The V Spot Retail and eCommerce Weekly News Friday Week 29

Welcome to the VSpot, your nearly news channel for all things e-com. We bring you news stories in a style not yet seen before and definitely not asked for. We haven't been told to stop— yet— so we won't. You were probably wondering where we're going to be broadcasting today because of the writers' strike in Hollywood. Well, here we are. Luckily, we don't have any writers, as you can tell. However, we have spoken with the RTE, the national broadcaster of our country, and they think together with their partners Noel Kelly Management, they could come up with a plan that would be suitable for all in Hollywood. They say they have a proven track record and confident of their ability to deliver. Story 1 this week is Shopify. They unveiled their new AI tool called Sike. In his own laconic style, Toby got super excited delivering the video. He was virtually animated. Really. However, we think they missed a trick on the marketing side of things. Because when we hear Sidekick, we hear Robin, aka Dick Burton from the 1960s TV show Batman. Not the cool Chris O'Donnell version. What they should have done is gone ahead and called it Goose, the ultimate co-pilot. So there you have it, Toby and Harley. Goose, and Maverick. Next up, it's Amazon, more specifically Prime Day. This year, Amazon broke all records over the 2 days of Prime Day. $13 billion in revenue or 385 million items sold. Buy Now Pay Later accounted for 6.5% of those orders, 'Buy now, return next week' is yet to be quantified. Next up, more Prime Day fun, but this time with a little sprinkle of TikTok. 'I had no idea what to buy on Prime Day, so I went to TikTok.' This seems to be the mantra for a lot of people who purchase items on the day. Over 400 million views of videos with various hashtags related to Prime Day were viewed across TikTok, where people then went to Amazon and decided what to buy. TikTok registered zero revenue for this. Multi-channel attribution marketers are going to be up in arms crazy for the next few days trying to figure out who actually got the sale. Was it the great work that they did in their marketing efforts, or was it just down to plain old creator universe? I have a hunch we're going to see a TikTok festival of sales happening in the not-so-distant future. Next on the roster, Next on the roster, it's Tesco Ireland. This week, the retail giant launched its retail media platform with its partner Dunhumby. Begrudging brands can now angrily participate in advertising campaigns they know very little about on a platform they've never used before with team members that they most likely don't have. Remember folks, every little helps. Final word this week goes to ASOS. Sale still on, 70% off, final clearance, end soon. Let's review that one next week. Mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me, mirror, what is wrong? Could it be my e-com news or my silly LinkedIn views? What I do is just make believe. People say I sit and try, but when it comes to VSpot News, It's just me, myself, and I. That's a wrap. That's week 29. Thank you so much for viewing. You've been watching the VSpot. In our second to last story this week, we talk Barbie. Not something we thought we'd ever say, but we are so impressed by the marketing over the last number of weeks, we thought it was worth calling out and sharing with you. The team have worked relentlessly to get product placement and new product development into a multitude of channels, most notably on the red carpet where Margot Robbie, the lead star in the movie, dressed as Barbie in every single opportunity, creating these moments that went viral almost immediately. The marketing was just so good and so strong, I thought I'd bring you that story.