Amazon is following the recent refresh of its super-affordable

Amazon is following the recent refresh of its super-affordable Fire 7 tablet ($59.99) with a 2022 update to the slightly larger and costlier Fire HD 8. This simple 8-inch slate has a bigger, sharper display than the Fire 7, but mostly keeps the specs and performance in check to reach a $99.99 price (with ads). So while it isn't a powerhouse by any means, it offers easy access to gobs of media at a price that most competing 8-inch tablets can't match. But despite the Fire HD 8's appeal over the sluggish, low-res Fire 7, the Fire HD 10 ($149.99) remains our Editors' Choice winner for affordable tablets thanks to its full HD display and peppier performance.

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Fire HD 8 Pricing and Models

Amazon markets the Fire HD 8 at $99.99, but that's not 100% accurate. You can buy the tablet at that price, sure, but you'll be forced to sit through advertisements on the lock screen. The ads appear as wallpaper and you'll encounter them every time you turn the tablet on. You have to pay $15 extra (across all Fire tablets) to get an ad-free experience. That means the ad-free price of the Fire HD 8 is actually $114.99. It's up to you to decide if that price differential is important to you. We generally think it's worth the $15 to get the ad-free experience.

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It's also worth noting that Amazon offers a Fire HD 8 Plus with more RAM and faster charging for $119.99 (with ads). There's also the Fire HD 8 Kids, which includes child-focused features such as a protective case and a subscription to Amazon Kids+ for $149 (without ads).

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A Decent Screen for the Price

Amazon doesn't pay much attention to tablet design other than perhaps how it serves functionality, which means you won't find fancy materials or top-notch build quality here. The Fire HD 8 is a basic, no-frills tablet that isn't overly attractive. It comes in three colors: Black, Denim, or Rose. Our review unit is Black, which amplifies the simplicity of the design.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès Bags Hit Amazon Through Secondhand Distributor

 

The many luxury brands that have declined Amazon’s requests to sell on their platform are in for a surprise.

On Thursday, the e-commerce giant is unveiling its latest Amazon Luxury Store: A partnership with reseller What Goes Around Comes Around that places pre-owned and vintage bags from some of luxury’s biggest players — like Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel, Prada, Gucci and Rolex — on Amazon’s site.

The new shop sees some 500 items available for purchase on Amazon. Over the next two months that number will increase to an inventory exceeding 2,000 bags — as well as select small accessories and jewelry. Pre-owned Rolex watches are also now for sale on Amazon through WGACA.

Amazon to stream first-ever ‘Black Friday’ game in 2023

 

The National Football League (NFL) announced its first-ever “Black Friday” game will stream on Amazon Prime Video next year, building on the relationship between the league and the streaming giant.

The NFL already has a stranglehold on Thanksgiving broadcasts, with its annual lineup of Thursday games as common as turkey on the table in households across the United States for the annual American holiday.

It is now staking its claim on the unofficial annual “Black Friday” shopping promotion, when bargain-seekers hunt for holiday deals at big-box stores and online.

The move comes after the NFL made Amazon its exclusive partner for “Thursday Night Football” games in a long-term media deal last year.

“Thanksgiving is synonymous with football and we’re excited to give our fans another day of NFL action during this holiday weekend,” NFL Media Chief Operating Officer Hans Schroeder said in a statement.

“Amazon is uniquely positioned to partner with us for this game as Black Friday is one of the most important days of the year for their business.”

The game will air Nov. 24, 2023, at 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT).

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters the league had not made a commitment to continue to the broadcast beyond 2023 but hinted there could be more “Black Friday” games to come.

“We’ll announce plans as we go,” he said. “Certainly we don’t do things normally for one year.”

NFL owners converged in New York on Monday for their quarterly meeting, where players’ health and safety were expected to be among a wide variety of topics discussed

Amazon extends UPS as option for seller-fulfilled returns

 

Dive Brief:

• Amazon has extended the use of UPS as a customer option for seller-fulfilled returns, according to a company announcement last week. Originally running from Sept. 5 to Oct. 2, the choice is now available until Nov. 1.
• When it announced the “short-term experiment” in August, Amazon told sellers that providing customers with the convenience to drop off their return at a UPS store would encourage them to buy more. Customers could already send seller-fulfilled returns through the U.S. Postal Service.
• Amazon said last week it will automatically reimburse the cost difference between UPS and USPS shipping labels. Some sellers had complained that customers returning shipments via UPS would cost more.

Dive Insight:

Amazon’s extension of the UPS option for seller-fulfilled returns underscores the two companies’ enduring ties, even as UPS reduces the share of its revenue from the online retail giant.

Beyond its status as UPS’ largest customer, Amazon is also a notable driver of returns made through the parcel carrier. That was the case before Amazon rolled out the new option for seller-fulfilled returns — customers can return eligible items for free at more than 4,768 UPS Store locations, Amazon noted in a January blog post.

UPS Store locations are a crucial piece in Amazon’s current returns processing approach, as “nobody does returns better,” wrote Dean Maciuba, managing partner USA at Crossroads Parcel Consulting, in a LinkedIn post.

“UPS could choose to leverage this service offering to Amazon if the [e-commerce] giant should decide to pull the plug on UPS deliveries, and UPS wants to keep Amazon deliveries in the network,” Maciuba wrote.

Amazon has made up a smaller share of UPS’ total revenue since it aggressively expanded its own logistics network to keep up with pandemic-fueled demand. The company was tied to 11.7% of UPS’ total revenue in 2021, down from 13.3% in 2020, according to a securities filing from the parcel carrier.

“We’ve contractually agreed on what makes sense for us versus what makes sense for them,” UPS CEO Carol Tomé said on a July earnings call of the relationship between the two companies. “That means both volume and revenue for Amazon is coming down.”

Tomé said UPS projects Amazon revenue will be less than 11% of total revenue by the end of this year as the company continues its “better, not bigger” approach that prioritizes more profitable shipments.

Amazon’s new, experimental UPS returns option specifically applies to items under its Prepaid Returns Label program.

Through the program, Amazon sends customers a prepaid return shipping label on the seller’s behalf if a customer requests a return within the allowable time period, according to EcomCrew, a blog run by online store owners. Sellers who fulfill their own Amazon orders, rather than using the company’s own fulfillment services, are automatically enrolled in this program.

Most third-party sellers on Amazon have a returns policy mirroring what the company offers, but they can still vary, according to the company’s website. These sellers, which fulfill and ship their own inventories, must provide a U.S. return address, a prepaid return label or offer a full refund without needing the item returned.

Editor’s note: This story was first published in our Logistics Weekly newsletter.