2020 will change the way we look at robotics

Earlier this month, Hyundai acquired a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics that valued the company at $1.1 billion. What’s most interesting about the news isn’t the acquisition itself (it does, after all, find Boston Dynamics switching hands for the third time in seven years), but rather what the company’s evolution tells us about the state of robotics in 2020.

When the Waltham, Massachusetts-based startup was acquired by Google in 2013, it was still a carefully cultivated mystery. That the internet’s response to the company was largely one of curiosity shaded with discomfort should come as little surprise. Boston Dynamics’ primary output from a public relations perspective was viral videos of impressive but imposing quadrupedal robots built with the aid of defense department contracts. It doesn’t take a giant leap to begin coloring in the gaps with dystopian sentiment.

In instances where robotic deployment has been successful, the technology has helped ease the burden on an impacted workforce.

Some of that has continued to follow the company, of course. Even in the age of short attention spans, one doesn’t quickly forget an image of a man in a fleece vest unsuccessfully attempting to kick over a headless buzzing robot in an empty parking lot. Heck, to this day every post I do about the company is greeted with multiple gifs of the knife-wielding robot from the “Metalhead” episode of “Black Mirror.”

While the company is still committed to its more bleeding edge R&D concepts, Hyundai didn’t purchase a strange little MIT-spinoff that makes viral internet videos. It purchased a company actively working to monetize those efforts. As CEO Robert Playter told me in a recent interview, the company has sold 400 Spots since opening initial availability around 15 months ago. It’s not a huge number, but it’s a sign that interest in the company’s products extend well beyond novelty.

Spot’s primary task at the moment involves surveying dangerous workplaces, from nuclear reactors to oil rigs. Boston Dynamics’ next product, Handle, will move boxes around a warehouse. That robot is set to go on sale at some point in 2022. “I think something like a robot every couple of years is a pace that we could manage,” Playter told me. “From clean sheet, we can build a new robot in under a year. “And then you have to go through an iterative process of refining that concept and starting to understand market fit.”

Maturity in this industry requires a level of pragmatism. Tasked with describing the state of robotics in 2020, I would probably say it’s something like, “Cool technology employed for uncool tasks.” You can, no doubt, identify exceptions (making special effects for movies like Bot & Dolly is decidedly cool), but on the whole, Boston Dynamics is a perfect example of impressive robots doing boring stuff. Any roboticist will happily hammer into you the concept of the three Ds — the dull, dirty and dangerous jobs where the technology is most likely to be deployed.

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2020 was a defining year for cannabis: What comes next?

Ross Lipson Contributor

Ross Lipson is CEO and co-founder at Dutchie, an online cannabis marketplace. Ross possesses more than a decade of experience in advanced and equitable delivery services for a variety of industries, including online food ordering, and has executed two successful business exits.

To say that COVID-19 has dominated the past year would be an understatement. We’ve seen the pandemic reorient how we interact with businesses, each other and the world around us. It’s accelerated many trends in business — from e-commerce to digital payments — by several years in a matter of months.

The cannabis industry is no exception. Cannabis was already the country’s fastest-growing industry, but 2020 has taken the space to another level. A record-high percentage of Americans now support cannabis legalization.

By all accounts, cannabis was one of the biggest winners on Election Day, with legalization passing in Arizona, Montana, Missouri, New Jersey and South Dakota. More than one-third of the country — over 111 million people — now live in a state with legal recreational cannabis. By 2021, the legal industry is expected to be worth $24.5 billion.

A record-high percentage of Americans now support cannabis legalization.

Never has it been more clear that cannabis is now a staple in mainstream America. As we look toward 2021, this upward trajectory not only opens new doors for the industry, but the economy as a whole, with greater innovation, investment and employment opportunities flowing into the space.

A green economy

More than 57 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March. While the financial and employment opportunities around cannabis are not a silver bullet, they’re certainly not something we should ignore.

Legal cannabis sales reached nearly $20 billion this past year and are expected to top $40 billion annually within the next four years. As the industry continues to grow, companies are hiring to keep pace. The legal cannabis market supports 243,700 full-time-equivalent American jobs, which are set to multiply by 250% between 2018 and 2028. This makes the cannabis industry America’s largest source for new jobs.

Cannabis can also strengthen state economies and generate opportunities for increased tax revenue, particularly as state and local budgets dwindle. For example, with its new legalization measure, Arizona will issue a 16% tax on cannabis sales that will go toward community colleges, police, fire departments and public health programs.

Accelerating cannabis e-commerce

If there’s one point that’s been reinforced this year, it’s that cannabis is a highly demanded and indispensable consumer good.

At the height of widespread shelter-in-place orders this spring, dispensaries were classified as “essential” in many states alongside grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. While people couldn’t shop at department stores or go to the movies, they could still purchase from their local dispensary. This government recognition was a major signal to the market that the space has been elevated to the mainstream.

A resounding response from consumers followed with record cannabis sales. Unprecedented demand forced cannabis retailers to revolutionize the ways they do business and how customers purchase products. To minimize direct person-to-person contact that can potentially spread the virus, dispensaries turned quickly to e-commerce and digital payment solutions to keep employees and consumers safe while modernizing their business.

As a result of these changes across industries, online sales will reach $794.5 billion by the end of the year, far surpassing original estimates. Experts estimate that the pandemic accelerated the shift to e-commerce by five years. At Dutchie, we’ve seen this firsthand. Since March, we’ve experienced a 700% surge in online orders and a 32% increase in average order size.

Looking ahead to 2021

These political and business transformations were milestones that we’ve fast-forwarded to at breakneck speed. So, what comes next?

I see technological innovation at the forefront of the legal industry moving forward. Technology will enable dispensaries to streamline operations in a highly regulated space where compliance is essential. In turn, data will increasingly become more important as retailers will need to better understand their data to make more proactive, informed decisions. This will be a focus for dispensaries of all sizes, but in particular larger businesses that are looking for an increasingly high level of sophistication for their online experiences.

To meet this need, we’re finally seeing new enterprise-level solutions on the market that empower dispensaries to fully leverage their data to design their unique online identity so they can remain competitive as more players join the space.

