Finance
All merchants deal with finance — borrowing money, raising equity, dealing with banks, and selling (or buying) a business. We address all those topics, plus U.S. regulatory changes, financial technology, earnings of public ecommerce companies, and more.
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Finance
AWS Boosts Amazon’s Q2 2022 Results
August 7, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
Amazon reported mixed results for Q2 2022. Product sales fell, but revenue from Amazon Web Services and subscriptions grew (a lot). We dive into the details.
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Finance
The Details of Shopify’s Massive Q2 2022 Loss
July 31, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
Having posted a massive $1.2 billion loss in Q2 2022, Shopify effectively reset its financial outlook. Longtime contributor and analyst Marcia Kaplan looks at the details.
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Finance
For Global Unicorns, It’s Growth and Volatility
June 30, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
The availability of private capital allows companies to delay going public. The result? More than 1,000 private companies worldwide are now valued in excess of $1 billion. But it's not always smooth sailing. We explain.
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Finance
9 Europe-based Ecommerce Unicorns
May 29, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
Post-pandemic investments soar for many European startups. Here are nine notable ecommerce-related companies valued at more than $1 billion.
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Finance
Charts: Global Funding of Non-fungible Tokens
May 11, 2022 • Adel Boukarroum
Non-fungible tokens are digital representations of any asset as verified by blockchain technology. The global market for NFTs is proliferating. We tell the story in four charts.
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Finance
Secondary Markets Offer Pre-IPO Liquidity
May 2, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
Many startups are refraining from going public amid market uncertainty, putting early-stage stakeholders wanting to cash out in a bind. Here are alternative ways to achieve liquidity.
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Finance
Charts: Ecommerce Unicorns 2021
April 27, 2022 • Adel Boukarroum
The number of privately-held ecommerce companies valued at over $1 billion increased dramatically in 2021. Asia had the most.
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Finance
Q&A: Alyona Mysko of Ukraine-based Fuel Finance
April 25, 2022 • Kerry Murdock
Fuel Finance is a Ukraine-based "financial department in the cloud." Alyona Myskyo launched the company two and a half years ago to provide easy-to-follow info to help merchants with quick decision-making.
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Finance
The SEC Reins in SPACs, Cryptocurrencies, More
April 15, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
Massive investments in SPACs, cryptocurrencies, and private companies have caught the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Finance
Charts: Global Fintech Investment in 2021
April 12, 2022 • Adel Boukarroum
Global investments in financial technology skyrocketed in 2021. In this week's charts, we analyze the top sectors, deals, and regions.
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Finance
The SEC Asks Public Companies for Climate Info
April 4, 2022 • Marcia Kaplan
A company's climate risk is increasingly a concern of investors. Proposed regulations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would require environmental disclosures of publicly-traded firms.
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Finance
Charts: Financial Stats of 6 Ecommerce Companies
March 29, 2022 • Adel Boukarroum
The pandemic-induced shift to online shopping has been a financial windfall for many ecommerce companies and related vendors. We look at six of them here.
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Finance
Charts: Global Retail Tech Funding 2021
February 23, 2022 • Adel Boukarroum
2021 was a record year for global funding of retail technology. In this installment of our weekly charts, analyst Adel Boukarroum breaks down the numbers.
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Finance
Latin America Fintech, Ecommerce Awash in Startup Funding
October 14, 2021 • Marcia Kaplan
During the pandemic, Latin America became a hot market for tech startups, with foreign venture capital flooding the region. Latin America now hosts 23 private "unicorn" companies — valued over $1 billion — according to Crunchbase. Overall, these companies have raised more than $15 billion. Roughly two-thirds of them are based in Brazil, but data indicates other countries are catching up.
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Finance
Investment Robust in Retail, Ecommerce Technology
July 29, 2021 • Marcia Kaplan
The pandemic has posed obstacles for both brick-and-mortar and online merchants. Among the challenges are labor shortages, inventory problems, delivery conundrums, and the need for more personalization. New providers are addressing those needs, and venture capitalists and other investors are eager to fund them.
