L’Oréal, the French personal care company which boasts of a range of personal care products such as hair color, skincare, sun protection, makeup, perfumes, and hair care has come out with the next phase of its sustainability goals, under its new program known as “L’Oréal For the future”.

This skincare and makeup, french based giant began its move toward sustainability as early as in  2005 and created its ” Sharing beauty with all ”  program in 2013. This program, which intends to modernize the brand mainly focused on internal operations, supply chain, and manufacturing. The latest update not only adds to its thrust business areas, but it also focuses on customer’s reactions and awareness.

Through these plans, the company intends to respond to the sustainability of ecology and society along with its endeavor to reduce environmental impacts  as per its Executive group VP and chief corporate responsibility officer Alexandra Palt .“Our vision of sustainability for 2030 is two dimensional: transforming our business activity, but also contributing to solving the most urgent environmental and social challenges,” said Palt.

The  L’Oréal Group has focused on reducing its carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, as well as its water usage over the past seven years, but this did not adequately take into account the impacts of suppliers or consumers. L’Oréal will now focus on cutting carbon emissions per finished product unit by 50% by 2030, she said.

In the process of achieving this environmentally friendly target, all of its supply chain sites 100 %, manufacturing plants,  its distribution centers, and offices will be carbon neutral by the year 2025. Consumers can reduce their personal greenhouse gas emissions by 25%, by using green products by the year 2025.

The is a worthwhile milestone to achieve as the average American citizen produces over 16 tons of carbon emissions per year, according to 2017 data from Our World in Data.

Garnier will be the testbed for many environmental initiatives, including a new product labeling program that would be informing customers of the environmental and social texture of products. It will begin in 2020 and expand to its 65 markets by 2025. The program, touted as  Environmental & Social Impact Labelling will include an alphabetical score on a scale from A to E, with an “A” product considered as “best in class” in terms of environmental impacts, E being lowest.

The testing standards are set by Bureau Veritas Certification, an independent auditor. L’Oréal also moving towards achieving 100% post-consumer plastic or bio-sourced plastic packaging by the year 2030.

Worldwide, through this  Sharing Beauty With All program, the L’Oréal Group reduced carbon emissions by 78% as of 2019 and aims to achieve 80% by the end of 2020. Consequently, the company has increased its production by 37%, demonstrating that companies can grow and remain profitable while achieving sustainability, said Palt.

The company’s first-quarter results declared in April showed a 4.3% year-over-year fall in global sales, largely due to COVID-19, to $8.1 billion. However, sales from online platform grew 52.6% and now comprises nearly  20% of all global sales.

Danielle Azoulay L’Oréal USA head of corporate social responsibility and sustainability said “Companies who aren’t yet focusing on sustainability think that better environmental practices are a hindrance to economic growth. What we’ve shown is that we’re able to decouple our economic growth from our environmental footprint.”

We have seen the trend of fake reviews that have been a problem and has been growing from quite some time in the industry. There has also been a lot of talk about how platforms should tackle the fake review issue and how there should be a censor as to how fake reviews are displayed or not on their platform. Now, we have seen that platforms such as Amazon has started to remove fake reviews from their platform as soon as they detect them in order to only show the real reviews. Because as per a report, 97% customers tend to rely on reviews in order to make a purchase decision.

Now, if the number is so significant and other report that reveals 15-30% of reviews on any given platform are fake then there is a problem for user trust. For this reason, platforms have started to tackle the problem by hiding fake reviews, removing them altogether or some platforms have chosen to show the fake reviews but under the disclaimer that they are believed to be fake.

We now have a new surprise report for you regarding platforms that show fake reviews to customers while clearly marking them as fake. According to this report, it is believed that 80% of the customers are likely to prefer a platform that shows them reviews that are fake and ones that are not. Now, it is also seen that those fake reviews really don’t help customers make a decision for the product but they do help them in knowing what is fake about that review.

The research concludes that “We find consumers have more trust in the information provided by review portals that display fraudulent reviews alongside nonfraudulent reviews, as opposed to the common practice of censoring suspected fraudulent reviews,” while adding that “The impact of fraudulent reviews on consumers’ decision-making process increases with the uncertainty in the initial evaluation of product quality.”

