News Cart for July 31st

Hey there ECFuelers,

Time to refill the tank! Some of our high-octane e-commerce stories include an eBay fulfillment service, Salesforce’s expansion into China and Walmart’s $1 billion in e-commerce losses.

We won’t judge you for rubbernecking as Facebook collides with antitrust regulators and a lawsuit over its heavily criticized $5 billion privacy settlement.

It’s all in the ECF News Cart for July 31. As always, you can listen to this week’s roundup on the podcast via iTunes, Stitcher or the ECF Blog.

Enjoy!

– Andrew

P.S. Prime Day 2019 results are in: Sales reportedly surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

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In the News:

Facebook Fined $5B for Privacy Violations, Now Under Antitrust Investigation

• Record fine settles claims that Facebook mishandled user data and deceived customers about its privacy policies
• Deal criticized as ineffective and inadequate for offering blanket immunity to Facebook executives, among other things (see Commissioner Rohit Chopra’s dissenting statement)
• Settlement challenged by privacy group whose 2009 lawsuit gave FTC the legal authority to oversee Facebook

DOJ Opens Antitrust Investigation Into Big Tech

• DOJ’s Antitrust Division to review how big tech got that way and whether its practices “have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers”
• Announcement appears to target Google, Facebook and Amazon specifically
• Amazon was specifically targeted by Congress recently for its data collection and private label practices

eBay to Offer Amazon Shipping Competitor Next Year (hat tip to ECF member Casey Cutsail)

• End-to-end fulfillment service Managed Delivery will be available to U.S. sellers in 2020
• Listings fulfilled with Managed Delivery will stand out on eBay’s platform (similar to Amazon Prime logo on items)
• Available to fulfill orders made both on and off eBay’s platform

Walmart E-commerce Is Losing $1B as It Tries to Catch Amazon

• Company reportedly projects losses of more than $1 billion for its U.S. e-commerce division this year, on revenue of between $21 billion and $22 billion
• Executives are pressuring Jet.com founder Marc Lore and his team to cut losses
• Walmart may sell women’s clothing retailer ModCloth for less than purchase price

How EU Regulation Has Impacted E-commerce Sites

• The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, was adopted in 2016 but became enforceable last May
• Over the past 14 months, page views fell by 9.7%, site visits by 9.9% and revenue by 8.3%

Salesforce Partners With Alibaba

• Alibaba will be the sole Salesforce provider to customers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan
• Salesforce to become “the exclusive enterprise CRM product suite sold by Alibaba”
• Under a 2017 cybersecurity law in China, companies operating in China must store their data inside Chinese borders

Top Forum Discussions:

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• How Do You Approach Your In-House Hiring?
• Tips for Scaling Customer Service
• Let’s Talk About the New Shopify Fulfillment Network
• Just Got Chargebacks for £4091 – How to Respond?
• Where Do You See eCommerce Heading in the Next 5 Years?

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.