🌀 Holiday Season. What do US SME leaders and consumers expect?

🛒 Mass merchant marketplaces

• 🌎 Amazon rolled out AI-powered image generation to help advertisers deliver a better ad experience for customers. Advertisers can now easily generate backgrounds based on product descriptions and themes, enhancing creativity and storytelling in ads. Amazon is currently beta-testing the tool with select advertisers, aiming to expand its availability over time. Deep dive → Amazon

• 🌎 Amazon pilots a new automated packaging machine that creates paper bags that are made to measure to replace plastic shipping materials. New machines pack individual items – such as video games, sports equipment, and office supplies, in made-to-measure paper bags that are durable and flexible. Deep dive → Amazon | Plastics Today

• 🌎 TikTok launches an AI-powered creative assistant to streamline the ad creation process. The tool leverages TikTok's creative insights to offer data-led suggestions that could improve your campaign's performance. Deep dive → TikTok | Search Engine

• 🇳🇱 Bol. remains the largest provider of its platform. Bol, through which more than 30K third-party sellers sell goods in the Benelux region, holds 35 percent of the total volume with the brands it sells itself. Deep dive → Emerce.nl

• 🇵🇱 Allegro makes the Allegro One delivery option mandatory for the offer to be eligible for Smart free shipping. Sellers are required to provide a minimum of 2 courier delivery options and 3 options for delivery to a point or parcel locker. These services need to be on the list of qualifying methods provided by Allegro. Deep dive → Cashless

👗 Fashion & Beauty marketplaces

• 🌎 Vestiaire Collective launches resale with Burberry. Burberry UK and US customers will be able to trade in their pre-loved Burberry women’s outerwear and handbags on the Burberry x Vestiaire Collective platform. In exchange, they will receive a Burberry gift card based on the value of the item. Deep dive → FashionUnited

• 🇺🇸 Shein deepens its relationship with Forever 21, will begin selling co-branded clothes online. Under the partnership, Shein will design, manufacture, and distribute a line of co-branded Forever 21 apparel and accessories that will be sold primarily on Shein’s website. The line will span both men’s and women’s apparel and include new sportswear, activewear, and swimwear, the companies said. Deep dive → CNBC

• 🇪🇺 Farfetch may take over Yoox Net-a-Porter. Farfetch has received final approval from the EU Commission to acquire shares in Yoox Net-a-Porter. However, Farfetch is struggling with some problems: In August alone, the share price fell by 38 percent, and in the past 14 months, it has lost a total of 90 percent of its value. Deep dive → Reuters

• 🇪🇺 Vinted considers a share sale to capitalize on the pre-loved fashion boom. Vinted is weighing a secondary share sale worth more than €200 million. The loss-making Lithuanian start-up, valued in May 2021 at €3.5bn, is working with Morgan Stanley to consider options for its capital structure ahead of a potential initial public offering. Deep dive → Financial Times | Retail Gazette

🍔 Food marketplaces

• 🇺🇸 Shipt cuts staff as its ‘business and industry have changed dramatically’. In all, the Target-owned company eliminated approximately 3.5% of its filled positions. News of the layoffs comes as e-commerce demand among consumers plateaus and companies in the online space look for strategies to remain relevant. Deep dive → GroceryDive

• 🇺🇸 Uber Eats and Uber together with Mars launch a new brand experience. With Journey Ads and Post-Check Out Ads displayed to consumers taking a ride or waiting for their Uber Eats order, they'll be able to seamlessly interact with the SKITTLES website. Hungry Uber consumers can also add their favorite SKITTLES products to their Uber Eats shopping carts, including gummies and classic chewy and sour flavors. Deep dive → PR News Wire

• 🇺🇸 DoorDash and Uber Eats to cover the costs for certified e-bikes and batteries under the new e-bike safety bill considered by the New York Council. The New York City Council is considering a piece of legislation that would require delivery app workers to use only e-bikes that have passed certain tests. The hope is that fire safety would be improved by getting uncertified e-bikes and their lithium-ion batteries off the road. Deep dive → Fox5

• 🇬🇧 Uber Eats and Zoomo partner to boost sustainability goals with the new e-mopeds in London initiative. To help tackle the emissions generated by food delivery, couriers who use Uber Eats will receive a discount on the rental cost of high-quality e-mopeds in the initial month of sign-up at £149 (including insurance) via Zoomo. The announcement follows Uber Eats’ commitment to make 100% of food delivery trips emission-free worldwide by 2040, with a 2030 target for major European cities. Deep dive → Fleetnews

• 🇬🇧 Deliveroo and KFC end delivery partnership. KFC and Deliveroo have ended their partnership after failing to agree on commission rates. Deep dive → TheCater

• 🇵🇱 Wolt partnered with Lisek.App (local Polish q-commerce player). Residents of selected cities will now have access to over 2,000 products offered by Lisek directly through the Wolt app. This collaboration marks the first partnership between companies in the food delivery and quick-commerce sectors in Poland. Deep dive → Dlahandlu

📦Various marketplaces

• 🌎 Etsy Payments expands to seven more countries in partnership with Payoneer. Etsy has introduced Etsy Payments to sellers in more than 40 countries since 2012. Sellers who enroll to use the Etsy Payments technology will have access to the marketplace’s full suite of payment tools. This includes “multiple payment options, including PayPal, all major credit card networks, debit and bank card, Etsy Gift Cards, and Etsy Credit. Deep dive → Digital Commerce 360

• 🌎 Airbnb turns to AI to help prevent house parties. When you try to make an Airbnb booking, the AI automatically looks out for things such as how recently you created your account and - big red flag - whether you are trying to rent a property in the same town or city as where you live. Deep dive → BBC | AirBnB

• 🌎 Shutterstock integrates creative AI to offer the first-ever marketplace of fully customizable stock. Shutterstock launched new creative AI-powered editing features with infinite options to refine and perfect images available in the company's library of more than 700 million stock images. Deep dive → PR News

• 🇪🇺 ManoMano partnered with Storfund to provide same-day payments for merchants’ marketplace sales. Storfund’s financing service, which simply advances payments for sales, increases access to cash without adding debt. Plus, it can be turned on and off as needed, offering flexibility to respond to the peaks and troughs of seasonal demand and consumer behavior. Storfund is able to provide up to £5B per year in financing to sellers. Deep dive → ChannelX

🌟Funding/new marketplaces

• 🇬🇧 NOLD (sustainable fashion resale platform) raises €1 million in seed funding. NOLD helps premium luxury brands generate additional revenue streams by monetizing the second-hand market. Using its platform, brands only need to supply their product database and, in return, capture either 10 percent of the resale value in net profit or 90 percent in revenue, depending on what payout alternative the seller chooses. Deep dive →  Tech.eu

•  🇺🇸 Roadra (C2B automotive marketplace) raises $5 million in angel funding. Founded in 2019 and based in the US, Roadra connects car sellers to dealers. Last year, it launched a used-car auction for dealers to bid on more than 3,000 vehicles each month. With new funds, the company plans expansion and development of new products like AI-powered photo and video inspections for existing dealer partners. Deep dive → Autoremarketing

• 🇺🇸 Traba (Miami marketplace for light industrial staffing) raised a $22 million funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund for expansion. Launched in 2021, Traba is a tech company focused on fixing the broken staffing industry. Its marketplace connects light industrial businesses looking for temporary staffing with qualified, reliable workers who want to pick up shifts, unlocking productivity, growth and earning potential for both sides of the marketplace. Deep dive → Refresh Miami