E-Commerce

As the pressure to monetize data in an omnichannel environment increases, so does the fear of misuse.

The new optimism is fueled by rising standards of living, increases in smartphone usage and cheap data plans that are boosting internet penetration across the nation. Perhaps most important, India is the last big retail market still up for grabs, with an internet economy projected to double to $250 billion by 2020.

Amazon Go provides Amazon with the opportunity to market testing and do advertising on a new group of customer that are not Prime customers or regular Amazon shoppers. The Go Store essentially become a retention and customer acquisition channel for Amazon, writes Hendrik Laubscher, marketplace research director at Buy Box Experts.

Consumers are already in shopping mode, so retailers that focus on personalized and targeted offerings, and promotional campaigns around Prime Day can all reap the rewards of the Prime Day halo effect, according to Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.

Businesses that stick with the single gateway strategy will eventually find themselves challenged to grow with customer demands, as well as expand globally. As businesses grow, multiple payment processors are not only preferred, but required, writes Krish Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Chargebee.

The payment landscape is highly regional, based on historic, economic, technical and political factors. Top payment methods in Europe, or even Southeast Asia, are generally unheard of in many other parts of the world, according to Steve Villegas, vice president of partner management for PPRO.

Amazon Prime Day is a marketing "holiday" that aims to expand Amazon Prime membership, a $119 subscription that's a major part of Amazon's marketing strategy at its core site and Whole Foods.

Once regarded as a safer option for consumers, BOPIS (buy online and pick up in store) has now joined the ranks of targets that cybercriminals are learning to exploit. It comes down to correctly identifying the shopper, writes Ryan Wilk, vice president of customer success at NuData Security.

The final sale price came it at $6.9 billion, or about $900 million more than what the two firms agreed upon when the deal was announced in November.

The deal could be harmful to their bottom line because it will provide Amazon with more visibility into an even wider percentage of their e-commerce data, writes Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap.