Greetings, Fuelings!

This week’s News Cart tackles tariffs, Tumblr and terminated shipping contracts.

Trump slapped China with another 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of imports, but it won’t go into effect on some items until mid-December. Merry Christmas, everyone!

FedEx and Amazon keep their domestic breakup amicable, but there’s one last box of belongings to retrieve—and it won’t arrive via ground delivery.

Plus, WordPress.com owner Automattic scooped up Tumblr, reportedly at a fire-sale price.

Check out these stories and more in the ECF News Cart for Aug. 14. You can also listen to this week’s roundup on the podcast via iTunesStitcher or the ECF Blog.

Enjoy!

– Andrew

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In the News:

Trump Delays Some China Tariffs on Chinese Imports

  • President says a 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods will go into effect Dec. 15 instead of Sept. 1 for cell phones, laptops, gaming consoles and other items
  • He claimed China broke its promise to buy more from American farmers, but he delayed the tariff “just in case” it would impact Christmas sales
  • White House had already imposed a 25% tariff on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports

FedEx Ends U.S. Ground-Delivery Contract With Amazon

  • FedEx says it won’t renew contract at the end of the month, citing desire “to focus on the broader e-commerce market”
  • FedEx similarly ended its U.S. express air contract in June but will still handle international shipments for Amazon
  • Amazon continues to expand its own shipping network

Verizon to Sell Tumblr to Automattic, The Company Behind WordPress

  • Automattic bought Tumblr for a reported $3 million—much less than the $1.1billion Yahoo! paid in 2013
  • Automattic to take on about 200 employees and move Tumblr’s backend to WordPress
  • CEO Matt Mullenweg quoted as saying “eCommerce on Tumblr is a great idea”

Amazon Is Killing Off the Dash Button

  • On Aug. 31 Amazon will end its support for Dash buttons, which it stopped selling earlier this year
  • Digital re-order API to increasingly replace the physical reorder buttons

Scout Delivery Robots Roll Into Southern California

  • Amazon Scout robots begin delivering in the Irvine area, after test runs in Washington
  • Scout to deliver Monday through Friday during daylight hours
  • Free same-day, one-day and two-day Scout delivery for Prime members

Nike Enters Subscription Business With Kids’ Sneaker Club

  • Nike Adventure Club lets parents order shoes for kids ages 2 to 10 on a quarterly, bimonthly or monthly basis
  • Subscriptions cost $20 to $50 per month, depending on chosen frequency
  • Nike tested this subscription platform in stealth mode on Facebook for two years

UPS Raises International Air-Import Fuel Surcharge

  • On Aug. 26, the International Air-Import Fuel Surcharge will increase by 1%

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Andrew Youderian
Post by Andrew Youderian
Andrew is the founder of eCommerceFuel and has been building eCommerce businesses ever since gleefully leaving the corporate world in 2008.  Join him and 1,000+ vetted 7- and 8-figure store owners inside the eCommerceFuel Community.

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