ECOMMERCE: UPS reported a 10% growth in net income for the first quarter, as the company touted its ability to drive efficiencies in its ecommerce operations – with volume up 6% in the period, the highest in five quarters – through its own route optimization software, the use of collection points and more of a focus on handling its own last-mile deliveries.

ECOMMERCE: Purple has a fleet of about 80 cars with up to a half-dozen five-gallon gas canisters in the trunk. “We wanted to ­give an option to drivers to skip the gas station, as if they were ordering an Uber or a Lyft,” said Uzzan. Speaking of ride-hailing services, some of Purple’s drivers pick up passengers for Uber between refuel gigs, according to Uzzan.

ECOMMERCE: Application development is changing. Frameworks, services, and even tools make it possible to rapidly create web and mobile applications custom to a business’s needs. These changes mean that it may make sense for some large and mid-sized ecommerce businesses to build their own custom platforms rather than using “off the shelf” ecommerce solutions.

ECOMMERCE: Lancome and Target's promos appear between Cosmo's articles and videos, each with a 10-second call-to-action instructing viewers to "swipe up" for more. Copy on Target's ad reads, "New products every week." Swiping down on the screen pulls up a loading page with Target's mobile site where people can shop the products featured in the ad—like plant stands and water bottles.

MEDIA: To grow and justify its lofty valuation, five-year-old Medium now needs to morph into a full-featured platform. (This is part two of a series—part one is here.)  Pitching Medium’s doesn’t require a thick deck of slides. Today, the platform is essentially an elegant, minimalist publishing and social system.

MEDIA: As consumers increasingly turn to online marketplaces, artisan makers and small businesses for their purchases, well-known brands must push the limits of their advertising and engagement strategies to remain relevant in the minds of their shoppers. In the Future of Advertising Report, PSFK Labs identifies leading marketing strategies from best-in-class companies

MEDIA: Publishers in the study stressed that native ad content needs to be relevant, engaging and credible to meet brand goals. Most said said they sought also to produce sponsored content that was a good fit with their publications — adopting the voice and tone of their overall editorial report and meeting their audience’s expectations.

DATA: After rising in February, the cost to acquire a loyal mobile user has gone down. According to marketing technology company Fiksu, that number fell to $3.21 in March. That’s down 7 percent from February. However, the number of apps downloaded in the top 200 free iOS apps — which was at 7.6 million downloads — also fell 7 percent from February 2016 and 11 percent from the same period last year.

ECOMMERCE: Swiping through apps and sites is nothing new. Consumers have been swiping through social networks like Facebook and Instagram for years. And recently, several online retailers have adopted the same type of swipe interface, being nicknamed “Tinderization” in their mobile shopping experience. Shoppers can swipe right if they like an item and swipe left to dismiss it.

MEDIA: Bloomberg Pursuits, which has a rate base of 375,000, was redesigned and relaunched in June 2015. The magazine's March issue will focus on jewelry and watches, and the May issue will focus on travel.. According to data provided by a spokeswoman, the average household income of a Bloomberg Pursuits reader is $575,000.