New e-commerce tools: July 9, 2024

Our roundup of new tools for merchants this week includes social commerce, flexible payments, luxury shopping, order fulfillment, AI-powered pricing, and shopping in the metaverse.

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New tools for merchants: July 9, 2024

Walmart helps you sell used collectibles. Walmart Marketplace allows sellers to list collectibles without incurring referral fees until September 30, 2024, and also offers additional benefits. Sellers can (i) display the condition of collectibles using a new rating system, (ii) build anticipation around a new drop by offering pre-orders for items, and (iii) select their preferred return policy: no returns, 15-day returns with sealed shipping, or Walmart’s standard 30-day return policy.

Captiv8 integrates with TikTok store. Captiv8, an influencer marketing platform for enterprise brands, has expanded its partnership with TikTok to include an integration with TikTok Shop. The integration with Captiv8’s Commerce Suite enhances its social commerce capabilities, strengthening its efforts to grow the creator economy and maximize creators’ earning potential. The partnership follows the recent launch of Captiv8’s exclusive branded storefronts.

Klarna partners with Adobe Commerce for flexible payment options. Klarna, the buy now, pay later service, has partnered with Adobe Commerce to enable merchants to implement Klarna’s BNPL and other payment options, such as direct payments, pay after delivery and installment plans. According to Adobe Commerce, consumers appreciate the flexibility of BNPL services, with Adobe Analytics data showing over 11% growth in 2024.

elf Beauty will be selling physical items on Roblox. elf Beauty is testing out real-world commerce powered by Walmart on the Roblox virtual universe gaming platform. elf has created a virtual kiosk as part of its elf UP! experience on Roblox, where US visitors can purchase Roblox-exclusive, limited-edition physical products. The elf UP! experience is being developed in partnership with Egen (cloud development) and Supersocial (metaverse services).

Senser luxury platform expands to the US Senser, a luxury shopping platform, is entering the US market. Senser works with over 2,500 brands in 60 countries, offering a carefully curated selection of over 500,000 luxury items. The platform serves over 2 million affluent customers. All products are shipped directly from European boutiques, allowing consumers to buy desirable items at 30-60% off retail prices while enjoying VIP-level professional fashion service.

Mollie and Riverty collaborate on BNPL invoicing. Mollie, a European financial services provider, is partnering with buy-bow-pay-later provider Riverty, backed by Bertelsmann, a media company. Mollie customers now have an additional option to pay later – up to 30 days. Riverty’s solution is integrated with Mollie, allowing customers to activate it in the Mollie dashboard. Riverty is available to Mollie customers in Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Mollie now offers over 30 different payment methods.

Dunnhumby presents an AI-powered product selection tool. Customer data science provider dunnhumby has launched an AI-powered assortment solution to enable retailers to identify and curate product assortments. Retailers can deliver localized assortments tailored to the unique preferences of their customer base. Retailers can use the planogram feature to optimize layouts based on customer behavior and implement AI-powered merchandising rules, constraints, and predictive analytics to quantify product layouts.

Google Merchant Center Launches Beta API for Merchants. Google has released Merchant API Beta, an update to the Content API for Shopping. The Merchant API can help showcase products with new features, a modular design with isolated sub-API updates, and improved alignment with Google’s API enhancement proposals. It enables multiple API channels, improved management of complementary channels, and support for other shopping channels such as promotions. New features include simplified promotion statuses, local channels, and more.

The cooperative partners with Walmart Commerce Technologies to fulfill online orders. Co-op has partnered with Walmart Commerce Technologies to implement its online fulfillment technology, Store Assist. The app enables retailers to manage pickup orders, third-party marketplace, ship from store and last-mile delivery in one place. This streamlined omni-channel fulfillment workflow will streamline store processes and operations, eliminate the need for associates to switch between fast-paced commerce apps or different devices and enable faster delivery times to support Co-op’s commerce growth ambitions.

Amazon Q in Connect uses step-by-step guides to help customer service agents. Amazon Q in Connect, the generative AI assistant for contact center agents, now recommends real-time, step-by-step guides that agents use to resolve customer issues. Amazon Q in Connect leverages real-time customer conversations to detect customer intent and provides a guided workflow to resolve the issue.

HyperFinity Launches AI-Based Pricing for Retailers. HyperFinity, a decision intelligence platform for retailers, has launched an AI-powered pricing product. HyperFinity says the tool presents data and insights in an easy-to-use format, replacing spreadsheets. Users can model commercial scenarios based on pricing decisions to understand margin impact, and create AI-powered actions for each product in the assortment.