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E-commerce firm Peixe might buy electric scooter startup Grow

E-commerce firm Peixe
E-commerce firm Peixe

In recent times, you must have heard a lot of similar reports where an e-commerce firm is looking to invest in or acquire an electric startup. Now, the biggest reason behind this is that everyone is expecting the future to be electric. So this will give a headstart for e-commerce companies to convert their fleet to electric and even make money out of it. The biggest report on these lines was Amazon investing in electric startup Rivigo and also pledging to buy electric trucks for their delivery fleet.

Now, a new report has emerged where it is known that an e-commerce firm named Peixe is looking to acquire an electric scooter startup named Grow. This is also sensible since the scooters are used most when it comes to last-mile delivery and it also creates a lot of pollution in the cities. Therefore, electric scooters would mean that their cost would be decreased as well as making an effort for a sustainable environment.

As per Reuters, the deal is not yet finalized but adds that it is very close to being finalized. The report also mentions that there is a possibility of a scenario where there is a cashless transaction in which Grow would receive shares in Peixe. Grow, a Latin American startup is one where the Silicon Valley top venture capitalists have shown interest too. It is fair to say that this is the hottest startup right now in Latin America.

This Mexico City-based startup, however, has been struggling in recent months to find a business model that works well for them. It is also said to be the reason why Grow is looking for buyers who have a plan to make their electric scooters work in the market. While the details are not revealed, this information is available from people close to these talks.

Greece’s Convert Group raises €1.2M to help FMCG e-commerce brands

We have talked a lot about how e-commerce stores are performing around the world. However, this is not a case of the industry being full of success stories. Because there are failures and stores getting no sales in years in the e-commerce space.

Therefore, it is helpful to have a strategy which guarantees sales for the particular e-commerce store. Now, there is a firm in Greece named as Convert Group which helps FMCG stores in the e-commerce stores to understand how their performance has been and how they can improve. This is via a SaaS or software-as-a-service product developed by Convert Group.

The Convert Group from Greece has just announced the raising of a new round of funding which is close to €1.2 million. This is seed funding from the Convert Group also known as the first round of funding. This funding has been done by Uni.fund, which is backed by the EquiFund investment platform.

As we mentioned earlier, this is the first time that Convert Group has raised money from outside. Up until now, the company was running as a bootstrapped one since its founding in 2014.

The product from Convert Group is named “eRetail Audit” and it is described as a platform where e-commerce market share data will be provided for “sell-out” consumer products.

Explaining further, Convert Group CEO says that “As strange as it may seem, e-commerce market share [data] for FMCGs in value, volume or units was virtually non-existent across the world,”.

“Companies like Nielsen, IRI, and IQVIA only had solutions for the traditional retail ecosystem and were not prepared for the meteoric speed FMCG online sales were increasing. We created a platform called eRetail Audit that connects to the online retailer in real-time, on a data-for-data free model, and we managed to grab online sales in extreme accuracy and detail, per SKU with basket-level aggregation and marketing data.”

Burlington Store shutting down e-commerce site, focusing on retail for now

Burlington Stores
Burlington Stores

We have seen a lot of trends getting reversed in the industry and this is the same for the e-commerce industry as well. For example, we have reported that e-commerce stores are taking the place of retail stores all over the world. However, this does not mean that it will be a modus operandi because there are retailers which are not following that trend. Talking about that, some handful of retailers who were already running an e-commerce store are shutting it down to focus more on their retail sales.

Now, this is something where every retailer has its own way. Think about something that people would still like to buy at retail stores rather than shopping online. These type of retailers can focus on their retail presence rather than their online presence. Talking about such retailers, a report now reveals that Burlington Stores has joined that list. It is one of the retailers which is shutting down their e-commerce site and focusing on retail stores.

According to Burlington Stores, their “e-commerce only accounted for 0.5% of sales and customers prefer the treasure hunt in physical shops”. Now, the explanation is quite honest and justified given the fact that such low percentage of sales would force anyone, be it small or big, to think about that channel of sales. The company says that they will be focusing more on brick-and-mortars business and expansion of the same.

In a statement, Burlington Stores revealed that “In our business, which is a moderate off-price business, the nature of the treasure hunt and the average price point that we operate at mean that brick-and-mortar stores have a significant competitive and economic advantage over e-commerce,” They also revealed the fact that “We will also continue to aggressively expand and upgrade this store network through our new store opening and remodel programs.”

Walmart merges its Grocery app with the main app and site

It is known that you needed to download a new app on your phone for browsing and even shopping for grocery via Walmart. This was because the general shopping app and the grocery shopping app for Walmart were different. Now, this is a trend followed by most players in the industry and even Amazon is doing it. However, it looks like Walmart’s experiment with that has failed or they did not see the results out of that separation.

This is why we can now report that Walmart is merging its grocery app with the main Walmart app and even the website. This means you can now see and buy grocery from the main Walmart app or website and no other app is necessary for the same. This is also a way by the company to make more people buy their grocery who are browsing the Walmart main app.

A Sensor Tower report shows that Walmart’s grocery app was much less in reach compared to the main Walmart app. As per this report, Walmart’s main app has been downloaded 103+ million times since January 2014 across both iOS and Android. Today, it’s the No. 2 app in the iOS App Store’s Shopping section. Walmart Grocery, meanwhile, has seen more than 16 million downloads across iOS and Android during that same time period. It’s also ranked further down (No. 30) in the Shopping section on the App Store.

Walmart explained that “Bringing all of our assets and all of our capabilities together in one place is really the natural next step,” and add that this move makes perfect sense because it is the better representation of people’s shopping habits. This move also helps people shopping on Walmart to know that grocery delivery is available and that they can order it to pick up on their way home or get it at their doorsteps.

Alibaba funding an online shopping festival with $144M in subsidies to boost spending

Alibaba sales
Alibaba sales

You must be aware that China is hit by one of the worst epidemics of all time which is the Coronavirus. Now, the problem with this virus outbreak is that it has also impacted the economy of China. Since the country is in a “state of semi-quarantine”, most of the people are staying indoors and are out of jobs. This means that their spending on products has decreased massively. And even though we have reported that the e-commerce are increasing, those are low-ticket products such as sanitizers and napkins and items that are needed for daily usage.

For this reason, e-commerce companies in China are hurting badly and China’s biggest e-commerce firm has to do something about it. For this reason, Alibaba has now decided to organize an online shopping festival which it hopes will boost sales in the country. Also, this shopping festival will be funded for $1billion yuan in subsidy by the firm just to off-set the impact of coronavirus and keep things moving.

Now, we know that this is one of the biggest risks that Alibaba is going to take since a long time. Because while we know that the discounts during online shopping festivals will make them buy the items, it is still left to see if the items will be sold in numbers are high as the last shopping festival by Alibaba which was the 11.11 Singles’ day sale which recorded the highest purchases at 268 billion yuan.

This is even higher than the period in the US between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday which is believed to be a great time for buyers to score on discounts and sales. It is worth noting that Alibaba’s 11.11 sale runs for only 24 hours whereas the US’ Black Friday sales have a five-day period which was started even earlier in 2019.

Target beats earnings expectations but revenue falls short

Target CEO
Target CEO

Target which is one of the largest retailers in the US, which has also become one of the top 10 e-commerce retailers, has just reported its fourth-quarter numbers. The company’s figures show that they have beat the earnings expectations but they have not managed to beat their revenue expectations. Target says that the revenue fell short because of low demand for toys, electronics and home goods during the holiday season.

However, Target says that its growth in the same-day delivery sector has been great and it adds that the online order delivery contributed to 80% of its digital sales growth in the fourth quarter. The company also reveals that its earnings per share will revolve around the $6.70 to $7 mark whereas the market predicts it to be $6.87 per share.

The key highlights of Target’s fourth-quarter report are as follows:

  • Earnings per share, adjusted: $1.69 vs. $1.65 expected
  • Revenue: $23.40 billion vs. $23.50 billion expected
  • Same-store sales growth: 1.5% vs. 1.5% expected

It is to be noted that while the earnings per share were expected to be $1.65, it was actually $1.69 but the revenue fell short of the $23.50 billion expected to slightly below that at $23.40 billion.

Apart from investing in its stores and expanding its e-commerce business at a time when brick-and-mortar stores are closing down, Target has also launched apparel brands and recently added a new activewear line, All in Motion, and new luggage line, Open Story.

Target’s CEO revealed that “The strategic investments we’ve made over the past several years to elevate the shopping experience, curate our multi-category assortment at scale, and deliver ease and convenience through our fulfilment capabilities are deepening our relationship with our guest,”

On the topic of coronavirus, Target’s CEO reveals that the retailer has seen “aggressive shopping” as people across the U.S. respond to rising coronavirus cases but maintains that impact on them has not been felt yet.

E-commerce companies could be made liable for counterfeit goods soon

Counterfeit goods
Counterfeit goods

We have seen how the e-commerce companies are facing a problem of third-party sellers selling counterfeit products on their platform. This is also the reason why big retailers such as Nike and others have left Amazon.

Since they are selling original products on the platform which also shows customers products looking similar at a much lower price, there is a dilemma and the sales of bigger retailers are hurting due to it.

Due to this, there has been a lot of talk about how e-commerce companies should tackle this problem and who should be held responsible for the same. Now, a new bill has been introduced in the US which says that e-commerce companies should be held responsible for counterfeit goods available on the respective platforms. Also, this bill is a bipartisan one which means that it is likely to become a law very soon.

The reasoning behind this bill is that even though the goods might be sold by third-party sellers, it is the platform which is responsible for approving those products and this is a way to make them have tighter control over what is being sold on the platform.

This bill recommends that if there is a failure to take these steps then those e-commerce firms can be held liable for the sale of counterfeits.

Now, this seems to be a great solution for people who get duped by such counterfeit goods since they can get their refunds from the platform where they bought it without worrying about who sold the product.

On this bill, eBay said that “Counterfeits are not welcome on eBay. We are reviewing the legislation and will continue to work with the Committee on this important issue.”. Also, Amazon acknowledged the bill saying that “We are actively fighting bad actors and protecting our store and we will continue to work with brands, government officials, and law enforcement,”

Lazada, e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba, sees ‘unprecedented demand’ in Singapore

Redmart
Redmart

It is known that Alibaba is one of the biggest firms in China and its reach is not just limited to the Aliexpress shopping portal. Because there are several other platforms which are either owned or Alibaba has invested in. One of these e-commerce platforms is called Lazada and it is quite famous in many parts of the world such as Indonesia and Singapore. Now, you will also be aware of the spread of Coronavirus in parts of South East Asia such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

Therefore, it is seen that online sales and delivery will rise in these parts of the world too. And while we say this, a new report has arrived from Singapore which is from Lazada. The company says that they are seeing “unprecedented demand” in Singapore on their platform. This demand is particularly regarding online grocery delivery and it is quite obvious too. Since people are afraid of going outside to buy grocery and other items, most of them are starting to order online and this increases the demand.

Now, the grocery arm of Lazada is named as RedMart and it has revealed that the demand has been unprecedented even after the brief period of panic-buying due to the virus outbreak. Also, an express delivery company named Ninja Van also says that its deliveries have tripled in February and most of them include pharmacy and health category products.

As for the spread of the virus in Singapore, we have reports of 96 confirmed cases in the country and it is great to reveal that 66 of those patients have already been discharged.

Lazada Singapore’s CEO says that shoppers “have been buying 4 to 10 times more food staples, 3.5 to 5 times more paper products, and 2 to 6 times more personal care and household cleaning supplies,” which is why the demand is much higher.

Walmart names Jamie Iannone its Deputy E-commerce chief

Jamie Iannone
Jamie Iannone

We have reported a lot about Walmart and how it absolutely dominated the retail industry for quite some time now. However, things have changed and Walmart is now facing the challenge of repeating its retail success in the e-commerce sector as well.

But we also know that Amazon is the one which has a lead right now due to its early start in the industry. In any case, Walmart has the backing and the investments so it will put all its efforts to make the e-commerce strategy work as well.

For this reason, we are seeing a lot of growth in Walmart’s e-commerce business but we know that they are currently burning money and not earning anything out of it. Leadership of any platform also plays a big role in how the platform performs. And Walmart’s e-commerce business now has a deputy chief who will be under the current chief of Walmart’s e-commerce business.

