General

The British online florist Bloom & Wild is taking over its Dutch peer bloomon. Both brands will continue to exist separately and, together, they form the largest e-commerce player in the European flower and houseplant market.

If companies have learned anything from the pandemic, it is the importance of being agile and resilient. The Covid crisis has changed consumer behaviour globally and permanently, according to Accenture. 

For some time now, Amazon has been far more than just an e-commerce giant. The group continuously proves this by launching all kinds of physical store concepts. The latest innovation will soon open up in London: a hairdressing salon.

In his final letter as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos promises to pay more attention to employee well-being. "We will be the world's best employer and the world's safest place to work."

In England and Wales, corona measures were relaxed significantly on Monday. The reopening of pubs and non-essential shops led to some retailers being overwhelmed.

A majority of Amazon employees at a distribution centre in Alabama have voted against the establishment of a trade union. The workers' union accuses the e-commerce giant of intimidation and anti-union propaganda.

Whilst everyone is counting down the days to the end of the Covid crisis, the retail industry should brace itself for a huge wave of closures. Analysts from stockbroking firm UBS predict "at least tens of thousands" of store closures as a result of the permanent shift in consumer behaviour; their colleagues in other countries agree.