Madeline Stone says, “In celebration of its 20th birthday, Amazon has declared July 15 “Amazon Prime Day,” a day of shopping that will have “more deals than Black Friday,” the company announced in a press release Monday. Starting at midnight on July 15, Prime members can shop from thousands of deals “starting as often as every ten minutes.” The savings will be available to Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia. Shoppers who have not yet signed up for Prime but want to take advantage of the day’s... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “In an apparent effort to capture more spending from teenage shoppers, Amazon has unveiled a new service that makes it easier for parents to fund their kids’ online purchases. Launched quietly in the past month, Amazon Allowance gives parents and guardians the ability to add funds to an Amazon Gift Card that their children can use to purchase products on Amazon. According to the company “it’s an easy way to fund shopping on Amazon without sharing your account or credit cards.” Funds can be added on a one-time or recurring basis and there are no... [...]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Many people don’t even know Amazon has an advertising business. It sells ads across Amazon.com and Amazon-owned sites like IMDB.com. It also sells mobile ads across its Kindle e-book range and Kindle Fire tablet, and it has an ad platform which extends Amazon ads to other websites. Speaking at The Financial Times’ FT Digital Media conference in London on Tuesday, Amazon Media Group’s vice president of global advertising sales Seth Dallaire revealed a novel way the company is using Kindle to sell ads for advertisers that don’t sell their... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “Amazon is taking its battle against fake reviews to the courts, filing a lawsuit yesterday in Seattle’s King County Superior Court against the operator of buyazonreviews.com. According to a report yesterday on Geekwire.com, the e-commerce behemoth filed the first lawsuit of its kind against buyazonreviews.com operator Jay Gentile. “The case is part of a broader effort by the company to crack down on fake reviews,” writes Geekwire’s Todd Bishop”. Amazon Goes After Sites Selling Fake Reviews: Files Lawsuit Against Buyazonreviews.com Marketing Land  [...]

Patricio Robles says, “When Amazon announced Amazon Dash, a device that lets consumers reorder common household products ranging from peanut butter to paper towels through their AmazonFresh accounts, many thought it must be an early April Fool’s joke. After Amazon confirmed that Dash is no joke, the criticism began. TIME’s Paul Robertsasked, “Will Technology Like Amazon’s Dash Button Make Us Stupid?” and The New Yorker’s Ian Crouch wrote of its horrors. But Amazon believes Dash is capable of creating real value for consumers. “Some people will think buttons... [...]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Amazon’s advertising platform may only account for a small proportion of the global digital ad market – a scant 0.75% in terms of revenue share according to eMarketer – but the e-commerce giant has ambitions to make advertising across the web a better experience for consumers. Amazon has three advertising areas: Across its own sites, across its mobile devices such as the Kindle and Fire tablet, and the Amazon ad platform which extends Amazon ads to other websites. Speaking to Business Insider at Advertising Week Europe in London, Amazon Media... [...]

Matt Asay says, “Cloud computing now totals nearly $20 billion, but not everyone shares equally in those cumulus riches. According to a new Synergy Research report, Amazon Web Services dominates the cloud with 28% of the overall market, with Microsoft Azure making gains but still commanding just 10% of the market. And while that AWS lead isn’t as hefty as it once was, the cloud market clearly seems to be settling into the Haves, mainly comprised of AWS and Microsoft, and the Have Nots, which includes everyone else. A Big Market Getting Bigger For years we had to guess at how big the cloud... [...]

Lauren Orsini says, “Amazon has launched a visually dominant storefront for showcasing exclusive products. Called Amazon Exclusives, this Pinterest-like image grid allows users to browse through products from paddleboards to patterned Mary Janes that are only for sale on Amazon. “Amazon Exclusives is comprised of sellers that have chosen to sell their products only on the Amazon Marketplace and through their own websites and physical stores,” the company wrote, and other than that, the products have little in common. The grid display appears to have been chosen order to encourage browsing... [...]

Kate Taylor says, “Want to host a giveaway online? Amazon has your back. On Tuesday, the ecommerce giant announced a new tool that allows customers to set up a giveaway with Amazon as the platform. Setting up an Amazon Giveaway is free (except, of course, that hosts have to pay for the prize and the cost of shipping it to the winner) and looks relatively simple – perfect for entrepreneurs and small businesses trying to create buzz and engage customers. To set up a giveaway, the host selects an item sold on Amazon.com as the prize and completes a two-step set up process, entering the details... [...]

Rohini Srihari says, “Anyone who has shopped online, read a news article online, or is engaged in social media has interacted with recommendation systems in some form or another.   The one that immediately comes to mind is Amazon, the juggernaut online retailer and the largest internet company in the US. The ‘response to buying suggestions’ that Amazon offers its customers is said to generate an additional 10% to 30% in revenue for the business. Other popular sites that rely on recommendation algorithms include Netflix, which even sponsored a $1m prize for improvements to its predictive... [...]