Trip Advisor has launched a new subscription offering, Tripadvisor Plus, aimed at travellers who want to get access to discounts, personalised service, upgrades and other benefits for an annual membership fee of US$99. Like Amazon Prime and eBay Plus, the travel booking platform wants to appeal to customers willing to pay a premium for insider discounts and perks.

As many big players ramp up their loyalty program efforts, the ACCC has released a draft report highlighting a number of concerns about the programs, in particular the sharing of consumer data without consumer knowledge.

Amazon’s Prime Day sales launch in Australia failed to generate the membership and visitor increase expected to the company’s local online ecommerce offering and did not sufficiently close the expectation gap with consumers.

​Amazon is hoping for record Prime Day sales and sign-ups to Prime memberships in Australia, even after its website crashed at the beginning of the event.