Amazon Prime Day breaks record; sales grew by more than 60 percent:<\/strong> Lauren Thomas at CNBC<\/a> reports that Amazon said this year’s Prime Day was its “biggest day ever,” with sales surpassing the combined value of its 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday results. Prime Day sales grew by more than 60% with a “record number” of Prime members shopping across 13 countries. One factor that could have skewed this year’s results was that last year’s Prime Day was for 24 rather than 30 hours, and included fewer countries. Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n Amazon’s next Echo will be more like Apple’s HomePod:<\/strong> Devindra Hardawar<\/a> at Engadget<\/a> reports that two years on from when Amazon debuted the Echo, the company is working on a new Echo that will improve on the first speaker in practically every way. The new Echo will be both shorter and slimmer than the original and Amazon is also softening its design with rounded edges and a cloth-like covering. Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n Amazon Prime Day signalled a huge change in how Americans shop:<\/strong> Kate Taylor<\/a> at Business Insider UK<\/a> reports that the Echo Dot, Amazon’s voice-controlled speaker that’s powered by artificial intelligence, took the crown as the best-selling item on Amazon’s Prime Day. According to Walker Sand’s 2017 Future of Retail Study, 19% of American shoppers have made a purchase using their voice through an Amazon Echo or other voice-controlled device in the past year. Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n The explosive growth of cross-border ecommerce:<\/strong> Marica Karplan at Practical Ecommerce<\/a> reports that there will be explosive growth in worldwide cross-border ecommerce, with the Asia Pacific region leading the way. Research firm Forrester foresees cross-border ecommerce outpacing domestic growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent between 2017 and 2022, compared with 12 percent for overall B2C ecommerce. Key reasons people shop outside their local areas are to obtain products that are not available locally and to pay less for goods. Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n And finally….<\/em><\/p>\n The automated Amazon seller making the worst phone cases ever:<\/strong> Alex Hearn<\/a> at The Guardian<\/a> reports that the third-party retailer \u2018my-handy-design\u2019 has caused a stir by trying to flog smartphone cases printed with random stock photo imagery. The company has more than 30,000 phone cases available for sale on Amazon.com, including an iPhone 6 case with a picture of \u201cMale hands with soap dispenser use in the restroom\u201d and another featuring an \u201cIrrigation pipe in dirt trenches for sprinkler system\u201d. Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n It’s nearly the weekend…whoo-hoo!<\/p>\n