We’ve collected some product releases and eCommerce updates for online merchants. The list includes updates on the return and dispute processes, fulfillment, personalization, contact center services, and merchant banking.
eCommerce Updates: December 2020
WhatsApp Introduces Carts
Now WhatsApp users can make purchases via the app easily and conveniently. WhatsApp’s Carts allow users to find items, add them to the shopping cart and send their orders to the merchants. Moreover, the innovation will help businesses to track orders, manage requests, and close sales.
Stripe teams up with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup
Soon, Stripe will provide its customers with interest-bearing bank accounts, debit cards, and other cash-management services. Shopify has already announced that the platform will start offering Shopify Balance accounts to its merchants early the next year. Shopify will be one of the first big companies to use Stripe’s new banking services.
FedEx Expands eCommerce Capabilities by Acquiring ShopRunner
FedEx acquires ShopRunner, an eCommerce shipping alternative to Amazon Prime. The platform connects more than 100 brands to millions of consumers, offering free two-day shipping, free returns, and member-exclusive discounts. The parties announced to close the acquisition by the end of the calendar year.
Walmart Facilitates Return and Dispute Processes
Walmart provides its merchants with the possibility to initiate disputes directly from the payments dashboard in the Seller Center instead of relying on Seller Help. From now, merchants can do it by navigating to Payments > Analytics & Reports > Search Transactions. Then, they only need to enter the order number to populate all the necessary details. These changes will undoubtedly streamline the returns processes for sellers.
AWS Announced New Capabilities for Amazon Connect
Amazon Web Services announced five capabilities for its contact center service. According to Amazon, they will improve user experience and agents’ productivity. The announced capabilities will help agents get the right information at the right time, provide more personalized service, impact customer interactions during calls, and make it faster to authenticate customers more securely.
BigCommerce Partners with EPAM
BigCommerce partners with EPAM to provide its merchants with access to EPAM’s global expertise in crafting customer-centric experiences. EPAM is a founding member of the MACH Alliance, an independent group dedicated to enhancing education, development, and adoption of composable technology infrastructures through microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, and headless technology and digital experiences.
RichRelevance Announces Shopify Plus Connector
RichRelevance, a leading artificial-intelligence-driven personalization provider, announced an integration with Shopify Plus. The out-of-box integration will help merchants to keep product catalogs, inventory, and pricing always updated. Customers will get full visibility with 24/7 monitoring and alerts for any errors or breakages.
ShipMonk Raises $290 Million to Help Online Merchants to Scale
ShipMonk, an eCommerce fulfillment and technology provider, has raised $290 million in growth equity, led by Summit Partners. The financing will help the company grow more rapidly through continued investment in research and development, hiring, B2B fulfillment, and international expansion. ShipMonk develops inventory management software, automation technology, and multichannel order fulfillment tools.
Optimove and Dynamic Yield combine multichannel capabilities with real-time personalization
Optimove, a relationship marketing service, and Dynamic Yield, an experience optimization platform, announced a strategic integration. Marketers can now leverage Optimove multichannel orchestration and optimization capabilities with Dynamic Yield real-time personalization technology. The integration will help customers to unify all user data via Optimove and incorporate engagement-level data captured by Dynamic Yield from apps and websites, among other benefits.
Kenco Logistics Launches Its eCommerce Platform
A North American third-party logistics provider launches an eCommerce platform to connect its customers with sales channels and supply chain partners. The platform has over 200 pre-built integrations, including Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Amazon, and more. The platform also includes open APIs that can connect to virtually any system within the eCommerce space.
Sitecore Launches Experience Edge
Sitecore, a customer experience management company, announced a new SaaS-based platform for headless content delivery. Experience Edge will provide marketers and developers with flexible options to create digital experiences for shoppers. The first release, available in early 2021, will be headless content delivery, giving brands the ability to publish content to whatever device or channel they want, from watches and phones to tablets and voice-controlled devices.
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