As Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) works towards shifting their business model, they’re continuing to expand their offerings to become an "omni-always" retailer.
As part of this effort, BB&B has forged an unlikely partnership with Uber to help launch a baby and kids vertical on the UberEats app. Products like diapers, wipes and first aid kits from over 750 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and nearly 120 BuyBuy Baby stores are available for on-demand delivery on both the Uber and Uber Eats apps.
Uber Eats' baby and kids vertical will also include popular brands like Honest, Yumi and Little Spoon.
According to PYMNTS research, 52 percent of consumers have made a retail purchase using an online retail delivery aggregator such as Uber, Instacart and others over the past year. Extending product delivery options to baby products seems like the logical next step.
In tandem with the launch of the new hub, Uber will be supporting the non-profit organization Baby2Baby, which provides necessities to children in need nationwide. The non-profit has provided over 200 million items to children in homeless shelters, domestic violence programs, foster care, hospitals, underserved schools, and more.
The unlikely partnerships don’t end there. Bed Bath & Beyond wil also sell some of its bedding, storage and baby furniture at Kroger starting next year. Bed Bath & Beyond's items will first be available on Kroger's website for delivery in early 2022 and then in branded mini shops at certain Kroger stores.
Bed Bath & Beyond hopes its new partnerships with Kroger and Uber will aid in reaching a completely new customer base, and open a new revenue opportunity for the company. Bed Bath & Beyond also said it will sell some of its own private-label brands at Kroger.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Klarna has introduced its new one-stop shopping app across all of its available marketplaces. Through an in-app browser, customers can now shop at any online store, regardless of whether Klarna has a standing partnership with the seller.
Klarna’s app provides personalized shopping collections, as well as deals and price-drop notifications. Customers can also save products for later and make one-click payments.
The app also offers improved budgeting tools, a topic of major contention with BNPL services. Shoppers can also track deliveries for purchases made with or without Klarna and manage returns in the app.
And that’s not all. With the app, customers can take advantage of curated shopping collections, receive notifications for price decreases, and seamlessly manage payments and returns. The app is available for download on iOS and Android mobile devices in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Poland and France.
The data overwhelmingly supports Klarna’s decision. According to Retail Dive, the number of mobile app downloads has grown by 36%, and in-app purchases have increased 54%.
A Klarna-commissioned survey of more than 13,000 respondents in 13 countries found that more than three-quarters of 18-24-year-olds and more than 70% of 24-40-year-olds use their mobile devices more readily to shop than they did two years ago.
The launch gives Klarna a huge advantage against the major players like Square (which recently purchased Afterpay) and Affirm, both of which have hinted at app interests. It also strengthens Klarna’s defense against banks, many of which have threatened to scoop up market share from incumbent BNPL players.
Beginning in 2022, consumers will be able to use the money in their Venmo account to buy products directly from Amazon, as long as they are in the United States. PayPal has announced that it has struck a deal with the eCommerce giant to allow US customers to pay with Venmo at checkout.
Amazon usually only accepts typical credit/debit cards and gift cards for payment, and you actually can't purchase from the website using PayPal itself. But when Venmo payments arrive next year, users will be able to check out using the option not just on Amazon’s site, but also on the mobile app.
Ben Volk, Director of Global Payment Acceptance at Amazon, said: "We understand our customers want options and flexibility in how they make purchases on Amazon. We're excited to team-up with Venmo and give our customers the ability to pay by using their Venmo accounts, providing new ways to pay on Amazon."
This partnership has a juicy history. EBay acquired PayPal at the rise of the internet era way back 2002(almost 20 years ago). The two ended the partnership in 2015, splitting into two separate companies though they honored an existing agreement that PayPal would continue to be eBay's primary payments processor. Three years later, PayPal and eBay announced that they would not renew their agreement, and it expired.
PayPal announced the venture alongside the release of its third quarter earnings results for 2021. It reported a $6.18 billion net revenue that's 13 percent higher than the same period last year.
If you’d like to learn more about SUMO Heavy, drop us a line, give us a call or contact us on social media.
