Reading List - Week of October 3

The giants of the eCommerce and technology industries have all announced new products, features, and strategies throughout the week. Both Shopify Plus and eBay announced new acquisitions for their respective businesses. Google unveiled an impressive new line of hardware. Amazon has updated its review guidelines and Facebook wants to become the new Craigslist. Keep scrolling for all the details.

Introducing Image Recognition Technology to Improve eBay’s Shopping Experience

Source: VentureBeat

eBay just acquired Corrigon, an Israeli company specialized in image recognition technology, in order to improve the user experience for eBay's users. Through an upgraded visual experience, this acquisition will help online customers to find better results when shopping on eBay's platform. This new technology will also help eBay to better classify and organise its products on its marketplace. “As we continue to evolve the eBay shopping experience, Corrigon’s technology and expertise will help buyers find the best results when shopping on eBay through experiences that were not possible a year ago, before our investments in structured data,” said Amit Menipaz, eBay’s vice president and general manager for structured data.

Google Unveils its New Hardware Line (and it’s Pretty Cool!)

Source: TechCrunch

It's official: Google is ready to challenge Apple's iPhone and Amazon's Echo! The San Francisco internet and technology company unveiled its new hardware line during its impressive Google's Pixel event on Tuesday. On the agenda? Google presented two new smartphones–the Pixel and Pixel XL–a brand new Chromecast, virtual reality headset Daydream, its first voice-powered device named Google Home and a new customizable router, the Google Wifi. Thoughts? They all look promising! Your Christmas list keeps getting longer and longer...

Say Bye-Bye to Incentive Reviews on Amazon

Source: TechCrunch

Amazon made some massive changes to their guidelines this week. Indeed, the eCommerce platform has decided to eliminate any advantageous reviews on product descriptions. Until last week, reviewers could generally get some sort of product at a discounted price, or even for free, in exchange for positive reviews. Amazon is putting an end to this practice. Why? It's all about trust. Amazon has noticed that shoppers have begun to distrust these reviews because they believe them to be biased. As a result, they’ve been more cautious about making a purchase.

Facebook Wants to Become the First Worldwide Marketplace

Source: Wired

Facebook has launched a brand new feature on its social platform this week called Marketplace. No doubt that the company is clearly targeting Craigslist. With over 450 million people using Facebook Groups as a way to buy or sell products or services, Facebook wants to formalize it a little bit. So how’s it different than Craigslist? Well, Facebook is actually making this marketplace safer, cleaner, and smarter and already has 71 billion monthly users. If you see something that you like, you can directly message the seller and see his or her profile. This feature is free to use and Facebook doesn't receive any commission on your transaction. Way to go Mark!

A New Acquisition for Shopify Plus

Source: TechVibes

Just one month after opening its new office in Waterloo, Canada, the cloud-based and enterprise eCommerce platform has announced the acquisition of Boltmade, a Waterloo design and development firm. This new acquisition will bring more talented designers and engineers to Shopify Plus. Jim Murphy, Founder and President of Boltmade declared that "we’re excited to be joining Shopify Plus to help some of the most recognizable, fastest-growing brands in the world sell billions of dollars of product."