Hi everyone!

We’ve all heard the adage, “Where one door closes, another one opens.” In this week’s e-commerce news, Amazon closes a door in China and opens one in your garage — literally.

Find out what we mean in the ECF News Cart for April 24, 2019. You can also listen to this week’s news roundup on the podcast via iTunesStitcher or the ECF Blog.

Enjoy!

– Andrew

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In the News:

Amazon Is Shutting Down China Marketplace Business

  • Faced stiff competition from Alibaba’s Taobao and JD.com, which have upped their game
  • Company will focus on “cross-border” selling to Chinese consumers from other countries
  • Amazon.cn marketplace to close July 18

Many States Moving Away from Transaction Thresholds for Sales Tax (Hat Tip to Dwight Schuman)

  • California, Colorado, North Dakota and South Carolina are working to eliminate transaction thresholds
  • Would be a huge boon for high transaction, small dollar-volume sellers
  • Big thanks to The Online Merchant’s Guild for lobbying for these outcomes.  Support them!

Facebook Revamps Ads Manager and Business Manager (Hat Tip to Miracle Wanzo)

  • Ads manager is getting a new, streamlined design
  • Overhauling “campaign creation experience” and “more intuitive ad-level creative and placement editing tools”
  • Available to all advertisers by 2020

Amazon Opens Key Delivery to Garages – Amazon can now drop off packages in your garage, with your permission.

  • Customers must opt in to Key delivery services
  • Requires a garage door that uses myQ technology
  • Amazon’s now offering deep discounts on the myQ Smart Garage Hub
  • Key options are available in 50 locations, including new cities such as Charlotte, N.C. and Las Vegas

Kohl’s to Accept Amazon Returns in All Stores

  • Starting July, Kohl’s will accept Amazon returns in its more than 1,150 stores nationwide
  • Previous testing in limited stores showed increased foot traffic and revenue
  • Kohl’s stock is up on the news

Walmart to Expand In-Store Tech

  • Additional technology includes:
    • 1,500 floor-cleaning robots
    • 300 shelf scanners to check inventory
    • 1,200 more automated unloaders to scan and sort items
    • 900 new pickup towers, which are like giant vending machines where online orders can be picked up in-store

Facebook Scraps P2P Messenger Payments in the UK and France

  • Peer-to-peer money transfers via Messenger to end June 15 in the UK and France
  • People can still make charitable donations through Facebook itself
  • Fuels speculation that Facebook is shifting to its own cryptocurrency, which it’s reportedly developing for WhatsApp

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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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