Weekend reading: 2nd July

It only seems like a minute since we welcomed in the start of June – and although we’re still waiting on the greatest days of the Great British Summer, we’re making the most of the cooler days to plan ahead ready for the rest of the year. We highly recommend getting ahead – not only does it help business to run more smoothly, but it’ll be all the sweeter when your business performs even better than you projected!

This week on the reads we’re talking about massive changes to EU VAT, uncovering the new investments by Shopify, wondering how your Prime Day sales went, looking at social commerce and pondering the latest from UK high streets and what it means for the future of bricks-and-mortar retail.

The latest from us

We’ve brought some brilliant new suppliers on board in the last few weeks, with GB010085 bringing hair care and grooming products, and GB010093 bringing high quality, British made watches that feature part of an original 1940’s Douglas DC3 aircraft wing – what a way to show off your new timepiece!

Our existing suppliers continue to secure new items for you to source and sell – and this week supplier GB010001 has updated their range with some incredible new products. Even if your inventory is selling well, it is definitely worth logging in and checking what’s new on a regular basis!

If you’re planning for Quarter Four already (and you really should be) then you’ll want to ensure your sales channels strategy is as strong as possible. You can get three months of BigCommerce absolutely free when you sign up with our link, and you can get 10% off your fees on Wish for three months when you sign up with our link.

The weekend reads

Massive changes to EU VAT came into effect this week, and if you’re selling to customers in the EU then you definitely need to be aware of them because they have potentially massive implications for your business. You’re likely to be on top of this already – especially if you attended any of the events we mentioned previously – but if you need a roundup of the changes, then this post from our partners BigCommerce is a comprehensive read.

In other big changes, Shopify announced some massive platform investments at Shopify Unite this week – so if you’re on the platform, then you’ll want to find out what to get excited about. There are some good ones, so read more in brief here.

Amazon sellers, how did you do with your Prime Day sales? If they were pretty underwhelming, then this read might not come as a surprise – Prime Day’s growth is stalling. Prior to 2020, Prime Day expanded by 50% or more – but this year’s sales only reached a level that were expected in 2020.

Social commerce is set to take a massive number of sales for retailers – and change is happening now. Don’t get left behind – start getting on board with social commerce now. You can find out about the top five social commerce channels here, and there is a deep dive on how to get started here.

We’ve talked about the future of the UK high street on the reads before, and the latest is interesting – despite Gap deciding their future in the UK is online only, other retailers are showing strong performance. Bargain powerhouse Primark expects full-year profits to be in line with the last year, H&M reported a return to profitability in the first half of the year, and Dixons Carphone is back in profit too. With Amazon opening stores, and a possibility for Debenhams to return, it is an exciting time for offline retail.

Dates for your diary

Those EU VAT changes we mentioned – they aren’t necessarily a challenge! There are opportunities to take advantage of. Tamebay and Avalara are hosting a webinar on 27th July that will discuss everything you need to know about those rules, and what they mean for marketplace sellers – be sure to sign up here if you’re selling to EU customers now, or plan to be in the future.

eCommerce Expo is being held in September, and there are some incredible discussions planned, from the future of digital commerce to cross-border commerce, to making omnichannel a reality. There are a limited number of attendees able to visit in person on 23rd September, with the virtual event between 28-30th September. Find out more here, and register your interest here.

Looking further ahead, Linn Academy is a must-attend for Linnworks users and takes place between October 6th and 7th this year. More details are to be announced soon, but if you’re in the mood then you can watch some of last year’s discussions here.