November eCommerce News Roundup From Expandly

November, the month of thanks, giving, shopping and the following not-to-be-missed eCommerce news. 

Updates aplenty

It was update-central at Expandly HQ this month, with four exciting new additions to our platform.

? Direct integration with Royal Mail – for bulk printing shipping labels and manifests. 

? CSV product editor – making bulk changes clearer and simpler. 

? Tax rates at variation level – so you don’t have to do it manually. 

? Invoice due dates for Xero – to prevent those unnecessary Xero notifications. 

? Expandly setup wizard – for getting started. 

To find out more about these latest editions, head here.  

 

Congratulations

Continuing with the good news, there was lots to celebrate this month, including:

? eBay raising more than $1 billion for charities globally

? Neohelden and VISCOPIC winning the Future Logistics Challenge 2019

? nutpods winning Amazon’s Small Business of the Year USA

? 1818 Farms winning Amazon’s Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year USA

? Habit Nest winning Amazon’s Small Business Owner Under 30 of the Year USA

? The Xero Awards UK winners

? The BigCommerce agency partner winners

? The BigCommerce technology winners.

 

You’ve got mail

Forget written lists to Santa, Shopify has been concentrating on emails – specifically an in-built email system for its sellers. Shopify Email is now available to select merchants, allowing them to create, run and track email marketing campaigns within Shopify Marketing. Its hoped that this will roll out to all Shopify sellers in 2020 – keep an eye on your emails.

Royal Mail has also been busy this November. Its 2020 price increases have been released, its valuables have been changed, and fines are being introduced.

 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday came early, with month-long deals and discounts.

? eBay launched its Black Friday deals on 1 November and continued dropping deals every Friday.

? Amazon began its biggest BFCM deals weekend ever, starting on 22 November.

? FedEx predicted a record package volume of 22 million on Cyber Monday.

Meanwhile, Alibaba exceeded last year’s Singles Day sales, breaking the $30.8 billion mark.

 

Santa’s list

As Christmas lists pinged around the world this month, we were lucky enough to get a sneak preview of what’s hot this Christmas.

Products topping this year’s lists include the iPhone 11 Pro, retro consoles, air fryers, L.O.L Surprise! Dolls, and Hatchimals Wow.

And, according to the latest research by Royal Mail, almost half of festive shoppers will do the majority of their Christmas shopping online. Bonza.

 

Ground control to Major Tom

LyricFund has announced its first marketplace partnership, with eBay. Selling a wide selection of fully licensed apparel and lifestyle items featuring catchy lyrics and iconic song titles, LyricFund will use this partnership to expand its audience worldwide.

 

BigUpdate

BigCommerce has launched a new GraphQL-powered storefront API. This beta launch will help merchants to create faster, personalised customer shopping experiences that differentiate brands from competitors. Find out more, here.

BigC is also running a closed beta for checkout on Instagram, for select US merchants. 2020 is going to be busy!

 

WooSesh

WooSesh 2019 took place, with plenty of eCommerce announcements and insights. Our favourite takeaways from the event included:

? There are now more than one million WooCommerce stores.

? WooCommerce stores have sold an estimated USD$11.8 billion worth of products and services. 

? Everyone should be sending welcome emails. 

In other WooCommerce news, WooCommerce 3.8 is now live – bringing merchants product blocks, hooks and tweaks. Find out more here.

 

Mobile commerce

New research from PayPal predicts selling on social media sites and apps to double in the next six months. Currently, 24% of British businesses sell on social media, despite 8.4 million Brits buying via these channels. We’ll just have to wait and see if PayPal’s crystal ball is correct.

In other mobile news, BigCommerce has launched a mobile app for Android. Just like the iOS app, merchants can use it to keep tabs on performance metrics, receive order notifications, and manage new orders. Download here.

 

Etsy Holiday Hotline, how can I help?

Etsy ran a holiday hotline on 5 November in the US, helping shoppers to find the perfect Christmas presents. Whether this is an initiative that will take off, who knows, but for now we’re loving the gimmick.

 

And, in other news…

Amazon opened new fulfilment centres in Florida and Mississippi, eBay fumigated, Xero users can access rapid cash, Parcelforce redesigned its app, Amazon might be launching in the Netherlands, and we were talking Primark, direct-to-consumer commerce and eCommerce fulfilment and shipping strategies. 

 

Here’s to a damn-good December.