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Shopify acquires Swedish ecommerce marketplace Tictail (BETAKIT)
The ecommerce company has offices in Stockholm and New York.
DMS Recommends: How mobile search is driving today’s in-store shopping experience (DIGITALMAINSTREET)
As we were reminded during the 2017 holiday shopping season, a great deal of shopping research is coming from mobile: 65% of Canadian holiday shoppers who visited a store turned to online search before going in-store.
Kindred’s robots help retailers handle fulfillment centers — and take on Amazon (TECHCRUNCH)
Kindred’s current robots are purpose-built for the floor of retail fulfillment centers. That puts Kindred in the middle of an interesting business question: given rising consumer expectations associated with online ordering, can anyone match or beat Amazon when it comes to speed, accuracy and efficiency?
Eden launches small business training program for contractors (BETAKIT)
Eden, parent company of the on-demand and subscription-based snow removal and lawn care maintenance app, wrapped up its Eden U program, a program designed to help contracting small businesses navigate the process of growth.
Coupang, South Korean e-commerce startup, raises $2 billion from SoftBank (NYTIMES)
Coupang compares itself to Amazon, but unlike the American retail behemoth, it has the infrastructure necessary to deliver nearly all purchases to customers within a day, if not sooner.
Ticketmaster and Fanatics team up to sell sports apparel, tickets (BLOOMBERG)
The partnership pairs the world’s largest ticket seller with the world’s biggest merchant of officially licensed sports apparel — and the rationale is simple. If you’re buying a Boston Red Sox hat, you might also want tickets when the defending World Series champions come to town.
Walmart in China is now testing same-day grocery delivery from Dada via WeChat (TECHCRUNCH)
The service is accessed through a mini-program within WeChat — the Tencent-owned messaging platform Walmart partnered with earlier this year in order to better reach its Chinese customers.
Why the department store of the future is launching in . . . Plano, Texas (FASTCOMPANY)
Entrepreneur Matt Alexander has big plans to reimagine the department store with a new company called Neighborhood Goods. The goal of the store is to create a dynamic sales floor, where about 15 brands at a time will create their own experiences, each shining a light on their products and overall worldview.
Endy’s Mike Gettis on leveraging the “lightning rod” of customer experience to scale(BETAKIT)
CEO Mike Gettis explained to BetaKit how social media has been “a lightning rod” for Endy’s business model, and how the company won’t slow down when it comes to bringing new sleep tech innovations to market.
GoEuro is adding ferries to its multi-modal travel planner mix (TECHCRUNCH)
The initial focus for ferries will be on the Mediterranean, where GoEuro says it has been testing the product for destinations in Italy, including Amalfi-Positano and Naples-Ischia via ferry providers SNAV and Travelmar.