Weekly news: European Parliament wants durable products, Diverta’s online business, Amazon Spark is live
Ecompedia is searching for the most popular e-commerce platform in Romania
If you own an online shop, what platform are you using? Or what platform did you use in the past? It’s the first question from the survey launched by Ecompedia.ro. The rest of the questions are about the sales turnover and the business niche. The more sincere you are when filling the form, the more accurate the final results will be. The survey comes in a series of market research from the Ecompedia.ro portal.
European Parliament wants more durable products in the EU
European Parliament approved recommendations for hardware companies to make stuff like laptops and cell phones easier to fix, as well as have longer lifespans. The recommendations included creating an EU-wide definition of “planned obsolescence,” or the practice of deliberately creating a device to have a short lifespan, so you’re forced to buy a new one sooner than you’d like. The recommendations also suggest a system should be put in place for testing whether a device has “built-in obsolescence.” The European Parliament additionally wants a “voluntary European label” to be considered, which would list a product’s durability, upgradeability, and environmental sustainability
For Diverta, the online segment is now 12% of their business
Diverta’s online shop Dol.ro (books, stationery, toys), launched more than 10 years ago, is now 12% of the business and the target for the next 3 years is to reach 20-25%. In 2017, Diverta will expand its offer in childcare, travel and gadgets. Founded in 1999, the Diverta network now holds 28 national brick-and-mortar shops in Romania.
Carrefour owns 51% of Bringo app
French group Carrefour owns 51 percent of Bringo Magazin SRL, the company that operates Bringo platform, an IT application through which the products of different stores can be ordered and received home by buyers. Currently, Bringo Magazin SRL is owned by two companies: Allib Rom SRL, the company owned by Carrefour, and Ascend Netsolution SRL. Jean-Baptiste Dernoncourt is the administrator of Allib Rom SRL, owned by Columbus Active SRL (former Billa Invest Construct SRL), which currently is owned by Carrefour.
Amazon’s product stories
Amazon Spark is a new feature aimed at improving product discovery, which is seemingly inspired by Instagram and its use of shoppable photos. To get started with Amazon Spark, you have to use the Amazon mobile app, as the feature is not designed for desktop use at this time. You’re asked to select at least five interests you want to follow. Using this information, Amazon Spark will create a customized feed of products, imagery and ideas that will relate to the sort of things you like to shop for, or learn more about. Once you’ve completed the setup, you’ll be presented with an image-heavy feed of product ideas and other stories. In some cases, these posts will read more like a product review – someone detailing their personal experience with an item, for example.