As legalization continues to spread, wider adoption will further legitimize the industry and de-stigmatize cannabis sales and use. We will likely see cannabis companies attracting more top talent from some of the most notable companies across mainstream industries, and more software platforms, businesses and investors that were formerly hesitant to enter the space begin to work with and invest in cannabis-related businesses. Federal legalization of cannabis also has the potential to enhance liquidity and open the floodgates to more investment deals.

Additionally, as we’ve already begun to see, there will be an increasing trend toward consolidation across the space as retailers continue to make big acquisitions and mergers. More multistate operators will consume smaller players and smaller players will combine forces, creating a space that is more cohesive and less fragmented.

The future of cannabis

The cannabis industry is still in its infancy, but its potential is crystal clear.

As more states legalize and the industry grows and matures, we will see the needle move even closer to where we want to be: Where legal cannabis is afforded the same technological and financial resources as other mainstream industries; innovators can more freely come together to develop modern technology solutions to push the space forward; and where consumers and patients can get what they want more conveniently.

LeafLink raises $40M from Founders Fund, others to cultivate its cannabis wholesale market

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Daily Crunch: Alibaba faces antitrust probe

Chinese authorities investigate an e-commerce giant, Google may be tightening its grip on research and VCs weigh in on the year’s biggest surprises. This is your (briefer than usual) Daily Crunch for December 24, 2020.

The big story: Alibaba faces antitrust probe

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said that it’s investigating the e-commerce giant over a policy that forces merchants to sell exclusively with Alibaba and skip rival platforms JD.com and Pinduoduo.

“Alibaba will actively cooperate with the regulators on the investigation,” the company said in a statement. “Company business operations remain normal.”

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have already called off the initial public offering of Alibaba affiliate Ant Group, and the company has now received another “meeting notice” from regulators.

Holiday grab bag

Google reportedly tightens grip on research into ‘sensitive topics’ — Reuters, citing researchers at the company and internal documents, reports that Google has implemented new controls in the last year, including an extra round of inspection for papers on certain topics.

Five VCs discuss what surprised them the most in 2020 — The latest episode of Equity reflects on a year that no one could have predicted.

Gift Guide: Last-minute subscriptions to keep the gifts going all year — They’re easy to order at the very last minute, easy to give from afar and they’ll spread the gifting fun out over weeks and months.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

The built environment will be one of tech’s next big platforms — An in-depth look at Sidewalk Labs’ abandoned Toronto waterfront project.

US seed-stage investing flourished during pandemic — According to a TechCrunch analysis of PitchBook data and a survey of venture capitalists, a few trends became clear.

Use Git data to optimize your developers’ annual reviews — Three metrics can help you understand true performance quality.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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EU UK Free Trade Agreement agreed subject to ratification

At last, four years after the country voted to leave the UK and following nine months of negotiations that many said should have taken 12 years, The EU has agreed a UK Free Trade Agreement which largely means tariff free trade with no limitations on the quantity of goods that can move across the border.

Naturally, like Santa arriving just in time for Christmas, Boris swung into action at the end of negotiations with a flurry of calls to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with the final call this afternoon. Being elected to sort the stalemate Theresa May left him with, it’s no surprise to see Boris in perhaps what he will forever view as his greatest moment of triumph as he tweets the double thumbs up picture above. Boris struck a transition agreement deal when everyone said it could never be reopened for revision and now he’s struck the UK Free Trade Agreement with the EU so can be excused for his evident delight in being the saviour, jumping in at the 24th hour to save the day.

The deal itself will forever be marked as the biggest trade deal in history which actually reduces free trade and increases barriers – every previous trade deal aimed to increase trade and reduce barriers. This means that the EU UK Free Trade Agreement doesn’t mean that there will be no obstacles to trade, there will be customs forms to fill out and checks at the borders but it’s way better than no agreement at all.

When he swept to his 80 seat majority, much of it was on the premise that Boris would ‘Get Brexit done’ and for many this was about sovereignty and for many this meant control of Fisheries in British waters. So it’s natural that this was the final sticking point which took the deal past every deadline set and today meant totting up how many cod, mackerel and prawns the EU would be allowed to catch. The EU wanted a 14 year transition period for fisheries, the UK wanted 3 years and they shook hands at 5.

There are still many details to be ironed out, not least of which is getting the deal signed off by the UK Parliament and then by the remaining 27 EU nations who all have to agree.

For Tamebay readers, the main issues facing them on their return to work on the 4th of January will be are couriers actually shipping and if so what paperwork is now needed. Many couriers planned to pause over the Christmas period due to Brexit uncertainty and then ended up suspending services earlier due to France slamming the borders shut.

For many however, Christmas Eve is not the time to overly worry about the EU UK Free Trade Deal. There’s a slimmed down pandemic Christmas to make the most of tomorrow and then increased restrictions on our daily lives due to increased Tier Levels across much of the UK from Boxing Day. However, this historic deal really does matter so sign up for our January webinar when we’ll be picking through the news to set out how it impacts your business.

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China’s e-commerce titan Alibaba hit with antitrust probe

China’s top market watchdog has begun a probe into Alibaba over alleged anti-competition practices at the e-commerce firm, the latest of Beijing’s efforts to curb the country’s ever-expanding internet titans.

The State Administration for Market Regulation said Thursday in a brief statement that it is investigating Alibaba over its “choosing one from two” policy, in which merchants are forced to sell exclusively on Alibaba and skip rivaling platforms JD.com and Pinduoduo.

Alibaba cannot be immediately reached for comment.

On the same day, state-backed Xinhua reported that Ant Group, Alibaba’s affiliate, has been summoned by a group of finance authorities to discuss its “compliance” work. Ant, which works as an intermediary for financial services and customers, has pledged to take measures to curb debt risks after Chinese authorities abruptly called off its colossal initial public offering last month.

“Today, Ant Group received a meeting notice from regulators. We will seriously study and strictly comply with all regulatory requirements and commit full efforts to fulfill all related work,” the firm said in a statement.

