AUTHOR: Ben Unglesbee @Ben_Unglesbee

All the way back in 2000, when Amazon was mostly an online book and media store, it experimented with charging different prices to individual customers for the same DVDs.

The customer response was so swift and negative that, nearly 20 years later, the e-tailer still avoids the practice. Customers caught Amazon treating them differently, and weren't having it. As one academic put it not long after, Amazon had played around with one of the internet's "wonder-tools," but customers "felt hoodwinked by the random prices." (READ MORE)

By Lachlan Colquhoun on July 22, 2019

According to May data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the value of multichannel online purchases was nearly double that of purchases through pure-play online.

The ABS has been keeping track of online purchases since 2015 as part of its reporting on the Australian retail sector. A definite pattern has emerged over that time: online sales have more than doubled in four years. And in the same period, the most significant growth has been through multichannel sales. (READ MORE)

CHICAGO — The number of store closures announced in the first half of 2019 has already outstripped the number retailers announced in all of 2018.

More than two dozen chains, from Payless ShoeSource to Party City, have said they plan to shutter about 7,100 stores, up from about 5,400 throughout all of 2018, according to commercial real estate information firm CoStar Group.

Many of the locations retailers announced plans to close this year are smaller, easier-to-fill shops than the department stores and big-box chains that closed in prior years, said Drew Myers, senior consultant at CoStar. (READ MORE)

So bright that  Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, expects the industry to top $5.5 trillion by 2020! (READ MORE)

POST WRITTEN BY Joel Goldstein

Joel Goldstein is the President of Mr. Checkout Distributors, host of the Retail Summit Podcast and author of Start from Success.

July celebrates Independent Retailer Month. As we see big-box retailers like Walmart, Target and Best Buy scaling back operations in the wake of Amazon’s proliferation, independent retail is holding its own. (READ MORE)

ON MONDAY, TWITTER began rolling out its first desktop redesign in seven years. It was a mostly aesthetic makeover, with changes like a new layout, dark mode, and a more prominent search bar. As with anything Twitter, the reaction has been polarizing, with many users criticizing the platform for not doing enough to address its major problems. Today on the Gadget Lab podcast, Arielle, Mike, and Lauren discuss the changes Twitter has made, and how the company continues to grapple with its ongoing existential crisis. (READ MORE)

Retailers have announced plans to shut over 7,000 stores in the U.S. this year—more than in all of 2018—and are on pace for the greatest number of annual closings ever. (READ MORE)

By RICHARD FLORIDA - JUL 18, 2019

During the late 20^th century, startup companies were quintessentially suburban, in standard-issue office parks dubbed “nerdistans.” Think of Silicon Valley, the North Carolina Research Triangle, and the suburbs of Seattle where Microsoft is located. (READ MORE)

On Thursday we reported that TravelPerk had closed its $104 million Series C round, the first $44 million of which we reported on last October. Kinnevik, partners of DST Global, Target Global, Felix Capital, Sunstone, and LocalGlobe participated. The company aims to build better business travel booking tools and has focused on Europe so far.

Earlier this week, Travelstop raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round led by top-tier U.S. venture firm Accel. The Singapore-based business travel management startup is led by co-founder Prashant Kirtane and former executives Vijay Aggarwal and Altaf Dhamani, who sold their past company, Travelmob, to Airbnb competitor HomeAway in 2013.

Finally, Skift reported on Life House having raised $100 million in a fresh round of funding. (READ MORE)

NEWS PROVIDED BY Legends 

Jul 18, 2019, 09:25 ET

NEW YORK and INDIANAPOLIS, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Legends, a leading global experiential agency with three best-in-class divisions, Global Planning, Global Sales and Hospitality, today announced the acquisition of MainGate LLC, the premier event retail and merchandise company. (READ MORE)