Vote count in pivotal Amazon union election likely to start next week
Workers at an Amazon.com Inc warehouse in Alabama will likely have to wait until next week for a vote count that could result in the online retailer’s first unionized facility in the United States and mark a watershed moment for organized labor. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board is sifting through ballots in a closed hearing, a process that could last several more days and spark legal challenges.
Source: reuters.com
Canada: Danavation Technologies confirms Farm Boy Inc. to launch pilot of Digital Smart Labels™
Danavation Technologies Corp. ("Danavation" or the "Company"), a Canadian-based Internet of Things (IoT) technology company and provider of micro e-paper displays, is pleased to announce that Farm Boy Inc. ("Farm Boy"), a fresh food retailer in Ontario and subsidiary of Sobeys Inc. ("Sobeys"), has confirmed a pilot launch of Danavation's Digital Smart Labels™ technology. Sobeys is one of the largest food retailers in Canada, having operated for more than 100 years, and is wholly-owned by Empire Company Limited ("Empire"). Empire is a food retailing and related real estate conglomerate with approximately $28.4bln in annual sales and $15.0bln in assets, who announced the acquisition of 51% of specialty grocery retailer, Longo's, on March 16, 2021.
Source: newswire.ca
US: Kroger maps its new digital 'ecosystem'
Furthering a strategy established under its recently wrapped up Restock program, Kroger will keep honing its fresh assortment to drive market share gains, officials said. Technology and supply chain innovations have improved freshness and shelf life for perishable items, said Stuart Aitken, Kroger’s chief merchant and marketing officer. Milk, for instance, has a guaranteed shelf life of 10 days in stores, he said. Kroger has also deepened its investments in supply chain improvements for bananas, berries, tomatoes and bagged salads - four categories that collectively comprise 28% of produce sales for the company.
Source: grocerydive.com
25.5% of ecommerce in Europe is cross-border
The online cross-border market in Europe was worth 146bln euros in 2020. This is an increase of 35% compared to the situation 1 year before. The cross-border share represents 25.5% of total online sales in Europe. The cross-border share is slowly increasing. In 2018 it was 22.8%, in 2019 it was 23.55% and now it’s growing towards 26% and more. This is shown in the third edition of the TOP 500 Cross-Border Retail Europe, an annual ranking of the 500 best cross-border online shops in Europe. According to CBCommerce, the online B2C sales in 2020 went up 24% and was worth 573bln euros, of which 146bln euros was generated through cross-border online sales.
Source: ecommercenews.eu
Fears of ‘chaos’ in French supermarkets after replacing plastic with refill stations
Shops in France are fighting against new green legislation which will make them replace plastic packaging with refill stations. Retailers fear there will be ‘chaos’ as it may cause a mess in supermarkets, while manufacturers worry it will negatively affect marketing around brand names, The Times reports.
Source: metro.co.uk
UK: Sainsbury’s finally signs up to GCA’s forensic auditing commitment
Sainsbury’s has become the final retailer to sign up to the Groceries Code Adjudicator’s (GCA) voluntary commitment on forensic auditing. Sainsbury’s will now adhere to the commitment limiting the auditing of suppliers’ trading for missed claims to no more than the current and previous two financial years from 6 March 2022.
Source: kamcity.com
Poundland owner mulls London or Warsaw listing
Pepco Group, which runs British discount retailer Poundland, is considering a public listing of its shares in either London or Polish capital Warsaw, it said. Pepco, which also trades as PEPCO and Dealz in Europe, is part of South African conglomerate Steinhoff, which is still battling the fallout of a 2017 accounting scandal.
Source: reuters.com
Russia's Magnit: winning by embedding its new business structure
Magnit is in the middle of a business transformation programme. It is implementing six strategies to turn around its business and as it looks to support its dynamic growth strategy, and compete with other leading retailers in Russia.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Everli raises €85mln to expand across Europe
Everli, an Italian marketplace for online grocery shopping, has raised 100mln dollars (85mln euros) in a Series C round. It will use this money to further expand across Europe. The funding round, led by Verlinvest, is Everli’s largest to date. New investors Luxor, DN Capital, C4 Ventures, and Convivialité Ventures joined, together with existing investors FITEC, 360 Capital, Innogest and DIP.
Source: ecommercenews.eu
China: Alibaba to launch Taobao deals on WeChat
China’s 2 ecommerce giants, Alibaba and Tencent, are collaborating for the first time, which will see Alibaba’s bargain online shopping platform Taobao Deals offered as a mini-program on Tencent’s multipurpose super app WeChat. The collaboration means that users of Taobao Deals can now pay via WeChat Pay.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com