Amazon Prime Day will increase the proportion of online retail sales in the United States, and Naver announced its withdrawal from eBay Korea bidding

Amazon Prime Day will increase the share of online retail sales in the United States

According to FTI Consulting, Amazon Prime Day, which will be held on June 21 this year, will greatly boost the proportion of online retail sales in the United States.

According to FTI's forecast, US online retail sales are expected to reach $865 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%. The survey showed that 62% of people said they planned to spend more on Prime Day this year, of which 36% said they would significantly increase their purchases. Only 9% of respondents said they expected to spend less on Prime Day this year.

Naver withdraws from eBay Korea bid

According to the latest news from Reuters, Naver announced that it would withdraw from the bidding for eBay Korea due to antitrust issues, and Shinsegae Group will acquire the majority stake in eBay Korea alone.

According to multiple sources from the investment industry, Shinsegae Group, representing Emart, is in final negotiations with eBay's US headquarters to acquire an 80% stake in eBay's Korean business for about 3.5 trillion won (US$3.1 billion). However, the merger may be subject to various conditions, as eBay Korea's revenue is highly dependent on Naver Shop-in-Shop despite Naver's withdrawal from the bidding.

Shopee adjusts product quantity restrictions for different seller types in Thailand and other sites

Starting from June 22, 2021, Shopee will adjust the conditions for limiting the number of items that different seller types can list in stores on the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. The adjustment time for other sites will be notified separately.

The main changes this time are: a new condition has been added for potential stores and experienced store type sellers that the number of orders completed from different buyers in the past 30 days is >= 30; the limit on the number of items that can be put on the shelves in the store is updated weekly.

It is understood that the Shopee platform has recently optimized the return and refund process. From June 28, 2021, sellers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines will begin to use the new return and refund process. Specifically, sellers in the above sites do not need to handle return and refund requests on their own, and the Shopee platform will evaluate all return and refund requests.

eBay launches refurbished deals to compete with Amazon Prime Day

Recently, eBay US announced the launch of a refurbished product promotion, which will last from June 21 to June 28 to compete with Amazon Prime Day.

However, this event can only benefit a small number of sellers, because the certified refurbished program is limited to sellers authorized by the brand and pre-approved by eBay, and uncertified refurbished products can only be "seller refurbished" rather than "certified refurbished." In addition, the promotion has a further limitation that the coupon is only applicable to products on the special event page.

Amazon destroys millions of unsold products every year at UK warehouses

Amazon warehouses in Scotland destroy millions of unsold products every year, an investigation by British news outlet ITV has found.

Video footage shot by ITV's undercover camera installed inside Amazon's warehouse in Dunfermline, Scotland, shows many laptops, TVs, jewelry, headphones, books and masks being packed into crates marked "destroyed." ITV said that if there are an average of 130,000 products per week, then more than 6 million products are marked for destruction every year. In 2019, French undercover reporters discovered that Amazon destroyed more than 3 million products in a year .

UAE Prime Day sales expected to double this year, 63% of consumers expected to participate

UAE consumers are set to double their sales during Amazon’s Prime Day this year, with sales expected to grow 100 per cent over last year’s event, according to research firm Redseer.

Amazon Prime Day is held in the UAE for the third time and it looks like it will be even bigger, with UAE consumers having the luxury of avoiding the rush and enjoying high discounts . According to research by Bain & Company and Google, e-commerce sales in the Middle East and North Africa region will double from $8.3 billion in 2017 to $28.5 billion by 2022. Compared with more mature sales levels in other countries, Prime Day in the UAE is still in its "emerging stage".

Walmart is beating Amazon in U.S. online grocery sales

Recently, JungleScout released a survey report on the consumer attitudes and behaviors of 1,066 American consumers in the first and second quarters of 2021. The respondents represented every state in the United States, regardless of gender, ranging in age from 18 to over 75 years old, and all types of employment and different income levels. The report shows that although Amazon is the largest e-commerce platform in the United States, Walmart is ahead of Amazon in online groceries.

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