Here is a list of recent product releases and updates for mid-March from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on artificial intelligence, last-mile delivery, seed funding, “under $10” products, and crowdfunding.
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Ecommerce Product Releases
Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Joe Tsai invest $20 million in Rent the Runway. Rent the Runway has received a $20 million investment from Alibaba Co-Founders Jack Ma and Joe Tsai through Blue Pool Capital. The round values Rent the Runway at approximately $800 million. Rent the Runway launched in 2009 as an online service that allowed women to rent designer dresses. The service now includes a subscription model to rent a rotation of clothes for everyday wear.
Rent the Runway
LateShipment launches Pulse, an AI powered platform to improve package delivery. LateShipment, a software company that tracks companies’ carrier packages, recovers shipping costs, and automatically refunds claims, launched Pulse, an artificial-intelligence-based system that leverages the power of data to create a compelling last-mile delivery experience. Pulse collects more than 130 data points in real-time from every package shipped. Pulse can report anomalies or predict failures earlier than shipping carriers, allowing merchants to identify and correct issues before they impact end customers.
eBay launches “Under $10” storefront. eBay has launched a new “Under $10” shopping section that includes free shipping. The move follows a similar launch by Amazon, to compete with low-cost shopping site Wish. eBay’s items come from its sellers and are available as “Buy It Now” purchases, without bidding or shipping fees.
BigCommerce introduces Google Shopping campaign management integration. BigCommerce, a leading ecommerce platform, has announced it is offering merchants access to a new Google Shopping integration. Through the integration, BigCommerce merchants will have the ability to easily configure and generate product data feeds for Google Shopping as well as automatically optimize Google AdWords campaigns directly within the BigCommerce control panel.
GoFundMe relaunches nonprofit fundraising site CrowdRise. GoFundMe is launching a new version of CrowdRise, letting non-profits create quick campaigns — with analytics, social media management, and event planning tools. GoFundMe acquired the non-profit platform CrowdRise over a year ago.
CrowdRise
ShippingEasy launches Amazon Seller Suite. ShippingEasy has launched Amazon Seller Suite, which offers automated functionality for inventory management, shipping, and rate management (plus seller and product reviews) all on a single platform. With this suite, Amazon sellers receive the best rates from U.S. Postal Service — as well as multi-carrier support, streamlined fulfillment, synced inventory with selling channels, and more.
RedPoint Global announces RedPoint Accelerator for Retail. RedPoint Global, a customer data platform, has announced the availability of RedPoint Accelerator, a packaged solution. With RedPoint Accelerator, retail marketers can unify their data and create a single customer view, while engaging with customers across digital and traditional touch points.
Artland closes $1 million seed for its social art marketplace. Artland has completed its $1 million first round of seed funding for its social art marketplace app. The app connects art collectors and galleries worldwide to build relationships and facilitate sales from partner galleries. The new funding will be used to accelerate growth, focusing on product refinements and adding resources for scaling operations. Artland has 75 gallery partners across the world.
Artland
Anexinet enhances ListenLogic with artificial intelligence and ensemble machine learning. Anexinet Corporation has announced the release of ListenLogic 3.0, which brings meaning to omnichannel customer feedback data by identifying patterns and trends obscured by unstructured information across multiple systems. The platform has been upgraded with over 20 new enhancements to more efficiently gather data across contact center records, social media posts, email conversations, and marketing surveys and then automatically return meaningful business insights.
Ocado unveils AI-based fraud detection system. Online-only supermarket Ocado’s systems handle millions of events every minute as shoppers navigate its website and apps. Ocado now has a model that predicts in real-time the likelihood of fraud. Using its collected data stored in Google Cloud, Ocado has implemented a neural network — a system modeled on the human brain — using TensorFlow, the open-source library from Google Brain. To generate ideas and improve its proof-of-concept model, Ocado hosted “hackdays,” when data scientists and software engineers explored new features, tested new models, analyzed and visualized new data, and explored monitoring. The resulting artificial-intelligence-based fraud detection system has greatly improved Ocado’s precision of detecting fraud.
Ocado Fraud Detection Technology