Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau capped a hectic day in Ho Chi Minh City by jogging along the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal on Thursday evening, catching locals off-guard and setting the media abuzz.
The charismatic prime minister was on an official visit to Vietnam’s biggest city before going for a jog along the canal, which is considered an example of smart urban development.
According to media reports, he started jogging at around 7 p.m. With his cap on, Trudeau, flanked by several of his guards, ran past many locals who were exercising outdoors.
“He looks so handsome and gentle,” an elderly woman who was working out along the canal said.The surprise appearance of the Canadian prime minister attracted widespread attention.
“When I realized he was the Canadian prime minister, I was in awe of such a young, handsome and down-to-earth leader,” Nguyen Thi Thanh, 61, said.
Last May, another photo of Trudeau jogging past a group students taking prom photos in Vacouver, Canada, also went viral, creating a made-for-meme internet sensation.
But after it was pointed out that the shot was snapped by his official photographer, his critics blasted the media for continuing to fall for what “seems to be a constant stream of PR stunts”, The Guardian reported in May.
The report cited Robyn Urback, a columnist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as saying that in politics, even the most spontaneous run-ins are carefully set up. “And public photobombs by politicians in their Sunday sweats usually involve some sort of prior coordination,” she said.
Balenciaga has overtaken Gucci as the hottest fashion label, according to the latest Lyst Index.
The index draws on data analysis by fashion-search platform Lyst in conjunction with the Business of Fashion website. The 4.5 million data points analysed include sales, searches and consumer perceptions of 5 million products and 12,000 brands.
Its result is despite Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Gucci being named best fashion brands globally just last month by Interbrand consultancy.
Ranking the world’s hottest brands and top-selling products, the Lyst Index ranked Gucci first in this year’s second quarter, followed by Kanye West’s Yeezy and Balenciaga. However, the Spanish fashion brand continued to rise, displacing Gucci in the third quarter, with Virgil Abloh’s Off-White rising to third – a jump of 31 places in three months.
Lyst says Balenciaga’s rise was because of a new logo and the Colette residency in Paris keeping the brand top of mind “while Demna Gvasalia continues to design products that drive the fashion narrative online”.
Additionally, the platform praised Gucci for being a “consistent performer”, reports High Snobiety.
Rounding out the top 10 are Vetements, Givenchy, Valentino then Saint Laurent, while Stone Island leaped from 41st to eighth, followed by Moncler (previously 20th) and finally Raf Simons (previously 21st).
Lyst Index also looked at the most influential rappers in fashion for the quarter, listing (in order) Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Pharrell Williams, Cardi B, Drake and A$AP Rocky.
Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. is leveraging its AI, mixed reality and other cutting-edge technologies to support Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) in an initiative to enhance its customer relations, boost employee productivity and drive the digital transformation of its business through digitalising its truck and logistics operations.
MFTBC is pursuing digital transformation based on its Connected X concept. Connected X seeks to boost productivity and offer further added value through seamlessly connecting employees, customers, devices, trucks and factories. MFTBC launched its Connected X project in July 2017, and is pursuing a wide range of digitalisation initiatives with the goal of becoming a 100 per cent digital manufacturing company by June 2019. At present, the following three key components are in progress.
1．AI chatbot
MFTBC plans to streamline its operations by deploying an Azure-based internal helpdesk chatbot to respond appropriately and promptly to frequently asked questions. The chatbot will enable queries to be answered more uniformly in less time. MFTBC aims to enhance customer services, productivity, and maintenance quality by deploying the chatbot across the whole company and enabling it to also handle customer inquiries and converse with drivers and mechanics.
2．Truckonnect operation management system
MFTBC is using Microsoft Azure IoT Hub for its Truckonnect operation management system that connects trucks and buses to the cloud so as to enable vehicle location and remaining fuel to be monitored in real time, thereby preventing problems before they occur and enabling more efficient transport and smooth vehicle maintenance by sharing information with vehicle dispatch centres.
3．Utilisation of Microsoft HoloLens to transform development and maintenance
MFTBC and Microsoft Japan will make concrete preparations for deploying Microsoft HoloLens, a self-contained Windows 10-powered holographic computer, by the end of this year to revolutionise conventional vehicle design and development, preventive maintenance and other processes by enabling users, engineers, and designers to simultaneously share visualised 3-D data. HoloLens will unlock new possibilities in digital experiences, collaboration and workstyle by leveraging Mixed Reality (MR) technology that combines real and virtual worlds to utilise the best of both worlds by overlaying holograms (3-D virtual objects) on the real world in front of the viewer’s eyes.
Microsoft Japan’s Enterprise Services will provide full backup for this project. Digital advisors belonging to a special unit dedicated to supporting the digital transformation of Microsoft Japan’s customers will assist with all aspects of the project up to deployment, including identifying issues and suggesting solutions that leverage the latest technology.
China online spending is set to account for almost 50 per cent of the country’s total retail market this year.
