Shop Pay
Fabric raises million to scale headless commerce. Fabric, a headless commerce platform, has announced a million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with additional participation from Redpoint Ventures and Sierra Ventures. The investment, coming months after the company’s .5 million in seed funding, will accelerate the product development of its headless commerce platform, expand the Fabric team, and meet the growing demand for its commerce technology. Fabric’s platform is an API-driven, modular system for direct-to-consumer and B2B brands.
Ecommerce Product Releases
Hootsuite releases U.S. 2021 digital trends report. Hootsuite and We Are Social, an agency, have released their annual U.S. 2021 digital trends report, covering consumer activity related to social media, internet and mobile, ecommerce, and more. In 2020, U.S. consumers spent 7 billion on fashion and beauty (a 23-percent increase from 2019) and .6 billion on food and personal care (a 33-percent increase over 2019). The total value of the consumer goods ecommerce market grew by 20 percent in 2020.
PayPal’s “Pay in 4” now available on Digital River. Digital River, an ecommerce platform, has announced the availability of “Pay in 4” from PayPal to all U.S. Digital River customers that have PayPal as a payment option. Pay in 4 allows customers to pay for purchases between and 0 in four interest-free payments. Merchants get paid up front. Pay in 4 and PayPal Credit1 are included in the PayPal Checkout integration at no additional cost.
Hootsuite’s “The Global State of Digital 2021”
Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-February from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on headless commerce, payment options, live-video shopping, artificial intelligence, collaborative web development, and more.
Wix’s Editor X launches out of beta. Wix’s Editor X, a web creation platform, has announced its launch out of beta, with 200,000 users already signed-up. Editor X is a platform to enable team members to work on a website simultaneously. The new collaboration features include live commenting, advanced roles and permissions, and shared design libraries. The platform also expanded its design capabilities and now offers advanced code-free interactions.
Sturish raises .2 million to build AI-based ecommerce growth platform for SMBs. Sturish, an artificial-intelligence-driven ecommerce platform, closed a .2 million seed funding round from Neo, Act One Ventures, and Fika Ventures. The Sturish pricing model is built on aligned incentives. There are no initial costs, and Sturish only makes money if and when customers’ products sell. Sturish is in private beta with a few customers across multiple countries.
SurveyMonkey announces GetFeedback integration with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. SurveyMonkey has announced a new integration of its GetFeedback platform with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. The integration helps customers (i) identify the reasons behind cart abandonment and other behaviors, (ii) enrich customer data via post-purchase surveys, (iii) conduct audience research among site visitors, (iv) resolve bugs, and (v) create more effective marketing campaigns.
Bambuser augments live video shopping platform with new features. Bambuser, a live-video shopping platform, has announced the launch of several new features. They include floating action button previews, event spotlight modules to promote live-shopping events, audio captioning for audible descriptions of key visual elements, and share from pre-screen. The added capabilities are designed to drive awareness and enhance engagement while facilitating social sharing of interactive ecommerce experiences before, during, and after live events.
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Sturish
Rev announces new languages in automated speech recognition. Rev, a speech-to-text transcription service, has announced four new languages: French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. The new offering will expand Rev’s ability to address the needs of a global user base. Powered by a large and vibrant community of freelancers, Rev uses artificial intelligence tools to turn speech into text for a low cost.
Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.
Shop Pay expands to Facebook and Instagram. Shopify’s Shop Pay checkout service is expanding to all Shopify merchants selling on Facebook and Instagram. With this integration, consumers on Instagram and Facebook will see Shop Pay as a payment option in Facebook Pay. Shop Pay pre-populates their details and speeds them through payment, directly on Instagram and Facebook. Once the purchase is made, consumers can track orders and see the carbon emissions offset from their purchases.
Linc launches Omnichannel Pickup Support Digital Worker. Linc, a customer-experience automation platform, has launched “Omnichannel Pickup Assistance & Orchestration Digital Worker.” Retailers and brands can now send automated notifications to their customers regarding omnichannel fulfillment, such as buy online pick-up in-store, curbside pick-up, ship to home, ship to store, and variations of these. The Digital Worker orchestrates two-way communication to ensure a quick and successful delivery or pickup of the customer’s items. This new service is available through Linc’s conversational messaging channels such as web chat, SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp, and voice channels such as Alexa and Google Assistant.
