E-commerce news roundup: March 2023 recap

Silicon Valley Bank, a known funder of e-commerce brands and startups, collapses

Friday, March 10th, 2023, the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) — known for backing technology and e-commerce startups throughout its 40-year history — collapsed. This has been marked as the second-largest bank failure in US history and the largest one since the 2007-8 financial crisis. But what did this mean for e-commerce businesses?

Due to the collapse of SVB, many prominent e-commerce companies — such as Etsy, Roblox, Shopify, and Cost Plus Drugs — temporarily lost access to their funds. Some of these e-commerce companies were more affected by this collapse than others. For example, Cost Plus Drugs had $3.1 million in SVB, and founder Mark Cuban found himself personally writing checks to cover the company's payroll during the collapse. On the other hand, according to Etsy, only 0.5% of their sellers (around 2,700 individual sellers) experienced delayed payments because of this collapse.

Popular marketplace Wish returns to France

After being delisted over a year and a half ago for unsafe products, the popular US-based e-commerce marketplace Wish returns to France. In November 2021, several French ministers called for a boycott of the popular e-commerce marketplace, resulting in the delisting of the company in the country.

The decision to re-list the online marketplace comes after more than a year of discussion between the company and France's Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) — resulting in the adoption of withdrawal and recall procedures for the company.

Petco's new strategy will cover a range of channels, including web, mobile, email, and in-store, as well as Petco's pet care centers. This means that customers can expect personalized recommendations and promotions, whether they are browsing Petco's website, using their mobile app, or visiting one of their physical stores.

Glopal raises €20 million in a Series A funding round

Glopal, a well-known e-commerce international expansion software company, has raised €20 million to expand its operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe and invest in its technology. This company has already enabled over €400 million in cross-border transactions for its users in North America and Europe and has a customer base in more than one hundred countries.

With this funding, Glopal plans to grow by hiring more staff and investing in strengthening its technology. This will help the Paris-based company to continue serving cross-border sellers by offering translation, logistics integration, tax and duty calculation, and international marketing and payment services.

Adobe announces new Sensi GenAI services

This month, Adobe announced new services included in Adobe Sensei, which has helped businesses to improve their internal processes for over a decade. Adobe Sensei GenAI services will bring Adobe Firefly — Adobe's new family of creative, generative AI — right into the Adobe Experience Cloud. The new services will allow businesses to easily and quickly create consistent, on-brand images, content, and text-based experiences.

For years, Adobe has been at the forefront of helping businesses to use AI technology effectively and efficiently. Now, with its new Sensei GenAI services, they have a vision for helping businesses utilize generative AI that encompasses the full customer experience lifecycle for dramatically improving how businesses interact with their customers.

Salesforce Net Zero Cloud is recognized by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CPD), a leading climate reporting agency

Sustainability practices are becoming increasingly important for businesses of all sizes and industries. As consumers continue to select businesses with clear and well-thought-out sustainability plans, more companies realize the importance of these plans. However, designing these plans can be challenging and time-consuming — this is where Salesforce's Net Zero Cloud comes into the picture.

This month, the Net Zero Cloud gained a gold accreditation from the leading climate reporting agency, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Net Zero Cloud has now become part of the CDP's global network of climate change consultancy partners. It uses its thriving ecosystem to help organizations of all kinds reach their climate goals more efficiently and reliably. One crucial tool that the Net Zero Cloud recently implemented is a new ESG solution that helps users automate data reporting in real-time and create detailed reports in compliance with the CDP.

Apple launches Apple Pay Later after a long wait

As more businesses embrace online sales, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services that allow consumers to pay in installments rather than upfront. This month, Apple joined the BNPL crowd by launching Apple Pay Later. This payment option works like most other popular BNPL services, allowing customers to make purchases between $50 and $1,000 and pay them off with four payments over six weeks without interest.

With more than half of e-commerce retailers already offering BNPL options and just under 40% of retailers offering Apple Pay, we expect a lot of people will begin using this option as soon as they gain access. Apple reports that customers will be randomly selected to receive early access to Apple Pay Later (built directly into the Wallet app and accessed through your Apple ID email) before they release the final version for all Apple customers. Currently, Apple Pay Later is only available in the United States.

The bottom line

As we've seen from all the developments mentioned above, e-commerce is always evolving, and knowing what's going on in this world is crucial for keeping your business relevant today. Do you have any other crucial e-commerce news you'd like to share or talk about the updates we mentioned today? Let's talk in the comments!