The company has named Jamie Iannone as the deputy and he is given the role of Chief Operating Officer. Before being appointed the COO of Walmart’s e-commerce division, Iannone was already working in the web, membership and marketing operations of Walmart’s retailer wholesale subsidiary named Sam’s Club.

At Sam’s Club, Iannone was also leading operations such as improving online sales and customer service. Interestingly, Iannone will have John Furner as his CEO who he has already worked with in the past during his time at Sam’s Club. Now, this is also a fair indication that Walmart sees Iannone leading its e-commerce division in the future after the departure of Lore.

Lore is the owner of startup named Jet.com which he sold to Walmart in 2016 for $3.3 billion and he still has an year and a half of its current role to improve company’s business.

During his tenure at Sam’s Club, Iannone introduced “Ask Sam”, an app which works like Siri to gives employees ability to find information without asking their managers.

US’ Home Depot beats expectations on the back of e-commerce

Home Depot
Home Depot

Yesterday, we reported that Target has now entered the list of top 10 e-commerce retailers in the US. However, there was another retailer in that list which has gone under the radar a bit. This retailer from the US is Home Depot which also has a strong retail presence as well as an online one. The story for most US retailers has been similar in the sense that everyone has had a strong retail presence but they are now investing in their online business too and so is Home Depot.

Talking about Home Depot, a new report has now emerged which is regarding the revenues posted by the company. It is revealed that the company has exceeded expectations for revenue last year and have surged on Wall Street. However, it is also worth noting that Home Depot had lowered its expectations from last year which might have contributed to this higher-than-expected revenues too.

The contributing factors to the Home Depot revenue beat were strong holiday sales along with the fact that their sales of appliances were above average. Now, it is known that Home Depot is running an investment program for $11 billion which is over a three-year period which is to integrate its brick-and-mortar business along with its online business. As per a statement from the Home Depot CEO, he believes that the latest earnings show that their investments are starting to pay off.

Regarding their online sales, Home Depot’s CEO says that they have “stepped up its digital shopping experiences, such as adding better search functionality to its website and in-store labels that allow customers to read an item’s digital ratings”. He added that “We’re excited about our e-commerce business as part of a whole interconnected retail strategy,” and he even said that “We believe that the front door of our store is now in the customer’s pocket”.

Amazon’s first cashierless grocery store is now open

Amazon Go grocery store
Amazon Go grocery store

We have been mentioning quite a lot about how Amazon is innovating in the retail industry even though its main business is e-commerce at the moment. This is because many still believe that the future of e-commerce is retail only.

In saying that, people give the argument that people who buy online will find it convenient to then pick up the items from their nearest stores for quick delivery. Having said that, there is a lot of talk about retail innovation also needs to be done as the current form of retail industry might not be its future.

Amazon has already innovated a lot for the retail sector and one of its biggest innovations is the Amazon Go cashier-less store. In these stores, you don’t have to pay anything since there is no cashier at the time of checkout.

All you have to do is pick up the items you want to buy and just walk out of the store. Behind the scenes, the Amazon Go store cameras will detect what you have picked up and you will be charged directly in the Amazon wallet.

People say that this is the most convenient way of shopping in retail stores since they no longer have to stand in a queue and wait for their turn to pay for the items they have purchased.

Now, Amazon has opened its first cashier-less store for groceries. From this grocery store, which is based in Seattle, people can buy fresh produce, meat, seafood, bakery items, household essentials, dairy, easy-to-make dinner options, beer, wine and spirits, and more.

These stores also have the advantage of freeing the staff at the stores for restocking as fast as they can so that no one waits for the items to be restocked. This way, the customer service at these stores is improved to a whole new level.

E-commerce contributed 11% of US’ retail industry sales in 2019

While everyone has been talking about how retail is dead and everyone should move to the e-commerce platforms, the picture is somewhat different right now. Now, we don’t mean to say that e-commerce growth is something to ignore. That is absolutely not the case but we believe that the retail industry should not be underestimated right now. Because while the data shows that e-commerce is contributing to the growth of overall sales in the US, the retail industry still has a clear majority.

