Commerce

Amazon launches a new grocery delivery subscription in the US

Amazon said Tuesday that it has launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription for Prime members and customers with an EBT card (Electronic Benefit Transfer) in the U.S. if you’re living in one of the 3,500 eligible cities and towns. The company started testing grocery delivery in three locations last year: Denver; Sacramento, California; and […]

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Here’s a lab-grown diamond startup that’s attracted a16z’s attention

Throughout hip-hop’s long history, jewelry has served as an important vehicle for artists to convey their ideas and affluence, or simply to dazzle onlookers. Diamonds, in particular, serve as an important motif, famously exemplified by Drake’s $400,000 diamond-encrusted iPhone case. But not everyone is a millionaire rapper, and most people can’t exactly afford to wear

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TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK

TikTok Shop, TikTok’s social commerce marketplace, is launching a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., putting it in closer competition with The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari, among others. The offering has already existed in TikTok Shop U.S. for over six months. The new category allows customers in the U.K. to purchase pre-owned

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MarketForce winds down its B2B e-commerce arm

Kenyan B2B e-commerce company MarketForce is winding down its B2B e-commerce business that served informal merchants (mom-and-pop stores) after a turbulent two-year period that saw it scale down operations severely. The shutdown of the B2B e-commerce arm dubbed RejaReja comes months after MarketForce withdrew the service from all its markets, including Nigeria and Kenya, save

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Live selling startup CommentSold uses AI to generate shoppable, social-ready clips

CommentSold, the e-commerce tech startup that provides web and video tools to online retailers, launched a new generative AI–powered tool on Wednesday that can sift through livestreamed footage and generate short product explainer videos for sellers to post to their website, app and social media platforms. The “AI ClipHero” feature creates short clips from livestreamed

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B2B marketplace The Folklore bags $3.4M seed to get brands into global stores

Amira Rasool founded The Folklore in 2018 to help fashion brands from emerging markets like Africa, Asia and The Caribbean tap into the international market. In 2022, the startup introduced The Folklore Connect, a B2B marketplace and wholesale management software for brands to sell to partner global retailers like Nordstrom, after it shifted from sourcing

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Flatpay rings up $47M to target smaller merchants with simple payment solutions

As the world waits for $65 billion payments tech giant Stripe to go public, a wave of smaller startups continues to roll into the market to pick up more payments business. In one of the latest developments, Danish company Flatpay, which builds payment solutions for small and medium physical merchants like shops, restaurants and salons,

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Consumer tech investing is still hot for Maven Ventures, securing $60M for Fund IV

When prolific venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Lerer Hippeau announced in early 2024 they were pivoting away from consumer tech, it sparked a social media debate about whether there are still opportunities. Maven Ventures’ Jim Scheinman and Sara Deshpande say “yes.” And to prove it, they raised $60 million in capital commitments for a

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Big Tech’s ad transparency tools are still woeful, Mozilla research report finds

Efforts by tech giants to be more transparent about the ads they run are — at very best — still a work in progress, according to a report looking at ads transparency tools. The report comes about a half year since the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules for larger platforms came into force,

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eBay enters trading card commercial agreement with Collectors, acquires Goldin

As eBay continues to invest in the trading card space, the e-commerce company announced Wednesday three significant commercial transactions with Collectors, the parent company of PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), the third-party authentication and grading provider in the collectibles industry. The transactions include a trading card commercial agreement that aims to provide trading enthusiasts a seamless

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