🍋 Free Returns are Too Expensive

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Good Morning! Amazon’s trying to take over the world - but first, it will try and take over the film industry. The company will reportedly invest up to $1 billion annually on movies and release 10-15 titles per year.

Apple will address worker complaints in China by offering $1,400 payments for unhappy workers. A report that Zuckerberg will resign next year surfaced, but Meta was quick to squash those rumors.

And it’s been a big week for crypto during the FTX aftermath. Binance deployed $1 billion to keep the crypto industry afloat and will try and buy struggling crypto companies. And a few crypto-addicted couples found that Bitcoin and NFTs ruined their relationships. Welcome to dating in 2022 I guess.

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1. Story of the Day: Free Returns are Too Expensive

Before you make YOLO bulk holiday purchases and return whatever doesn’t fit, you should probably read the fine print. Free returns have been a staple of e-commerce for years. But amidst thinning margins and supply chain woes, some companies want to do away with them.

Stricter online return policies speak to how far e-commerce has come. Even 10 to 15 years ago, e-commerce was like the Wild West. Some shoppers were hesitant about buying products they hadn’t seen in person. Free returns became a way for companies to build trust.

But things have gotten a little out of hand. Nobody expected e-commerce to blow up the way it did during the pandemic. This year, over two-thirds of Americans, said they ‘bracket’, which means buying clothes in bulk and returning whatever doesn’t fit.

But free returns en masse are hurting e-commerce companies’ bottom lines. These companies are under investor pressure to boost profitability, and most lose money off shipping and returns as is. Some companies think rolling back free returns could be a good first step.

Takeaway: The shift away from free returns reveals the power dynamic between e-commerce companies and consumers. Before Covid, e-commerce companies had to make concessions like free returns to win over consumers. But now that they’ve built a strong company base, they want to start passing costs to customers a bit more. Whatever happens, though - don’t get your hopes up the sweatshirt you buy online will come in the right size.

Private Dealmaking

• Swell, a virtual power plant startup, raised $120 million

• AppHub bought Reviews.io, a customer reviews platform, for $72 million

• Prosper, a California lending platform, raised $75 million

• Celebal Technologies, a software consultancy, raised $32 million

• Ramani, a Tanzanian fintech startup, raised $32 million

• Sembcorp Industries bought Vector Green Energy for $345 million

Top Reads

• CEO of $4.5 billion tech firm slams peers over layoffs (CNBC)

• Gulf markets mixed on falling oil, signs of Fed slowdown (Reuters)

• A toast to the tiny steps (Be More)

• How bad are the ‘iPhone City’ riots for Apple stock? (YF)

• A December rally could arrive, but first half of 2023 could be rough (CNBC)

• The world is run by people no smarter than you (Swyx)

• Why micro habits are better than traditional habits (Durmonski)

• Stop taking billionaires at their word (Vox)

• Black Friday’s surprise vanishing act (Axios)

• A home price slump is coming, and rising inflation could make it worse (CNN)

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4. Book of the Day: The Code Capital

What is it that transforms a simple object, an idea, or a promise to pay into an asset that creates wealth?

Katharina Pistor explains how, behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, capital is created―and why this little-known activity is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else.

A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time, The Code of Capital explores the various ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are selectively coded to protect and reproduce private wealth.

This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it.

“Compelling explanation of how the law shapes the distribution of wealth.”

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6. Daily Visual: Counties With More Turkeys Than People

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: How Long is "Never"?

“It changes. It changes as we age, and it changes depending on the situation.

A second-grader might think that a boring class is never going to end.

A bad cold might feel endless, unless we have the perspective of someone who has experienced a chronic problem.

Some things actually deserve “never.”

But most of what we’re worried about probably would be better categorized as “eventually.”

Source: Seth Godin

8. Crypto Corner

• The failure of FTX and SBF will leave deep scars

• Crypto has survived worse than the fall of FTX

• FTX’s ownership of a U.S. bank raises questions

• How SBF’s plans to save the world went up in flames

• Cathie Woods still sees Bitcoin going to $1 million

• Crypto winter highlights gold’s warming qualities

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9. Memes of the Day

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