As per the latest data from US Census Bureau for 2020 and these figures are for the fourth quarter of 2019 which was also the holiday season meaning that the sales would be quite high in retail as well as e-commerce.

As per the data, e-commerce’s contribution in Q4 2019 to the overall retail sales in the US stood at 11%. This is a growth of 1.1% from the 9.9% contribution which was seen in Q4 2018. Converting these figures from percentages into actual numbers, these 11% converts to $602 billion in just e-commerce sales. It is also estimated that the total sales in the retail industry for the US stood at $1.5 trillion in just Q4 2019.

So if we look at the overall picture, the e-commerce contributed to 11% of the $1.5 trillion worth goods sold in the US in Q4 2019. In comparison, e-commerce contributed to just 4.5% of the total sales in the retail industry in Q4 2010. Therefore, we can clearly see that there is growth in the last decade but it is not something that has absolutely crushed the retail industry.

Also, it is to be noted that the holiday season in 2019 had six days fewer than in the same period of 2018 but the retail sales grew despite that fact. This clearly shows that the tactic of starting the sales early by retailers such as Walmart and Amazon helped them take advantage.

Target enters the list of Top 10 e-commerce retailers in the US

While we have been talking a lot about the trending e-commerce companies in the US such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and others and even the emerging platforms such as Shopify, we have forgotten one specific platform which has gone under the radar a bit. We are talking about Target which also a wide presence in the US. Now, it is worth noting that Target can’t be under the radar anymore as it enters the list of Top 10 e-commerce giants in the US.

This shows that the company is going toe-to-toe with the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and others. One thing to note, however, is that Amazon is literally heads and shoulders ahead of everyone else in the US.

Because the top 10 list of e-commerce retailers in the US shows that Amazon leads by 38.7% as per the data by eMarketer. The second e-commerce retailer after Amazon in the US is Walmart and it only has a 5.3% sales share in the country. After that comes eBay which has a 4.7% sales share which is close to Walmart but nowhere near Amazon’s dominance.

Next up is Apple with a sales share of 3.7% which shows how big the company has made it into the US markets even though it sells only technology products such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and watches etc. Then, we have e-commerce retailers such as Home Depot, Wayfair, Best Buy, Target which has a sales share of 1.2%, Costco and Macy’s, in that order.

While Target’s current sales share is just 1.2%, the survey says that its business will grow by 24% in 2020 which means that its sales share might grow by 2x this year. It is worth noting, however, that Target’s 1.2% sales share also equates to $8.34 billion in sales which shows you how much Amazon is generating every year in just sales.

PepsiCo acquires Chinese e-commerce firm Be & Cheery for US $705 million

One of the biggest brands in the US, PepsiCo, has now entered the Chinese e-commerce market as they have announced their acquisition of a company named Be & Cheery. Now, this company is an online retailer which sells items such as dried fruits, beef jerky and snacks as per SCMP’s report.

From this, it is quite evident that the company is not too different from what PepsiCo sells in the US and other parts of the world. It is also clear that PepsiCo wants to understand the Chinese market and how e-commerce works in the country.

It is rumoured that the drinks giant will try to understand the business model of Be & Cheery with this acquisition and then replicate the same strategy in other markets where it has a strong foothold.

Also, this might pave the way for PepsiCo to progress in China’s markets where its presence is not as big as the US or other countries. As far as this acquisition is concerned, PepsiCo has had to peek into their wallets and spend the US $705 million to acquire this brand registered by Haoxiangni Health Food.

After the announcement of this acquisition, the shares of its parent company reached its daily limit of 10% jump and the share price of its shares close at 12.32 yuan at the close of markets. Ram Krishnan, PepsiCo Greater China’s chief executive said that “Be & Cheery is highly complementary to our existing China business with its broad product portfolio, asset-light model, and focus on e-commerce,”

Even more interesting about this acquisition from PepsiCo is the timing of it. Because this is a time when most US multinationals are pulling out of China due to the looming threat of a trade war. On the other hand, PepsiCo feels it is the right time to invest in China even more and so it has done.

