July eCom Wrap-Up: $14B Prime Day, China eCom Wars

Hey there 👋

This July has been one of the better months for eCom this year — and we’re here to give you the quick gist of everything that happened.

Here are the juicy topics we’ll cover in this post:

Amazon Prime Day Reached $14B 🤑 
TikTok Shop Enters 🇪🇸 🇮🇪 & £1M Club Launched in UK 
China’s eCom War on Pricing 💥 
Indiegogo Launches New eCom Platform 😲 
State of Adaptive Retail by Walmart 📦️ 
eCom 3PL Causing Too Much Pollutiom? 😷 

...along with bonus news, plus a freebie ebook with 61 eCom growth strategies waiting for you at the end! 👀

1. Amazon Prime Day Hits $14.2B 🔥 

According to Adobe Analytics, during the Amazon Prime Day shoppers in the US spent $14.2 billion within just 48 hours — that’s an 11% increase from last year.

A big portion of this growth was driven by back-to-school shopping, with a 216% increase in school supplies sales, and a humble 61% growth in electronics.

What’s even cooler is that 49.2% of online purchases during the 48-hour Prime Day event were made on mobile devices — another stat showing just how important it is to optimize your eCom store for mobile platforms. 👀 

2. TikTok Shop in Ireland & Spain + £1M Club in UK 🥳 

After a failed start back in 2022, TikTok’s looking to re-launch its in-app shopping in Spain & Ireland by October this year.

With this, they're hoping to leverage their huge user base & engaging content to drive more in-app sales — and I don’t think anyone has doubts about TikTok becoming an eCom giant in Europe, it’s just the question of when.

On top of TikTok expanding further in Europe, they’ve announced “The £1M Club”, (currently only available in the UK) a plan that promises up to 90 days of commission-free sales, free storage, and fulfillment through “Fulfilled by TikTok” & seller support priority service — this sounds awesome & should bring a wave of merchants to the platform.

With TikTok clearly starting to dominate the scene, will “e-commerce” die and “social commerce” take over? 🤔 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

3. China’s eCom War on Pricing 😬 

China’s eCom price war is pushing merchants to their limits — lots of them struggling to just get by.

Leading platforms like Pinduoduo & Taobao are cutting their prices to attract as many customers as possible, all while profit margins shrink for small & medium-sized vendors.

That’s not it, either. Along with the increased competition, return rates on items from categories like apparel literally doubled from 30% to 60% — it’s honestly looking really grim for Chinese eCom.

Like what even is this? The Hunger Games, eCom edition? 🏹 

4. Indiegogo’s New eCom Site for Crowdfunded Products 😮‍💨 

Indiegogo launched Indieshop — an eCom platform that lets users purchase products that came to be thanks to crowdfunding!

Indieshop isn’t going to stay digital, however. They’ve got plans to open physical retail spaces, showcasing a specific selection of the top crowdfunded products — these physical stores will host live unboxing events so that customers can try the products hands-on.

And to support innovators, Indiegogo rolled out new services, like customer insights & a pay-over-time feature for backers, while also cutting platform fees down to 4% till the end of the year!

I guess you can now impulse-buy innovations 😂

5. State of Adaptive Retail — Walmart ☀️ 

Shoppers are starting to demand more personalized & convenient experiences, and this shows in Walmart’s report, which had updated data collected among a sample of 2,233 adults.

There are 4 main trends, and we’ll cover each of them quickly:

1️⃣ Auto-delivery services & virtual personal shoppers are important for keeping customers loyal — over 50% of shoppers want recommendations specific to their needs, and 37% want a virtual shopper available at all times.

2️⃣ People are shopping while multitasking — buying things instantly, on impulse, while watching TV or on their phone. They want to make purchases quickly, without switching between different platforms & without unnecessary friction.

3️⃣ Shoppers want a smooth mix of online & in-store experiences. They enjoy the immediate option of walking into a store and buying something they see but also want online conveniences like virtual try-on features & fast checkouts.

4️⃣ Customers are less concerned about whether they shop online or in-store. They care a lot more about getting good value & quality.

Nothing too new — apart from the 37% that want a virtual shopper at ALL times? 😂 

6. eCom 3PL Causing Too Much Pollution? 😷 

There are more warehouses than commercial offices in the US, data shows — and this causes more than a bit of concern. Neighborhoods within five miles downwind of warehouses saw nearly a 20% increase in NO2 pollution compared to those that were upwind, which is really alarming.

With thousands of warehouses being built, and over 150,000 large warehouses already across the US, this could become an even larger problem than we imagine.

Here’s a visual showing newer warehouses, which are bigger, with more loading docks and parking spaces (by proxy with more trucks going back and forth), and the pollution caused overall:

It could only get worse, but as big as commerce is, can anyone really do much about it? 🤧

Bonus News & Freebie 🔥

OpenAI announced SearchGPT — this AI search engine could be the next Google, perfect if you don’t want to spend hours searching for something and instead want to get instant, high-quality answers.

Pinterest is facing a big decline in user engagement, and this is being “swept under the rug” through misleading performance metrics? Shady stuff, Pinterest..

And as a thank you for reading to the end — here’s a free ebook with 61 growth strategies from the smartest eCom cats in the world to enhance AOV, retention & conversions:

🎧 ECORN Radio This Week:

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN