for free two- day shipping than for Prime Instant Video, and in the U.S. when they do subscribe, are more likely to use Netflix than Prime Instant Video. According to a new study from global intelligence firm Strategy Analytics, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Amazon Prime subscribers used Netflix in the previous month compared to 59% who used Prime Instant Video.