Gossip Destiny: E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Saturday -- May 14, 2016

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
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Headline Scan
Walmart Tests 2-Day Subscription Shipping
The Emergence of Managed IoT Services
The Why of Customers
Warehouse Clubs Ignore Customer Relationships at Their Peril
Google Boots Ads for Predatory Payday Lenders
Defense IT Contract Rekindles Pricing Complaints
Sugar 7.7 Aims for a Sweeter User Experience
Facebook Tampers With Gears of Journalism, Ex-Curators Charge
Apple Partners With SAP for Mobile App Dev
Amazon Video Direct Could Become Another Prime Mover
Ford, Microsoft Pour Cash Into Pivotal
Air Cargo Deal Gives Amazon More Control Over Deliveries
Bill Gates' Open Letter
Report: Companies in the Dark About Their Open Source Risk Exposure

Today's Story Highlights

Walmart Tests 2-Day Subscription Shipping

Walmart on Thursday began testing a two-day unlimited shipping service
priced at $49 a year. Subscribers will get more than a million items,
including the most commonly purchased items on Walmart.com, delivered to
their door in two days or fewer, Walmart spokesperson Bao Nguyen said.
"Customers will continue to enjoy their two favorite features -- no
minimum order requirements."
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83505.html

The Emergence of Managed IoT Services

With every market forecast predicting rapid growth of the overall
Internet of Things, industry and investor focus shifts to specific
market segments that will experience the quickest adoption. While most
of the attention is on applications and technologies, managed IoT
services will be one of the biggest market opportunities. One challenge
to widespread IoT adoption is the lack of skills.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83502.html

The Why of Customers

SAS Institute introduced SAS Customer Intelligence 360 at its recent
Global Forum meeting. Intelligence 360 has some good ideas baked in,
though some of the messaging I heard wasn't up to the level of the
product or at least its intention. I suspect that will come, and it's an
easy fix. The product set is divided into two major components, Discover
and Engage.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83501.html

Warehouse Clubs Ignore Customer Relationships at Their Peril

Like many, I have a love-hate relationship with warehouse clubs like
Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's. I've criticized them several times over the
years, but it's worth noting that some of these clubs have been
improving. Others not so much. I have some ideas about what these
companies are doing right and wrong, and how they can fix things to
improve customer relationships, sales and profits.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83500.html

Google Boots Ads for Predatory Payday Lenders

Google on Wednesday announced that it would ban advertising for payday
loans in its ad systems. Starting July 13, the company will prohibit ads
for payday loans and related products where funds are due within 60 days
of the date of issue, as well as ads for loans with an APR of 36
percent, said David Graff, Google's director of global product policy.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83498.html

Defense IT Contract Rekindles Pricing Complaints

What's not to like about the U.S. government offering IT vendors $17.5
billion for products and services? The opportunity is attractive, and
many vendors have expressed interest in a Department of Defense contract
that covers the acquisition of a broad range of IT capabilities. A
request for proposals for the Encore III contract was issued in March.
Bids were accepted through late April.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83492.html

Sugar 7.7 Aims for a Sweeter User Experience

SugarCRM on Tuesday unveiled Sugar 7.7, the latest version of its CRM
package, with several enhancements. A custom tag feature lets any record
in the application be tagged for better classification and sharing. A
new search UI automatically expands upon selection. The Sugar 7.7
Knowledge Base has been enhanced with an intelligence panel that
displays context-sensitive information.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83495.html

Facebook Tampers With Gears of Journalism, Ex-Curators Charge

Facebook hired promising journalists in their 20s and early 30s to work
on its secretive trending news project but did not treat them -- or
journalism -- well, according to a recent report. The curators served as
training modules for Facebook's algorithm, they said. They selected
trending news, and decided which news sites each chosen topic would link
to.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83491.html

Apple Partners With SAP for Mobile App Dev

Apple and SAP last week announced an agreement to create applications
for the iPhone and iPad using SAP's HANA data management platform as
well as an iOS software development kit and training academy for outside
developers and customers. The move marks Apple's latest attempt to break
through to the enterprise market and comes at a challenging time for the
iPhone and sluggish sales for tablets.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83486.html

Amazon Video Direct Could Become Another Prime Mover

Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of Amazon Direct Video, a service
that will let content creators not only reach tens of millions of
potential viewers with self-generated video uploads, but also
participate in revenue sharing. Amazon will use the new service as an
additional incentive to boost its Prime membership, which includes free
two-day shipping for online purchases and other perks.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83484.html

Ford, Microsoft Pour Cash Into Pivotal

Pivotal last week announced a $253 million round of Series C financing.
Led by new investor Ford, together with Microsoft and previous investors
GE, EMC and VMware, the deal is expected to close this month. Pivotal's
customers include seven of the top 10 U.S. banks and three global
automakers. Its agile-based approach lets enterprises build and operate
software rapidly, the company said.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83483.html

Air Cargo Deal Gives Amazon More Control Over Deliveries

Amazon has entered a 10-year lease agreement with Atlas Air Worldwide
Holdings, the aircraft company announced last week. Under the agreement,
Amazon has the right to buy up to 30 percent of Atlas Air. Amazon will
lease a fleet of 20 Boeing 767-300 converted freighters -- including
crew, maintenance and insurance -- for seven years, with extensions to
10 years.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83479.html

Bill Gates' Open Letter

It has been 40 years since Bill Gates wrote his open letter to the
software industry complaining that computer hobbyists were stealing his
BASIC program. That was so long ago that Wikipedia has a picture of the
source code for "Micro-Soft" BASIC on paper tape. A lot of things have
changed since then. In the 1970s when Microsoft was getting started, it
was common for people to copy, swap or donate software simply because
they could.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83481.html

Report: Companies in the Dark About Their Open Source Risk Exposure

Commercial software is full of security vulnerabilities from unpatched
open source components developers use, according to a report Black Duck
Software issued last week. Software companies misjudge how much open
source code their commercial products contain, according to the report,
which is based on an analysis of 200 applications researchers viewed
over the previous six months.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/83480.html

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