More to come…

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2021

We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year as 2020 draws to a close.

This has been a year like no other, with some businesses seeing trade instantly dry up when the first lockdown hit whilst others have never been busier and literally haven’t had a day off for the whole year… So, whether you celebrate Christmas, have already celebrated Eid, Hanukkah or other notable festivals, we hope you get a well earned rest over the four day bank holiday weekend.

As this strange year comes to an end, we’re going to attempt a break here at Tamebay. The support team, normally based in the office but for most of this year working remotely at home, are all turning their devices off for some down time. This will mean there will be no daily emails from Tamebay until they return to work on the 4th of January.

While we hope you’ll also be taking things easy although we know for many Christmas plans have been thrown into disarray. Some will be spending Christmas day alone while others will only be seeing immediate family that they live with. If you’re around on Christmas day and want to swap messages, I’ll be checking comments on this post throughout the day so feel free to pop by and say ‘Hi’.

We recognise that this year there is a lot of unfinished business, both with the final throes of Brexit and the ongoing pandemic and current international transport challenges. We’ll keep an eye on things and will post updates over the holidays when major events happen, so if want to keep up to date check Tamebay.com rather than your email inbox.

We’d like to say thank you to the many readers who keep us on out with comments, the odd correction and especially to those who help us with prompts to make sure we get the most relevant news published as quickly as possible. We’d also like to thank the many Tamebay partners who support us commercially, without who Tamebay wouldn’t be possible.

The full Tamebay team are a mixed bag of religions and, recognise that this is also reflected in our readership… so whether you are celebrating a Christian Christmas, Jewish Hanukkah, Pagan Yule, Japanese Omisoka or simply enjoying a secular festival, we’d like to sincerely wish you a merry Christmas and we look forward to catching up in 2021.

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TaskRabbit is resetting customer passwords after finding ‘suspicious activity’ on its network

TaskRabbit has reset an unknown number of customer passwords after confirming it detected “suspicious activity” on its network.

The IKEA-owned online marketplace for on-demand labor said it reset user passwords out of an abundance of caution and that it “took steps to prevent access to any user accounts,” a TaskRabbit spokesperson told TechCrunch.

The company later confirmed it was a credential stuffing attack, where existing sets of exposed or breached usernames and passwords are matched against different websites to access accounts.

“We acted in an abundance of caution and reset passwords for many TaskRabbit accounts, including all users who had not logged in since May 1, 2020, as well as all users who logged in during the time period of the attack, even though most of the latter activity was attributable to users’ regular use of our services,” the spokesperson said.

“As always, the safety and security of the TaskRabbit community is our priority, and we will continue to be vigilant about protecting our users’ personal information,” said the spokesperson.

TaskRabbit customers were alerted to the incident in a vague email that only noted their password had been recently changed “as a security precaution,” without saying what specifically prompted the account change. TechCrunch confirmed that the email was legitimate.

The password reset email sent to TaskRabbit customers. (Image: Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

It’s not uncommon for companies to reset passwords after a security incident where customer or account information is accessed or stolen in a breach.

Last year, online apparel marketplace StockX reset customer passwords after initially citing “system updates,” but later admitted it took action after it found suspicious activity on its network. Days later, a hacker provided TechCrunch with 6.8 million StockX account records stolen from the company’s servers.

StockX was hacked, exposing millions of customers’ data

TaskRabbit’s freelance labor marketplace was founded in 2008, and grew over time from an auction-style platform for negotiating tasks and errands to a more mature and tailored marketplace to match customers with contractors. That eventually attracted the attention of furniture retailer IKEA, which bought the startup in September 2017 after TaskRabbit put itself on the market for a strategic buyer.

The year after the acquisition, however, TaskRabbit had to take its website and app down due to a “cybersecurity incident.” The company later revealed an attacker had gained unauthorized access to its systems. Then-TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot said the company had contracted with an outside forensics team to identify what customer information had been compromised by the attack, and urged both users and providers to stay vigilant in monitoring their own accounts for suspicious activity.

Following the attack, the company said it was implementing several new security measures and would work on making the log-in process more secure. It also said it would reduce the amount of data retained about taskers and customers as well as “enhance overall network cyber threat detection technology.”

Brown-Philpot left TaskRabbit earlier this year, and the CEO role has since been filled by former Airbnb and Uber Eats leader, Ania Smith.

Updated with additional comment from TaskRabbit.

How to respond to a data breach

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Bandit ML helps e-commerce businesses present the most effective offer to each shopper

Bandit ML aims to optimize and automate the process of presenting the right offer to the right customer.

The startup was part of the summer 2020 class at accelerator Y Combinator. It also raised a $1.32 million seed round in September from YC, Haystack Fund, Webb Investment Network, Liquid 2 Ventures, Jigsaw Ventures, Basecamp Fund, Pathbreaker Ventures and various angels — including what CEO Edoardo Conti said are 10 current and former Uber employees.

Conti (who founded the company with Lionel Vital and Joseph Gilley) is a former Uber software engineer and researcher himself.

The idea, as he explained via email, is that one customer might be more excited about a $5 discount, while another might be more effectively enticed by free shipping, and a third might be completely uninterested because they just made a large purchase. Using a merchant’s order history and website activity data, Bandit ML is supposed to help them determine which offer will be most effective with which shopper.

Image Credits: Bandit ML

Conti acknowledged that there’s other discount-optimizing software out there, but he suggested none of them offers what Bandit ML does: “off the shelf tools that use machine learning the way giants like Uber, Amazon and Walmart do.”

He added that Bandit ML’s technology is unique in its support for full automation (“some stores sent their first batch of offers within 10 minutes of signing up”) and its ability to optimize for longer-term metrics, like purchases over a 120-day period, rather than focusing on one-off redemptions. In fact, Conti said the technology the startup uses to make these decisions is similar to the ReAgent project that he worked on at Facebook.

Bandit ML is currently focused on merchants with Shopify stores, though it also supports other stores not on Shopify, like Calii. Conti said the platform has been used to send millions of dollars’ worth of promotions since July, with one clothing company seeing a 20% increase in net revenue.

