Based on a recent report from FinancialTimes, out of the top 100 companies prospering in the pandemic, 12 are e-commerce companies representing more than 775Bln Market cap gain YTD!
This doesn’t count gains for companies indirectly benefiting from e-commerce like payment (Paypal, Square) and logistics (ZTO, SF Holding), link to the report at the bottom of the article.
- Another strong week in e-commerce
- Amazon + Zoox self-driving cars or vans
- Store no more for Microsoft
- Alibaba double down on logistics speed
- Instagram expands Shopping to more businesses
- BigCommerce seeking IPO
- Colvin Online Flowers Startup raise 14M
Amazon Buy Zoox
Not a week without a big announcement from Amazon!! The company just agreed to buy self-driving car startup Zoox for $1.2 billion. The self-driving car players includes already major competitors like Waymo (Alphabet), Uber, Tesla, GM, Ford…but, Amazon is joining the party and probably for a very good reason! Guess what? Delivery & Logistics of course!!
In the last couple of months, we have seen a major shift regarding autonomous vehicles companies shifting from passenger transportation to Cargo transportation, the main reason is that cargo transportation will probably be the first to benefit at large scale of autonomous driving.
Check out the details HERE.
Microsoft is closing all of its retail stores for good
You might be thinking…? Microsoft Stores??? Did they have stores? Yes, they did and they were actually pretty nice. The ultimate shift to online is accelerating and I would bet that Microsoft is the first of a series of companies which will focus exclusively to online sales channel. H&M also announced this week that they would close 170 stores in 2020 (compared to the 40 planned) after reporting a 50% drop in net sales during the second quarter of 2020. Some companies will definitely need to keep a physical presence while some will rather save that rent money and invest it into online channels. What would you do?
Learn more about the store closures HERE.
Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao to speed up delivery times to meet boom in online shopping
Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao plan to quadruple its chartered flights to 1,260 from 260 over the next nine months! Yes Quadruple!!!! The company plans to be able to deliver packages within 24 hours in China and 72 hours globally in the next 3 years.
This sentence summarize the best what I’ve been saying to most of the companies and people I speak to when it comes to logistics in Ecommerce…
“Logistics is no longer an afterthought. Today, logistics has become a game-changer and key differentiator that sets one business apart from another,” Cainiao president Lin Wan said in a statement. We always end up talking about Amazon, but watch out our friends from China: Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo…
Get some deeper insight HERE.
Instagram expands Shopping to more businesses
Instagram announced the expansion of Instagram Shopping services to more businesses, including creators who want to sell their own merchandise. This follows the announcement 2 weeks ago from Youtube which started providing shopping ads below videos, the race for social commerce dominance is on. This is a great opportunity for any sellers as it opens new market and channels to many more businesses!
Find more details HERE.
Retail Software Maker BigCommerce to Seek U.S. IPO
BigCommerce, which designs and develops software to make online storefronts is one of the competitors of companies like Shopify or Magento. The company is planning a U.S. initial public offering this year, it’s great timing as COVID19 has boosted many e-commerce stocks YTD…especially Shopify which has doubled value since March 2020!
Read more about BigCommerce HERE.
StartUp Of the week: Colvin
The Spanish startup just raised Eur14M to deliver your next Valentine’s Day flowers (or maybe before)!
Created in 2017, Colvin is present in Spain, Italy and Germany and plan to use the funds for global expansion. The company is not only betting on online sales but also investing in disintermediation in the supply chain process. A kind of “Floriculture to Consumer” model.
Check out THIS article about Colvin.
Nabil Malouli is VP, Global E-commerce for DHL Supply Chain where he leads the innovation, strategy and product development of its e-commerce fulfilment and last-mile solutions.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons