AirBNB for Everything, How Abercrombie Lost Teens, Disney+ UX Teardown, Amazon Patents Automated Unloading, Hudson Yards Mall of the Future, Pinterest's Algorithm, AMC's Hail Mary
Covering commerce daily from Amazon to Zulily.
Welcome to the Age of ‘Airbnb for Everything’
In the sublet economy, you can turn anything into extra cash: your house, your car, your boat, or your backyard.
Baumgarten turned her brothers’ headaches into Boatsetter , “the Airbnb for boats.” Boat owners can list their vessels on the platform, and people who want a day on the water can rent one for a few hundred dollars.
When Airbnb started in 2008, the idea of turning your house into a crash pad, or paying a few hundred dollars to sleep in a stranger’s guest room, was still fringe.
How Abercrombie & Fitch lost teens
Abercrombie & Fitch was one of the most popular stores for teens in the early 2000s. But after a couple missteps and controversial remarks from the CEO at the time, the brand image plummeted. Now Abercrombie is trying to catch up with its competitors.
A step-by-step walkthrough of the Disney+ onboarding experience of new users on mobile
I’m not necessarily interested in the available content they have to offer right now but I was curious to see how they would onboard new customers in a world with the already existing services (Netflix, Apple+, Videoland (NL), Hulu, Amazon Prime Video) and how they differentiate themselves from the rest.
The overall look of the application is pretty clean and offers all the basics (category overview, personal favorites with offline capabilities and multiple profiles) you would expect from a streaming service.
Disney Over the Top: Bob Iger Bets the Company (and Hollywood's Future) on Streaming
Disney+ leads a wave of billion-dollar Netflix competitors that are transforming the entertainment industry and launching a new age of ambition (and anxiety) as Iger, Kevin Mayer and team explain their all-in strategy: "We're locked and loaded."
The promise of 35 originals in the first year alongside a mix of kids' programming, old Star Wars films and, eventually, the full Marvel library was enough to cause lines to form inside the Anaheim Convention Center at fan event D23 in late August as people signed up for the service.
It's a decision that has irked some Hollywood creatives, though Dan Erlij, co-head of television literary at UTA, notes that the introduction of a new service like Disney+ ultimately will "make the competition for branded content — including recognizable intellectual property and brand-name showrunnners — even more heated, with talent reaping the benefits of higher pay."
TikTok has moved into Facebook's backyard and is starting to poach its employees
TikTok, the upstart social media app, has opened an office in Silicon Valley and begun to poach Facebook employees, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
TikTok, the upstart social media app, has opened an office in Silicon Valley and begun to poach Facebook employees, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The Chinese-owned company recently moved into an office space in Mountain View, California, that was previously occupied by Facebook's WhatsApp messaging app, multiple people told CNBC.
Patent Pending: Amazon plans to automate unloading, Walmart envisions lasers for inventory
Every week supply chain innovators apply to patent what they see as important tools for the future of supply chains. Sometimes they're brilliant. Sometimes they're funny. On Fridays, we share a few in our new column.
The system envisioned in this application uses a large square face covered in vacuum suction cups (the document says these can also be electrostatic or adhesive components) that can attach to packages and pull them onto a conveyor belt that will take it to another location.
And a patent application filed by Amazon this week takes another step in that direction by making it easy for pickers to confirm they have retrieved the right inventory.
Adidas and Nike supply tactics are an abuse of market dominance, British retail giant says
The sales and supply strategies of big sports brands such as Adidas and Nike should face government investigations, U.K. retail giant Sports Direct claimed.
In a statement on Monday, the British firm accused global sports apparel brands of abusing their dominance in the market by constantly chopping and changing the availability of their products to retailers.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Adidas told CNBC via email on Tuesday that " a strong partnership with retail partners" was key to serving buyers in the best way but added that "in an increasingly digital world, the consumer decides where to go for information and where to purchase."
Hudson Yards was seen as a trial for the mall of the future. Here's how it's going so far
By the end of 2019, New York's Hudson Yards megamall will be close to 95% leased, surpassing expectations of hitting 90%.
"Ultimately what is going to make [Hudson Yards] successful or not is ensuring from a merchandising perspective ... there are unique tenants that keep people coming back there," said Michael J. O'Neill, executive managing director of retail services at commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Back at Hudson Yards, in a bid to keep the surrounding area populated, a new Equinox gym and hotel is now open next door, with a SoulCycle studio downstairs, as well as a performing arts center called "The Shed," all drawing visitors of their own.
Silicon Valley Takes On Amazon’s Cashierless ‘Go’ Stores
Tech startups are challenging the cashierless checkout at Amazon Go stores with their own systems—and are already pitching them to retailers as smarter than partnering with Amazon.com.
Amazon's pursuit of boundless selection has led it to become a massive marketplace with millions of sellers.
This roughly one-square-mile stretch in the tech capital’s bustling business district is emerging as a battleground to eliminate retailing’s centuries-old checkout process and reinvent the way consumers shop.
A day after that, he would present his fall 2019 collection: a decadent parade of leather skullcaps, exaggerated ruffles and bibs; a minidress in pink- and blue-marbled rooster prints; a clown shirt tucked into Katharine Hepburn -style caviar wool trousers; a lace ensemble embroidered with silvery sequins; jodhpurs cut from buttery scarlet lambskin; and an asymmetrical faux-fur cape in Lichtenstein green.
Created in 1972, its co-founder and first director, Ray Kappe, envisioned “an autonomous self-governing institution based upon the premise that the 200 students and 25 faculty members work together to determine its academic direction.” The net result was an extremely open environment in which there were no letter grades, debate was frequent and constant and, as the British architect Peter Cook wrote, one had “to listen hard to tell which is Master or Pupil.”
How Pinterest Built One of Silicon Valley’s Most Successful Algorithms
Inside the company’s powerful recommendations tool — and their strategies for keeping it under control. But in its first year as a public company, it faces a pivotal challenge: How to grow beyond a user base that has historically skewed toward white, suburban women without alienating loyalists, stereotyping newcomers, or potentially allowing for the spread of misinformation and radicalization.
Hence the question about gender when you sign up, the topic picker that gives the algorithm an initial sense of what you’re into, and the perhaps slightly intrusive (though industry standard) use of browser data that can tell Pinterest whether you’ve visited the site before and how you arrived there.
Virgin Galactic and Under Armour unveil spacesuits for the first space tourists to wear next year
Each spacesuit will be personally tailored to each Virgin Galactic passenger and will include national flags and name badges.
The companies debuted the spacewear collection in a production for media and investors at an indoor skydiving facility near New York City, with dancers and acrobatics wearing the clothes while performing stunts.
Virgin Galactic's "mission specialists," such as chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses, will wear the Under Armour spacesuit on the company's remaining crewed test flights.
ZeroDown, valued at $150M, plans to take on Zillow – TechCrunch
“I think we will be known as a company that makes it easier to buy a home in every single aspect,” ZeroDown co-founder and chief executive officer Abhijeet Dwivedi tells TechCrunch.
The tool tells users whether a potential home is naturally lit, if it has a large backyard, if it has a decent commute to your work and to various schools and, most importantly, whether it’s dog friendly.
AMC Theaters will launch its own service for renting and buying digital films
AMC Theaters on Demand, as it will be called, will launch tomorrow as an online store with approximately 2,000 films available, with new releases to be added after a standard theatrical run.
Unlike the direct-to-consumer subscription streaming services that companies like Disney , Apple , Comcast (NBCUniversal) , and AT&T (WarnerMedia) are preparing to launch, AMC’s is specifically video-on-demand (VOD).