Hennes & Mauritz AB, the  Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion, clothing for men, women, teenagers, and children, is shifting its focus on online shopping, closing its stores as coronavirus pandemic is still redefining the growth of consumer spending habits on online sites.

This Friday, the Swedish fast-fashion giant reported sales results for the first half of the year. Net sales showed a decline in 24 percent in local currencies during the period of Dec 1 – May 31. A further define of 50 percent was reported in the second quarter as stores were shut down due to coronavirus pandemic.

Correspondingly, online sales jumped by 32 percent between March 1 – May 31.

The company said it is taking action to lean down its store numbers at a much faster pace, focusing on closing 170 stores this year, 40 more than originally planned, cutting down on new openings.

“It is clear that the rapid changes in customer behavior caused by the pandemic will further the digitalization of fashion retail”, said its CEO Helena Helmersson in the earnings release on Friday.

Shopper behavior indeed is shifting online as more and more people are practicing safe distancing measures and are switching to online platforms.

She further commented “To meet this, we are continuing to adapt to the organization and improve our ways of working which will make u more flexible, fast, and efficient. We are accelerating our digital development optimizing the store portfolio and further integrating the channels”.

 its spokesperson however declined to comment on the fact that which major brand sales will be effected in such a closedown scenario. In the COVID times, we have already seen Inditex, the Zara brand flagship company, and Massimo Dutti as the major players who are closing nearly 100-1200 stores in the next two years focusing on nearly its one – fourth of total business sales through online platforms by 2022.

“Online sales are likely to remain more highly penetrated than they were before and this is something brands will need to assess”, said Neil Saunders, MD, Globe data retail in an email addressed to Business Insider. He further added that retailers who offer an omnichannel experience are best positioned for the future.

“The losers will be those retailers that are less adept in multichannel and which have large store estates which are increasingly irrelevant”, he finally added.

Will this shift have a lasting effect on online sales of the future, only time will tell.

LazadaGroup, the international e-commerce company founded by Maximilian Bittner with the backing of Rocket Internet in 2012, and owned by Alibaba Group announced Chun li as the new CEO. He has previously served as its president and head of Indonesian operations.

He will be replacing group CEO Pierre Poignant. He would however continue in his role as Indonesia CEO.

“Chun is an experienced business leader who can realize Lazada’s vision of unifying commerce with technology to advance Southeast Asia’s digital economy,” commented Chairwoman   Lucy Peng, Lazada Group.

Chun joined Alibaba in 2014 as its CTO for its business unit serving the business-to-business market. He was promoted as co-president of Lazada in June 2017, a time when  Alibaba took a majority stake in its holding. He was subsequently made the business head in July 2019 for Indonesia.

The outgoing CEO Pierre  Poignant will become a special assistant to the Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO, Daniel Zhang, Lazada said in a statement. Lazada uses Alibaba’s technology across its platforms.

This  Singapore-headquartered company made a statement earlier in the month that the COVID pandemic saw its grocery sales — sold through its online supermarket delivery business RedMart in Singapore — jump four times from early April. It was during these tough times when strict social distancing restrictions measures were implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Lazada further stated that it served over 70 million unique consumers across six different Southeast Asian markets in the financial year ending  March 31.

The ongoing pandemic may be full of hardships for the Africans, yet it is boosting the concept of online shopping in the world’s largest continent, where has been relatively slow to move in the past.

Africa had only around  21 million shoppers online, which is less than two percent of the world’s total equalling the same as Spain as per the latest data released by the UN.

Covid-19 had infected more than 2,60,000  in Africa, as of June 18, and safe distancing and lockdown restrictions have virtually lead to massive shutdowns as people are confined to their homes, closing shops.

As a result, the digital markets have taken the forefront in providing essential services and supplies.

“E-commerce has been a turnkey solution,” Torbjörn Fredriksson, head of e-commerce and digital economy at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informs  CNN Business. It has enabled “supply chains to continue to function and to get food from farms to tables,” he stated.

In November 2016, Farmcrowdy Limited began as, an agricultural digital platform connecting small scale farmers to investors with the goal of boosting food production in Nigeria. By April. it launched Farmcrowdy Foods, an online store where people can buy fresh food from farmers.

Kenneth Obiajulu, its MD, told CNN Business that it started developing the marketplace model in 2019, but decided to fast track the launch as Nigeria’s lockdown made it difficult for farmers to sell produce.

Using this digital platform, Farmcrowdy collects produce from its network of more than 25,000 farmers situated in the rural north part of the country, before transporting it to storage facilities in the south, near Lagos, where the major demand is.

“We list all the produce that we have sourced directly from the farmers. Then individuals can order it and get it delivered to their homes,” says Obiajulu. The response has been substantial.

Since its launch .it has received more than 2,000 orders through its hotline, WhatsApp, and mobile app. This has been more or less the piolet phase of the online market concept.

Flutterwave, another Nigerian start-up, was founded in 2016 by a team of ex-bankers, entrepreneurs, and engineers.  to provide businesses all around the world a powerful, reliable, and intelligent payment gateway. It launched an online marketplace in April, where businesses can set up a storefront on the platform and list and sell their goods. The service is now been extended to 15 African countries.

Olugbenga Agboola, the company’s founder, told CNN Business in May that the online platform was created as a lifeline for small companies that have been closed during lockdowns, and that more than 1,000 businesses had joined hands to sell products.

Jumia ( JIMA ), one of the continent’s largest e-commerce operators, reported a four times to jump in sales of groceries in the second half of March, compared with the same period last year — although its food delivery service was impacted by shut down of restaurants due to coronavirus.

CHANGE IN SHOPPING HABITS

Starting moderately, e-commerce in Africa was on the growth trajectory before the pandemic. According to UNCTAD, the number of online shoppers on the continent has grown by 21% annually since 2014, higher than the world’s average growth rate of 12%. The launch of new platforms in response to Covid-19 has accelerated this growth, says Fredriksson.

Wayfair Inc. is the American E-Commerce company that sells furniture and home goods, has become a top priority for shelter-in-place shoppers during this ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Formerly known as CSN Stores, the company was founded in 2002. It connecting shoppers to over 18 million products. The share price is going sky high during the pandemic.

The self-isolation period was a great game leveler for online furniture players. Other big rivals like  Ikea and Raymour and  Flanigan were shut because of stay-at-home orders, Wayfair remained open for business with its strong online presence.

Dan McCarthy, a professor of marketing at Emory University quoted .″I think Wayfair may be benefiting more from Covid-19 than almost any single other company except for like an Instacart,”

Williams Sonoma which operates Pottery Barn and West Elm — has a strong online business, too. during the COVID outbreak. The company had shown a 56% increased in revenue in 2019 from online sales in 2019.

That online business helped Williams-Sonoma weather the storm but it’s putting Wayfair up on the map and helping it to attract new customers.

In May, Wayfair announced first-quarter sales grew almost 20% from a year earlier, and the stock grew substantially. It has been trending higher ever since. On Monday, Wayfair shares hit the peak, a  52-week high of $200.28.Shares prices have soared are up 112% since January, as of Tuesday’s close.

However, Wayfair has had its share of problems and detractors.

“A business model of nightstands, credenzas, beds, sofas, sending them free shipping, guaranteeing the fact that the customer is going to like the product and it’s going to come not damaged is a high-risk business,” quoted  Andrew Left of Citron Research.

In 2019, Wayfair generated more than $9 billion in annual sales. but simultaneously also lost almost $1 billion. Wayfair is burning through profits to speed up growth. Its  2019 budget on advertising was over $1 billion. and long term investors have shown defiance and remain skeptical of the company’s path to profitability.

As the country is gradually coming out of the lockdown and stores are opening, Wayfair will have questions to answer: Will it finally  report  a profit, and  whether it can thrive after shelter-in-place orders are lifted and the rival market heats up

Adobe Inc announced that its revenue in its digital experience segment, which contains its e-commerce software, Magento Commerce increased 5% year over year to $826 million for the fiscal second quarter ended May 29.

Sales surged 18% in its digital media segment to $2.27 billion, this, signaling strong demand for its photoshop and productivity tools while customers work from home, the company made a statement on  Thursday.