First-party logistics might be the next big thing for e-commerce

Everyone is currently wondering where the e-commerce companies are heading and where the industry as a whole is shifting towards. We have seen that the trend of shopping majorly from PCs has gone and people have started to shop from mobile devices too.

Also, this means that the impulsive shopping trends have increased a lot which is good for e-commerce. Apart from that, there are innovations in the logistics and retail commerce that have added to the growth of e-commerce.

Now, there is a new report on the trends in e-commerce where it says that the next big thing in e-commerce might be a shift to first-party logistics. With this, we mean by shipping products from the company that is selling it. If we take an example of Amazon, it is one of the companies that does first-party shipping a lot. Since they have their arm of logistics, it is not a big deal for them. However, the other e-commerce platforms rely on logistics partners such as FedEx, UPS and other international brands. This means that the problem of margins, delivery delays and handling arises.

So to take more control of e-commerce delivery, it is best that the first-party delivery trend rises. However, the problem is that it is hard to set up an individual delivery infrastructure for emerging e-commerce companies. Having said that, the returns of first-party packages are immense as revealed by this report. For instance, you can make sure to optimize the delivery of your products such that the cost is minimal and the delivery time is also reduced.

Delivery is also a way in which Amazon has been adding new customers and retaining their old customers. Thus, the new e-commerce players could take a leaf out of Amazon’s book and do the same. Also, the fact that Amazon and Walmart have to pay for no fault of their own in delivery means they are shifting to first-party delivery.

EBay’s classified-ads business close to a sale: WSJ

Ebay
Ebay

eBay is an e-commerce firm that has been online for a long time. It is also older than Amazon which is currently the best e-commerce company in the market. It is also known that Amazon is what caused EBay’s business to decline drastically. Currently, EBay’s business unit is not doing great at all and we know there are worries regarding the same.

Now, a new report from the Wall Street Journal reports some positives from eBay’s business. As per this report, the classified-ads business from eBay is up for grabs for a potential amount of $10 billion. And the good news is that many brands have shown interest in the acquisition of this business as well. Private-equity firms such as TPG and Blackstone have shown interest in the business already.

As far as the classified-ads unit from eBay is concerned, the business is same as what you get with Craigslist in the US. The interesting part is that eBay’s unit operates internationally and it allows users to post goods and services in local communities who might not necessarily want to buy from eBay. There is also a possibility that this business from eBay could be spun off or it could also become a joint venture.

Reportedly, OLX Group which has a strong presence in India with its unit named OLX India has shown interest in buying eBay’s classified-ads unit. OLX Group is run by an internet conglomerate Naspers and it already operates in 30 countries and more. Axel Springer, owner of Business Insider and Rolling Stone, is also reported to be interested in this business as per the report from WSJ.

Etailz, a company helping other companies sell online, raises $25M

Etailz
Etailz

Yesterday, we reported about the fact that a company which helps other companies to make their websites and load them faster has raised a lot of money. This shows that the field of e-commerce is not just limited to selling products since there are multiple units involved in it. We have seen brands that are into e-commerce which are serving businesses also known as B2B or business-to-business and then there are others which are called B2C which are business-to-customer. Now, B2C companies are what we see on a daily basis such as Amazon to give you one example.

Talking about companies helping other companies, we have a firm named Etailz which helps brands come online and sell their products. This company has just announced that they have raised $25M in funding. However, it is interesting to note that this is not part of an equity funding but rather debt funding. Debt funding is where banks or other institutions lend money to firms just like a loan. Etailz said that they did not want to give away their equity for funding since they are at an early-stage and want to hold as much part of the company as possible.

It is revealed that a debt financing firm named Encina Business Credit infused money in the company. As per the company’s statement, they have generated more than $800 million in lifetime sales on the platform. At the moment, after this latest infusion of money, Etailz has been funded up to $100 million in lifetime infusion of cash.

Canada’s Caisse de Depot will see one-third of its malls due to e-commerce

Caisse de Depot
Caisse de Depot

It has already been said many times that the age of e-commerce is now well and truly starting to show as we are seeing big retail chains starting to twitch. The footfall that was once seen inside malls in different parts of the world has greatly reduced. This means that the cost of maintenance has exceeded that of sales. Talking about malls, which have a lot of retail stores under one hood, we know that they are suffering badly. While there is still hope for retail store owners, the malls have been dying lately.

