Zombie Brands: Kozmo.com, the poster child for late-’90s ecommerce fails, is being revived (at least in name) as a grocery delivery service. This is an increasingly crowded space, but the company is focusing on bulk purchases, which would put it in competition with Boxed Wholesale and Costco.com. KB Toys is also potentially being revived. The name was bought in 2016 by a firm that repurposes defunct brand names, with the intention of using it for an online store. With Toys “R” Us’ demise, though, KB Toys might get new life in pop-up retail.
Good News for Advertisers: Amazon is forecast to take a greater share of ad revenues, eMarketer estimates, so retailers might want to know how shoppers interact with ads on the online platform. According to CPC Strategy, 65% of US internet users said they rarely notice ads on Amazon, and around one-quarter described Amazon ads as useful and helpful, which sounds promising for advertisers. Only 9.6% didn’t trust ads on Amazon.