“Starting with an always-on incentive engine for every online business, we aim to build functioning out-of-the-box machine learning tools that a small online business needs to compete with the Walmarts and Amazons of the world,” he said.

Why e-commerce startups aren’t raising more funding during this historic boom

 

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French border reopens Wednesday morning

In a rare piece of good news from the past week, an agreement has been struck to open the French border to truckers stuck in the UK. planes, ships and the Eurostar can resume services from Wednesday morning, opening up vital supply lanes across the channel.

The downside is that crossing the French border is now only possible after a negative COVID-19 test taken in the 72 hours prior to travel. For most this will be the PCR test which is considered the gold standard but takes time as has to be processed in a lab. However there are indications that truckers will be able to get moving with a lateral flow test which gives results almost immediately. It will still take some time to help the stranded hauliers to get home and many might now not make it in time for Christmas with their families as it will still take two or three days to clear the back log. Testing for truckers will start at 6am Wednesday morning with assistance from the Army.

The situation is terrible for truckers, close to 2,220 are parked up at the old Manston airport with another 600 plus parked up on the M20. However that’s just the official count and it’s estimated that perhaps as many as 5,000 trucks and vans waiting to get home for Christmas are scattered across Kent parked anywhere they can find space. Many more will be stranded across the UK yet to travel to Kent but also wanting to get home.

Lack of food, water, washing facilities and even basic toilet availability is practically zero and many truckers are now spending their third night sleeping in their vehicles since the border was closed at midnight Sunday.

Opening the French border is good news as it will hopefully forestall a rush to supermarkets to stock pile as we’ve seen in the past. Supermarkets in the main have said only a limited number of fresh products may be out of stock after Christmas. Only Tesco so far have informed customers they will be a small number of temporary purchasing limits on certain essential products. Other than maybe not being able to snag a lettuce for your New Year’s Eve family BBQ, it’s unlikely that you’ll go hungry.

One might think that opening the French border would signal that carriers will start moving ecommerce traffic to Europe in the near future, but we strongly suspect that many couriers and the Royal Mail will want to clear their existing backlog before starting to accept parcels again. Additionally, this close to Christmas many had planned a temporary pause in shipping due to Brexit so it could be the New Year before they open up European shipping lanes again.

The last thing carriers want is a ton of parcels in their network at best without the requisite customs information and at worse, if there is no deal, not knowing what tariffs may be applicable.

The best advice is to speak to your carrier to ascertain when they will reopen their networks to accept parcels going to Europe… although as many have disabled the ability to book European deliveries it’ll be pretty obvious if you still can’t.

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Royal Mail National Agreement agreed by CWU Executive

A new Royal Mail National Agreement has been agreed by the CWU Executive to end their long running dispute and both have shared details of how Royal Mail will work with the CWU’s support in the future. Following the recent vote in favour by the CWU Postal Executive, CWU will now put the final deal to a vote of its members.

You can read a full copy of the agreement with latest amendments here.

“The Communication Workers Union is pleased to announce that after a long running dispute, we have reached an agreement with Royal Mail Group on job security, pay, a reduction in the working week and a growth strategy to create our future.
 
Our union believes it is an excellent agreement for postal workers, customers and company alike. It also demonstrates that in this unprecedented period of crisis, it offers a way forward that demonstrates what ‘being in this together’ really means.
 
– For CWU members, it means a 2 year deal backdated to April 2020 worth 3.7%, plus a one hour reduction in the working week. This is a combined package worth around 6.5% over the 2 year period. Crucially, on job security, it means as we introduce change there will be no compulsory redundancies and the stated objective of Royal Mail is now one of job creation.
 
– For customers, it will mean a more dynamic postal service tailored to meet ever-increasing expectations. Through a range of new products, services and innovations, this new service will be built on an expanded role for postal workers and the trusted relationship that customers have with their local posties.
 
– For the company, it means change can now be introduced more quickly with the full support of the union including the development of a 24/7 operation for parcels, the role out of new technology and automation, creating an enhanced infrastructure and a more efficient overall business.”
– CWU

“Royal Mail and CWU have committed to rebalance our focus and resources from the declining letters to the rapidly growing parcels market, creating a more efficient business that is better aligned to the changing needs of customers. Both parties recognise this will require new ways of working, a more flexible business, greater use of technology and the insight of our workforce. This will also provide both job security and job opportunities for the future.”
– Royal Mail

Key initiatives in Royal Mail National Agreement

• The roll out of scan in, scan out technology

  New scan in, scan out equipment (Auto Hours Data Capture) will be introduced in all sites commencing January 2021 to replace handwritten sign in sheets. This will create a safer working environment and help us understand where we have opportunities to align resources more closely to demand.

• More regular revisions

  Rapidly changing letter and parcel volumes mean we need to adjust our operations more regularly. We will develop and implement a new, simplified revision process in delivery and ensure that each function rebalances and realigns resources to workload, and workload is allocated fairly. These revisions will be deployed starting Q4 2020-21.

• Development of Resource Scheduler

  A three-month trial will restart in February 2021. Resource Scheduler draws together data from across the operation to enable better alignment of duty sets and rosters to demand. Assuming a successful trial outcome we will then begin deployment.

• Nationally consistent standards to improve productivity

  Royal Mail and CWU will work together to implement efficient ways of working to raise overall standards across the operation based on an agreed measure and standard of productivity.

Royal Mail National Agreement pay deal

• 2.7% pay increase effective from April 2020; and
• A further pay increase of 1% with effect from April 2021; and
• The second hour of the shorter working week to be implemented at the point that the 2021 programme of revision activity is deployed in a function/unit and no later than the end of October 2021.

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Callum Campbell, CEO, Linnworks predictions for 2021

In 2021, retail success is going to require brands finding ways to operate in the new “Effortless Economy” – a world where consumers expect seamless, fast ways to shop for and receive products says Callum Campbell, CEO at enterprise ecommerce automation company, Linnworks.

