Rise and Shine ☀️ and of course, Happy Friday! 

Q4 isn't over yet and there have been some big moves in the retail and e-commerce industries. Here are some of the top stories from this week:

• An ILSR report accuses Amazon of price gouging
• Wix Merchants can now offer Paypal Buy Now Pay Later options
• New Research Reveals Shoppers are Embracing Omnichannel

Top Retail and E-commerce Stories

There Goes the Little Man: Is Amazon Squeezing Out Local Businesses?

The Amazon...tax? According to a study from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), Amazon is taking advantage of its role as a gateway to charge steep and increasing fees on third-party merchants. The nonprofit institute dedicated to empowering local communities further added that by 2021, Amazon will receive $121 billion in proceeds from sellers, more than double its 2019 amount. The report's author, Stacy Mitchell also estimated that selling costs have risen by 34 percent over the last two years, up from 30 percent in 2019.

On the other hand, Amazon has accused the ILSR report to be "cherry picking" data from its sellers in an effort to manufacture a case that the company is engaging in anti-competitive behavior. According to TechCrunch, Amazon maintains that the ISLR report combines the referral fee (which is required to sell on the platform) with "add-ons" such as Fulfillment by Amazon and Amazon advertising (which are theoretically optional) into one bucket of expenses for sellers and profits for Amazon. The mandatory referral fee ranges from 8%-15% percent of each purchase, according to Amazon.

Money Maker: Wix Now Offers BNPL Payment Options, Thanks to Paypal

BNPL payment options? Um, yas please! PayPal has been allowing merchants to accept bitcoin payments through Wix for some time, and they announced recently that they will start offering its buy now pay later (BNPL) and credit services in the coming weeks to Wix. 

PayPal has collaborated with Tel Aviv-based Wix since 2018, but as of last month, Wix merchants have been granted access to PayPal's 'Pay in 4' and PayPal Credit tools. And soon, Wix merchants in the United States will have first access to PayPal's BNPL followed by those in the United Kingdom and France.

Roll with the Changes: Consumers' Digital Habits Are Changing the Face of Traditional Retail

A better way to shop! According to new research from 1WorldSync®, consumers are not only increasing their usage of e-commerce sites and other digital channels during the pandemic, but those channels also influence in-store purchasing behavior.

The world's leading brand and store content platform investigated the preferences of American customers who bought online throughout the pandemic and found out that e-commerce usage increased by 9% among e-commerce users, jumping from 16% to 25%.

A LITTLE MORE

• DoorDash's DashMart to launch in NYC.
• Dollar Tree is raising its prices to $1.25.
• Holiday shopping plans are strong despite concerns about inflation and supply bottlenecks

FUN FACT

More than 80% of online users have purchased goods and services via the internet.

QUICK TIP

Try this. Invest in SEO. Although Facebook may be effective in driving traffic and generating leads, search engine traffic is typically lower down the purchase intent funnel, resulting in better results for e-commerce sites.

TWEET TWEET

"Always deliver more than expected." - Larry Page

OLDIE BUT A GOODIE

Jack Ma launched Alibaba.com, a China-based B2B marketplace, in his Hangzhou home with 17 friends and students on June 28, 1999.