🌀Shopify launches Shopify Magic. Can it charm entrepreneurs?

🛒 Mass merchant marketplaces

• 🇬🇧 Amazon offers concessions to UK antitrust watchdog. Amazon offered commitments to the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority after Britain’s competition watchdog raised concerns about the U.S. e-commerce giant’s treatment of third-party sellers. Deep dive → CNBC

• 🇺🇸 TikTok’s online marketplace for the US could launch in August. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, TikTok’s online marketplace will store and ship a variety of products from sellers based in China, including clothes, kitchen gadgets, and electronics. Deep dive → The Verge | The Wall Street Journal

• 🇦🇺 Wish deepens its investment in Australia through a partnership with Singapore Post. Customers can now expect their orders to arrive in less than 2 weeks (vs 3 weeks previously), and will be able to trace their package from the moment it leaves the warehouse to the time it arrives on their doorstep. Deep dive → GlobeNewsWire

• 🇧🇷 Aliexpress launches a program to support new sellers in Brazil. The marketplace will have booths and exclusive presentations and is offering a three-month cashback program for new sellers. AliExpress’s commitment to supporting Brazilian sellers is evident through its lower and more competitive commission rates compared to the national market average. Deep dive → Claytoncountryregister

• 🇵🇱 Allegro to enable shipments to the Czech Republic for Polish sellers via InPost. Service to be enabled since September to be extended to more countries. Allegro Localy launched an agricultural market. Users can now sell machines, agricultural inputs, and grain seeds. Deep dive → Propertynews | Tabletowo

• 🇵🇱 Empik obtained PLN 300 million in financing, potentially for takeovers. Deep dive → Portal Spożywczy

👗 Fashion marketplaces

• 🌎 Shein revealed record first-half net profits driven by U.S. sales momentum. Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in Brazil has nearly doubled, approaching $100 million, accounting for over a third of the local total GMV. The platform currently has 6,000 active sellers in Brazil. Deep dive → cnbc | btimesonline

• 🌎 StockX aims to establish itself as a global player. StockX claims that 50% of the products sold by 1.5M sellers come from outside the United States, and that 25% of its 12 million buyers are located beyond its domestic market. In total, the platform claims to have recorded 40 million transactions in 2022. Deep dive → FashionNetwork

• 🇬🇧 Lamoda integrated adtech beeline platform. The platform allows sellers and brands selling on Lamoda to attract more buyers: advertising is targeted at target users and leads them from external resources to the Lamoda website - to the seller's or brand's product. Deep dive → Comnews

• 🇩🇪 Zalando pilots save now pay later in cooperation with Savrr. With Save-now-buy-later, customers get a savings account set up for a specific online shop in order to save on desired items and receive a return on the savings when they reach the target they set themselves. Deep dive → InternetWord | Savrr

🍔 Food marketplaces

• 🇪🇺 Getir trying to close funding, pulls out of Spain, Italy and Portugal. Getir will continue its operations in the U.K., U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, and Turkey which currently account for the majority (96%) of its revenues. Deep dive → TechCrunch

• 🇮🇳 Swiggy launched a credit card. The credit card will offer customers a 10% cash back on spending on Swiggy and 5% across over 1,000 partnered platforms. Deep dive → TechCrunch

• 🇸🇬 foodpanda and TabSquare jointly to deliver AI-powered solutions to digitalize dining experiences in restaurants across Asia. The companies intend to help restaurants digitize their ordering, payment, and customer engagement-related processes. Deep dive → Foodpanda

• 🇩🇪 Wolt drivers sue Wolt for withholding wages. 2 drivers were hired by subcontractor Mobile World in Berlin. It is estimated that up to 120 couriers may have been denied wages after being recruited through subcontractors. Deep dive → Morningstaronline

• 🇬🇧 Deliveroo is working to raise awareness of its delivery subscription plan Deliveroo Plus, with a campaign promoting a 60-day free trial of the service that aims to be hassle-free with no hidden terms and costs, according to a statement by the brand. Deep dive → Marketing interactive

• 🇪🇸 Glovo could be closing the Glovo Concepts which created virtual restaurants. Glovo will have to redeploy around thirty workers. Deep dive → Ara.cat

📦Various marketplaces

• 🌎 Etsy tests a new Local Shipping badge to boost sales and promote sustainability. Etsy plans to explore similar badge implementations in international markets in the near future. On top of that, Etsy is changing photos to square format on sellers’ pages in early August. Deep dive → eseller365 | eseller365

• 🇦🇺 Beer Fans, Australian beer marketplace, is set to expand its offering to New Zealand, launching a local website next month. Beer Fans says it is dedicated to “fostering connections” between these local breweries and a global audience of beer enthusiasts. Deep dive → Inside Retail

• 🇨🇳 Tencent-Backed used car marketplace Taoche seeks $200M in fresh funds. Several second-hand car marketplaces in China have recently been considering first-time share sales Deep dive → Finance Yahoo

• 🇬🇧 Superdrug launched new accessibility features to make online shopping more inclusive. The Assist Me Tool enables user-triggered accessibility enhancements and allows customers to interact with the website based on their individual needs and preferences. Deep dive → Internetretailing

• 🇮🇹 Leroy Merlin to double down on the marketplace in Italy. Marketplace processed 1.1M transactions based on 716 sellers. Deep dive → Bricomagazine