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#NFR 63 - Greenwashing, Amazon Pay & Private Label Wellness

Joining 1,000 readers from companies such as Klaviyo, Shopify, Recharge, Amazon, HubSpot, BrewDog, IBM and Canva.

Never Fully Read

Joining 1,000 readers from companies such as Klaviyo, Shopify, Recharge, Amazon, HubSpot, BrewDog, IBM and Canva.

Never Fully Read is the 5-minute marketing newsletter providing you latest events across eCommerce, NFTs, culture & more every Wednesday morning.

Newsletter In a flash:

🤖 eCommerce news:

“Amazon today announced pay increases for its U.S. front-line employees—a nearly $1 billion investment over the next year—along with a new benefit that enables employees to collect their pay at any point during the month. The average starting pay for front-line employees in customer fulfilment and transportation is increasing from $18 per hour to more than $19 per hour, with employees earning between $16 and $26 per hour depending on their position and location in the U.S. This brings the company’s total investment in benefits offered to its team to nearly $10 billion this year alone.”

“In stealth, it has picked up three businesses, and — according to co-CEO Kristoffer Herskind (who co-founded the business with two others, Carlos Lopez as co-CEO and CTO Kirill Martynov) — some 100 million data points from around 500 Shopify-powered D2C brands that have signed up as potential acquisition candidates. Now, armed with €8 million in equity and €10 million debt, the plan is to boost that number with a more public launch. Earlybird Venture Capital is leading the equity portion, while Viola Credit is leading the debit part, which we understand is structured as an “accordion” that can expand up to €60 million.”

“It is typical for consumers to purchase more food items than they need and then throw them away because they either forgot about it or the food expired. It is estimated that 1.3 billion tons of food items are wasted yearly, an approximate $1 trillion loss. Recelery, a pantry tracker app and online marketplace, aims to reduce food waste with an array of features. Users can log their recent food purchases, manage grocery lists, see “virtual pantries” from other users in their area, as well as sell unused grocery items to their neighbors. Users can also invite friends and family to share what food is in their virtual pantry.”

“he Philadelphia-based instant grocery delivery company is starting with products like over-the-counter medications for pain, allergy, cold, flu and sinus relief, as well as first aid items, sleep aids and diagnostic test kits. However, look for items, including electrolyte drinks, bandages, antihistamines and antacids, to be offered nationwide in the coming months, the company said. Items are produced and controlled according to quality standards and manufactured in third-party good manufacturing practice-certified facilities.”

“Jesse Pujji believes the future of mobile e-commerce will look more like TikTok, Instagram and Snap, and started Kahani, a SaaS company for merchants, to lead the charge. Prior to Kahani, the serial entrepreneur was a founder in several companies, including Gateway X, Ampush and GrowthAssistant. After moving into the executive chairman role at Ampush in 2015, Pujji went looking for what’s next and started looking at starting a store. While experimenting with Shopify, he realized that people were spending money, time and energy on TikTok and Instagram to create the right kind of content videos, but when the customer clicked on them, they would “go into this time machine that takes you 10 to 15 years in the past when you land on the website.””

“It’s not going ‘full TikTok’, but Twitter is looking to lean into emerging video consumption trends, with two new updates designed to improve the Twitter video experience – and ideally, get people spending more time in the app.”

“In an event for advertisers on Monday, Meta introduced a new way for advertisers to display ads on Instagram’s explore page, which shows content to users based on their preferences and routines, and on the profile pages of all public, non-teen Instagram users. As part of a new test of the ad format, select influencers will be able to allow ads to appear on their feeds as a potential source of revenue.”

"TikTok is launching live shopping in North America and plans to outsource its operation after the social media platform’s experiments with ecommerce in the UK struggled to take off. Los Angeles-based TalkShopLive is due to enter a partnership with TikTok on bringing TikTok Shop to the US. It will provide the underlying technology and support for live streams hosted by influencers, brands and retailers that want to sell their products on the app, said two people familiar with the operations.”

