Welcome to this week’s edition of eFocus, RepricerExpress’ weekly look at the top ecommerce stories and latest Amazon news from around the Web including an Amazon Fire tablet for kids, Amazon’s robot challenge, eBay hires new Communications Chief, Pinterest introduces buyable pins and details of Amazon Stream.
Amazon aims for British parents with Fire HD Kids Edition tablet: Stuart Dredge at The Guardian reports that according to Ofcom, 71% of British children aged 5-15 have access to a tablet in their home with 34% owning a tablet. Amazon is hoping to boost the latter figure in the UK with the launch of a dedicated children’s tablet which comes with a rubberised case to protect it if dropped and a built-in subscription for unlimited access to a catalogue of children’s apps, e-books and videos.
Amazon’s robot competition shows why human warehouse jobs are safe for now: Chris Welch at The Verge reports that Amazon’s autonomous robots are pretty good about finding ordered items just about anywhere in the company’s massive fulfilment centres, but picking them up off a shelf remains a far greater challenge for the machines. In an attempt to improve warehouse automation, Amazon organised a Picking Challenge, inviting entrants to build robots that do a better job at the sort of tasks that only humans can efficiently pull off. The results were impressive, but also show that Amazon’s factory workers don’t need to worry about being rendered redundant just yet. Continue reading…
eBay hires new Communications Chief; eBay has hired a new CCO: Dan Wilson at Tamebay reports that Daniel Tarman will be eBay’s Chief Communications Officer after the eBay/PayPal divorce. eBay CEO Devin Wenig said, “Dan is a seasoned executive and strong leader with the right combination of global communications and brand experience to help us lead eBay forward. I look forward to having him on our leadership team as we create the next great chapter for eBay”. Continue reading…
Pinterest introduces ‘buyable pins’ allowing direct product purchase: Hannah Jane Parkinson at The Guardian reports that social photo sharing service Pinterest is introducing a buy button allowing users to purchase products pinned to its boards. The site and mobile app has long been the destination for browsing aspirational products, such as homeware, clothing and gadgets, but until now there has been no purchase option for users. Pinterest co-founder and chief executive Ben Silbermann announced the introduction of buyable pins at a San Francisco event in the company’s headquarters. Continue reading…
Say hello to Amazon Stream, a Pinterest-like endless shopping experience: Abhimanyu Ghoshal at TheNextWeb reports that it appears that Amazon has been working on a new shopping experience based on pinboards. Stream tempts you with an endless list of products for men, women and the home, in an easy-to-browse format. The products shown are all sponsored, said to be updated daily and only list their prices. You do have an option to save items to your wishlist, but they stay separate from your standard Amazon wishlist.