Naturally before the New Year there are challenges of Brexit and the Coronavirus to overcome, but with a vaccine already rolling out with the first dose administered to more than half a million people in the UK an end is in sight. Setting aside the medium term disruption from leaving the EU and the pandemic, what can brands, retailers and merchants consider to meet consumer expectations in 2021?

2021 Gets Personal with Direct-to-Consumer at its Core

More and more consumers are shopping from direct-to-consumer companies, and that number is only anticipated to rise in the coming years. Not only have brands realized the economic viability of direct-to-consumer business models as it offers a higher margin on their products, but it also enables greater control of customer relationships. With the growth of shopping channels and third-party fulfillment businesses handling the heavy lifting, we will see brands get back to the basics with D2C at the core of their business models in 2021.

The Rise of the Marketplace & its Role as the Digital Shopping Mall

Consumers are treating a scroll through an online marketplace as the modern-day equivalent of a trip to the mall. One by-product of the growth of D2C is that distributors and retailers alike have had to adapt and either develop their own brands or develop their own marketplaces. For example, retailers like Walmart have had to rethink their business model and open up their platform to new types of distribution. Marketplaces are now capturing 50% of online sales and consumers are four times more likely to shop on a marketplace than on a retailer’s website. Compelling offers combined with a frictionless customer experience means the number of marketplaces, and market share, will continue to grow exponentially.

Social Commerce Gets a(nother) Makeover

Individuals are consuming more media than ever before. It’s imperative that brands meet consumers at micro-moments wherever they’re at, at all times, and with a seamless end-to-end experience while doing so. With the proliferation and rapid adoption of social media, brands must optimize their social commerce experience to stay in line with this always-on mindset. In fact, in a recent study conducted by Linnworks, 97% of consumers said that, when given the option, they like the convenience of shopping directly within social media. In 2021, we’ll see brands further streamline their social commerce experience to include faster payment options and post-purchase communications, to name a few.

The Payments Pendulum: A New Frontier of Ecommerce

Buy now, pay later options — such as Klarna, Affirm, Sezzle and AfterPay — are taking the reins in ecommerce. Not only are consumers taking advantage of these solutions for everyday purchases, but we’re also beginning to see an appetite for online purchasing of larger items that people, traditionally, haven’t felt comfortable buying sight unseen. Personalized payments are a new area of focus in creating tailored shopping experiences, and failing to integrate modernized, flexible options will be make-or-break for consumers in 2021.
– Callum Campbell, CEO, Linnworks

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Royal Mail suspend Europe services

The blockade of the UK due to the mutated Coronavirus strain has led to the inevitable outcome which sees Royal Mail suspend Europe services. Delivery delays can be expected to: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The only exception is the Republic of Ireland.

In a note on their website, Royal Mail say that this is a fast-moving situation and they are monitoring things on an hourly basis. They are working to keep as many international mail services running as possible given the current restrictions around air, road, ferry and train movements from the UK.

As of Monday this week, we have seen Royal Mail suspend Europe services with the exception of the Republic of Ireland. Items that are already in the system will be processed as normal and made ready for dispatch. These items will be held securely until Royal Mail are able to get them to their relevant destinations.

Royal Mail are also experiencing delays to Canada and Turkey as air capacity is severely limited.

It really is no surprise to see Royal Mail suspend Europe services as with flights from the UK to over 40 countries grounded plus the Eurotunnel and ferries halting operations there is simply no way to get mail and parcels transferred to their destination countries.

You should of course also expect delays to incoming mail from across Europe and indeed the world as they have just as many problems getting mail to the UK as the UK does getting it out of the country.

Check the Royal Mail website for latest status updates.

Also note that Royal Mail Special Delivery guarantee suspended for Christmas Eve.

Other carries which have also suspended services include DHL and DPD. Almost all services to and from Europe remain temporarily suspended for Parcelforce.

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Bolt adds $75M to its Series C, as the battle to rule online checkout continues

Bolt, a startup that offers online checkout technology to retailers, announced this morning that it has added $75 million to its Series C round, bringing the financing to a total of $125 million.

WestCap and General Atlantic led the new tranche, which Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow told TechCrunch was raised at around twice its Series C valuation. PitchBook pegs the company’s Series C at a post-money valuation of $500 million, implying that the Series C1 values Bolt at around $1 billion.

The company is calling the latest check its “Series C1.’ Why not just call it a Series D? According to Breslow, Bolt’s future Series D will be much larger.

While Bolt’s creatively demarcated Series C1 is interesting, the capital event is in line with how the checkout space is growing in aggregate right now. There’s a lot of money being put to work on solving a particular e-commerce pain point.

Stripe leads $20M Series A into Fast, which is building a universal checkout service for e-commerce

Fast, a competing online checkout software provider, raised $20 million in March. And this June, Checkout.com, which is based in England but has a global stable of offices, raised $150 million at a $5.5 billion valuation.

Bolt, meanwhile, announced the first $50 million of its Series C in July. The company’s C1 event, therefore, represents not only the fourth major investment into checkout tech this year, but it also fits into a now-regular trend of fast-growing startups raising two checks in 2020 — companies like Welcome, Skyflow, AgentSync and Bestow also completed the feat this year.

Checkout.com, the UK payments startup, raises another $150M, now valued at $5.5B

But enough talking about its market. Let’s dig into what Bolt is building and why it just took on another truckload of cash.

Series C1

Bolt offers four connected services: checkout, payments, user accounts and fraud protection.

The company’s core offering is its checkout product, which it claims is both faster than comparable industry averages and has higher conversion rates. The startup’s payments and fraud services fits into its checkout universe by ensuring that transactions are real and that payments can be accepted. Finally, Bolt’s user accounts (shoppers are prompted to save their credentials when they first execute a purchase with the startup’s tech) boost the chance that someone who has checked out online using its tech will do so again in the future, helping Bolt to sell its service and ensure customers benefit from it.

The more shoppers that Bolt can attract, the more accounts it will have in the market feeding more data into its anti-fraud tool and checkout personalization technology.

And Bolt is reaching more online buyers, with the company claiming a roughly 10x gain of the number of people who have made accounts with its service this year. According to Breslow, the number was around 450,000 last December. It’s around 4.5 million now, he said, and Bolt expects the figure to reach 30 million next year.

