According to a report by ecommerceDB amazon.com produces 50% of Amazon's Gross Merchandise Volume. 

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Amazon was recently named the most valuable brand in the world. It is widely considered the most successful online store in Western countries, such as the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. 

It is also one of the largest employers worldwide and outperforms retail heavyweights such as Walmart on several criteria.

Yet amazon’s revenue comes from different streams, including cloud services, advertising, and subscription. From all these sources is, the marketplace business the one that provides the best results, measured by Gross Merchandise Volume. 

amazon.com: the core business according to Amazon's Gross Merchandise Volume

In 2021, Amazon generated more than $103 billion from third-party selling services, a share of total revenue that has grown steadily in recent years. Yet the total GMV produced by Amazon's various marketplace URLs is much higher. 

To dig even deeper into Amazon's marketplace business, ecommerceDB has prepared a detailed breakdown of GMV numbers by Amazon's top domains:

• Amazon's leading marketplace URL is the .com domain; as of the $684 billion in total GMV that Amazon generated across its marketplaces, amazon.com accounted for 53% or a total of $365 billion in 2021. 

This is not surprising, as the .com domain is Amazon's primary URL and is active in many countries, including some with a local URL. 

Of the local domain:

• , Japan, Germany, and the UK have the strongest Amazon markets. amazon.co.jp, amazon.de, and amazon.co.uk together produce about 26% of the total market GMV. 

In terms of GMV growth, Amazon's top 5 URLs rank differently:

• amazon.ca may still be small in terms of GMV share of Amazon's total market, but the Canadian URL is Amazon's top market in terms of GMV growth. 

Between 2020 and 2021, amazon.ca grew by more than 33%, outperforming Amazon's other top URLs by a very wide margin. 

• With 25% growth, amazon.co.jp ranks second.

Together, these two URLs primarily drive Amazon's average GMV growth of 22%. However, it is still notable that the top 5 URLs grew at double-digit rates between 2020 and 2021. This has helped Amazon secure its position as the world's largest marketplace, extending its lead over Chinese marketplaces Taobao and Tmall.

Not all peaches and roses 

Recently Amazon's CEO, Andy Jasy, announced in a statement that the job cuts due to the crisis facing the sector - due to economic uncertainty - will affect more than 18,000 workers.

This figure is significantly higher than the 10,000 announced by The Wall Street Journal in November, when the Seattle company began to lay off employees in the commercial area, recruitment, and device retailers.

The truth is Amazon is struggling to reduce its operational costs amidst a looming global recession. And the layoffs announced will most likely be followed by a second group of measures to contain and reduce logistics and operational costs, such as a removal of the ‘free returns policies’ or higher costs for Amazon Prime subscriptions, among other measures the experts believe could be announced during 2023. 

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Freelancing has spread worldwide - especially during the pandemic - and for many, it has consolidated as a way of achieving professional happiness and independence. That's why our guest expert Mirko Ciesco will explain to us the fundaments and benefits of using Financial Management Dashboards.

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By Mirko Ciesco - Of course, there's no point in hiding the truth: freelancing also brings a lot of hassles and stress. Countless variables are involved in allowing a freelancer or entrepreneur to work fluently and henceforth: with a smile always on one's face. 

The factors that seem to contribute to this joyful mood during freelancing are mainly two: improving one's work efficiency and being able to choose clients to work with in serenity. These clients are the ones who, when the video call ends, let you know that you are on the right path. 

To ensure this happiness, people like me who freelance in remote working - that is, via laptop, smartphone, and an Internet connection - must get increasingly good at keeping track of all their business information, especially information about income and expenses. 

Doing this independently without a good tool is not easy. That's why I decided to design and develop a solution for these problems - first for myself, and later free for everyone - based on two tools we all know: Google Sheets and Google Data Studio (now Looker Studio).

In the next paragraphs, I will explain step by step how a Financial Management Dashboard will help you be a happy and satisfied freelancer. 

