Google will invest $550 million in JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce site behind Alibaba, in a strategic partnership to reach Asia-Pacific consumers who are “ready to buy, but hard to please,” blogged Karim Temsamani, Google president-Asia-Pacific operations. The companies will explore new ways retailers can make shopping “effortless” and personalized for consumers, he said. JD.com will join Google Shopping and bring products to consumers in regions worldwide, Temsamani said. Asia-Pacific is one of the largest and fastest growing e-commerce markets, said the executive, with people in southeast Asia expected to spend $88.1 billion online annually by 2025.

Internet companies withdrew opposition to a California bill to prevent online sale of guns and other age-restricted items to minors after sponsor Assemblymember Ed Chau (D) agreed to amendments including removing a section specifically citing social media websites and bolstering companies' defense in court. The Assembly voted 56-16 Thursday to pass AB-2511 and send the bill to the Senate. At a hearing last month, internet companies opposed the bill, saying it's too broad and may unconstitutionally stop minors from sharing any information on social media (see 1805020024). On the Assembly floor Thursday, Chau said Amazon, Facebook, CompTIA, the Internet Association and TechNet agreed to drop opposition. The bill will be amended in the Senate to (1) remove the first section on social media, (2) apply the bill “to all sellers so long as it doesn’t weaken current law,” (3) require “reasonable steps at the point of sale or upon delivery” (4) add a safe harbor for steps considered to be reasonable -- which could be used as an affirmative defense, and (5) delay the bill’s implementation until January 2020. The Senate last week also cleared net neutrality and surveillance transparency bills (see 1805300084 and 1805310050).

Amazon landed a U.S. patent Tuesday that describes techniques for 3D-printing “customized” shipping containers for delivering e-commerce goods to consumers. “Conventional techniques can make it difficult to optimize packaging of items for shipment, causing the merchant to pay more shipping costs than necessary,” said the patent (9,962,921), assigned to Amazon Technologies of Seattle and based on a December 2014 application. “Inefficient packaging of one or more items may lead to wasted space,” and “inadequate or inappropriate packaging may lead to items being damaged, or spoiled, while in transport,” it said. Using 3D-printing instructions generated when an item is prepared for shipping, the container can be fashioned to “include loops, hooks, mounts, or other surface textures to facilitate handling of the container” via forklifts, cranes or drones, it said. “In at least one case, the shipping container may be manufactured around the item resulting in a fully-sealed container with the item packaged inside,” it said. Information such “as whether the item is fragile or sensitive to temperature can also be captured and input” into a “data store” for ready retrieval when the item is purchased, the patent read. Giving the example of a fragile wine glass, it said the “3D shipping container engine may receive item information associated with the wine glass such as a height, a weight, a depth, a geometric shape description, and a composition material.” The container can then be 3D-printed “around the wine glass,” and shipped to the customer in the protective enclosure, it said. The company didn’t comment on commercialization plans.

Domestic online spending passed $100 billion for the first time in Q1, growing 14.1 percent over Q1 2017, said Adobe, which unveiled Wednesday a year-round report, Digital Dollar, covering online spending beyond the company’s online holiday sales reporting. It predicts Memorial Day sales will lead to 14.4 percent e-commerce growth in Q2. Driving online spending growth are continued consumer confidence and a strong stock market, it said. Smartphone share of visits to e-commerce sites (43.6 percent) nearly equaled share from desktop visits (47 percent) in March, but desktops hold a wide lead in revenue: for every dollar spent online via desktop in Q1, 32 cents were spent on mobile, it said. Nearly nine of 10 TVs sold in Q1 were smart TVs, and more than half of speakers sold were voice-enabled, said the report. Smartwatches, at 20 percent of watches bought in Q1, doubled their share of the watch market vs. five years ago, it said.

UPS is unfazed by any competitive threat from “Shipping With Amazon,” the door-to-door shipping pilot the e-commerce giant is testing with third-party sellers in Los Angeles, said UPS CEO David Abney on a Thursday earnings call. “It's very hard to predict what Amazon or any other of our large shippers are going to do,” said Abney. “We make sure that we evaluate any market moves, whatever impact it would have on our business, and then we monitor and we react accordingly.” UPS regards itself as the e-commerce shipping “vendor of choice,” because its network is “scalable” and “difficult to match because of the density and our diverse customer base,” he said. UPS “sometimes” understates “that we are the largest shipper of B2B,” he said. “It is right in our sweet spot, and we work with all customers, large and small, and marketplace and traditional retailers, and we will continue to do so. So we think we have a good relationship, mutually beneficial relationship with Amazon, but we're open for business for all retailers, big and small.”

