Amazon will stage a Prime Early Access Sale next month as a new two-day global holiday shopping event exclusive to Prime members, said the company Monday. It begins Oct. 11 at midnight PDT and runs until midnight the following day in 15 countries: Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the U.K. and the U.S. As part of the new event, Amazon is launchig a “Top 100 list” of popular and giftable items, it said. “New deals from the list will drop throughout the event, offering deep savings across all top categories, including electronics, fashion, home, kitchen, pets, toys, and Amazon devices,” it said.

The value of digital commerce transactions will top $20 trillion globally by 2027, up from $12.3 trillion this year, said a Wednesday Juniper report, citing growing acceptance of digital payment methods and near-field communication payments at retail that replace the need for a payment card. The report recommends that NFC payment vendors eliminate unnecessary steps in the payment process and support devices that enable biometric identification for payment authentication to curb fraud. Juniper expects the value of global e-commerce transactions to grow by 82% through the forecast period with remote purchases of physical goods growing 106% through 2027 as improvements in supply chain and order fulfillment operations result in faster delivery times. Vendors operating in the e-commerce market should integrate alternative payment methods such as buy now, pay later to maintain growth and compete with brick-and-mortar retailers, it said.

Amazon launched shipping software that allows sellers to access discounted rates on UPS, U.S. Postal Service, DHL and FedEx, it said Thursday. The Veeqo software includes import sellers’ orders and automatically finds the lowest shipping rate available based on size and weight, Amazon said. “Sellers should be able to track, price, sell, and ship orders across multiple channels in just a few clicks, and with Veeqo they can,” said Veeqo CEO Matt Warren, a former online seller who founded the software company. Veeqo, free to sellers, helps sellers cut the cost of shipping, including bulk shipments of up to 100 orders with automatic tracking emails sent to customers as orders are filled; and branded packing slips and invoices, said Amazon. Upcoming features are inventory syncing across Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Shopify; the ability to track and count stock across locations; digital picking for faster orders with fewer errors using a Veeqo scanner and mobile app; and reports with actionable insights, it said.

FedEx became a bellwether of bad macroeconomic trends when it disclosed Thursday that results for its fiscal Q1 ended Aug. 31 “were adversely impacted by global volume softness that accelerated in the final weeks of the quarter.” FedEx Express results were “particularly impacted” by “macroeconomic weakness in Asia and service challenges in Europe,” causing a $500 million “revenue shortfall” compared with the company’s June 23 forecasts, it said. FedEx Ground revenue was about $300 million below projections, it said. “While the company took immediate and decisive action to adjust its cost base, the impact of cost actions lagged volume declines, and operating expenses remained high relative to demand,” it said. The disclosures sent the stock plunging 24% Friday to a new 52-week low of $155.18 before closing 21.4% lower for the day at $161.02. FedEx is taking significant austerity steps to bring costs in line with lower shipping volume, it said. It's imposing a hiring freeze and canceling network capacity expansion, plus reducing “flight frequencies” and “labor hours” and scaling back Sunday operations at “a number” of FedEx Ground locations, it said. It’s also closing more than 90 FedEx Office retail locations and shutting down five “corporate office facilities,” it said. “Global volumes declined as macroeconomic trends significantly worsened later in the quarter, both internationally and in the U.S.," said CEO Raj Subramaniam. "We are swiftly addressing these headwinds, but given the speed at which conditions shifted, first quarter results are below our expectations.” FedEx is to report fiscal Q1 results Thursday.

U.S. consumer tech sales fell 5% on Prime Day in July vs. the previous Amazon sales event, eMarketer reported Thursday. By comparison, sales of home, garden and tools jumped 30% and beauty and health by 26%,while food and grocery sales rose 12%, and clothing, shoes, jewelry and watches grew 10%. Analyst Sara Lebow cited high inflation rates, saying many consumers chose to forgo discretionary purchases like consumer electronics. Growth in other categories was likely due to higher prices, she said. Trends could be different if, “as speculated,” there’s a second Prime Day in Q4, Lebow said. “With students back in school and signs that inflation is easing, demand -- and funds -- for electronics could return.”

E-commerce platform Newegg incurred a 26% decline in first-half net sales to $890.5 million because, “as with many in our industry,” its performance “was affected by several factors that were out of our control,” said CEO Anthony Chow Friday. He cited macroeconomic conditions, higher inflation and “a weak sales environment due to changes in customer spending behavior.” Chief Financial Officer Robert Chang said those challenges, plus “the oversupply of inventory from our sellers,” combined to negatively affect first-half net sales and gross margin. Newegg said it expects to launch Black Friday deals “earlier than usual this year,” and plans to offer a Black Friday price protection program “ahead of an early holiday shopping season.” The promotion will reward shoppers “by automatically refunding the price difference if purchased products drop in price,” it said.

E-commerce CE retailer Crutchfield launched a TV campaign to boost order volume in select markets, it said Monday. The company is working with Marketing Architects in an effort to expand its marketing mix and “pursue additional growth opportunities,” it said. “TV gives us a way to reach new customers and share the story of what makes us unique,” said Chief Marketing Officer Zach Zimet. A four-month campaign will test linear TV in markets across the country; ads are also running on YouTube, promoting the e-tailer’s tech experts and customer support. Crutchfield didn’t respond to questions.

Membership in Walmart+, the retailer’s premium member plan, has “plateaued,” said a Thursday Consumer Intelligence Research Partners report. CIRP estimates Walmart+ had 11 million customers in the U.S. in July, the same number it had in April, up from 9 million in the July 2021 quarter. Membership had increased steadily since Walmart launched the program in September 2020 “with COVID-19 pandemic shoppers signing up,” said analyst Josh Lowitz. Some 25% of Walmart.com customers were part of Walmart+ in July, up slightly from April, and from CIRP’s estimate of 17% in July 2021. “We’ve seen Walmart+ penetration in a narrow range, representing 23%-25% of online shoppers for the past three quarters,” said analyst Mike Levin. Membership increased slowly after “strong growth” in the first year of the $98 annual service, Levin said. “Walmart appears to have re-emphasized in-person shopping, and customers have not seen the same need for online shopping as they did when Walmart first introduced the program and the Covid pandemic reduced in-person shopping,” Levin said. Findings are based on surveys of 500 U.S. subjects who made a purchase at Walmart.com May-July 2022. Walmart said it doesn't comment on membership numbers.

July e-commerce sales spiked “amid major promotional events” like Amazon Prime Day, as recorded through the Mastercard SpendingPulse survey report released Thursday. E-commerce posted its first month of double-digit sales growth since December, rising 11.7% year over year. E-commerce sales in July were up nearly double their pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, it said. “Online sales have ticked up since the beginning of June, though July’s major promotional events helped entice shoppers to splurge (and save) with online deals.” The Mastercard survey reports on national retail sales across all payment types in select markets globally, said the company. “The findings are based on aggregate sales activity in the Mastercard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check.”

Amazon is expanding its Amazon One checkout service. The company emailed some Prime customers Wednesday, offering a $10 promotional credit for signing up for the service that’s “coming soon to more locations.” The identify service identifies shoppers by their palms, allowing payment without contact using a stored credit card. The cashierless checkout service is available in select Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, AXS, Hudson and Campus Cafe locations; it’s also available at certain arenas and Starbucks outlets.