And we have one of the biggest casualties from Canada as the second-biggest pension fund provider of Canada, Caisse de Depot is going to sell one-third of the malls that they have in possession. This decision has been taken on the back of e-commerce which is now hurting the Canadian retailers. It is also reported that Caisse de Depot owns 25 malls in Canada which means more than 8 of them will be closed very soon.

Caisse de Depot has said that its 25 malls caused them to decline 2.7% in value of real estate portfolio last year which is why they are looking to offload one-third of those properties. Apart from selling the malls, Caisse de Depot also says that transforming the malls to residential spaces or logistics space is also on the card if a sale doesn’t go through.

The firm added that “Canada had been relatively protected but global trends are accelerating and are hitting us too, When you have 25 shopping centers, it’s a big amount — even if it changes just a little bit, it has a great impact immediately in terms of figures”.

The concern for mall owners is not only in the vastly reduced footfall but also to make sure that their property is filed with rent-paying tenants since they are also backing out due to poor sales.

To help e-commerce brands build faster websites, Shogun raises $10M

Shogun
Shogun

There is a lot of talk about how e-commerce stores are dominating the retail stores in recent times. Now, there is a saying that nothing is easy and this applies to the online markets too. While the retail industry might have different challenges of their own, the e-commerce stores have their own set of problems too. One of the biggest challenges for an e-commerce store is to make a website which people want to come to. Also, people should be able to easily navigate through the entire site and be attracted to buying or returning to buy products.

For that reason, one of the contributing factors is site speed and loading time. There have been various reports which reveal that a site which loads faster has a better user experience ratio than one that is slow. This is why we see that sites from companies such as Amazon load faster and they have released lite versions for people who have slower internet. However, a majority of websites in e-commerce who don’t have the big budget for heavy servers have the problem of sites not loading fast enough.

This can hurt their sales and in turn, become a factor for the company’s downfall. Thankfully, we now have a startup which aims to solve this problem called Shogun. What this startup does is it helps e-commerce to build sites that are faster to load for improving user experience.

Shogun’s CEO even says that Amazon is “dropping the ball” and adds that experience of shopping on Amazon is pretty bad which is why he adds that “this vast wave of direct-to-consumer brands is nibbling around edges of Amazon and beating them on buying experience,”

The startup’s first product, Page Builder, offers a drag-and-drop interface to make it easier for e-commerce brands to build their storefronts on Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce and Magento.

Middle East’s Chalhoub Group will launch three new e-commerce sites

Chalhoub Group
Chalhoub Group

We have seen that everyone in the industry, who runs a retail business, is considering the switch to e-commerce stores as soon as possible. Now, we know that there is a lot of research that goes into these decisions too. Such as assessing if the closure of retail stores will be beneficial for the company as well as strategy to get similar sales on their online counterparts. For this reason, we have seen that most of the companies have adopted the idea of running retail brick-and-mortar stores along with online stores.

Since we know that maintenance of online stores is minimal, the companies can manage to invest from their retail business as long as the costs don’t get too high. Now, a report from the Middle East reveals that the famous Chalhoub Group is also thinking about its brick-and-mortar stores.

For those who are unaware, Chalhoub Group is a luxury distributor which has a strong presence in the Middle Eastern markets. It is known that the group already has “12 e-commerce websites for its brands in the Middle East, including Level Shoes, Sephora Middle East and L’Occitane”.

Now, a new report claims that the Group is thinking of adding even more sites to its already-prolific portfolio by launching three new websites. The CEO of Chalhoub Group, Patrick Chalhoub, said that

“In the coming 3 months, we will have two or three major sites which we will be opening. I will not unveil them because we will unveil them in due course, but you will be quite astonished over some of the brands that are coming online. So we’re coming online but also reassessing our brick and mortar, closing some stores or reinvesting.”

Adding to this, he says that “Bad retail is dead so either we invest in what we have, or we better close it. There is no more space for mediocracy… there are new malls coming, new community areas… there is more retail space available in good locations.

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