[Crew Review] The $60-million ecommerce shipping scheme

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A Chinese national has been arrested for conducting a USPS postage scheme that cost the company $60 million. Her “business” helps e-commerce companies save on shipping costs using counterfeit postage.

Aggregator SellerX Acquires Elevate Brands

It seems like our Amazon rollups article is due for an update.

SellerX recently announced that it will acquire US-based e-commerce aggregator Elevate Brands. The former has raised around $900 million, while the latter has a more modest $250 million funding.

The all-share deal is expected to wrap up by the end of June, with the merger set to be named SellerX Group. This will be headed by SellerX’s current CEOs, including Philipp Triebel, whom we had on our podcast. Meanwhile, Elevate Brands’ three co-founders will work as president, global business development head, and head of mergers and acquisitions.

According to an interview with TechCrunch, SellerX Group will utilize SellerX’s supply chain infrastructure and technology platform and Elevate’s expertise in turning marketplace-native products into consumer brands.

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More AI on Amazon

More companies are focusing their efforts on artificial intelligence, and Amazon is in no way late to the party. The e-commerce giant is integrating AI into its fulfillment system to catch damaged goods before they are shipped out. The system works by training the AI what undamaged goods look like so it can recognize undamaged items.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has already implemented the AI in two fulfillment centers with plans to expand it to 10 more sites.

This move is expected to reduce the number of damaged items, which might save third-party sellers from unnecessary returns. Is another big Amazon layoff happening?

Amazon’s Shipping Decision

In 2019, Amazon pledged to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030 using its Shipment Zero initiative. But it seems like it’s not going to make good with its promise after it announced that it no longer makes sense as it applies to only one part of the business.

However, it doesn’t seem like the company is going to pull an Amber Heard pledge because while it may abandon Shipment Zero, it’s still dedicated to its Climate Pledge, which is a broader and more comprehensive effort to hit carbon neutrality by 2040.

The announcement received backlash from its own employees, with hundreds of Amazon workers walking out to demand both flexible work policies and the company’s commitment to reduce its carbon emissions.

Etc.

SWW. Walmart sellers can now purchase discounted FedEx and USPS shipping labels right off the platform.

LLaMA. Often an animal, sometimes Meta’s AI.

Class action. Shopify is facing a $130 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against its terminated employees.