delivery

Poland imposes fine on Amazon for deceptive dark design tactics

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Amazon has been fined in Poland for misleading consumers about the conclusion of sales contracts on its online marketplace. For Amazon, the conclusion of a sales contract only occurs once it has sent information about the actual shipment. “Thus, Amazon misleads consumers as to the moment of conclusion of the sales contract,” the authority wrote [in Polish; this is a machine translation]. It also found the e-commerce giant failed to provide information about the “Delivery Guarantee” in the purchase confirmation sent to shoppers. Amazon was contacted for comment on the sanction but at the time of writing it had not responded.

DoorDash Tests Drone Delivery Services in the United States

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DoorDash is expanding its partnership with Alphabet’s Wing to bring its drone delivery pilot to the U.S., the company announced on Thursday. DoorDash first launched its drone delivery pilot program in Australia in 2022, where it is now operating drone deliveries with over 60 merchants. Once they select the drone option, their order will be prepared and delivered via a Wing drone within 30 minutes. Most of Wendy’s items will qualify for drone delivery, but certain items be not be eligible if they exceed volume and weight restrictions. If the order contains more than what one drone can carry, DoorDash will deploy up to three drones to deliver the order.

Ingrid Secures $23 Million Investment to Enhance E-Commerce Delivery Platform by Eliminating ‘Free Shipping’

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Among the many stress points in e-commerce machine, delivery has long been seen as one of the more painful ones. “Delivery is the biggest unsolved puzzle is delivery part,” Piotr Zaleski, Ingrid’s co-founder and CEO said in an interview. And in case you are at all curious: Ingrid the business was not named to ensure coverage in TechCrunch by me, Ingrid. Ingrid has identified a very obvious problem that most certainly can use fixing, but it also faces a few challenges. “The only way is to build a hell of a platform that retailers want to use to take a volume position,” Zaleski said.

“DoorDash Introduces ‘SafeChat+’: A Revolutionary AI Feature for Identifying Verbal Harassment”

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DoorDash hopes to reduce verbally abusive and inappropriate interactions between consumers and delivery people with its new AI-powered feature that automatically detects offensive language. Dubbed “SafeChat+,” DoorDash is leveraging AI technology to review in-app conversations and determine if a customer or Dasher is being harassed. The feature is an upgrade from SafeChat, where DoorDash’s Trust & Safety team manually screens chats for verbal abuse. The company tells TechCrunch that SafeChat+ is “the same concept [as SafeChat] but backed by even better, even more sophisticated technology. It can understand subtle nuances and threats that don’t match any specific keywords.”“We know that verbal abuse or harassment represents the largest type of safety incident on our platform.

Baron Evaluates Swiggy’s Worth to be $12.16 Billion, Surpassing Previous Private Market Value

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Baron Capital, an investor in Indian food delivery startup Swiggy, has increased the value of its stake in the Indian firm, implying a valuation of $12.16 billion, surpassing the $10.7 billion post-money valuation at which Swiggy secured funding in early 2022. The valuation uptick at the end of December is a noteworthy development for Swiggy and, more broadly, the Indian startup ecosystem. This is particularly significant given that Swiggy’s valuation had previously been marked down to a low of $5.5 billion. Swiggy commands roughly 45% market share in the Indian food delivery sector and is “well positioned to benefit from structural growth in online food delivery in India,” Baron Capital wrote in a separate filing. Swiggy, which is also a key player in the instant-grocery delivery space in India, is increasingly broadening its offerings.

Flipkart’s Quick-Commerce Strategy in India

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It has heavily invested in its supply chain infrastructure over the years, with a particular focus on reducing delivery times for grocery items. Quick-commerce accounts for about 40% of the online grocery delivery category, the analysts said. “Quick commerce with a potential TAM of ~$45 billion (~7% of the grocery market of $620 billion),” they wrote. We estimate quick-commerce GMV to grow to $6.2 billion by 2025.”Indian news outlet Entrackr first reported some of the details of Flipkart’s instant commerce play Thursday. We constantly work towards delivering a wide range of products to customers with speed,” a Flipkart spokesperson said.

“Shadowfax Receives $100M in Funding and Soars Ahead in Response to Booming Instant Delivery Industry”

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Shadowfax, one of the largest logistics service providers to hyper-local and on-demand delivery businesses in India, has raised $100 million in a new funding round as it clocks an yearly growth of 35%. Shadowfax says it makes over 2 million packages delivery each day and has amassed over 3.5 million registered users. Shadowfax operates a logistics and delivery network of over 125,000 monthly active delivery personnels, and works with numerous firms including Flipkart, Meesho and many direct-to-consumer brands. Shadowfax is Mirae Asset’s first investment in India and the venture firm has participated in each subsequent round. “We believe that logistics is fundamental to ecommerce and hyperlocal commerce and that it enables the growth of these markets.

Stellantis Executive Optimistic About Prospects of Waymo Partnership for Self-Driving Delivery Vans

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This “deepened” partnership will focus on commercial self-driving Ram delivery vans, a target that was first announced in 2020 and promptly faded from public view. Discussions on this “improved” deal have focused, in part, on a crux around driverless delivery: how does the package get from the vehicle to the customer? Waymo, which is owned by Google parent-company Alphabet, currently doesn’t operate a commercial delivery service using its self-driving vehicles. That deal did include a future plan to include delivery via Uber Eats, but as of today, it has not launched, according to a Waymo spokesperson. Under the deal, Fiat Chrysler — now known as Stellantis — would handle the manufacturing and provide Waymo with minivans that built in redundancies designed for autonomous driving.

Uber Eats Unveils Groundbreaking Delivery Partnership with Cartken’s Sidewalk Robots in Japan

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Uber, along with partners Mitsubishi Electric and autonomous robotics startup Cartken, are launching a service in Japan that will use self-driving sidewalk robots to deliver food to customers. Uber and Cartken, a startup founded in 2019 by former Google engineers behind the short-lived Bookbot, already operate a delivery service together in Fairfax, Virginia and Miami. Cartken’s autonomous sidewalk robot, known as Model C, will be used for the delivery service. Cartken’s teleoperations interface will be used by Mitsubishi Electric employees who are trained in Cartken’s remote guidance system, according to an Uber spokesperson. “We hope that this newly announced initiative will serve as a catalyst for the spread of robot delivery services in Japan,” Tanaka said.

Veho, the delivery startup, reduces corporate workforce.

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Veho, a package delivery company, confirmed that it laid off 19% of its employee headcount, or about 65 jobs. As first reported by The Information, these layoffs came after Veho grew revenue nearly 90% in 2023. That was after announcing $125 million in Series A funding two months prior, the round that pushed Veho into unicorn territory. At that time, Veho said it had 910 employees across corporate and warehouse teams and was looking to fill additional positions. Veho remains optimistic, telling TechCrunch that its capital position “is very strong and we are building on our strong momentum and record peak season in 2023.”