Amazon cut prices on Alexa-based products $10-$70 Thursday in a one-day promotion to thank customers for the company’s ratings in consumer surveys. Among the Thursday price cuts at Amazon: Echo Show (from $229 to $159), Fire TV 4K pendant design ($69 to $54), the Echo Plus ($149 to $119), Fire HD 10 tablet ($149 to $119), Echo Spot ($129 to $103), Fire 7 tablet ($49 to $39). Amazon topped a Harris Poll annual corporate reputation survey of 25,800 U.S. adults in a poll Dec. 11-Jan. 12, it said. Amazon led the Harris survey with a reputation quotient of 83.22, followed by Wegmans grocery store chain with 82.75 and Tesla at 81.96. Amazon also cited its No. 1 ranking in a February American Customer Satisfaction Index report, without mentioning its rating slipped by 1 percentage point from the year before to a score of 85. Overall customer satisfaction with online retail dipped by 1.2 percentage points year over year, due to “weaker scores for companies at either end of the size scale,” said the ACSI report. Industry leader Amazon accounted for 43 percent of total online sales with the bulk of the category comprising smaller online retailers and e-commerce sites of brick-and-mortar retailers. Among other leading pure play e-commerce sites, customer satisfaction with Newegg and eBay were unchanged at 83 and 81, said the ACSI report. Overstock, one of the first retailers to accept bitcoin, the report said, gained 3 percentage points with a satisfaction rating of 81.

Walmart’s Q4 e-commerce revenue growth was “a little bit lower than we had planned” (see 1802200019) because of the company’s decision not to repeat “some promotional things” it did in the holiday quarter a year earlier, including its offers of two-day free shipping and merchandise-pickup discounts, Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs told a UBS investor conference Thursday. Repeating those promotional offers “we felt like wasn’t the right thing to do this year from an e-commerce perspective,” said Biggs. “Operational challenges, mostly on the fulfillment side and nothing that was major,” helped impede e-commerce revenue growth, he said. “But as we are growing as an e-commerce company, it’s not always going to be linear. We’re learning. We are fairly new still as an e-commerce company. So, we are going to learn as we go through that and there is going to be some hiccups, and we had a little bit of that in the fourth quarter.” Biggs nevertheless is “excited about what we’re doing in e-commerce” and stands by the forecast that e-commerce revenue will grow 40 percent by year-end, he said. Look for Walmart’s online shopping site to continue to “evolve over time,” said Biggs. He said he was reluctant for competitive reasons to share more details about the company’s online strategy, other than to say “there’s always things going on.” Having products at the site that are “priced right” and can be delivered to the customer “in the right amount of time” is something that Walmart is “getting better at” every day, every quarter, every year, he said. Walmart will always be “a leader on price,” he said. “It’s a huge part of what we do, and we’re going to be thoughtful about it, though.” By that, he means pricing-wise, “we’re going to be strategic, we’re going to be targeted,” he said.

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., raised concerns Thursday about what he views as Republican-backed efforts to attach the Marketplace Fairness Act (S-976) to the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill. S-976 and House companion Remote Transactions Parity Act (HR-2193) would allow states to collect sales taxes from companies even if they have no physical presence in the state (see 1704280036). The omnibus was also viewed as a potential vehicle for passing the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986), FAA authorization renewal and other priorities (see 1802270055, 1803010056 and 1803060046). “I'm extremely concerned to hear Congressional Republicans are plotting to sneak” S-976's language into the omnibus, Wyden said in a statement. “Apparently voting for a Republican representative in Congress is voting to allow New York and California to tax Oregonians, Pennsylvanians and Texans. If passed, this would create an underground, nationwide, privatized tax-collecting bureaucracy. This is particularly shocking as only two years have passed since” then-President Barack Obama signed the 2016 Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, which made permanent the Internet Tax Freedom Act (see 1602240069). Wyden was one of several lawmakers who filed an amicus brief last year urging the Supreme Court not to review the South Dakota v. Wayfair online sales tax case while Congress decides how to legislate on the issue (see 1712080050). The high court accepted the case with oral argument slated for April 17.

Amazon is offering Medicaid recipients Amazon Prime accounts for $5.99 per month, from $9.99, it said Wednesday. Customers must have a valid electronic benefit transfer or Medicaid card to qualify, it said, and they can renew their discounted membership annually for up to four years. Amazon referenced Prime members who said the program has made their lives easier through low prices and convenient delivery options, especially those living in rural areas or with physical limitations.

