Commerce

YC grad, RetailReady raises $3.3M for an AI warehouse app that hopes to save brands billions

The founders of 6-month-old RetailReady, recent grads of the YC winter 2024 cohort, have found an overlooked area of the warehouse/shipping industry that costs retail brands some $40 billion a year, they say. They are building a tablet app that replaces paper warehouse manuals that document packing instructions. Co-founders Elle Smyth and Sarah Hamer came

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Meta rolls out Meta Verified for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia

Meta on Thursday said it is rolling out its Meta Verified program for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia, and eventually to more countries. Subscription plans for this service start from $14 a month. The company is also adding more features to its messaging service for businesses, and letting companies use their

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UK retailers file a £1.1B collective action against Amazon over claims of data misuse

E-commerce behemoth Amazon recently reached a wide-ranging settlement with the U.K. competition watchdog over how it uses Marketplace sellers’ data, with commitments to more transparent and fair practices going forward. But Amazon is not out of hot water over these issues just yet.  On Thursday, the British Independent Retailers Association, which has thousands of members,

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True Fit leverages generative AI to help online shoppers find clothes that fit

True Fit, the AI-powered size-and-fit personalization tool, has offered its size recommendation solution to thousands of retailers for nearly 20 years. Now, the company is venturing into the generative AI space with “Fit Hub,” a new tool that aims to improve the way online shoppers find clothing that fits their body type. Sizing issues continue

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Shopify acquires Checkout Blocks, a checkout customization app

Commerce platform Shopify has acquired Checkout Blocks, allowing Shopify Plus merchants to make no-code customizations in their checkout to enhance customer experience and potentially boost sales.  Checkout Blocks, which debuted on Shopify in September 2022, lets merchants customize their checkout by adding things such as AI recommendations, custom content (like information banners, images, headlines, and

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Chinese e-commerce marketplace Temu faces stricter EU rules as a ‘very large online platform’

Temu, the super low-cost e-commerce marketplace owned by Chinese online retailer Pinduoduo, is to face the European Union’s strictest rules after authorities designated the company a “very large online platform” (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The news comes some two weeks after European consumer protection groups filed coordinated complaints against Temu over an

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YoLa Fresh, a GrubMarket for Morocco, digs up $7M to connect farmers with food sellers

The fresh produce supply chain in Africa and emerging markets is faced with a daily list of cascading challenges. They include environmental and labor issues through to logistical ones food wastage to poor demand-supply synchronization. These various issues affect stakeholders differently: farmers struggle with sales, while retailers struggle to negotiate effectively. Several agritech startups have

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Pinterest expands its Creator Fund to allow founders

Pinterest announced today that it is evolving its Creator Inclusion Fund.  Pinterest teamed up with Shopify’s Build Black & Narrative program to allow small business owners from or who serve underrepresented backgrounds to now apply for the Creator Inclusion Fund. Previously, only traditional content creators applied. This is a new iteration of the fund, which

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Adani looks to battle Reliance, Walmart in India’s e-commerce, payments race, report says

India’s energy and infrastructure giant Adani Group is plotting a move into digital payments and e-commerce, according to a Financial Times report, as the conglomerate seeks to diversify its portfolio and compete with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, Amazon, and Walmart’s Flipkart and PhonePe. Adani is considering applying for a license to operate on India’s Unified Payments

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