Given the huge scale of its expected account creation, TechCrunch asked Breslow about his confidence interval in the number. He said 90%, thanks to Authentic Brands Group (ABG) linking up with Bolt, a deal that his company announced last month. Breslow said that ABG has 50 million shoppers; perhaps the 30 million figure is possible.

(Distribution for checkout tech is like oxygen, so competing companies in the space love to chat about their availability gains. Here’s Fast talking about being supported by WooCommerce from last week, for example. Fast declined to share processing growth metrics with TechCrunch after that announcement.)

Bolt’s historical shopper growth has paid dividends for its total transaction volume. The company told TechCrunch that it processed around $1 billion in transactions this year, up around 3.5x from its 2019 gross merchandise volume (GMV). That approximate pace of growth implies a roughly $286 million GMV result for Bolt last year; how far the company can scale that figure in 2021 will be our chief measuring stick for how well its ABG deal performs.

Breslow told TechCrunch that Bolt expects to 3x its GMV in 2021, which we read as implying a roughly $3 billion number.

But don’t just take that figure, apply a payment processing percentage, and walk away with a revenue guess for Bolt. The company does make money from payments, but also from charging for its other services — like fraud protection — on a SaaS basis. So Bolt is a hybrid payments-and-software company, an increasingly popular model, though one that certain categories of software are slow to pick up on.

Underpinning Bolt’s plans to treble GMV and greatly expand its shopper network is its new capital. The $75 million cache of new dollars is going into handling market demand, moving upmarket and engineering, the company said. In short there’s a lot of in-market demand for better checkout tech — hence all the venture activity — and larger customers need more customizations and sales support. Bolt is going to spend on that.

Given that Bolt just reloaded, it would not be a surprise to see Fast or Checkout.com raise more capital in Q1 or Q2 of 2021. More when that happens.

Ramp raises $30M as the battle to own corporate spend heats up

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Brexit To Do list – Download and action immediately!

As the Transition Period draws to a close, the UK is due to leave the European Single Market and the EU Customs Union as of the 1st January 2021, ZigZag Global have provided a Brexit To Do list so you can check you are fully prepared.

Leaving the Single Market and Customs Union has a number of implications and new guidelines that need to be implemented by retailers across their supply chain. According to the latest research, almost a third of retailers are not ready for Brexit and with nearly two thirds of shoppers concerned about increased costs — this is the time to act.

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, it’s a challenging and uncertain time for the retail industry. In order to succeed, brands and retailers need to take action now to understand the implications of Brexit on their entire supply chain.

ZigZag have made it their mission to support brands and retailers with a critical element of their retailing process as they prepare for Brexit. Download ZigZag’s step by step guide for how businesses need to prepare to manage their ecommerce returns.

In this Brexit To Do list, ZigZag detail:

• How to obtain an EORI Number and why you need it
• How to ensure you get your goods through customs as efficiently as possible
• How to manage Claim Returned Goods Relief to pay less Customs Duty and VAT
• The additional data you will need to be compliant
• Alongside a host of best practices to minimise delays and increased costs

Download your copy today!

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DHL Express suspends road services in/out of UK

DHL Express are the latest carrier to suspend road services into and out from the UK. This follows the news that DPD suspended European Road Services earlier today and is likely to apply to most couriers so check with your carrier before shipping.

DHL Express had already planned a temporary halt to services just before Christmas due to Brexit uncertainties, now with the ban on human handled freight by France leading to the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel halting operations this has had to be pulled forward.

“As many of you will have heard on the news, due to fears about the spreading of the latest variant of coronavirus, travel links between the United Kingdom and several EU countries including France have been suspended. Ferry ports as well as the Eurotunnel service have been closed.
 
This has an immediate impact on our road services (DDI) between both the UK & the Republic of Ireland, and all other continental destinations.
 
As a consequence DHL Express unfortunately needs to suspend its road services (DDI) both into and out of the UK, with immediate effect and until further notice.
 
Although technically trucks can still enter the UK from mainland Europe, vehicles will be unable to return from the UK thereafter.
 
As all road material from the Republic of Ireland to mainland Europe transits the UK, we also need to suspend these services. However, the road services simply between the UK and the Republic of Ireland will continue.
 
Last week we communicated that our road services (DDI) would have been temporarily suspended as of 23 December from the EU to UK and as of 24 December from UK to EU, due to Customs regulations related to Brexit. However, the unexpected COVID-19 news makes this immediate DDI suspension necessary.
 
Please note that our Air Express product, Time Definite International (TDI), is available as currently despite the limitations placed on passenger aircraft, there are no impacts on cargo flights. This will be subject to continuous review, as the situation is fluid and authorities might impose tougher restrictions.
 
If you would like to convert road based DDI volumes to our Air Express product (TDI), please ensure you advise your account manager in order to make the right arrangements for your shipments, and to confirm terms and conditions where needed.
 
As we are expecting a surge in TDI volumes, and as total available capacity is limited, your account manager will be able to help to manage and control the expected volumes.
 
Please also note that there is a difference between what can be accepted as road based shipments (ADR regulations) and what is acceptable in our air Express network (IATA regulations) – for example the shipping of lithium batteries and dangerous goods, etc.
 
Please reach out to your DHL representative if you require additional information on any of the above. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and update you if anything changes.”
– DHL Express

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Regulatory change to test cross-border traders in 2021

Sweeping regulatory change is set to change the cross-border trade landscape forever, according to an ecommerce technology specialist Martin Palmer of Hurricane Commerce. And the first shockwaves are just days away with end of the Brexit transition period and the expected full enforcement of the US STOP Act.

“If 2020 was the year of the Coronavirus pandemic, for those involved in cross-border ecommerce trade 2021 will be the year of largescale regulatory change.
 
Brexit and the US STOP Act will make the provision of complete and valid customs clearance data essential.
 
Ten weeks later will see the implementation of Import Control System 2 (ICS2) requiring postal operators to provide entry summary declarations on goods into or through EU customs territory.
 