Keeping track of expenses and budget 

The first function of a Financial Management Dashboard is expense tracking. If you have ever budgeted your business activity, you will know that knowing the main expenses is an excellent premise for increasing one's turnover. 

The reason is simple: if we know how much we will spend on tools, training courses, office rent, etc., we can manage the annual budget without too much stress. 

In my case, for example, spending planning allows me to define each year the budget to invest in creating content, images, blog articles, and advertising campaigns to promote my business.

Of course, thanks to the Dashboard, I can check in real time the difference between income and expenses and know if the accounts are in the black.

Keep track of revenue 

At the same time, with the Dashboard, I can monitor the revenue stream generated by projects month by month. As well as outstanding payments.

The main problem of any business - even a freelance business - is receiving payment from clients. Although we can protect ourselves through contracts, not everyone always pays on time. So what does one do?

Spending your days checking your bank account is certainly not a viable path. Therefore, I have included a formula in the Dashboard that shows me the number of days that have passed since the invoice date.

All are easily calculated through two fields: invoice date and payment receipt date, which I will share with my accountant for annual accounting management.

Understanding work-generated happiness

In Italy, when a freelancer goes on overload, we tell him or her, "Do you work to live, or do you live to work?" The sense is this: if you spend all your time working, you have none left to live your personal and family life.

Another perspective should be added: "You have to work happily to live happily" and take care of yourself. This is the point of view that I call work happiness in the dashboard because it tracks the level of joy during the year.

The result is a pie chart that makes happiness gluttonous, even if it is made of numbers and lines.

In the dedicated Google Sheets, I can indicate for each invoice my degree of happiness:

• Pleasant when I follow projects I enjoy and collaborate with clients who have exciting projects;

• Indifferent when some activities I don't particularly enjoy;

• Unpleasant when jobs or clients are difficult for me to handle due to excessive agitation or lack of planning and management.

Through these variables, I created a pie chart that shows me three different colors of my state of happiness:

• Red means I have chosen many wrong jobs and clients;
• Orange indicates that I have a few projects that excite me;
• Green is the pass for satisfaction. It lit up when I learned that mental health is worth more than a stressful job.

For a freelancer like me, working with peace of mind allows you to be more productive and spend time on training or creating personal projects.

Set new business goals

By tracking income, expenses, and happiness levels, I can take qualitative and quantitative stock of my work each year-end. What does it do for me? To set new goals for the next 12 months (or more). 

With the data from the Financial Management Dashboard, I can monitor the percentage of services I have performed during the year and see if the service that makes my heart race has a high value. 

If it does not, I will be free to consider whether to invest the budget in its promotion and set a goal to increase the percentage of projects and happiness. 

Consequently, an additional goal will be to increase turnover, which in the Dashboard will turn into a numerical value to be achieved. This approach will stimulate me throughout the year to give my best.

Get ready to be a happy freelancer

Self-employment has a significant advantage: being able to choose one's clients and work how, when, and where one wants. 

With the enhancement of the Dashboard, I can dedicate myself not only to the best clients but also to training, which will help me increase my value as a professional and as a person. 

I hope this Dashboard will inspire your work, making it happier, more fulfilling, and more rewarding.

Good Luck! 

Mirko. 

About the Author: Mirko Ciesco - Web Performer

Free tool: 🔥Dashboard for entrepreneurs🔥 

I enjoy collecting data from sites to understand how to take them to the next level! 🚀I am an expert in web performance, optimizing technical SEO, and improving website usability through web analytics. I create winning strategies from the problems of startups and companies. Finally, I teach custom courses online and throughout Italy with the mission of making the web a better place.

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Amazon secured an $8 billion loan. The company has agreed with several lenders for an $8 billion loan to be prepared for the tough times ahead.

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DBS Bank, Mizuho Bank, and other companies have provided the loan. And it has been signed with the following conditions, "The term loan will mature in 364 days, with an option to extend for another 364 days, and the funds will be used for general corporate purposes."

"Like all companies, we regularly evaluate our business plan and make financing decisions accordingly, such as obtaining term loans or issuing bonds. Given the uncertain macroeconomic environment, in recent months, we have used different financing options to support capital expenditures, debt repayment, acquisitions, and working capital needs" Amazon said in an email, according to the tech news site Techcrunch.

Amazon had about $35 billion in cash and cash equivalents and long-term debt of about $59 billion at the end of the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Amazon’s loan arrives amid a massive crisis

Amazon's revenue declined toward the end of 2022 as the economy took its toll. The company invested billions to double the size of its fulfillment network during the pandemic, a project that initially worked well. 

Amazon had to halt and delay plans for more than a dozen facilities. This was because e-commerce sales rose more slowly than expected. On the other hand, rising energy prices affected the business in a major way, as shipping spending grew 10% to $19.9 billion in the third quarter of 2022. 

Aiming to cut costs, the company plans to reduce its workforce in early 2023, reportedly by up to 10,000 employees. The largest layoffs in the company's history are said to be concentrated in Amazon's human resources, Alexa, and retail divisions.

Amazon layoffs will begin next week 

Amazon announced that its massive planned layoffs will begin during the second week of January. 

This first phase will cut 10.000 jobs - mainly in the U.S.A. - and it is expected to be followed by another phase with over 8.000 more layoffs all across the globe.  

But Amazon is not the only tech company that has announced massive layoffs; Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce “in the coming weeks” (estimated to affect roughly 7,900 of its 79,000 employees, according to the company) in an email to staff, saying the decision comes amid a “challenging” environment and as customers take a “more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.”

And in a letter to employees, Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud said the company is reducing its workforce by 11% (estimated to be just under 150 of its 1,400 employees, according to PitchBook) as it struggles with a “deterioration in economic conditions” including geopolitical conflict, rising interest rates, and the potential of a recession—it's the second round of layoffs in six months, after it cut 6% of its staff last year. 

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One-third of the world economy could go into a deep global recession during 2023, warns the International Monetary Fund. This year will be more challenging for the global economy than the one we left behind, said the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva.

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"Why? Because the big three economies, the United States, the European Union, and China, are slowing down simultaneously," she said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS.

"We anticipate a third of the world economy to be in recession," he said. And he added a warning even for countries that are not in recession: "It would feel like a recession for hundreds of millions of people."

While the U.S. may end up avoiding a recession, the situation looks bleaker in Europe, which has been hit hard by the war in Ukraine, he said. "Half of the European Union will be in recession," Georgieva added to CNN.

The IMF currently projects global growth of 2.7% this year, a slowdown from 3.2% in 2022.

China will be essential for the 2023 economy 

The slowdown in China will have a dire impact globally. The world's second-largest economy weakened sharply in 2022 due to its rigid zero-covid policy, which left the country out of sync with the rest of the world, disrupting supply chains and damaging the flow of trade and investment.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said past weekend that he expected the country's economy to expand by at least 4.4% last year, a much stronger figure than many economists had forecast, but well below the 8.4% growth rate seen in 2021.

"For the first time in 40 years, China's growth in 2022 is likely to be equal to or lower than global growth," Georgieva said. "Before covid, China was generating 34, 35, and 40% of global growth. It is no longer doing that," she said. She added that it is a "quite stressful" period for Asian economies.

"When I talk to Asian leaders, they all start with this question: 'What's going to happen to China? Is China going to come back to a higher level of growth?" he said.

Beijing abandoned restrictions over covid-19 in early December, and while its reopening may provide much-needed relief for the global economy, the recovery will be erratic and painful.

China's haphazard reopening has unleashed a wave of covid-19 cases that have overwhelmed the healthcare system, slowing consumption and production in the process.

The next few months "will be difficult for China, and the impact on Chinese growth would be negative," said Georgieva, who added that she expects the country to gradually move toward a "higher level of economic performance and end the year better than it is going to start it."

A global recession is inevitable 

According to an article published by The Economist under the signature of Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Collins English Dictionary have declared “permacrisis” to be their word of the year for 2022. 

Defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity,” it is an ugly portmanteau that accurately encapsulates today’s world as 2023 dawns. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has led to the biggest land war in Europe since 1945, the most serious risk of nuclear escalation since the Cuban missile crisis, and the most far-reaching sanctions regime since the 1930s. Soaring food and energy costs have fuelled the highest inflation rates since the 1980s in many countries and the biggest macroeconomic challenge in the modern era of central banking. 

Assumptions that have held for decades—that borders should be inviolable, nuclear weapons won’t be used, inflation will be low, and the lights in rich countries will stay on—have all been simultaneously shaken.

Three shocks have combined to cause this turmoil. The biggest is geopolitical. The American-led post-war world order is being challenged, most obviously by Mr. Putin, and most profoundly by the persistently worsening relationship between America and Xi Jinping’s China. 

The resolve with which America and European countries responded to Russia’s aggression may have revitalized the idea of “the West”, particularly the transatlantic alliance. But it has widened the gap between the West and the rest, making a global recession short of inevitable. 

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One, a Walmart-backed fintech startup, has announced its plans to launch a ‘buy now, pay later’ loan system. 

The venture, called One, is gearing up to launch its version of the payment service as soon as next year. The effort was partly motivated by a more challenging economic backdrop and consumers feeling pinched by inflation.

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Retail executives, including Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, have spoken about even wealthier consumers feeling pinched by inflation. About 75% of the retailer’s market share gains in groceries have come from households that make more than $100,000 in the past two quarters.

In a CNBC interview this week, McMillon said customers are feeling stressed: “We’ve got some customers who are more budget-conscious that have been under inflation pressure for months,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “That sustained pressure in some categories, I think, is something customers have to deal with as we approach Christmas.”

Walmart's-backed fintech is a plan for low-income families 

The news about a Walmart-backed fintech interest in ‘buy now, pay later’ was first reported by The Information.

Walmart, the country’s largest private employer and its biggest grocer has long offered financial services at many of its stores. It has a money center where customers can use banking-related services, such as printing checks, sending or receiving money, or loading prepaid debit cards. 

Many of those services are geared toward families that have lower incomes, do not have relationships with a traditional bank, or do not have the credit history to qualify for credit cards.

Last year, Walmart went a step further by creating and backing a fintech startup with Ribbit Capital, one of the investment firms behind Robinhood. The fintech startup is independent, but Walmart has the most significant stake. 

Its board includes several top executives, including Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner and chief financial officer John David Rainey. Rainey, Walmart’s new CFO, recently joined the board and is the former CFO of PayPal.

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The e-commerce lending startup Lemonero is launching in the Netherlands. This is Lemonero's second expansion after a successful launch in Central and Eastern Europe last year. 

It already announced plans to expand into the DACH region, next year. Lemonero was founded in 2019 in the Czech Republic, and earlier in 2022, managed to raise over 10 million euros for its European expansion plans. 

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Lemonero's aim is to provide funds to small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses using data to review the application. 

A lending platform for e-commerce 

The business model for this e-commerce lending company works as follows: Companies who need extra funding quickly to purchase inventory can apply for a loan of up to 40,000 euros with Lemonero, completely online.

The company must provide a given set of pieces of information and answers to Lemonero, and upload its documents to the Lemonero platform, which will in turn qualify its request and connect them with possible banks for lending. 

The whole process takes roughly 10 minutes. 

Lending with Lemonero: over 84% is approved 

The company is already providing lending services for thousands of online stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

And has partnerships with well-known platforms like GoPay, Mall, and Alza. These platforms can offer Lemonero’s embedded financing to online stores.

Officially, Lemonero claims that over 84% of the requests are immediately approved. 

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Wayflyer, the revenue-based financing and growth platform for e-commerce businesses, has secured a $253mn debt financing facility from Credit Suisse.

Wayflyer will use the additional debt facility to support further origination, enabling it to quickly provide funding to e-commerce businesses helping them fuel growth, improve cash flow and drive sales. It will also allow Wayflyer to improve liquidity and support its ambition to offer the most competitive rates to its customers, in the U.S, and Western Europe. 

Wayflyer is proud of the firm’s robust business model, its disciplined underwriting model, and its position as a leading partner to some of the largest financiers in the world. Wayflyer also agreed to a $300m debt line with J.P. Morgan earlier this year.

Helping to solve working capital problems globally! 

Wayflyer specializes in providing funding to e-commerce businesses, helping them solve critical working capital problems that can constrain growth. By improving cash flow its customers are able to seize new opportunities such as acquiring additional stock, hiring talent, or simply improving the profitability and resilience of their business. 

Aidan Corbett, Co-Founder, and CEO, of Wayflyer comments: “Now, more than ever, e-commerce businesses need access to fair, flexible, and affordable funding solutions from a trusted and resilient partner. “At a practical level, this deal helps support our objective to offer the fairest terms and the best rates to our customers while advancing Wayflyer’s unwavering commitment to being a trusted partner, irrespective of the impact of wider economic conditions on the market.” 

To apply for funding or to find out more about how Wayflyer is helping e-commerce businesses, visit HERE!

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eBay Germany has announced that will offer a loan service in alliance with online loan provider Iwoca. This credit solution will be eBay Flexi-Kapital by Iwoca and sellers on the marketplace will get access to funds within 24 hours after their request.

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Merchants on the online marketplace eBay can apply for working capital loans starting at 2.500 € and up to a top of 1 million euros. 

According to eBay, most of these credit approvals will be automated in real-time, which means that sellers will receive the funds within 24 hours of their request if they are approved. The service comes without interest, instead, sellers pay a one-time fixed fee.

Flexible repayments

eBay loan will offer a flexible repayment system linked to sales. Merchants who generate fewer sales will benefit by repaying less during that month. At the same time, sellers can also increase their credit if they encounter an unexpectedly higher demand. eBay's idea is to offer a credit line that can grow or diminish according to the seller's needs, so they can upscale quickly.

“With eBay Flexi-Kapital, we are now offering our dealers easy access to financing. The entire process is quick and uncomplicated: from the convenient, fully digital application to the timely decision and payment to the flexible, sales-based repayment.

With the new loan offer, we help our commercial sellers where they operate their businesses. In this way, especially in times of a more dynamic market environment, we are creating the necessary flexibility to counter delivery problems or rising energy prices.” said Oliver Klinck, Managing Director of eBay Germany.

Loans are on the rise

According to research conducted by Iwoca, the need for financing is above average among retail companies when compared to other sectors in Germany. 

At least 31% said they needed fast and easy access to loans in order to conduct their business more productively in the last year. Across other sectors, only 2 out of 10 respondents stated this sentiment.

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Canada's big e-commerce investor Clearco has recently launched in Germany. To this end, the firm has pledged €500 million to German online companies. Only a few months ago, the company had arrived in Ireland for the first time. 

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What is Clearco all about? 

Formerly known as Clearbank, Clearco is an e-commerce investment company based in Canada. Over the course of its history, it has financed more than 7,000 e-commerce companies and is estimated to have invested close to €3 billion for this purpose.

Germany becomes the seventh market in which Clearco operates. It joins Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia. In addition, the company says that more markets are on the horizon for the current year, especially in Central Europe, Western Europe, and the Northern countries. 

Clearco's interest in Germany

Germany is considered one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. But it also stands out as a country with a large and dynamic start-up sector. 

In terms of e-commerce in particular, Germany is one of the most important markets in Europe, along with the UK and France. However, according to the latest data, online commerce in the country has stagnated since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. 

The future plans

Just a few days ago, Clearco cut around 10% of its workforce in Dublin. The investment company could be affected by the current financial depression, especially in the technology sector, where several firms have made staff cuts, as was the case with the two giants Netflix and Gorillas. 

In any case, Clearco's expansion plans continue. It is targeting a funding round led by Softbank in July 2021. At that time, the company managed to raise around $215 million in growth capital. As such, the company expects to continue its growth across Europe this year.

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