Every week, we bring you the top stories and analyses from the global Subscription Economy.
Adroll Group becomes Nextroll and launches new platform services business
Excerpts from an article by Anthony Ha on TechCrunch.
The AdRoll Group has a new name — NextRoll — designed to reflect the company’s moves beyond ad retargeting.
“We have, for the longest time, been pigeonholed as a retargeting company, but the reality is that we have really been evolving,” CEO Toby Gabriner told me.
To be clear, the AdRoll retargeting business isn’t going away. But the company subsequently introduced RollWorks, which offers business-to-business marketing tools, and today it’s launching a third unit, NextRoll Platform Services.
The company describes it as a “marketing-technology-as-a-service offering.” Gabriner explained that it provides access to AdRoll’s underlying technologies through APIs, allowing businesses to bring these capabilities into other ad products, or to resell them as part of their own platforms.
The initial offerings are Channels-as-a-Service, which allows businesses to extend their marketing to new channels, and Audiences-as-a-Service, which turns audience data into targetable segments.
For more, read the full article on TechCrunch.
Walmart is expanding its ‘unlimited’ grocery delivery service nationwide
Excerpts from an article by Lauren Thomas on CNBC
Walmart will be expanding a new “unlimited” grocery delivery service, which costs users $98 annually, to 1,400 stores this fall.
The biggest retailer in the world had earlier this year been testing what it calls Delivery Unlimited in four markets — Houston, Miami, Salt Lake City and Tampa. As part of the nationwide rollout, it said the service will be available in 200 metro areas where it already has regular grocery delivery, reaching more than 50% of the U.S. population, by the end of the year.
Walmart’s Delivery Unlimited gives shoppers the option to pay either $98 per year or $12.95 per month to receive unlimited grocery delivery orders to their homes.
Other retailers offer similar options, with which Walmart is trying to compete. Target owns delivery platform Shipt, where users can pay $99 per year to have certain items, including groceries, delivered same day. Amazon’s Prime membership has an annual fee of $119, in order to have perks like free same-day delivery and discounts at Whole Foods Market. FreshDirect and Instacart are other competitors in the space.
Read the full article on CNBC
Fair acquires Canvas from Ford to expand its on-demand vehicle subscription business – TechCrunch
Excerpts from an article by Ingrid Lunden in TechCrunch
Fair, the $1.2 billion startup backed by SoftBank that has built a smartphone-based car leasing platform that lets people takes cars for as little as one month, is making another acquisition in the ongoing consolidation of the short-term car rental market. It has picked up Canvas, another platform for leasing cars, from its owner Ford Motor Credit.
Fair has about 45,000 subscribers currently in the U.S., with 3.2 million downloads across 30 markets, while Canvas has only around one-tenth of that (3,800 to be exact: one possible reason that Ford decided not to hold on to it) across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas. While Canvas offered leases starting at three months, Fair’s start at one month, although Painter said that the average they have found are that consumers take cars for about 18 months, while those leasing for ridesharing use them on average for 12 months.
The Canvas business will continue to operate, but it will gradually switch over to the Fair brand in the coming months. Those who are currently on Canvas contracts will be given the option to switch over to Fair as those deals come up for renewal.
Read the full article in TechCrunch
Amazon Expands in Brazil with Prime Subscription Service
Excerpts from an article by Zacks Equity Research on Yahoo Finance.
Amazon AMZN has rolled out Prime Subscription services in Brazil, in order to strengthen presence in the Latin America.
Notably, Prime members in Brazil will now enjoy unlimited nationwide free shipping and a maximum 48-hour delivery time in more than 90 municipalities. Products eligible for Prime delivery will include all types of goods ranging from clothes to electronics.
In addition to these benefits, the Prime subscribers will have access to movies, music, and digital books and magazines on the Prime platform. This will likely increase Amazon’s subscriber base and give the online retailer an edge over online streaming services like Netflix.
The latest move of the company, which will strengthen its footprint in Brazil, is in sync with continued focus on expanding presence in the Latin American region.
For more, read the full article on Yahoo Finance.
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