Daily LInks
1. How Shopify Outfoxed Amazon to Become the Everywhere Store: Shopify has sold software that allows about 2 million merchants worldwide to run websites—free from the complicated embrace of Shopify’s chief rival, Amazon. For $30 to $2,000 a month, Shopify offers sellers more than a dozen services to run an online store, from the actual e-commerce website to inventory management to payment processing. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. U.S. holiday retail sales rise 8.5% as online shopping booms: U.S. ecommerce sales jumped 11% in this year’s holiday shopping season, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse report, yet again underscoring the COVID-19 pandemic’s role in transforming customers’ shopping habits. – Read More on Reuters
3. Purple Dot, a waitlist and pre-order platform for the fashion industry, raises $4M: UK startup Purple Dot has an ecommerce ‘waitlist and pre-order’ platform, allowing fashion brands to only produce the exact volume of goods ordered, thereby cutting down waste. – Read More on TechCrunch
4. Young women are leading the charge against fast fashion: According to a survey of 2,094 adults, commissioned by the University of Hull, more than half of young people aged between 18 and 24 (58%) want to “turn their backs on fast fashion” and change their shopping habits. – Read More on Yahoo
5. Iconic retail group Selfridges is sold for more than $5bn: The billionaire dynasty behind Selfridges & Co. has sold the British department store operator to a Thai-Austrian joint venture for about 4 billion pounds (£5.4 million) in one of the biggest U.K. retail deals in years. – Read More on AlJazeera