As if that was not enough to occupy the minds of everyone involved in cross-border trade, both the UK and EU are removing the exemption from VAT on low value items and there is the launch of the EU’s Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS).”
– Martin Palmer, Chief Content and Compliance Officer, Hurricane Commerce

For postal operators, good planning and preparation in terms of data enhancement means avoiding the nightmare scenario of parcels being stuck at customs resulting in huge delays and additional costs including warehousing, storage and returns.
For merchants and marketplaces, meeting the higher threshold for parcel data will be essential if they want to ensure the frictionless passage of goods to their end customers. Failure to do so will inevitably result in lost customers and reputational damage.

“We know from our work with customers across all of the different segments of cross-border trade that some have invested the time and resource to get prepared for the 1st of January.
 
They have tackled head-on the knowledge that the compliance landscape will look very different in just a few days’ time to what they have been used to.
 
Combined, this plethora of regulations – all impacting in the first half of 2021 – will test postal operators, carriers, merchants, marketplaces and platforms to the absolute limit.
 
The final quarter of 2020 has seen increased activity among those whose businesses depend on seamless cross-border trade as the realisation dawned that the 1st of January really was going to mean a different way of doing things.”
– Martin Palmer, Chief Content and Compliance Officer, Hurricane Commerce

Big 2021 regulatory change

1st January – Brexit

Complete and valid data (including HS6 codes, product descriptions and correct values) will be required from the UK into the EU and vice versa.

1st January – UK Import VAT Threshold

New regulations will make an overseas supplier who sends parcels containing goods valued at £135 or less to the UK responsible for paying any import VAT that is due.

1st January

US STOP Act: the USPS has made it plain that from this date parcels will be refused entry into the United States and returned to origin if they do not meet the higher threshold level for advance electronic data (AED).

“Postal shipments containing goods not accompanied by AED will be considered inadmissible.”
– Martha Johnson, a spokesperson, USPS

15th March – ICS2

Postal operators will no longer be exempt from having to make entry summary declarations into the Import Control System before moving goods into or through EU customs territory.

Under ICS2, shipments without the right data will no longer be allowed with the likelihood of severe delays in customs and increased costs.

July – EU VAT Exemption Removal

Abolition of exemption from VAT on low value items under €22. The changes mean that EU and non-EU sellers will charge VAT at the point of sale for consignments of €150 or below.

July – Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS)

Modernising of VAT for cross-border ecommerce via the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) making the retailer, web shop or marketplace liable for the declaration and payment of VAT to the country of destination.

Hurricane Commerce

Hurricane Commerce was founded in 2016 to provide customers with industry-leading solutions to changing and evolving regulations and laws impacting cross-border ecommerce trade. Its Zephyr data enhancement API can process over 700 million requests a day and can, on an item by item API call base, provide for a real time feedback with response times of 100 milliseconds.

Hurricane’s Aura API covers the three areas of duty and tax calculation, prohibited and restricted goods screening and denied parties screening. An API call via Aura is super-fast with throughput tested at 640 transactions per second. One single call can perform these three critical cross-border functions, presenting the data back in real-time.

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DPD European Road Services Suspension

DPD have emailed business customers warning them that the DPD European Road Services have had to be suspended. This is due to the French closing the border to the UK blocking all human handled freight.

If you’ve turned the news on this morning you can hardly have failed to notice that many countries around the world including much of Europe has slammed the border shut and banned air, ferry and Eurostar travel. France however is the only country so far to have extended the ban to human handled freight.

Human handled freight is effectively anything driven via a lorry – cargo such as containers haven’t been blocked but most goods from Europe, including food, enters the UK via lorries. Sainsbury’s have already warned that if the blockade goes on for longer than 48 hours that gaps will start to appear on supermarket shelves.

DPD are requesting customers not to send any parcels via DPD Classic to Europe or Ireland until further notice as it is theses services which normally go via the DPD European Road Services. They are also in the process of disabling them on their systems to prevent future bookings.

At this stage, DPD have no idea how long the services will need to be suspended for but promise to provide regular updates.

DPD won’t be the only courier who have to make a similar announcement to this, but are one of the first out of the gate to inform customers of the situation.

In better news, we can report that DPD Air Express Service to Europe and the rest of the world remains up and running at the time of writing.

“Following the decision by the French Government to close the border with the UK, we have no choice but to suspend our European road services to continental Europe and the Republic of Ireland with immediate effect.
 
With regret we are asking our customers not to send any parcels on our DPD Classic service to either Europe or the Republic of Ireland until further notice. We are also disabling these services on our shipping systems.
 
At this stage we do not know how long these services will be unavailable for, but we will provide regular updates as the situation changes.
 
Our Air Express service into Europe and the rest of the world remains available at this time.”
– DPD

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Royal Mail Special Delivery Guarantee suspended for Christmas Eve

Royal Mail have suspended the Special Delivery Guarantee for items due to arrive on Christmas Eve. With London, the South East and East of England plunged into Tier 4, Royal Mail feel that they can no longer promise that items posted on the 23rd can be delivered on Christmas Eve.

The Special Delivery Guarantee remains in place for items shipped on the 22nd of December and so this is a warning to post early for Christmas if you want gifts sped across the country to friends and family who can no longer be with you over the Christmas period. For businesses, make sure that if you offer Special Delivery as an option that your messaging warns buyers that purchases shipping on the 23rd may not arrive before Christmas.

“In light of the changing coronavirus restrictions announced on Saturday 19th December 2020, we have made the difficult decision to make the following changes to our timed guarantees for our Special Delivery by 9am and 1pm services

– For Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9.00am and Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1.00pm items posted on Wednesday 23rd December we are suspending our delivery guarantee.

– While we cannot currently provide a guarantee that items posted on Wednesday 23rd December will arrive prior to Christmas due to the impact of the new coronavirus restrictions, we can assure you that we will be endeavouring to deliver all items as quickly as possible. We know how important this is.

– Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9.00am and Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1.00pm items posted up to and including Tuesday 22nd December remain unchanged.”
– Royal Mail

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Indian court rejects retail giant Future Group’s plea against Amazon

An Indian court rejected Future Group’s plea that sought to prevent its partner Amazon from interfering in — and blocking — the Indian retail giant’s $3.4 billion asset sale deal to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, delivering a glimmer of hope to the American e-commerce firm that has invested more than $6.5 billion in the world’s second largest internet market.

Future Group was seeking an ad-interim injunction to restrain its partner Amazon from writing to regulators and other authorities to raise concerns over — and halt — the deal between the two Indian giants. The Delhi High Court ruled on Monday that Amazon cannot be barred from writing to regulators and authorities on account of “potentially irreparable damage.” The regulators will decide whether the deal should be approved in accordance with the law, the court said.

The ruling is the latest episode in the high-stake battle between estranged partners Amazon and Future Group. Amazon bought 49% in one of Future’s unlisted firms last year in a deal that was valued at over $100 million. As part of that deal, Future could not have sold assets to rivals, Amazon said in court filings.

Things changed this year after the coronavirus pandemic starved the Indian firm of cash, Future Group chief executive and founder Kishore Biyani said at a recent virtual conference. In August, Future Group said that it had reached an agreement with Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which runs India’s largest retail chain, to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing businesses for $3.4 billion.

Months later, Amazon protested the deal by reaching an arbitrator in Singapore and asked the court to block the deal between the Indian retail giants. Amazon secured emergency relief from the arbitration court in Singapore in late October that temporarily halted Future Group from going ahead with the sale.

Until Monday, it remained unclear whether that ruling would hold any water in front of Indian courts. So much so that hours after the Singapore arbitration court announced its verdict, Future Group and Reliance said in a statement that will be going ahead with the deal “without any delay.”

Amazon had also reached out to the Competition Commission of India, the Indian watchdog, to block the deal. Competition Commission of India, however, approved the deal between the Indian firms. In earlier hearings, lawyers for Future Group likened Amazon’s effort to block Future Group’s deal to the East India Company, the British trading house whose arrival in India kicked off nearly 200 years of colonial rule.

At stake is India’s retail market that is estimated to balloon to $1.3 trillion by 2025, up from $700 billion last year, according to consultancy firm BCG and local trade group Retailers’ Association India. Online shopping accounts for about 3% of all retail in India.

Future Group and Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is a developing story. More details to follow…

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Human handled freight suspended by France due to mutant Coronavirus

Britain moved fast this week plunging 18 million people that live in London, South East and Eastern England into Tier 4. This included a blanket ban on International travel as well as a stay at home order. Now, various countries have started to impose travel bans from the UK but notably on top of the travel ban France have suspended human handled freight for at least 48 hours as of midnight Sunday.

The human handled freight suspension is notable as it’s the first time we’ve seen direct freight bans as opposed to human travel bans due to the global pandemic. Previously there have been severe delays but not outright bans.

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and the Netherlands have already suspended travel from the UK, Sweden is likely to follow soon. Largely, it would be irrelevant for those in Tier 4 areas but also blocks those from Tier 1, 2 and 3 from travel (or related Tiers for Scotland and Wales). The big difference with France is the suspension of human handled freight.

This is all in response to the new fast spreading mutated strain of the Coronavirus which prompted Tier 4 in the UK in the first place. Whilst the new strain has already been seen in Italy, countries are desperate to stop widespread importation of the new strain, hence the fast response and new travel and freight bans.

So what is human handled freight? Well pretty much it is likely to be considered anything sent by regular courier and mail services. It allows for freight which isn’t handled by humans such as container traffic to continue. However if you’ve recently shipped a parcel via courier or mail or if you are about to then it’s likely it won’t be going to France before Christmas.

France have said that the next two days will be used to come up with a coordinated response and a new testing regieme in partnership with their EU partners.

We’ve yet to see a response from couriers or the Royal Mail. We also don’t know but suspect that packages destined for France through eBay Global Shipping may also be impacted.

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Tier 4 Restrictions will last long after Christmas

Apparently I’m not on my own in Tier 4 restrictions, 18 million of you are in the same position of spending Christmas with whoever you live with (or on your own) and you won’t be seeing friends and family this winter.

On Saturday late afternoon and evening there was instantly a rush as people attempted to find a train ticket and get out of London. Police will now patrol to prevent escapees from the Tier 4 travel ban that came into effect at midnight Saturday. In other areas there was a panic rush to the shops by those who hadn’t finished or (this applies to one person I know) even started their Christmas shopping.

Millions across the country will also have presents stacked under the tree waiting for families who now won’t be arriving. If that’s you then the best advice is to get them boxed up pronto an book a courier today for Monday collection. Couriers are going to be busier than ever and if you don’t move fast it will be too late.

For the retail shops piled high with Christmas products they were hoping to shift after the last national lockdown, the news will be devastating as they’re unlikely to shift the lot through click and collect and it’s way to late to consolidate back to warehouses to sell. Retail generally need Q4 to break into profit and the outlook is devastating.

As an online seller, expect and even bigger deluge of orders over the next few days if you’re still trading. If you don’t automatically upgrade to next day services then at least consider offering them as an upgrade as many will want to purchase emergency presents to delivery as gifts and avoid their loved ones having nothing to open on Christmas day.

Christmas is effectively extremely limited for those in Tier 4 who can now only meet one person at a time outside in public spaces. For the rest of the country it’s down to mixing with a maximum of one other household but only on Christmas Day itself, with an immediate lockdown for many starting on Boxing day.

Christmas is a hugely emotional holiday to have cancelled at the last minute, but it’s time to think about the New Year as, although Tier 4 restrictions are in place for two weeks, there seems very little chance that they will be removed at the end of a fortnight. It can take up to 10 days for an infection to turn into an illness and so people who are already infected may not fall ill until after Christmas. Blocking households from meeting under the Tier 4 restrictions will help limit further spread, but not with household units who will now be locked up at home for two weeks. It’s highly unlikely that families will (as advised) spend Christmas with the windows wide open. This will all add up to the likelihood that Tier 4 is here to stay, probably for months and potentially until Easter so plan for the long haul and expect for online selling not to significantly slow down in Q1 2021.

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