📈 Hot trends:

“TikTok increased its European turnover nearly six-fold in 2021 but its losses grew by a third as the fast-growing social media platform bolstered its offering to advertisers and hired thousands more staff across the world. The Chinese-owned network reported a turnover of more than $990mn for the calendar year, compared with $172mn the previous year, according to filings from the UK’s Companies House. Its pre-tax losses were $896mn, up more than a third, mainly due to increased spending on staff.”

“Savvy has earmarked more than $13 billion "for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher to become a strategic development partner," according to the kingdom's press agency. Another $18 billion is pegged for minority investments. Savvy's efforts are expected to establish 250 game companies and create 39,000 jobs, the press agency noted. The investments are announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”

“We wrote about an interesting beekeeping niche gaining traction: mead, or honey wine, which is believed to be the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage.

At the time, the r/Mead subreddit had exploded 73% in the preceding year with hobbyists and aspiring craft meaderies flocking to join.

Since then, the community has grown another 60% to ~165k subscribers.”

Trends.co 

🙉 NFT download:

“Juno, a startup that provides checking accounts to crypto enthusiasts and allows them to take their paychecks in digital tokens, has raised a new funding round as it expands its offerings to include a tokenized loyalty program.

The one-and-a-half-year old startup has amassed over 75,000 customers in the U.S. who take their salaries (some in entirety, rest in portions) in crypto and invest consistently in digital assets each month.

Customers are able to spend their crypto or cash using the startup’s Mastercard-powered debit card, make bill payments and easily move funds to and from traditional banks if they so desire. Juno also offers direct onramps to customers from a checking account to layer 2 blockchains such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism for zero fees.”

🏆 WTF moment:

“A sponsorship deal between this year’s UN climate conference and Coca-Cola, which has been described as the “world’s top polluter” by an environmental group, has been branded “greenwash” by campaigners.

Cop27, to be held in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from 6-18 November, is the world’s primary forum for governments, businesses and environmental organisations to tackle the climate emergency.

Emma Priestland, a coordinator for Break Free From Plastic, a global alliance of organisations and individuals, said: “Coca-Cola sponsoring the Cop27 is pure ‘greenwash’. Coca-Cola is one of the world’s biggest users of plastic.”

🐤 Twitter thread of the week:

Link to thread here

TL;DR This landing page formula might be the best money-making tool ever:

• Provide proof that it works

• Story, solution, system

• Magnify the problem

• Add objection killers

• Add a call to action

• Reveal your offer

• A clear outcome

• An ultimatum

• A guarantee

Link to the thread here

🤝 Hot jobs:

  • Growth Marketing Manager - L’Estrange

    • “We are on the hunt for a growth-oriented and analytical talent to lead our digital channels at L’Estrange London, accountable for customer acquisition and value growth. The ideal candidate will bring an entrepreneurial mindset and be inspired to work on a range of projects from expanding our digital channel mix to amplifying groundbreaking brand projects that inspire people to own less - like Re_Fresh, a world-first laundry tablet that extends the life of your clothes.”

  • Senior Designer - Skin + Me

    • “Skin + Me is a mission driven start-up, building a pioneering online dermatology service. We take customers through a simple online medical consultation and prescribe a treatment cream, personalised to the individual. It arrives in their letterbox each month and evolves as their skin evolves. No two journeys are the same. In order to deliver on our mission, we’ve raised our funding from some of the best-known direct-to-consumer entrepreneurs and VCs. Our highly experienced founding team comes from the likes of Facebook, Charlotte Tilbury, Tails.com and Graze.com.”

  • Marketing Lead, UK & Ireland - Nothing

    • We’re a London-based tech company on a mission to remove barriers between people and technology. To do this, we’re crafting intuitive, seamlessly connected products that improve our lives without getting in the way. We think tech needs a change.

    • “In a short amount of time, Nothing has captured some of Apple’s cultural Magic.” - Forbes“Nothing is the most hyped tech company in years” - GQ“Nothing has brought a breath of fresh air.” - Hypebeast“The most exciting startup in consumer tech” - Input

👋 Happy Existing!