Amazon Halo launched a new feature that uses AI to track movement and build a personalized fitness plan—here’s how Big Tech can use wearables to capitalize on the growing remote patient monitoring market.

A public offering might not be worth its risks for Ro as major contenders like Amazon already threaten to bulldoze over the telehealth industry.

Nykaa, the largest Indian ecommerce player in the beauty and personal care category, saw its shares rise nearly 90% when it debuted on the market last Wednesday. Ecommerce aggregators, which acquire brands and optimize them, are also on the rise. Evenflow Brands, for example, has purchased three digitally native marketplace brands in the past three weeks.

Investors and corporations are pouring billions of dollars into digital health companies with the goal of using solutions like telehealth, remote patient monitoring tools, and retail health clinics to reach consumers and deliver the care they need.

Given the sheer size of the Teladoc-Livongo merger and the looming threat of Amazon Care rolling out a public-facing version of its virtual care platform, telehealth companies will likely have to diversify their toolkits—by including DTx, for instance—and remain attractive to potential payer partners and consumers alike.

SP: We find there are so many brands that are adjacent to Thinx that people use in their daily lives, not just to manage their period, but self-care or skincare.

But factors like health insurance coverage for virtual care or broadband access make the promise of digital health out of reach for many:. A 2020 study found that at least 1 in 4 US adults may not have digital literacy skills, access to the internet, or devices required to participate in virtual care.

On today's episode, we discuss the pandemic challenges that fashion brands are facing, how female digital buyers have changed, and how social media strategies are evolving. We then talk about how engagement with brick-and-mortar retail is changing, how Walmart+ stacks up against Amazon Prime, how significant a problem porch piracy is, and whether in-garage delivery is the solution. Tune in to the discussion with director of marketing and ecommerce at Cloe Raquel Garduño Arroyo, eMarketer director of research Matteo Ceurvels, and analyst at Insider Intelligence Daniel Keyes.

Afterpay’s deal with EyeBuyDirect and Sezzle’s tie-up with WellNow Urgent Care reflect BNPL’s push to diversify beyond retail.

Walmart is acquiring telehealth firm MeMD, giving it an opportunity to grow its healthcare business without expanding its clinics—retail giants offering in-person/virtual care could spell trouble for telehealth vendors like Teladoc.

All these partnerships are centered around same-day delivery, allowing players to compete with the gold standard of shipping—Amazon—more effectively. Demand for essential, everyday items will raise the stakes for fast delivery. We expect food/beverage and health/personal care/beauty to be among the fastest-growing categories in US ecommerce next year.

The launch of Amazon Pharmacy in November 2020, along with a new Prime Rx benefit, simply adds another category for Prime members to try and may create even more shopper loyalty.

For example, Black consumers want to see themselves represented positively by brands, particularly in beauty, personal care, and other product categories involving culture and self-expression. This year, companies including Amazon, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Target launched Black History Month campaigns featuring Black-owned brands and received positive reactions from consumers.

It was getting harder for bookstores to survive, so I wanted to find a way to make it easy for brick-and-mortar bookstores to compete with Amazon for the online sales that are becoming more important for the survival of any business, small or large. Ultimately, I wanted to do it because I care so much about books​​—to have a healthy culture around books, we need bookstores to keep going.