Ecommerce Product Releases: Oct. 16, 2023

Here is a list of new product releases and updates from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants. There are updates on holiday shipping, B2B payments, returns and reverse logistics, digital wallets, social media advertising, AI shopping search, and virtual try-ons.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

Product Releases: October 16

WooCommerce and Veem partner to extend B2B payments to merchants. Veem, a global payments provider, has announced its B2B extension is now available on the WooCommerce marketplace. The extension will enable businesses to (i) integrate payment collection into their checkout flow without incurring interchange fees and (ii) manage domestic and international payables.

Veem

USPS announces holiday shipping and mailing deadlines. The U.S. Postal Service has provided 2023 holiday shipping and mailing deadlines for December 25 delivery for domestic, international, and military shipping destinations. The USPS also announced it will not implement peak or demand surcharges this holiday season.

WooCommerce releases update with database and product layout improvements. WooCommerce has announced the release of WooCommerce 8.2.0. The release includes (i) High-Performance Order Storage, providing an easy-to-understand and solid database structure for orders and addresses, and (ii) Product Collection patterns for a customizable product layout in a list or grid.

Blue Yonder to acquire Doddle for ecommerce returns and reverse logistics. Blue Yonder, a London-based supply chain provider, has agreed to acquire Doddle, a first and last-mile technology company. The acquisition will allow Blue Yonder’s supply chain management and commerce offerings to expand with final mile, returns management, and reverse logistics options through Doddle’s self-service return kiosks and pick-up and drop-off networks.

Doodle

Meta releases new ad features for Reels. Meta’s new ad features for Reels include text, template, and music optimizations. It also includes an enhanced Advantage+ creative suite in Ads Manager, automatically showing the optimized version of creative. With Collection ads —  featuring one large video or image with smaller accompanying images — people can swipe through and learn more about products. Additionally, Meta has enabled multi-destination calls-to-action for Reels carousel ads.

GoDaddy and Paze partner to simplify online checkouts. GoDaddy and Paze, a digital wallet provider, are partnering to help small businesses improve online checkouts. Paze consumers can skip manual card entry and pay without creating new user names or passwords. Businesses with a GoDaddy store using GoDaddy Payments can accept Paze transactions. Paze is available as a pilot on GoDaddy’s platform, with the full launch coming soon.

Perfect Corp. and Walmart to offer AR-powered makeup virtual try-on. Perfect Corp., an artificial intelligence and augmented reality beauty and fashion technology provider, has announced a collaboration with Walmart to launch a makeup virtual try-on experience via the Walmart iOS app. According to Perfect, the experience will allow Walmart shoppers to virtually try makeup products across the blush, lip color, eye shadow, and bronzer categories.

Walmart Virtual Try-On by Perfect Corp

Discover Global Network launches tokenization platform. Discover Global Network, the payments brand of Discover, has launched a cloud-based network tokenization platform to allow companies to integrate stored payment tokens as part of their payment experience. The platform is an extension of the Discover Stored Payment Tokens offering and better supports the payment relationship between merchants and token requestor aggregators. It also provides Discover partners with a token solution to deploy at scale with their merchants.

BNPL-provider Klarna adds an AI-driven photo feature to entice shoppers. Klarna, a buy-now, pay-later payment provider, has launched an AI-driven shopping feature, developed with OpenAI, that allows people to shop by taking a photo of products, which then become available to buy in seconds on the company’s mobile app. Klarna’s new feature identifies more than 10 million items — such as clothes, home decor, and electronics — and compares prices, retailers, and reviews.

Aero Commerce partners with Ordo on open banking payments for retailers. Ordo, an open banking payments-as-a-service provider, has integrated into the Aero Commerce platform. Through the partnership, retailers and agencies can utilize commission-free open banking payments initiated via tokenized links or QR codes. The onboarding process consists of a simple plug-in within the payment platform. Retailers and web agencies can download the Aero package and connect their accounts.

Aero Commerce

Ambi Robotics expands partnership with Pitney Bowes to automate middle-mile sorting. Ambi Robotics, a producer of AI-powered robotic sorting devices, and Pitney Bowes, a global shipping and mailing company, have launched the AmbiSort B-Series parcel sorting solution for middle-mile operations. The AmbiSort B-Series reduces operating costs by streamlining labor-intensive manual sorting. The AmbiSort B-Series adapts to multiple use cases, such as reverse logistics, interfacility sortation, sort-to-carrier, zone-skipping, and automated parcel induction.

Ecommerce platform MarketLeap secures additional seed funding. Luxembourg-based MarketLeap has secured an additional €1.5 million ($1.575 million) in a seed funding round that included investments from Notion Capital, Kima Ventures, and Motier Ventures. The funding takes MarketLeap’s total funding to €2.6 million. MarketLeap, formerly Gonuggets, is an AI-enabled ecommerce operating system that enables digitally native brands to scale their businesses across fragmented ecommerce channels. The company helps brands sell on marketplaces across more than 30 countries.

FedEx enhances automated ecommerce for merchants in India. FedEx Express has expanded automated ecommerce features in FedEx Ship Manager for small businesses in India, who can now link their ecommerce platform to automatically (i) download order info, (ii) create and print labels for multiple orders in one click, and (iii) sync with electronic trade documents. The new features integrate with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop.

FedEx Express