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Just how late can you order online for guaranteed Christmas delivery?!

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Welcome to this week’s round-up where we take a look at Amazon’s Christmas ordering dates, its further cashierless store tests, Black Friday traffic stats and more!

How late can you order on Amazon for Christmas delivery?

prime now logoWell, thanks to Amazon Prime Now, 10 pm on Christmas Eve. This is limited to Prime-eligible customers living in certain postcodes within the UK in cities including London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool amongst others. Amazon has said that last year’s Prime Now service proved successful with people ordering last minute presents, but also food and drink items that they may have forgotten but needed before the big day, some examples Amazon gave included Christmas puddings, gravy granules and prosecco. Matt Knight, head of marketing for Amazon’s Prime Now service in the UK has said: “Enjoying the festive break is hugely important for customers, making convenience an absolute priority. Last year Amazon saw a variety of items purchased with only hours to spare before Christmas Day, including food and drink, beauty gifts, toys and tech.”

This news isn’t just good for consumers, it is also great news for Amazon Sellers (if they’re using FBA!). FBA listings are also Prime eligible and so customers may be able to order your products at short notice and still get them in time for Christmas Day. Full last order dates can be viewed here.

Amazon ramping up tests of cashierless stores

It has been reported that Amazon is ramping up its test for its cashierless technology with a view to introducing this into bigger stores. The reports suggest that Amazon is testing the tech in a space which has been formatted to mimic a larger supermarket in a move which could ultimately see it rolled out to its Whole Foods stores. The cashierless technology is already in place in Amazon Go stores in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco with further reports suggesting Amazon may be considering opening a further 3,000 of these stores across the USA.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday UK traffic

Stats on traffic in the UK for Black Friday and Cyber Monday has been released and it shows just how big it is for online marketplaces. Amazon’s share of traffic in the UK was more than a quarter (26%), with this representing a 3% year-on-year growth rate, whilst eBay was online marginally behind with 25% market share. The stats also show other interesting trends including Amazon’s traffic being relatively evenly split between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, whilst eBay saw a greater share of traffic on Cyber Monday compared with Black Friday. The most searched items on Amazon were perhaps unsurprisingly all Amazon own items with the Echo Dot at number 1, Fire TV stick second and its Fire TV Stick 4k Ultra HD closing out the top 3.

Sponsored items invading Amazon baby registries

It has been reported that lots of new parents are receiving strange and unwanted gifts from friends and family as a result of confusing adverts on Amazon baby registries. The e-commerce giant has been adding sponsored items to gift lists set up by parents, meaning that they are being bought items that they have not asked for. The sponsored items are all marked with a small “sponsored” tag, but otherwise are identical in appearance to other items on the list. People have been complaining that it is causing family and friends to spend money on items that they had not asked for and as such the ads were deceptive. Amazon has responded to the complaints and has stated: “we’re constantly experimenting with new ways to improve the shopping experiences for customers. We’re in the process of changing this experience and the sponsored listings you see today are being phased out for new registries.”

El Corte Inglés and Alibaba to partner

el corte inglesEurope’s largest department store, El Corte Inglés has announced that it is partnering with Alibaba Group to ‘develop global digital retail’. This partnership will give the Spanish department store access to Alibaba Group’s marketplaces with Alibaba looking to open stores across Europe. One of the aspects of the agreement will see El Corte Inglés bring a seamless shopping experience for visiting Chinese customers thanks to the introduction of Alipay, with another allowing El Corte Inglés to take advantage of a comprehensive range of technology solutions made available by Alibaba Cloud. El Corte Inglés will also utilise Alibaba’s marketplaces including AliExpress and Tmall to make its products and goods available to Alibaba users in China and worldwide.

If you have any questions or queries regarding marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Alibaba or JD.com then feel free to get in touch with us to see how we can help.

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