New Ecommerce Tools: May 7, 2024

This installment of our weekly rundown of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce merchants includes updates on operations software, social commerce, post-purchase experiences, digital payments, business-to-business platforms, and the metaverse.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants: May 7

Swap secures $9 million to launch its ecommerce operations platform. Swap, an ecommerce operations platform for direct-to-consumer brands, has announced a $9 million Series A round led by QED Investors, with participation from Cherry Ventures, 9900 Capital, 2100 Ventures, and Ed Hallen, co-founder of Klaviyo. With this capital, Swap will launch Swap Global to unlock new markets with delivery-duty-paid shipping, automated tax remittance, and express customs clearance. Swap will expand its marketing and sales teams while broadening its footprint in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S.

TikTok unveils new premium ad offerings. Despite its potential forced selloff in the U.S., TikTok announced (i) new placement options for its native Pulse ad campaigns and (ii) Pulse Custom Lineups with generative AI to curate trending content tailored to a brand’s particular needs. TikTok also added Paramount Global and the NHL to its roster of advertisers.

Amazon is reducing the low-inventory-level fee for FBA merchants. Starting May 15, FBA’s low-inventory fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past seven days. Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times caused by Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be credited back to sellers by the 15th day of the following month. For Prime Day 2024, Amazon will provide a four-week exception on low-inventory fees for products included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals.

Walmart uses Roblox virtual world to sell physical goods. Walmart now sells physical goods inside Roblox, the gaming platform. In the Walmart Discovered virtual experience (launched in 2023), users can have real-life items shipped directly to their doorsteps. Users entering the experience will see a new storefront showcasing virtual twins of select physical items sold at Walmart stores. Players can then load an ecommerce window inside Roblox, imitating a shopping cart on Walmart’s website.

Meta introduces AI-powered tools for advertisers on Reels. To help match the creators and brands for campaigns, Meta has launched personalized, machine learning-powered creator recommendations for brands in Instagram’s Creator Marketplace. Meta uses AI-powered software to make Reel ads more engaging. Advertisers can now include external links to new products in Reminder ads to help turn viewers’ interest into purchases.

ParcelLab integrates with Shopify for post-purchase experience. ParcelLab, a global post-purchase customer experience platform, is now live on Shopify. ParcelLab’s Order Tracking App for Shopify, alongside the ParcelLab Engage product suite, gives Shopify merchants instant integration with automatic data exchange to create an embedded tracking page with order data (including split shipments and returns info) while injecting personalized content for customer segments. Shopify merchants can link store data with ParcelLab, accessing its post-purchase experience functionality to enhance engagement.

Mastercard and PrestaShop partner with Click to Pay online payments. Ecommerce platform PrestaShop has partnered with Mastercard to introduce Click to Pay, designed to simplify the online payment experience for consumers across Europe. Click to Pay enables consumers to use payment cards without manually entering card details or remembering passwords. All information is securely centralized in a single profile, facilitating easier management of payment methods.

Chase releases new digital products for small businesses. Chase now offers a digital invoicing product for small business clients. The product is available for Chase Business Complete Banking customers at no additional cost. Further, Chase has introduced Customer Insights, a business intelligence platform that provides actionable insights to help owners reach customers and make strategic decisions. The platform is available for customers who use Chase to accept credit card payments.

OroCommerce unveils a brand-aligned platform for B2B ecommerce. OroCommerce, a B2B ecommerce platform, has announced a strategic rebranding, coinciding with the major 6.0 update to the commerce platform. This move unifies the suite of capabilities under the OroCommerce brand, offering a streamlined experience for manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. Previously, Oro Inc. marketed its commercial offerings as OroCommerce, OroCRM, and OroMarketplace. The platform now features a new storefront configurator, AI-powered product recommendations, sales enablement tools, enhanced search control, and more.

ChannelEngine enhances its Amazon capabilities with the acquisition of Retail Data Partners. ChannelEngine, a marketplace integration and management software provider, has acquired Retail Data Partners, an Amazon vendor suite developer. With the acquisition, ChannelEngine can manage Amazon vendors and sellers through one platform, providing process automation and deeper insights and using features such as dispute recovery for immediate impact. ChannelEngine is strengthening its first-party selling model functionality, enabling customers to have a scalable hybrid selling strategy on marketplaces.

Brite offers instant payments to Shopware merchants in Europe. Brite Payments has partnered with ecommerce platform Shopware to offer open banking-based instant payments to European businesses. Shopware merchants can now activate Pay by Bank (account-to-account payments), which enables customers to pay instantly from their bank account. The payments will go through the Brite Instant Payments Network. Shopware is one of Europe’s largest open-source ecommerce platforms, with more than 45,000 merchants.