July was a big month for eCommerce news, with some major announcements from Amazon, Google, eBay and many more.

Every month, we gather up some of the most interesting and relevant news within the eCommerce industry for your perusal. Read on to find out more about what happened in eCommerce in July.

Amazon Prime Day 2017: The mind-blowing stats and facts

Every year since its 20th anniversary in 2015, Amazon has held an annual Prime Day promotion where the company offers regular discounts on Amazon purchases as well as Lightning Deals that are available at specific times of the day.

The day has grown to be the biggest sales day of the year for the company, and the stats for this one-day promotion are quite staggering.

Source: Amazon

At a glance:

• Sales grew 60% year-on-year from the 2016 Prime Day
• Total revenue was estimated to have surpassed $1 billion
• More people signed up to Amazon Prime than on any other day
• Amazon’s Echo Dot was the biggest seller of the day
• Some sellers saw a 1,000% increase in sales

You can read the Econsultancy article here for more details on the Amazon Prime Day 2017 statistics.

Inside Australian Online Shopping Report

This month, Australia Post (the main postal service in Australia) released their annual industry report into the online commerce industry in Australia.

The report details and provides statistics for:

• Why Australians are buying online
• Key consumer trends and demands
• Buying behavior, such as the time of day when people purchase most
• The industries where people are spending the most online
• Areas for future growth

It also dives in deeper analysis of specific industries and even suburbs that are particularly impacted by eCommerce.

Source: Australia Post

You can view the report online and download it here.

Amazon Launches Spark

Amazon Spark is a new addition to the Amazon mobile app that allows users to browse through shoppable photos in an Instagram-esque layout. Users can browse through a feed of photos related to product categories they are interested in. If they see a product they like, they can click on the shopping bag to view the product.

Amazon Spark is not only a new way for consumers to find interesting products, it’s also an interesting way for merchants to create great content around their products. Instagram has been a valuable space for eCommerce entrepreneurs, and Amazon seems to be drawing more inspiration from Instagram than just the layout, with an influencer-only invite program on the way.

After quietly beta testing the new addition to the Amazon mobile app, the eCommerce giant has rolled out Amazon Spark to consumers in the US and is focusing on creating content for the new platform.

Source: TechCrunch

If the app turns out to be popular, it could also encourage more Prime memberships, which are required to post content.

Ask a Question, Get an Answer in Google Analytics

Finding the answer to specific questions in Google Analytics can take time and be quite complicated. Being able to dig down into reports also requires a different skillset than being able to interpret that data into real business decisions.

So what if you could ask your Google Analytics dashboard a question in plain English and get the answer back straight away?

That’s exactly what Google has begun to roll out this month, and the results look promising.

Source: Google

Using this new system (which is rolling out over the next few weeks), you can ask specific questions about a particular metric or time period. Your data is already sitting there, but now it is much more accessible.

The software is also driven by machine intelligence, which means as more people use the platform, Google will be able to offer more intelligent and complicated responses to your data queries.

Find Products by Taking a Photo with eBay’s New Visual Search Feature

Speaking of machine learning, eBay has announced a new feature that lets you search for products just by snapping a photo with your phone!

Sometimes you can’t quite describe the product you’re searching for, and sometimes it’s easier to just take out your camera! In those cases, this addition to the iOS and Android apps will be quite welcome.

The Visual Search feature lets you take a phone, and select the area of the image you would like to search for. eBay combs through its products to find you the most relevant matches.

Source: eBay

Alternatively, you can upload an image from your existing photos as a search.

This new technology opens the doors for some exciting possibilities. Imagine being able to take an image of something in a street or in a shop and instantly see more details about it, shop for comparable products and find the best price, all without having to type a single word.

Dote Raises $7.2 Million for its Mobile Shopping App

For the fashion companies that don’t want to rely on Amazon, there’s Dote. Brands like Converse, Sephora, and Michael Kors have spent a lot of time and money on their branding and aren’t happy with the limited control they have when providing their products through Amazon.

Source: Dote Shopping

By focusing on fashion, Dote can provide a shopping experience that lets brands remain true to their customers And users seem to love it, with the average user coming back a reported 15 times per month.

That’s it for our July roundup of eCommerce news. If you’re running an eCommerce store yourself, make sure you check out our specific monthly roundups for Shopify and BigCommerce where we discuss announcements just for those platforms.

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