The company, which specializes in software tools told its investors in March that the COVID 19  outbreak had created business uncertainty and reduced corporate marketing budgets, leading to weaker demand for its products.

However, Thursday’s results showed the damage to the business wasn’t as bad as predicted, as its quarterly sales increased by 14% to $3.13 billion. Analysts projected $3.16 billion.

GROWTH WITH CLOUD STRATEGY

Its president, chairman, and CEO, Shantanu Narayen has spurred Adobe’s revenue and market value to record heights since he transitioned the company to cloud-based software in 2012.

Before the COVID crises and recession, Adobe’s fast pace of growth was expected to slow, even as the company unveils a  consistently steady stream of new products to modernize clients’ technology systems and heighten mobile apps for consumers, designers, and social media players.

While this software giant has sought to diversify from the creative products that became household names with expensive bets on enterprise software, Photoshop, and its brother remains the company’s milking cash cow.

“We have successfully navigated several crises and have always used them as a catalyst to make a strategic and structural change to emerge stronger,” the CEO  said in a conference call after the results were out.

“Our employees, broad and diverse portfolio of products, strong balance sheet, and rigorous operating cadence put us in a rarified atmosphere among companies of our size and scale.” he further added.

The New York stock market responded by an increase of about 3% in extended trading after closing at $387.67.The stock has grown by about 18% this year.

Adobe said it will generate a profit of $2.40 a share in the current period, missing estimates by 5 cents. Profit, after some expenses, was $2.45 a share in the period ended May 29, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.34.

WEB CONTENT TOOLE AND NEXT-GEN APPS INVESTMENTS

Revenue from digital media is projected to increase by 16% year-over-year in the current period. Adobe said the unit’s annual recurring revenue will show a net increase of $340 million in the current period, pointing to continued growth for the business. The annualized recurring revenue for the digital media division was $9.17 billion at the end of the fiscal second quarter,  said a Thursday released statement.

Analysts, on average, estimated $9.03 billion, according to  Bloomberg’s estimates.

Adobe projected revenue of $3.15 billion in the current period ending in August, missing analysts’ average estimate of $3.27 billion,. This was primarily because of the weak demand for the company’s Advertising Cloud product. The company withdrew its annual forecast announced in December.

Adobe’s executives said that by stopping the product, which helped clients conduct advertising transactions, the company can instead invest in future growth areas, such as making web browsers a better platform for creating content, artificial intelligence, and next-generation apps.

Adobe has seen record web density for its document and creative products, but demand from small and mid-sized businesses has weakened during these COVID times.

Zara SA, the Spanish apparel retailer which specializes in fast fashion is in the process of closing its retail outlets in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Many of its shops remained closed since mid-march as the lockdown was enforced globally.

As per an announcement made on June 12th by its parent company Inditex, Zara will shut down between 100 to 1200 stores over the next two years and will focus on developing an online sales strategy.

The closings will be “stores at the end of their useful life” and “whose sales can be recovered in nearby stores and online,” the company said in a statement. The location of these stores, however, is not yet certain.

The company will “increase the online customer service teams and the dedicated packaging both from the specific online stockrooms and from the stores,” as well as offer customers “uninterrupted service no matter where they find themselves, on any device and at any time of the day.”, Inditex CEO Pablo Isla commented. He further stated that the company plans to invest $1 billion into its online shopping platforms over the next three years and another $1.7 billion on upgrading stores to be better equipped by “deploying advanced technology solutions.

Inditex reported a loss of about $460 million between February and April, coinciding with the shut-down of global locations due to COVID enforced social distancing measures, as reported by The Guardian.

Online sales, meanwhile, jumped by 50% in the same quarter, as compared to the previous year.

Coresight Research predicts as many as 25,000 U.S. stores could close this year. (For context, nearly 8,000 to 9,300 stores closed in the U.S. in 2018 and 2019, respectively). Shoppers can expect similar announcements to come from some of their other chosen brands.

In the past week, Fast Company reported that The Children’s Place, Guess, and Signet Jewelers all announced store closures. At the same time Victoria’s Secret, Gap, and JCPenney have also confirmed they’ve been forced to shut down some of their shops due to the ongoing crisis.

