Today in the connected economy, Amazon tries to attract influencers to its livestream shopping service, while Pinterest invests more in social commerce.
Amazon Lures Influencers to Fire Up Livestream Shopping in US
While livestream shopping has become hugely popular in China, it’s yet to find an audience in the U.S., something Amazon wants to change by luring the right influencers.
“Livestream shopping is the future of retail,” said Amazon Vice President of Advertising Wayne Purboo, who oversees Amazon Live, the tech giant’s interactive live video shopping feature.
The company has reportedly held a number of events and made offerings to attract key influencers, including beach trips and signing bonuses.
Pinterest Rolls Out New Shopping Features
Following an 87% increase in the number of merchant catalogs on its platform, Pinterest is debuting some new features to offer a better shopping experience.
“Over 400 million Pinners come to the platform every month to discover new products and shop for brands that inspire them,” the company said in its announcement. “With the new merchant features, Pinterest is making it easier for merchants to create engaging shopping experiences for the millions of Pinners on the platform.”
The number of users who engaged with “shopping surfaces” on Pinterest in 2021 rose by 215%, said Jeremy King, the company’s senior vice president of engineering.
Toast Serves up Expanded Restaurant Solutions with Sling Acquisition
Restaurant digital tech platform Toast says it is finalizing a deal to acquire employee scheduling, communication and management solution Sling.
The two companies began working together last April, gaining positive customer feedback. Toast says its payroll and management products are complemented by Sling’s employee scheduling and other capabilities.
“Great employees are what make restaurants run,” said Aman Narang, COO and co-founder of Toast. “By adding Sling to the Toast platform, we can provide a more comprehensive suite of team management products purpose-built for restaurants, from new hire onboarding to payroll processing, and now the ability to schedule shifts across the team.”
Nuvei, GAN, Forming American/Canadian Gaming Partnership
Payments platform Nuvei has launched a collaboration with GAN Limited that melds Nuvei’s products with GAN’s software-as-a-service gaming platform technology.
The companies say the integration lets players instantly deposit and request instant payouts, and includes multiple regional and alternative payment methods — such as Interac and digital wallets — as well as cards.
“Offering gaming operators a fully customizable payments platform, including local acquiring solutions and a full suite of payment methods through a single integration, is at the heart of our vision for the future of payments in both gaming and broader verticals,” said Nuvei Chair and CEO Philip Fayer.
Telehealth Sector Redoubles Focus on Convenient Care, Smarter Virtual Visits
Anyone looking for a sign that the pandemic digital shift is gathering momentum need only look to telemedicine, where recent deals and new capabilities show a lot of life in digital trends.
For example, there’s Teladoc, which announced this week that its adding new capabilities to its Primary 360 health platform to bolster virtual and in-home offerings across a range of virtual health services.
“Primary360 members will now receive health plan in-network referrals and care coordination support; free, same-day medication delivery from Capsule, the leading national digital pharmacy; and in-home, on-demand phlebotomy with Scarlet Health,” the company said. “Teladoc Health’s primary care offering continues to gain market momentum, with Priority Health, a nationally recognized health plan, choosing Primary360 for its members this year.”
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