eCommerce Minute

Google has announced that it’s buying wearable company Fitbit for $2.1 billion. The move comes as the company eyes up a piece of the crowded market for fitness trackers and smartwatches.

A new bar in St. Louis, Missouri is shaking up the scene with a concept we haven’t yet seen. Customers aren't charged by the glass –  but by the hour. 

The new bar is appropriately named "Open Concept," and the website says for an average price of $10 an hour, you can drink as much as you can legally handle.

Mentions:

- Open Concept

- Tech Company Says Using Facial Recognition Technology in Bars Isn't Creepy at All

After more than 17 years in the making, the first phase of America’s newest megamall has opened to the public in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 

American Dream’s first phase features a Nickelodeon theme park and an NHL-regulation-size ice skating rink. The theme park will have more than 35 rides and attractions. 

Shoe Bank is a marketplace for swapping shoes where women of all ages can give and get new shoes without spending any money.

- Shoe Bank

Best Buy fires back at the competition announcing the launch of free next-day delivery on thousands of items that it sells online.

Mentions:

- Kombucha Girl 

- Toilet Paper Math is the Hardest Math (Reddit)

Mira is a new AI-powered search engine that wants to create a more streamlined shopping experience for beauty consumers.

- AskMira

Banksy’s merchandise is now up for sale on the Gross Domestic Product official website, and in classic Banksy fashion, the website is a little tricky to navigate.

Through this system, applications are grouped by the item and time period they were submitted. According to the site, an independent third party will then randomly select a specific time frame for each item and only evaluate applications received during the selected time period.

Mentions:

- Gross Domestic Product

- Pixsy

- 504: Ikea Will Sell You a Rug But Only If You Really Love It

- 251: Buy Shares of Classic Cars with Rally Road

- Rally Rd.

- Masterworks

- Herb & Dorothy

Walmart has launched an online interactive ‘Toy Lab’ designed to invite kids to test the period’s most-wanted toys from their tablet or computer for the second straight holiday season. 

Mentions: 

- Walmart Toy Lab

- Webkinz

- Eko

The Italian online university eCampus has opened up a three-year program in social media influencing.

The eCampus degree will offer classes in fashion psychology, semiotics and the philosophy of language, TV history, intercultural communication and information technology, among others.

Also:

#spicytea

California will be the first state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products and the third to ban most animals from circus performances under two new bills signed earlier this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

This new bill could be a huge blow to the fur industry that makes products from animals like mink, chinchillas, rabbits and other animals. According to the most recent data available from the Fur Information Council the US retail fur industry brought in $1.5bn in sales in 2014.