Experiences at the shopping malls as customers had before COVID-19  had may possibly never be the same again.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday instructed Amazon and eBay to discontinue selling certain pesticide containing products, which claim to fight off and sanitize a person against the deadly coronavirus.

Chlorine dioxide and methylene chloride, are two federally regulated toxic substances and have categorically being banned as products with toxic chemicals, as these were found in the products being sold by the e-commerce sites.

According to an EPA release, eBay marketed and sold 55-gallon drums of methylene chloride as a coronavirus disinfectant and paint stripper, which can potentially cause death in certain cases.

eBay was ordered to immediately stop selling more than 40 products, and Amazon over 30 products as some of them falsely claimed to provide “Epidemic Prevention,” “2020 Coronavirus Protection” and “complete sterilization including the current pandemic virus,” according to a press release by EPA. Both Amazon and eBay sold unregistered products that were not evaluated by the agency.

Both Amazon and eBay still had methylene chloride listed on their websites, which is “unapproved for use against the novel coronavirus,” the agency said.

Any company that manufactures and distributes any pesticide-containing products is required by law to register the product with the EPA.

In one case, the EPA said Amazon had sold multiple versions of a disinfectant that claimed to sanitize hospitals, offices, and homes, that contained chlorine dioxide, a hazardous gas that is connected to respiratory and lung issues. The products did not have even English-language directions for usage.

‘Amid the coronavirus pandemic, we have taken significant measures to block or quickly remove items from our marketplace that are unsafe, make false health claims or violate our zero-tolerance price gouging policy,” eBay said in a statement.

The companies also sold products that were mislabeled or lacked application directions, ingredients, and safety information on chemicals in the products. The agency informed that its Administrator Andrew Wheeler held discussions with the retailers in April on these illegal products.

“Despite those discussions, Amazon and eBay have thus far failed to consistently keep unregistered, misbranded, or restricted-use pesticides, and pesticide devices off their websites,”  EPA added.

An Amazon spokesperson informed  NPR that “Amazon requires that sellers provide accurate information on product detail pages and put processes in place to proactively block inaccurate claims about COVID-19 before they are published to our store. We removed the products in question and are taking action against the bad actors who listed them “.

The company further added that it is developing tools to scan for inaccurate claims.

This is not the first time Amazon has come under scrutiny for such a sale. In 2018, the company paid a penalty of $1.2 million for selling banned pesticides.

DHL Express, the American-founded German courier, parcel, and express mail service which is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL is on an expansion spree.

It is planning to add 400 new jobs in the US due to a double-digit increase in volumes compared with last year.

The express company said volumes had “significantly increased” in recent months due to a substantial increase in online shopping as people were staddled at home due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The COVID 19 outbreak has to lead to unprecedented demand in masks, gloves and other PPE also contributed to “Holiday-season-like volumes”, which came without the usual preseason, said DHL.

The company is adding about 150 jobs to handle the 30% year-over-year volume increase at the DHL Express Americas Hub, which is the  Cincinnati (Northern Kentucky) International Airport.

Furthermore, at its gateway at the Miami International Airport, about 30 jobs are being added to take care of a higher volume than last year, which is expected to increase another 22% with the addition of a new Hong Kong – Los Angeles – Miami flight in May.

This new flight will add approximately 45 more tons of capacity per flight and is scheduled to run in-bound five times per week. On the same lines, DHL Express’ gateway at O’Hare International will need more than 50 full-time employees to handle a  25% volume increase year-over-year in 2020.

The company “expects shipment volumes to remain high as businesses restock inventory to prepare for re-openings”.

The new jobs to be filled in the coming weeks include full- and part-time opportunities in direct management, clearance and gateway operations, pick-up and delivery service, and ramp and sorting operations throughout the US.

“Inbound shipment volume is booming, particularly from Asia,” quoted, the chief executive for DHL Express US, Greg Hewitt

“Our customers are relying on us to deliver their shipments, whether it’s personal protective equipment (PPE) or home necessities, so we must add staff at our hubs, gateways, and on the road to continue providing our customers with excellent service. Our challenge this year is that we’re seeing peak volumes in the summer, which is a nontraditional time. We normally have time to prep for peak season,” he further added.

