Amazon hands out $5 credits after accidentally making Echo Dot available free of charge
Anyone shopping for an Amazon Echo Dot a couple of days ago may have spotted that the online retail giant was making its second-generation assistant available free of charge.
But the old adage "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" turned out to be completely accurate. The $49.99 "Audible Promo" discount that led to the device being reduced in price to $0 was a SNAFU -- but Amazon is going to make up for it.
Amazon Spark is a shopping social network for iOS
Over the years Amazon has spread its wings in various directions, and the latest venture sees the online shopping giant dipping its toe into the waters of social networking. While not strictly a social network, Amazon Spark has many of the hallmarks of one.
Borrowing heavily from Instagram and Pinterest -- among others -- Amazon Spark is available for Prime subscribers using iOS. There is, of course, a strong emphasis on shopping, and members are able to post photos of items for sale, and can click through to buy, post comment, and leave "smiles" -- Spark's take on likes.
eBay will now price match a number of online retailers
Part of the joy of shopping online is being able to easily compare prices at a number of retailers so you get the best price. If you prefer to get all of your goods from the same place, eBay has a new deal that you'll love -- price matching.
The offer covers items in the eBay Deals section, and price matching is carried out against Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Walmart.com, HomeDepot.com, Target.com, Sears.com, Wayfair.com and Jet.com. But if you want to take advantage of the offer, you'll have to take careful note of the terms and conditions.
Amazon Prime Wardrobe beta: money-saving clothes shopping with free returns
Not content with splashing some cash on Whole Foods, Amazon is also spreading out into other new ventures. The latest is Prime Wardrobe, a new clothes shopping service for Prime subscribers that's currently in beta and offers the chance to "try before you buy."
The service ties in with Amazon Fashion, and it covers more than a million items of clothing. Users can select three or more items to have shipped out to them completely free of charge, and payment is only required for anything that's kept. Returns are free, and Amazon gives shoppers a full week to try out clothes.
UK consumers increasingly prefer biometric authentication
New research has shown that biometrics is quickly becoming the preferred method of authentication among British consumers.
A report from Mastercard/University of Oxford report, has found that more and more of us across the UK are happy to use biometric security processes such as iris scans or fingerprint authentication. The news has been welcomed by Fujitsu, which has been at the forefront of biometric development for some time.
More than half of shopping-related searches come from mobile devices
For the first time ever, consumers all over the world carried out more shopping-related searches on their mobile phones than on their computers.
Data from the new Salesforce Q1 2017 Shopping Index analyzed the shopping habits of more than 500 million consumers in 27 countries, with smartphones coming out on top for the first time.
With Amazon Prime Reload you can earn 2 percent cashback on purchases
Amazon has launched a new cashback program to attract more people to take out Prime subscriptions. Prime Reload lets subscribers earn 2 percent cashback for making payments with a debit rather than a credit card.
It's not quite as simple as that, however; it's not just a case of filling up your basket and checking out. The Reload part of the name refers to the fact that you need to reload your Amazon Gift Card Balance using a debit card. And there lies the rub -- you need to remember to keep your balance topped up.
Technology won't fully replace in-store workers, retailers believe
There will still be people working in the stores of the future, but technology is still going to make a profound impact on the retail industry. This is what retail workers think about how their job will transform in the near future.
According to a new report by Epson, 70 percent of retailers think technology will never be able to fully replace people in stores, but it will revolutionize the shopping experience.
Need a graduation gift? Look no further than the Microsoft Store to save up to $200
Graduation is almost here for many high school and college students. With that comes both fun and scary aspects. The enjoyable part is finally achieving the diploma and having a party with friends and family. The scary part? Being thrust into the real world. It can be a good scary, however, as it means the world is a blank canvas -- full of possibilities.
If you need to buy a gift for a graduate in your life, you can always give them cash, but that is so impersonal. If you want to set them up for success, a Windows 10 PC is a wise choice -- especially when paired with an Office 365 subscription. If you want to go that route, and save some money, the Microsoft Store has you covered. The store is offering up to $200 in savings during a limited-time special gradation sale.
Delivery firm Hermes trials self-driving robots in London
Amazon has been talking about using drones as a way to deliver parcels to customers for some time, but Hermes has a more down to earth solution it’s about to start trialing in London -- self driving robots.
In partnership with Starship Technologies, the courier firm will soon trial a number of parcel collections in the London borough of Southwark. This follows on from a successful pilot project which saw Hermes Germany test parcel delivery by robot in the Ottensen, Volksdorf and Grindel suburbs of Hamburg.
Amazon Cash lets you pay for Amazon shopping with cash rather than a bank card
Amazon today announced details of Amazon Cash, a new way to shop online that does not require shoppers to have a bank card. The system allows shoppers to print out a barcode -- or display it on the screen of their iOS or Android phone -- and make a payment in brick-and-mortar stores.
Launching in the US, Amazon Cash can be used to add money to a customer's Amazon Balance, and a number of big names including CVS Pharmacy, Speedway and Sheetz are among the stores participating in the scheme.
New generation of cyber highwaymen could threaten parcel drones
Robbing the mail has a long and dishonorable history dating back to the days of the stagecoach. But UK-based online parcel broker ParcelHero is warning that automated delivery drones and droids could see the rise of a new breed of high-tech highwaymen.
The development of devices that alter the drone or droid's instructions, or simply stop them dead, is seen as inevitable. With UK online retail sales now worth more than £130 billion a year, if deliveries are to become largely automated and just one percent of items are waylaid using new technology, that's over £1bn of goods stolen a year.
Generation Z finds products online but prefers to shop in-store
The Gen Z population -- those born between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s -- still value the in-store experience even though they're likely to search for products online.
This is among the findings of a study into shopping habits by retail analytics specialist Euclid Analytics. It reveals that this age group like to see, hold and try on products before buying and 28 percent of Gen Z shoppers want to engage with store associates while shopping, the most of any generation.
Google Home gets shop-by-voice
Voice assistants are all the rage nowadays, with hardware like Amazon Echo becoming very popular in homes. While some people are fearful of such devices because they are always listening for commands, some consumers are willing to trade their privacy for convenience. In other words, since consumers aren't required to buy such a device, they are empowered to make that decision with their wallets.
One alternative to Amazon's solution is Google Home. The search-giant's device is essentially the same concept as Echo -- an always-listening assistant ready to serve you. Today, Google announces that its assistant-focused device is gaining a really great new feature -- shopping. Consumers can leverage their voices to buy goods -- no need to go to their laptop or smartphone.
[Updated] PayPal very sneakily increases its charges and adds weird non-discouragement clause for sellers
Nobody likes to share bad news, and PayPal is no different. Price increases certainly fall into the category of bad news, and PayPal has decided to publish the details as "Policy Updates". But it's not just the price hike that's included in this misleadingly-titled document -- there's also something rather weird.
If you are a seller -- such as on eBay or other shopping sites -- you will soon be subject to a "non-discouragement clause". What does this mean? In short it means that sellers are not permitted to encourage shoppers to use another payment method instead of PayPal. Let's drill into the detail.
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