Amazon is rolling Whole Foods deliveries into its Prime Now delivery service, beginning with the Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas and Virginia Beach, Virginia, markets, it said Thursday. Customers will be able to get free food and select alcohol deliveries in two hours with orders of $35 or more, or within one hour for a $7.99 delivery fee, it said. Delivery hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Amazon plans to expand the service across the U.S. this year. Dallas and Austin are two of the remaining 20 contenders (see 1801180010) for Amazon’s second headquarters, to be revealed this year, along with Columbus, Ohio; Northern Virginia; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Amazon customers bought “tens of millions” Fire TV Sticks and Echo Dots, the best-selling products last year for the e-commerce giant, it said Thursday in its Q4 earnings release. Sales jumped 38 percent to $60.5 billion in Q4, with net income of $1.9 billion vs. $749 million. The company exceeded “very optimistic” projections and “expect us to double down,” said CEO Jeff Bezos. He cited “an important point” where other companies and developers are “accelerating adoption of Alexa,” with more than 30,000 skills from outside developers allowing users to control more than 4,000 smart home devices from 1,200 brands. Amazon is seeing a strong response to its new far-field voice kit for manufacturers, he said. Alexa integration announcements at CES included PCs from HP, Acer, Asus and Lenovo; an automotive integration with Toyota; and new devices from Polk Audio, Anker and Jabra, said the company. Outside of the U.S., Amazon launched new Alexa experiences for customers in Japan, India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, it said, and expanded Alexa, Echo and Amazon Music Unlimited to 30 additional countries over the year. Shares Friday closed up 3 percent to $1,429.95.

Amazon whittled down its list of 238 proposals from North American metropolitan areas to 20 now being considered for HQ2, its second headquarters for the continent. Four finalists for the headquarters, which will complement the Seattle campus, are west of the Mississippi, and three are in the Washington, D.C., area. Remaining contenders, it said, are Atlanta; Austin; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville; Newark, New Jersey; New York; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, North Carolina; Toronto; and Washington, D.C. Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon, “not a satellite office,” it said. The company plans to invest over $5 billion and eventually accommodate up to 50,000 “high-paying jobs,” the company said. It expects to create “tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.” Amazon plans to make the HQ2 decision this year.

Amazon Music Unlimited will be available in Australia and New Zealand starting Feb. 1, when users can sign up for a free, 90-day trial, said Amazon Wednesday. Customers will have access to more than 45 million songs, hundreds of playlists and personalized stations, Amazon said. On Wednesday, the e-commerce giant began taking orders for the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus in Australia and New Zealand, with shipments slated for early February along with availability through select retailers. Amazon Music Unlimited will be available through three monthly plan options: the Echo Plan, offering full access to Amazon Music Unlimited for $3.98 per month for a single Echo device; an individual plan for $9.55 or $14.33 for a six-member family plan. Music streaming service Pandora exited Australia and New Zealand last summer (see 1708010018), when interim CEO Naveen Chopra referred to the countries as "unique properties,” saying Pandora wasn’t able to bring its full portfolio to the market.

Walmart acknowledged in an after-hours news release Thursday that after a “thorough performance review” it was closing 63 of its U.S. Sam's Club stores (see 1801110048) and converting one-fifth of them to e-commerce fulfillment centers. The retailer referred to the move as “changes to the business unit’s U.S. real estate portfolio.” Switching up to 12 Sam’s Club stores to fulfillment centers will “speed delivery of online orders,” Walmart said. The balance of the stores will shut down over the next few weeks, it said, leaving 597 warehouse clubs. “Transforming our business means managing our real estate portfolio and Walmart needs a strong fleet of Sam’s Clubs that are fit for the future,” said Sam’s Club CEO John Furner. “We know this is difficult news for our associates and we are working to place as many of them as possible at nearby locations,” said Furner, saying the company is focused on the employees “and communicating with them.” Many store employees in local media accounts reported showing up for work Thursday and finding their stores closed. Walmart announced earlier Thursday a hike in the minimum hourly wage, bonuses and expanded benefits for its employees, crediting tax law changes (see 1801110048). Walmart will provide support and resources to affected employees, including the bonus announced Thursday and 60 days of pay, plus severance to those eligible, said the company. Walmart hopes “many of them will stay with the company at either a local store or club,” Furner said. The first converted fulfillment center will be in Memphis.

The National Retail Federation hailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to take up a South Dakota case on whether online sellers can be required to collect sales tax the same as local stores. “Antiquated sales tax collection rules have resulted in an uneven playing field that’s making it harder for Main Street retailers to compete in today’s digital economy,” said NRF President Matthew Shay. “This is a basic question about fairness, which all of our members deserve whether they’re selling in stores or online.” NRF also backs federal legislation to allow states to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax and to resolve details on how collection would take place rather than leaving it to each of the states to interpret how to do so, said Shay. At issue in the case, South Dakota v. Wayfair (docket 17-494), is whether the Supreme Court should repeal its 1992 decision that sales tax laws were too complicated for retailers to know how much tax to collect unless they were physically present in the customer’s state. NRF argued in a Nov. 1 amicus brief that modern computer software renders those concerns obsolete. Online merchants' groups, including the American Catalog Mailers Association, counter that the state sales tax landscape remains overly burdensome and that the states have offered no meaningful alternative to the physical-presence requirement. South Dakota has no state income tax and relies on retail taxes for much of its revenue, it argued in an Oct. 2 writ of certiorari petition. The state’s “low-density, rural population has a particularly strong incentive to take advantage of tax-free sales from internet retailers, who now quickly deliver everything from major appliances to everyday necessities throughout the country,” it said. The National Conference of State Legislatures also hailed the decision to hear the case, saying it has “long supported marketplace fairness as states are losing tens of billions of dollars per year in uncollected sales taxes.”