General
What does 2020 teach us about the future of retail? There will be a wave of consolidation to face up to "monster ecosystems", believes Marc-André Kamel, head of the global retail department of consultant Bain & Co.
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California has given the go-ahead for a commercial delivery service with self-driving vehicles. Robotics start-up Nuro plans to start deliveries as early as next year, without a driver.
Ant Group, Alibaba's sister company, was nearly carved up by the Chinese authorities: the creator of AliPay is forced to restructure its operations. China is the first country to do what experts have been advocating for years: curbing the power of technology giants.
The Chinese government is opening an investigation into Alibaba (AliExpress, Tmall) to see whether the e-commerce giant is abusing its dominant position. Is the Internet empire, which the government itself created, becoming too powerful?
Fashion
On Monday, Gucci launched its first online flagship store on Alibaba Group's Tmall Luxury Pavilion platform. Early next year, the Italian fashion company will open a second online store.
When it comes to digitisation, the Chinese are well ahead of the West. The Chinese are also one step ahead when it comes to containing the coronavirus. It is no surprise then that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a few tips ready for 2021.
Singles Day, the yearly bargain festival of Chinese web shop Alibaba, has once again become a great commercial success. A total of 498 billion yuan (almost 64 billion euros) worth of goods were traded.
Luxury platform Farfetch welcomes two strategically important shareholders: Alibaba and Richemont together invest 1.1 billion dollar in the company. It is a first step towards consolidation in the online luxury industry.
In the third quarter, Alibaba again exceeded expectations, supported by growing e-commerce and the termination of the lockdown in China.
Alibaba's annual 11.11 Singles Day festival this year stretches over not one but two weekends. From 1 to 3 November, the Chinese already had the chance to make bargains, this time with an extra lot of Western brands.
Nearly 60% of all online sales worldwide are made by just six large companies. Four of these are based in China. This is shown in a new report from Activate Consulting.
Food
French retail group Auchan withdraws from China: the company sells its Chinese division Sun Art to Alibaba for 3 billion euros. Both groups have been working closely together there for some time.
As from next year, Alibaba will start delivering online orders with autonomous robots. At its annual technology conference, the Chinese Amazon rival unveiled its new fleet of self-driving robots, capable of finding their way all by themselves.
The days of low-cost packages imported directly from China are over, experts at the University of Antwerp predict. The sharp increase in shipping and delivery costs coupled with the capacity decrease caused by the coronavirus only add to existing problems.
Alibaba saw its turnover climb 35 % in the past fiscal year, beating its own forecasts by a landslide. The coronavirus crisis pushed the platform's total sales over a trillion dollars, a record.
The current crisis is forcing us, retailers, to take a break and look in the mirror: are we still relevant, do we still see opportunities, do we still want to invest, do we still feel the drive to get back to work?
