Every week, Hendrik Laubscher will be providing third party sellers with a selection of news stories that they need to be aware of. As a Prosper Show participant we strive to ensure that you can focus on your business while we handle all the industry news. The news this past week contained some interesting tidbits for marketplace sellers. The judge whom found in Amazon’s favor regarding counterfeit goods seems to have become concerned over his ruling and wants Congressional assistance in resolving this issue. Jet raised more money – as they were running out of cash according to the media. Etsy has changed their search again (I seem to be writing this every week..) and now will be using metrics to determine their search results placement to customers.
A federal judge in Seattle ruled in favor of Amazon this week in a dispute over counterfeit goods sold by a third-party retailer on the e-commerce giant’s site, but said he’s “troubled” by the outcome and called the underlying law an issue for Congress to address. The court “is troubled by its conclusion and the impact it may have on the many small retail sellers in circumstances similar to the Plaintiffs,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez, ruling in favor of Amazon after a jury sided with the tech giant on the key questions in the case. Amazon is not yet in the clear over the counterfeit case it faced. The judge whom made the initial ruling in favor of Amazon has now publicly asked Congress to assist in amending the law in terms of marketplaces. The impact of this case is huge and will be one to follow. Read more here.
Jet.com, the ambitious e-commerce startup taking on Amazon, has raised a $500 million round of venture capital led by Fidelity, according to people familiar with the company. The round is not yet closed and will likely include additional capital from existing investors. It values the company at $1 billion “pre-money,” or excluding the funding. The Amazon competitor has raised more money to enable the business to hire more staff and put more money into advertising. I suspect that Jet is going to be looking at investing money over the festive season. This is a developing story as one has to ask when Jet will be in need of more capital. Read more here.
Etsy is making some changes to its search algorithm that it uses to determine the order that listings are displayed when shoppers are searching for items. Going forward, Etsy will factor in seller performance metrics such as positive reviews and open cases – Etsy refers to these as “customer experience.” Etsy seems to be making changes to their search experience on a weekly basis. I believe that marketplace sellers whom uses Etsy should be ensuring that they know what metrics is important for a good placement in Etsy’s search. Read more here.
Till next week. Onwards.
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