Three nominees for the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors expressed willingness Wednesday to defend negotiated service agreements with Amazon if they prove to be fruitful deals for the agency. President Donald Trump ordered a task force to analyze the USPS’ financial situation, which he says is worsened by Amazon deals (see 1804130059). During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, ranking member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., expressed concern that presidential task forces often “tell presidents what they want to hear.” Those who have confronted Trump have been “shown the door” in a short period of time, she said. Nominees David Williams, Robert Duncan and Calvin Tucker agreed to, in McCaskill’s words, stand up to the president if the deals are beneficial. But McCaskill said negotiated service agreements with UPS and FedEx also need to be analyzed. “I don’t think we’re going back in terms of volume of packages in this country, and I am very concerned that we have enabled our competition to be more successful while we’ve hamstrung the Postal Service,” McCaskill said. Duncan said the facts will lead to the truth, and Tucker said he doesn’t necessarily anticipate a confrontation with Trump but is willing to challenge assumptions. “There’s no question [Trump’s] on a mission here. He’s got a thing about the man who owns Amazon,” McCaskill said, referring to Jeff Bezos. Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., shared McCaskill’s “frustrations” about gathering contract data from the USPS and said he looks forward to the task force’s findings. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Trump and McCaskill appear to be on the same side in this issue, but McCaskill said that unlike UPS and FedEx, Amazon isn't a USPS competitor but rather a customer. The question is whether the USPS is charging adequately, Paul said. There's a price where Amazon will deliver packages on its own, and the USPS needs to find the appropriate price, he added. Paul said he doesn't dislike Amazon but dislikes losing billions of dollars.

Regulating interstate commerce is Congress’ job, and the Supreme Court should rule against South Dakota in a key online sales tax case (see 1804170062), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Wednesday. Striking down the physical presence rule established by Quill v. North Dakota “would violate the principle of ‘No Regulation Without Representation’ with respect to the imposition of sales tax collection duties and create an unnecessary additional burden on the American economy,” Goodlatte said.

States backing South Dakota in an online sales tax case before the Supreme Court (see 1804040061) want a return to antiquated models found in the Articles of Confederation or to maximize revenue with minimal effort, wrote Institute for Policy Innovation researcher Bartlett Cleland Friday: “Instead of doing the real work of simplifying their tax codes and finding an effective means to collect the taxes they impose, states have been fighting” to reverse Quill v. North Dakota. That 1992 decision established that states can require retailers to collect state taxes only if the companies are physically located in the state. The court hears oral argument Tuesday.

Amazon shares fell another 1 percent Tuesday before rebounding, and some analysts said they saw the recent drop from a 52-week high of $1,617.54 (see 1804020050) as a buy opportunity. Shares wound up closing 1.5 percent higher Tuesday at $1,392.05. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday: “I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy. Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!” The company didn’t comment. Last week, Trump blasted Amazon on possible antitrust grounds (see 1803290049), for “putting many thousands of retailers out of business” and for paying “little to no taxes to state & local governments.” Barclays cautioned investors in a Tuesday research note about “potential regulatory risk” for e-commerce providers over tax policy and shipping costs. Barclays cited the power Amazon has accrued from its business model of selling products close to bill of exchange and generating profit in other areas like Prime fees and advertising vs traditional retailers with higher cost structures. It warned of “additional scrutiny around tax collections” from third-party sellers that would weigh down growth for Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Shopify. On shipping cost inflation risk, Barclays said every 15 percent bump in USPS shipping rates for the last mile would wipe out 13 percent of Amazon retail operating income “assuming the company doesn't come up with another low-cost option to replace USPS.” The analyst firm doesn’t see antitrust as a viable path for regulators “given the low market share.” Barclays remains bullish long term on e-commerce but isn’t expecting much from the sector “until some of these sentiment headwinds abate and the conversation moves back toward innovation.” The Washington Post, which is owned personally by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, reported that government officials have told Trump that USPS profits from contracts with Amazon. Trump claimed over the weekend that USPS loses an average of $1.50 for every package it delivers for Amazon.

President Donald Trump attacked Amazon in a Thursday Twitter post, fueling further speculation about reports he's looking to target the e-commerce firm on antitrust grounds. Trump tweeted he has been concerned about Amazon since “long before” the 2016 presidential election, saying the company is “putting many thousands of retailers out of business.” Amazon also pays “little to no taxes to state & local governments” and uses the U.S. Postal Service “as their Delivery Boy,” which causes “tremendous loss to the U.S.,” he said. Trump “made it clear” he has concerns about Amazon's practices, a White House spokeswoman said. Trump “has said many times before he’s always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this is no different,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a Wednesday news briefing. Amazon didn't comment. There has been rising Hill scrutiny of top edge providers, including multiple planned hearings on Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica controversy (see 1803210019, 1803190056, 1803200047, 1803220052, 1803260041 and 1803270043).