The Order : Weekly Aggregator Roundup - Benitago, GAP & TikTok launch

Aggregators are doubling down on tech

Over the last few months we have seen a growing emphasis on software investments and move to double down on tech - new leadership is coming into place & software acquisitions are becoming more frequent. The move to power multiple-brands across multiple channels is very much a tech-enabled one.

Some recent highlights of this shift:

• Society Brands: New CTO & tech platform announcement

• Thrasio: New CTO with omni-channel focus

• Acquco: Launch of tech + analytics division

• Moonshot Brands: QueryStax acquisition

Chart of the week #1: Financing services push

The Information headlined "As Shopify Battles E-Commerce Slowdown, Lending Emerges as a Bright Spot" this week to highlight Shopify's growing activity in the lending space. In a similar move, Amazon teamed up with Parafin to offer a new merchant cash advance program to US sellers.

Shopify merchant GMV and lending growth rates [The Information]

Chart of the week #2: Chinese sellers on Amz US

While US sellers make up for 50% of the Amazon US marketplace, review activity suggest strong marketshare growth for Chinese sellers on the US marketplace. Marketplace Pulse in its latest article "Chinese Sellers Didn’t Quit Amazon" estimates Chinese seller activity to continue strong and further rebound

Chinese Seller's Share of Amazon Seller Reviews on the US Marketplace [Marketplace Pulse]

New funding this week: $ -- M

Funding Craze 💰

• /

Movers & Shakers 🤝

• Benitago leaning into brand incubation [Techcrunch]

• Ordergroove picks up $100M to grow e-commerce subscriptions as a service [Techcrunch]

• SoftBank-Backed GlobalBees Posts Loss Of INR 41 Cr In FY22 [~$5M USD], Sales At INR 104 Cr [~$13M USD] [Inc42]

• Better late than never -- shares up 7%: "Gap launches its store on Amazon" [CNN]

Strategy 📈

• Vox calls 'the death of organic Amazon': "Basically everything on Amazon has become an ad" [Vox]

• "Amazon Ads now enables brands to programmatically run ads on physical store digital signage through Amazon DSP" [Amazon]

• EU Amazon Impact Report: "Amazon continues to invest in the growth of European small and medium enterprises" [Amazon]

• "Amazon, in Broad Cost-Cutting Review, Weighs Changes at Alexa and Other Unprofitable Units" [WSJ]

• "Amazon dismantles 3 counterfeit ops in China, with more than 240,000 items seized" [Marketwatch]

• "Shopify shuts down Exchange Marketplace" [eCommerce News]

• Q3 revenues down 5%, but earnings beat: "EBay’s focus on luxury to refurbished goods drives results beat" [Internet Retailing]

• "Bol.com grows revenue by 5,6 percent" [eCommerce News]

• "Wayfair lost 1M customers in Q3 as revenues fell 9%" [Retaildive]

• "Chinese brands outnumber foreign names among Singles Day best-sellers" [Reuters]

• "Alibaba Wraps Up 11.11 After Deploying Avatars, Loyalty Perks And Robots To Bolster GMV" [Alizila]

• TikTok #1: US store is launching with an initial commission of 1.8% in the first 90 days after the successful registration of a TikTok Shop account in the US, and the rate will change to 5% after 90 days: "ByteDance’s TikTok Shop Officially Launched in US" [PanDaily]

• Tiktok #2: TikTok restructures its US operation to weather the advertising storm [Insider Intelligence]

• Digital public goods push: "How India Plans to Reinvent E-Commerce" [WSJ]

Events 🎤

• Seller Barcamp, Nov 25 in Berlin

• Titan Holiday Parties, Dec (various)

Let's make this week count,

Christian