Indonesia-based marketplace for small retailers, Ula recently announced that it has raised $10.5mn in a seed funding round.

The funding round was led by Sequoia India and Lightspeed India. SMDV, Saison Capital, Alter Global, and other prominent angels, including the whole founding team of Banglore headquartered B2B marketplace Udaan, were the participants.

This Jakarta based new startup operates a wholesale e-commerce marketplace to help store owners stock only the inventory they need and also grants them with working capital. The five-month-old company aims to help small retailers solve inefficiencies that they face in the supply chain, inventory, and working capital.

The company has offices in India, Singapore, and Indonesia. Ula will use the funds to enhance its technological infrastructure. The company is currently setting up tech teams in India, Singapore, and Indonesia and also hiring across roles in category management, analytics, credit as well as city leaders in Indonesia.

Derry Sakti, Co-founder of Ula said: “A grocery store might need to source inventory from up to 50 different sources (wholesalers/ distributors) every week and sometimes order in bulk to get better rates, even when they don’t need such large quantities”.

Traditional retail still accounts for the vast majority of retail sales in Asian countries. The shop owners, who are family-based, know how to run their businesses in a cost-efficient manner. But the challenge is while accessing day to day working capital and sourcing inventories.

Launched in January 2020, the company says it operates as a multi-category wholesale marketplace that aims to help small store owners access product selections, prices, and working capital to increase their incomes.

“As more small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesia begin to adopt technology, platforms such as Ula could help them streamline their businesses. Ula has a highly experienced team bringing together the right mix of experience in local and global e-commerce, retail and fintech markets and we are excited to be early partners in this journey,” said Abheek Anand, Sequoia Capital MD.

Ula’s current focus is on daily needs consumer goods (such as FMCG and Staples), and is currently in private beta and predominantly servicing East Java. Over the next year, it plans to expand across the Java island and expand across categories such as apparel and electronics.

“For us, the true measure of Ula’s success will be in how much we can improve our customers’ lives and businesses. Our collective vision is to revolutionize SMB trade using technology, helping increase their efficiency and providing them with tools to conduct their business seamlessly and more profitably,” said Riky Tenggara, co-founder of Ula.

The business has grown 10 times since launch, with several customers returning to buy more and more. Stores have purchased more in May during the ongoing COVID crises than they did earlier this year, the startup claimed, without disclosing its exact figures.

Ula was founded by Nipun Mehra, Alan Wong, Derry Sakti and Riky Tenggara in January this year.

Tenggara was part of the early team at e-commerce giant Lazada, while Sakti was working with  P&G’s operations in Indonesia. Ula’s other co-founders  Nipun Mehra, who helped build businesses and categories at Amazon and Flipkart and was part of the leadership team Pine Labs, the Indian payments firm; and Alan Wong, who helped build distributed systems in the supply chain management, search and catalog at Amazon.

Zara SA, the Spanish apparel retailer which specializes in fast fashion, and products include clothing, accessories, shoes, swimwear, beauty, and perfumes.  plans to invest one billion dollars to boost its online sales over the next three years. It is the largest company in the Inditex group and the world’s largest apparel retailer.

The post COVID scenario will be focused more on E-commerce as stores have begun to open worldwide. The company aims to have 25 percent of total sales through its online model by 2022.

It is also spending USD 1.7 billion on upgrading its stores to become more integrated with its online platform by “deploying advance technology solutions” as said. The Spanish fast-fashion retailer announced the news on Wednesday, along with announcing it’s first-quarter earnings.

Inditex, which has nearly 7,500 stores across the globe has rapidly expanded in the last 15 years opening stores in 96 different countries.

Zara stores cozy up to the most famous brands in the world to sing their luxury ambitions even as they profit off a brilliant, cheap, short supply chain that delivers similar fashion at a much lower price.

Zara has made its name as one of the fastest-growing brands in fashion retail. By the end of the first quarter, only 965 of its stores were open during the global lockdown yet its online sales increased by 95 %, being overall up by 50 % in the first quarter.