With a focus on curated offerings, expanded assortments, and personalized recommendations, Nordstrom has launched a third-party online marketplace. How should Nordstrom be looking to differentiate and create buzz around it?

Loblaw, Canada’s largest grocer, is closing its third-party online marketplace, launched three-and-a-half years ago, to focus its website on grocery and pharmacy. 

Walmart has increased the fees it receives from third-party sellers by giving them access to its fulfillment technology and services.

David’s Bridal has introduced a wedding planning platform and vendor marketplace as it looks to leverage its position as the largest seller of wedding dresses in the U.S. What do you think of David’s Bridal’s opportunity in the wedding planning and marketplace space?

Amazon has made several commitments related to business practices in Europe as part of settlement over alleged unfair treatment of third-party sellers. Do Amazon’s concessions under the European Union settlement appear fair to Amazon and third-party sellers?

Amazon finds itself coming off as a corporate bully when its private label teams find small and growing brand products and then produce knockoff versions that it sells at a considerable discount. Does Amazon’s approach to developing private label products differ from most other retailers?

As secondhand retail draws more of a mainstream audience, the number of places online where a shopper can find gently used apparel is proliferating. Now a new startup aims to let customers search all of those clothing resellers at once. Do you see shopping aggregators as a positive, negative or neutral development for sites selling secondhand apparel?

Amazon.com introduced a new “Tailored Audiences” tool that allows sellers on its platform to send emails to repeat customers, recent customers and high-spend customers at the Amazon Accelerate conference last week in Seattle.  What do you think of Amazon’s Tailored Audiences tool and the effectiveness of email retargeting campaigns?

Temu has officially launched its website in the U.S. The Chinese e-commerce marketplace features a wide variety of inexpensive products in many categories. What do you see as Temu’s major challenges as it enters the U.S. market?

Walmart may have intentions to launch a platform to help the retailer and third-party sellers promote the sales of products on the walmart.com marketplace. What role does influencer marketing play in promoting the sale of products and services for Walmart and its marketplace sellers?

Amazon.com has considered exiting its private label business altogether in order to alleviate regulatory pressures, according to multiple reports. Is Amazon’s use of national brand data to inform its private label decisions different from the way other retailers handle that information?

Walmart is looking to bring goods from U.K. exporters to consumers in the U.S. The retailer has begun what it calls “a major push” to bring these sellers to its online marketplace. What is your take on Walmart’s recruitment of UK sellers and its onboarding process?

Amazon is slamming federal legislation that would bar the company from giving preference to its products over items sold by other sellers on its site. Does Amazon unfairly give preference to products it sells versus those sold by third parties on its marketplace?

Victoria’s Secret has launched a curated digital platform dedicated to third-party brands with a focus on women-led up-and-comers. Does selling third-party brands risk confusing consumers and diluting the appeal of Victoria’s Secret’s core brands?

Amazon is testing a new program that leverages its Flex gig economy driver network to bring deliveries to consumers’ doorsteps from malls.  What do you think is behind Amazon’s test of same-day delivery from malls?

Men account for a quarter of Etsy’s buyers in the U.S. and U.K. and represented an estimated 35 percent of new U.S. buyers in 2021. The online marketplace believes that, in a craft world dominated by women, men remain underserved. Where do you see the opportunity and challenges for Etsy in targeting men?

Victoria’s Secret has launched a “storefront” offering its beauty products on Amazon.com, marking the first time the brand has sold not only on Amazon but through any third-party retailer. Does selling through Amazon offer more opportunities than risks for Victoria’s Secret?

Amazon has introduced a new program that may give third-party sellers another reason to do business with the platform instead of some of its rivals. What will Buy with Prime mean for Amazon, its third-party sellers and other e-commerce platforms?

Amazon Prime members who have wished that their perks would extend to e-commerce experiences beyond Amazon’s website are now in luck. Amazon has announced the launch of its Buy With Prime functionality. Do you see Amazon’s new Buy With Prime service providing the right kind of benefits to merchants and holding strong appeal to consumers?

Amazon marketplace sellers who use the company’s fulfillment services will see a five percent temporary surcharge for shipments, starting April 28, attributed to rising fuel prices and inflation. Does the temporary fuel and inflation surcharge seem like a fair fee given escalating shipping costs?

H&M has opened up its e-commerce sites in Germany and Sweden to third-party brands on a trial basis. The retailer is testing to see whether a marketplace model will resonate with consumers in the two European countries before it scales the test further. Would an H&M marketplace be successful if launched in the U.S.?

The pandemic has allowed a new demographic to go professional with their hobbies, according to a new UK study. How likely is the demand for makers’ goods to remain strong as cases of COVID-19 ebb?

Following a record-breaking fourth quarter, Etsy announced that it is raising seller transaction fees to 6.5 percent from five percent. Is Etsy in a good competitive position to be raising seller fees?

A billionaire activist investor shared with investors his belief that the market is not recognizing the respective full value of Amazon’s e-commerce and Amazon Web Services businesses. Do you see a benefit to breaking up Amazon?

The CEO of curated the cross-border, online marketplace Browze sees factory-to-consumer shipping as a way to circumvent pandemic-era supply chain problems, and has a sourcing model in place. Will we see the factory-to-consumer model expand beyond niche/novelty/buyer beware products and into a mainstream business model?

Much of the public discussion about the wave of violent smash-and-grab shoplifting raids in major cities has centered around keeping shoplifters out of stores. Yet much of the pilfered product is sold online. How big of a role are e-commerce marketplaces playing in incentivizing mass shoplifting?

