Recent stories about E-Commerce

As Shopify Battles E-Commerce Slowdown, Lending Emerges as a Bright Spot

By Ann Gehan · Nov. 7, 2022 6:00 AM PST

Shopify’s sales growth has evaporated over the past year as the boom in online spending sparked by the pandemic has dissipated. But the e-commerce software giant has focused on squeezing more money out of its existing merchants from the sale of other services. One notable way it’s doing that is by fronting money to cash-strapped... Shopify’s sales growth has evaporated over the past year as the boom in online spending...

Photo by Bloomberg

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Tech Disruptors Lose Their Luster

By Martin Peers · Oct. 17, 2022 5:00 PM PDT

If you’ve closed your eyes lately to the constant gyrations in the stock market, you might have missed some interesting trends in valuations. One we’ve observed lately is how a number of older companies, in fields such as ad-supported media, retail, personal lending and shoes, are now trading at a premium to the venture-backed firms that were... If you’ve closed your eyes lately to the constant gyrations in the stock market, you might have...

Chart by Shane Burke

Why E-Commerce Disruptors Are Trading Like Brick-and-Mortar Dinosaurs

By Akash Pasricha and Martin Peers · Oct. 17, 2022 6:00 AM PDT

E-commerce is on sale. Online commerce companies including ThredUp, Rent the Runway, Stitch Fix and Farfetch have seen their valuations tumble, putting them in the same ballpark as aging brick-and-mortar giants like Macy’s and Nordstrom. Already South Korea’s internet search giant, Naver, has taken advantage of the collapse to snap... E-commerce is on sale. Online commerce companies including ThredUp, Rent the Runway, Stitch Fix...

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Photo by Bloomberg.

ByteDance’s Big Marketing Bill

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct. 6, 2022 5:00 PM PDT

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Photo by Bloomberg.

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ByteDance’s Big Marketing Bill

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct. 6, 2022 5:00 PM PDT

It turns out that viral tech phenomena are not so, well, viral. That was one of the big takeaways from ByteDance’s 2021 financials, reported today by The Wall Street Journal. ByteDance, which owns TikTok and a range of extraordinarily popular Chinese apps, lost more than $7 billion from its operations last year. One reason was heavy... It turns out that viral tech phenomena are not so, well, viral. That was one of the big takeaways...

Photo of Mark Zuckerberg by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan

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Meta’s Abandoned Shopping Cart: How Mark Zuckerberg’s Commerce Plans Went Wrong

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Oct. 5, 2022 6:00 AM PDT · 8 comments

It was 2020 and Mark Zuckerberg’s focus on his latest project began to intensify. Online shopping was booming, and the CEO of Facebook—now called Meta Platforms—wanted to transform Facebook and Instagram into shopping destinations. Zuckerberg threw himself into the effort, hosting daily meetings and taking a hands-on approach... It was 2020 and Mark Zuckerberg’s focus on his latest project began to intensify. Online...

Photo by Bloomberg

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Elon Musk Learns to Prioritize

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct. 4, 2022 5:00 PM PDT

So what happened? After spending weeks preparing for a legal battle to avoid buying Twitter, Elon Musk shrugged and said, “OK, I’ll buy it”—at exactly the $44 billion price he originally offered in April. Grand speculation greeted the move—as with all things Musk—about what was really going on behind the scenes. Was this another... So what happened? After spending weeks preparing for a legal battle to avoid buying Twitter, Elon...

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