6 shopping trends that will dominate Black Friday 2016

Black Friday still looms large on the retail calendar, but digital disruptions and pre-holiday sales are redefining its role. Here's what merchants need to know.

By Jason Ankeny • Nov. 22, 2016

Alibaba acquires a third of grocery club retailer Sanjiang

Sanjiang operates about 160 stores across the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang and boasts more than a million members, accelerating Alibaba's push into brick-and-mortar retail.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 22, 2016

Explore the Trendline➔

What's shaping the e-commerce landscape?

From pivots in digital strategies to challenges retailers must overcome with reverse logistics, here are some of the forces shaping online retail.

By Retail Dive staff

Cowen: Amazon Prime hits 50M US members

The financial services firm also found that 83% of Prime members made a purchase from Amazon last month, compared to 49% of non-members.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 22, 2016

Casper reportedly plotting brick-and-mortar mattress stores

The mattress startup has posted a series of job ads for executives needed to build a physical store strategy, demonstrating that there may be no such thing as pure-play e-commerce.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 21, 2016

Lowe's promotes Black Friday deals via Facebook Live

The event, hosted by Drew and Jonathan Scott of the HGTV show "Property Brothers," revealed deals between comedy bits and interactions with viewers.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 20, 2016

Crate and Barrel launches e-commerce marketplace

Offering customers a host of goods sold and fulfilled by third-party vendors is not just for Amazon anymore.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 18, 2016

EBay offers #GiftGoals guide to help with holiday shopping

The e-commerce marketplace is combining social media capabilities with practical advice for engaging friends and family in conversation to come up with holiday gift ideas mapped to 12 different personality types.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 17, 2016

Amazon: Half of all merchandise sold now comes from third-party sellers

But as the presence of small businesses, entrepreneurs and other sellers grows, Amazon risks losing control over the merchandise featured on its platform.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 17, 2016

What US retailers can learn from Alibaba's record-setting Singles Day

China's annual marketplace sales event once again shattered sales and volume milestones. What does its success mean for retailers on this side of the Pacific?

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 17, 2016

Neiman Marcus, Rent the Runway pair up in stores

The struggling department store chain is opening its doors to haute couture rental boutiques in an effort to attract new customers, including younger ones.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 17, 2016

Report: Google snaps up shopping search startup Undecidable Labs

The firm's online purchasing tool involves “a filtering system that takes 'nice to have' and 'ideal' into consideration” to make product searches more meaningful.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 16, 2016

EBay overhauls mobile shopping apps in sync with holidays

The digital marketplace has updated both its iOS and Android applications with new browsing capabilities, product viewing options and other features.  

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 15, 2016

Amazon files first lawsuits against counterfeit sellers

In addition to pressure from customers burned by fakes, Amazon has to contend with mounting scrutiny from brand partners that have become frustrated with a glut of counterfeits on marketplace sites like eBay, Etsy and China's Alibaba. 

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 15, 2016

How UPS stays steady in center of e-commerce shipping storm

Despite Amazon's shipping ambitions and myriad other forces driving market upheaval, UPS continues to invest in a future defined by e-commerce opportunities and obstacles.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 15, 2016

Amazon expands Home Services to 20 more US cities

Customers can request services like house cleaning, which can be helpful during the busy party season, as well as assembly or installation of products.  

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 14, 2016

Alibaba's Singles Day shatters expectations with $18B in sales

Sales across Alibaba's China and international retail marketplaces increased 32% over last year's shopping event, with mobile gross merchandise volume accounting for 82% of that total, compared to 69% in 2015.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 14, 2016

Alibaba's Singles Day nears record sales, boosted by virtual reality

Shoppers wearing Buy+ virtual reality headsets experienced Singles Day from a 360-degree perspective, exploring merchandise from Alibaba partners across the globe, including Macy's in New York.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 10, 2016

Reports: With Trump in White House, Amazon could face antitrust probe

President-elect Donald Trump earlier this year blamed Amazon's "monopolistic tendencies" for "the destruction of department stores and the retail industry.”  

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 9, 2016

Survey: Retailers progressing on omnichannel, but not fast enough

While omnichannel adoption is growing, almost half of merchants believe they are making little headway in their omnichannel efforts.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 9, 2016

Wayfair tumbles as fulfillment, delivery expenses surge

The furniture retailer not only offers free shipping with a minimum order on most items, but also boasts a range of dynamically priced delivery options from curbside drop-off to full in-home delivery.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 9, 2016

Facebook enables retailers to link newsfeed ads to chatbots

Brands that operate chatbots on Messenger can now buy targeted newsfeed ads that link directly to their bots, allowing them to immediately initiate conversations.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 8, 2016

Chinese regulators put Singles Day merchants on notice over counterfeit sales

Chinese regulators met with Alibaba, JD.com, Amazon.com Inc, Baidu Inc, Tencent Holdings and several others to warn against a number of dubious sales and accounting practices.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 8, 2016

Amazon unveils Alexa skills marketplace to enrich customer experience

The marketplace offers Alexa developers a detail page for each offering, enabling better optimization and search engine discovery rates.

By Dan O'Shea • Nov. 7, 2016

Report: Bonobos raising $100M to expand brick-and-mortar footprint

The menswear retailer was founded on the notion that men don’t like shopping in stores. How things have changed.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 7, 2016

Amazon begins requiring free returns at the cost of some sellers

Sellers are complaining, but the new return policy is a classic customer-first move from the e-commerce giant.

By Daphne Howland • Nov. 4, 2016