eCommerce Minute

Walmart and BuzzFeed’s Tasty are expanding their partnership with a new shoppable recipes feature. Anyone browsing Tasty’s 4,000 recipes can add the necessary ingredients to their cart and check out with Walmart’s online grocery cart.

Amazon is launching a new donations program, called Fulfillment by Amazon Donations, for third-party sellers that store their inventory in Amazon’s warehouses in the U.S. and UK.

Lord & Taylor, once known as a high-end fashion destination has been sold to Le Tote, Inc., a fashion rental subscription service.

LeTote scooped up the luxury retailer for a mere $75 million with an additional $25 million in the form of a secured promissory note after two years.

Sezzle allows consumers a chance to finance their purchases even if they’ve had issues in the past with credit, because Sezzle doesn’t tap a customer’s FICO score to evaluate them. 

Idle Fish is Alibaba Group’s secondhand marketplace that puts unwanted goods to use elsewhere, carving out a channel that makes recycling unwanted garments as easy as making an online purchase. 

Launched in 2014 by China’s largest online marketplace, Taobao, Idle Fish is now China’s largest secondhand trading platform in terms of monthly active users, with more than 200 million registered users, and over half of them born after 1990. Idle Fish started as an online platform allowing China’s consumers to cash in on used goods that “idle” at home. 

Mentions:

• Idle Fish

• Ant Forrest

• Alizilla

• ThredUp

Macy's and JCPenney have recently announced plans to partner with a trendy online consignment store popular among millennial and Gen Z shoppers called ThredUp.

They will be opening branded stores with their secondhand clothing and accessories in 40 Macy’s locations and 30 J.C. Penney stores starting this month. 

Mentions:

• ThredUp

• Blobby's World

• Recommerce Surges as Retailers, Brands Get in the Game (Practical eCommerce)

Companies that don't meet the guidelines of the Frustration-Free Packaging Vendor Incentive Program face a $2 penalty fee for each package that fails to comply.

Mentions:

• Amazon Pushes Brands to Be Less Boxy

• 3M Flex & Seal Shipping Roll

Target and Disney have recently announced a new partnership that will allow customers to buy Disney products right at its stores. The new Disney “shop-in-shop” experience will be located in 25 Target locations beginning in October.

• How will Target's new Disney shops compare with J.C. Penney's?

Combining the growing trend of rental services and the popular concept of subscription boxes, Urban Outfitters has officially launched their rental subscription service called Nuuly.

Nuuly is a rental platform that offers more than 1,000 items from over 100 different brands. For $88 a month, subscribers can rent six items at a time per month.

Also:

Brittany offers fashion tips, John admits he "Marie Kondo"-ed his t-shirt collection, Bart shares his t-shirt hack. 

Mentions:

Nuuly 

Rent the Runway 

Marie Kondo 

Uber Eats has begun to insert itself into the dine-in business. A new option in some cities lets you order your food ahead of time, go to the restaurant, then sit down inside to eat it. 

Diners aren't charged for the service. Instead, restaurants pay a fee that varies from market to market, and customers can tip restaurant employees through the app. The feature is designed to allow restaurants to focus mainly on making food and providing top-notch service to customers. 

The new Dine-In option is now available in some cities, including Austin, Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego.

Also:

We discuss food delivery options and their myriad fees and the ongoing chicken sandwich battle.

Mentions:

Uber Eats 

Uber Eats Pool could make ordering food a whole lot cheaper 

The Rise of the Virtual Restaurant