Right now, many merchants who sell their products online and do not have a distribution center, warehouse or retail store in the state into which their product is sold aren't charging sales taxes, and cannot be required to collect them at the point of purchase. This stands in stark contrast to local wholesaler -distributors and retailers - businesses that have a brick-and-mortar presence on the Main Streets and in the commercial and industrial parks of our cities and towns and who provide jobs to our family members, friends and neighbors - who are required by law to do so.
Shoppost, a platform for social commerce, is now available for retailers selling on the Amazon Webstore. Created by Zantler, Shoppost allows retailers to sell their products in-stream on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and blogs in a post that looks like an e-commerce storefront and will connect customers directly to the checkout process.
Movement across borders is as simple as getting in a car or on a plane. It's a seamless, simple experience to which most people devote little thought. For both merchants and consumers, however, the path to online and offline purchasing across borders is still a bumpy one.
As the volume of business-to-business purchases being made online continues to grow, B2B suppliers are responding by expanding their e-commerce platforms and overall omnichannel capabilities, according to new research from Accenture and hybris software, an SAP company.
Its name suggests a narrow focus on office supplies, but United Stationers Inc. is far more than a wholesale distributor of copy paper, notebooks, pens and staplers. The $5bn-plus company also supplies janitorial and breakroom supplies, provides industrial equipment to the welding, oil field and building construction industries, and has a major - and increasing - focus on helping thousands of resellers sell online to their business end-customers.
Amazon reportedly will open a brick-and-mortar shop in Midtown Manhattan in time for the holiday shopping season and that it will be a place for customers to return products, make exchanges or pick up their online orders.
The Federal Trade Commission has updated a longstanding rule governing mail and phone-based retailers to explicitly include e-commerce vendors as well, meaning that online retailers now must abide by a 30-day shipping requirement or refund customers' payments if they can't.
In a first in the athletic footwear and apparel space, Foot Locker has started a trial of same-day/next-day delivery at five stores in California, with plans to roll it out at its 1,300 locations across the U.S. and Canada should it prove a success. This includes all the company's brands: Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Foot Action and Champs.
The technology-driven shift to omnichannel shopping is the most transformative change to hit retail in decades. Yet in a global survey of CEOs conducted by PwC, only 22 percent felt this monumental shift would impact their organizations. Are these retail CEOs missing the boat?
Specialty retailer Bed Bath and Beyond spent $68m in its recently completed first quarter, primarily for IT enhancements. "While we continue to review and prioritize our capital needs, we remain committed to making the required investments in our company to help position us for our long-term success," said CEO Steven Temares.