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Finance
Raising Funds Becomes Easier with New SEC Rules
February 11, 2021 • Marcia Kaplan
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has modified rules that affect how companies can raise capital via direct listings and equity crowdfunding. Previously, in a direct listing, a company could sell existing shares (from employees and private investors) on public stock exchanges.
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Finance
SPACs: 2020’s Most Popular Method of Going Public
November 3, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan
The traditional IPO has mostly been the domain of large, high-profile companies that had received hundreds of millions in venture capital over a period of years. This year, however, traditional IPOs have been overtaken by a method that has been around for roughly 20 years but has gained traction only in the past two.
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Finance
Alternative Funding Sources for the Covid-19 Crisis
May 1, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan
The Paycheck Protection Program has mostly not reached the intended beneficiaries. There is not enough money, and loans to date have often gone to large businesses. What follows are some options for small businesses.
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Finance
Impact of Covid-19 on 2020 Startup Investments, IPOs
April 16, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan
Initial public offerings underperformed in the last half of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. That set the stage for an undesirable climate. Then came Covid-19.
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Finance
Will ‘Irrational’ Startup Valuations Continue?
March 30, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, IPOs for many start-ups with supposedly bright futures crashed when they entered the public market. Some didn’t even make it that far, canceling in 2019 their public offerings. A disturbing gap between the private and public valuations of venture-capital-funded start-ups has emerged. This divergence will likely continue as many start-ups are remaining private for longer periods of time.
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Finance
2019 Holiday Sales Wrap-up
January 16, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan
The 2019 holiday shopping season exhibited mixed results, with online revenues growing substantially but brick-and-mortar sales showing meager or negative growth. The entire holiday season — November 1 through December 31 — saw a modest total increase in overall revenues.
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Finance
Sales Report: 2019 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday
December 4, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
Adverse weather conditions in many regions and the ease of ordering via mobile devices contributed to record-setting U.S. digital sales for the 2019 Thanksgiving weekend. This is my fifth annual “Sales Report” for Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.
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Finance
Certified B Corporations Gain Ground in a Changing Business Environment
September 12, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
Certified B Corporations are for-profit companies that have been evaluated by B Lab using rigorous social benefit criteria. The certification is becoming a competitive advantage as consumers, employees, and investors seek out companies that look beyond profits in how they conduct business.
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Finance
Jumia, Revolve, Chewy among Q2 Ecommerce IPOs
July 10, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
Some prominent ecommerce initial public stock offerings occurred in the second quarter of 2019. In this post, I'll address three of them.
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Finance
Direct Public Offerings: Unconventional but Gaining Traction
May 9, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
The initial public offering has a challenger. Known as a direct public offering or direct listing, this technique avoids involvement from investment bank underwriters that buy shares at a set price in an IPO and then sell them to their clients. In a DPO, a private company lists itself on a stock exchange but does not raise money.
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Finance
Pinterest Files for an IPO; Focuses on Shopping
March 28, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
In a year that looks promising for tech IPOs, Pinterest has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker "PINS." The company hopes to raise at least $100 million, in April.
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Finance
Shopify Excelled in 2018, Attracted More Merchants
February 27, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
Operating in the shadow of online marketplaces and located in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify does not get as much attention as it should. A $41 billion market-cap business, Shopify is the choice of approximately 820,000 online merchants in 175 countries, growing from 600,000 in 2017.
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Finance
New Indian Investment Rules Limit Amazon, Walmart
January 29, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
The Indian government will soon implement regulations that will severely hamper the Amazon and Flipkart marketplaces from doing business in India. Effective February 1, 2019, the government is enacting restrictions that will challenge the entire business model of those companies.
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Finance
Ecommerce Briefs: Holiday Sales, Retail Chains, 2019 Predictions
January 17, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
“Ecommerce Briefs” is an occasional series wherein I review news and developments that impact online merchants. In this installment, I’ll address final holiday sales figures, a change in brick-and-mortar location trends, and 2019 predictions.
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Finance
2018 Holiday Sales Wrap-up
January 6, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan
Consumers happily opened their wallets in the 2018 holiday season, resulting in a five percent increase in overall spending — online and brick-and-mortar. Online spending alone grew by 19.1 percent compared to 2017 and contributed over 13 percent to total holiday sales.
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