Amazon wastes precious few opportunities to promote how successful their marketplace sellers have been, but new report claims fees now account for more than a third of each sale. Does the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s report paint an accurate picture of the dynamics between Amazon.com and third-party sellers on the site?

Macy’s plans to launch a curated online marketplace that will recruit “carefully selected” third parties to sell their products on macys.com and bloomingdales.com. The platform will launch in the second half of 2022.  Do you expect Macy’s to have success with its digital marketplace?

Kroger and Bed Bath & Beyond have entered into a collaboration that will bring the home and baby products retailer’s products into some of the supermarket giant’s stores and to its website. What is your take on Bed Bath & Beyond’s deal with Kroger and its digital marketplace news?

Amazon.com is rolling out in-store pickup as part of a host of services that will enable third-party sellers on its platform to offer convenient, fast fulfillment to shoppers who live near their physical stores. Do you see the rollout of Amazon Local Selling as a game-changing retail event?

Members of Congress are wondering whether testimony given by Amazon executives about the company’s use of sales data from third-party sellers may have been misleading or a direct attempt to deceive. How do you see reports about Amazon’s alleged predatory business practices affecting its ability to attract and retain third-party sellers?

Thrasio, the largest aggregator of third-party Amazon.com marketplace sellers, last week announced its three largest acquisitions ever and more deals in the works.  Do you see the trend toward third-party Amazon marketplace roll-ups gaining more momentum, slowing or imploding in the coming year?

Taking on popular marketplaces such as Poshmark, Thredup and Depop, Urban Outfitters plans to launch a peer-to-peer secondhand marketplace, Nuuly Thrift, this fall. Do you see a big sales opportunity for Urban Outfitters and other retailers in establishing peer-to-peer resale marketplaces?

In the near future, Amazon shoppers that have a problem with a third-party marketplace seller will be able to bring their complaint directly to Amazon instead of having to take it up with the seller. Do you see Amazon’s decision to take on this responsibility somehow leading to a composition of more responsible third-party sellers?

Stakeholders in most retail companies would be doing a happy dance after posting second quarter results that showed sales up 27 percent. For Amazon, however, the results showed a slowdown from more recent quarters. What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Amazon through the rest of 2021 and into 2022?

Amazon.com has introduced a Brand Referral Bonus program that enables third-party sellers to earn a bonus averaging 10 percent of product sales for driving traffic to their Amazon listings from non-Amazon marketing campaigns. What do you think is behind Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus, and is it a threat to its online competitors?

Amazon has already declared victory, claiming record-breaking sales for marketplace sellers during its Prime Day event last week. Was it, however, the biggest gainer among the major retailers that ran sales last week?  Are the 2021 Prime Day results a signal that Amazon’s history of rapid year-over-year growth is slowing down if not coming to an end?

Amazon is expected to achieve a new sales record when its annual Prime Day event is complete. The same could be true for many of its rival retailers that have jumped onto Amazon’s sales promotion bandwagon over the past several years.  How are you expecting results to shake out when Prime Day and rivals’ events are done?

It has been a couple of years since the press was buzzing with news about what might become of successful warehouse-style e-commerce startup Boxed. Now, after an unprecedented shift in the e-commerce landscape due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the company is going public. Do you see a path to profitability for Boxed?

In a seemingly unusual pairing, Etsy, the online crafts marketplace, last week reached an agreement to acquire Depop, a go-to fashion resale marketplace for Gen-Z, for $1.6 billion. What does Depop offer to Etsy and vice versa?

Hudson’s Bay, Lands’ End and United Natural Foods all recently launched online marketplaces. Saks.com, too, is exploring one. Do you see more benefits than drawbacks for niche retailers launching third-party marketplaces?

Amazon is all about its customers, particularly its Prime members, but the retail and technology giant wants everyone to know (Congress and federal agencies) that its love for the small guy extends to its marketplace sellers. Have Amazon’s marketplace sellers become the biggest key to its sales success on Prime Day as well as the rest of the year?

Google went searching for a new platform to sell its consumer electronics products and found the answer in opening its own store in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.  Do you see physical stores as a viable means for Google to grow its hardware sales in the U.S.?

Amazon.com recently launched a new tool, “Manage Your Customer Engagement (MYCE),” that allows some third-party sellers for the first time to market directly to the platform’s customers. How much value does the tool offer brands selling on Amazon’s third-party marketplace?

Google over the last year has been shifting to build an “Anti-Amazon of E-Commerce” for sellers, according to a New York Times profile. The obvious hurdle for Google, however, is Amazon’s stature as the go-to online search engine for shoppers. Is the bigger challenge for Google’s shopping platform attracting sellers or shoppers?

Purchasing from online marketplaces can be a gamble for customers. Now the state of California wants to put responsibility for the safety and quality of products sold through these platforms more squarely on the shoulders of operators. How do you see online marketplaces responding to legislation that would hold them liable for third-party sellers?

Two news stories breaking in recent days have Walmart’s digital operations in the spotlight again. What do you predict will be the effect of Walmart opening its marketplace to non-U.S. sellers? What do you see as the challenges facing Walmart’s grocery delivery operations?

A new survey of over 1,000 U.S. brands finds online marketplaces to be their strongest growth opportunity, although some are looking for options beyond Amazon.com.  How much of an uphill battle do retailers face competing against Amazon with their own online marketplaces?

Amazon.com reached a deal last month to acquire Selz, an online platform provider that helps small and medium size businesses create and operate online sites.  In what ways do you think Amazon is likely to respond to Shopify?

A number of aggregators have arrived in recent years with a goal of acquiring third-party Amazon sellers and taking them to their next level of growth. Recently, many have secured funding themselves. What do you think of the trend of aggregators acquiring and scaling up promising third-party Amazon FBA sellers?