According to fresh data from Mintel, this year’s figure will be 45.7 per cent of “total per capita retail spend”. In many categories, already more is spent on goods online than in physical stores in the world’s largest digital economy.
“China is experiencing a fundamental shift in the way consumers shop, and in how the shopping experience fits into the wider environment of customer service, delivered both online and in-store,” said Matthew Crabbe, research director, APAC, with Mintel.
The research shows China’s online retail market has reached a critical mass. Business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail is expected to reach more than 60 per cent of total e-commerce sales this year, with mobile online retail expected to make up more than 80 per cent of the B2C retail category.
However, while Mintel estimates per capita online retail spend will reach 45.7 per cent of total per capita retail spend by the end of this year it predicts that share will hold steady between until the end of 2019.
Crabbe said there are several reasons for the projected peak.
“One issue is that consumers are increasingly buying experiences and services online, rather than products. The other issue is that consumers are already adapting to ‘new retail’; they are embracing greater integration between online and in-store shopping. This will mean much tougher competition between retailers. It will also likely mean more pressure for further consolidation in the market, resulting in more mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships,” he said.
China’s ‘new retail’ experience has consumers purchasing different products from different channels. Mintel research shows that 72 per cent of in-home food shoppers prefer to shop in-store, compared with 60 per cent of consumers who prefer to shop online for toys, games, clothing, and accessories. Apart from alcoholic drinks (61 per cent shop in-store) and pharmaceuticals and healthcare products (57 per cent shop in-store), in all other sectors the combined total of those who shop online via a mobile device or lap/desktop is greater than the proportion who shop in-store.
While in-store grocery shopping still dominates, 66 per cent of consumers buy in-home food and drinks in-store, the average number of consumers who shop online (mobile or desk/laptop) for in-home food and drinks grew three percentage points since 2016, with 49 per cent buying in-home food online using a mobile device.
“The growth in mobile online shopping across all sectors this year illustrates how mobile is driving the convergence of online and offline shopping into ‘new retail’,” said Crabbe. “Meanwhile, online shopping penetration is high across most sectors. There may be room to expand fresh and luxury food product sales online, thus increasing the number of high-income consumers who shop online, but the room for expansion of share of pocket among China’s consumers is running out.”
Arise the ‘grocernauts’
In fact, urban Chinese consumers are keen to get the immediate experience that only shopping in-store can offer. Mintel research reveals that 62 per cent of urban Chinese consumers say the ability to try, see, and experience products in-person before buying encourages them to shop in-store; the same proportion (62 per cent) shop in-store to ensure the freshness of produce, and 55 per cent say in-store shopping means they can get what they want faster.
“Supermarkets and hypermarkets are moving away from just selling in-home foods towards providing catering services (so called ‘groceraunts’), as well as offering online food ordering and in-store pick up services. And convenience stores are morphing into unmanned, checkout-free, cashless, elaborate vending machines. We’ve also seen shopping malls evolve away from retail spots into theme park-like leisure developments. This is all leading to a very diverse potential retail environment that includes retail as part of a wider range of consumer services. Store functions will increasingly incorporate online-enabled, front-of-store consumer touch points for selling goods and providing other customer services – even ones not related to the retailer’s core business,” Crabbe added.
Probably the main driver of online retail’s success, 65 per cent of urban Chinese consumers say they find products cheaper online, while 63 per cent say that online offers more choice. More than half (52 per cent) of consumers say they find what they were looking for faster when shopping online.
“Despite the instant sensual and entertainment experiences that consumers enjoy when shopping in-store, low cost, high convenience and more choices are the key ingredients that drive consumers to do more of their shopping online. As online retail platforms invest in and collaborate with physical retailers, who in turn look to increase their online exposure, these new business models will create the ideal ‘new retail’ experience for shoppers. However, companies and brands will be challenged to find their own, unique combination of online and in-store features in order to create their own bespoke experience,” concluded Crabbe.
Total B2C and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online retail sales in China are expected to reach RMB 6.4 trillion by year-end, having grown at a compound annual growth rate of 37.9 per cent since 2012 – that represents nearly fivefold value growth in just five years.
President Donald Trump is expected to bill a new policy for Asia during his two-day stay in Vietnam this week, but the U.S. administration needs to follow through with concrete actions to restore waning confidence in a region weary of his erratic diplomacy.
At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) this week in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang and his state visit later on in Hanoi, Trump will promote the concept of a “free and open Indo-pacific region”. Japan first floated this idea, tailored to push the U.S. to coalesce three other maritime democracies — Japan, Australia, and India. According to American officials, this sales pitch is aimed at demonstrating America and the Trump administration’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.
But political rhetoric only will not be enough to reassure a region increasingly anxious about U.S. commitment, analysts say.
A survey in March by the Iseas Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore that polled government officials, business representatives, academics and journalists in Southeast Asia found that around 75 percent of the respondents saw China, not the U.S., as the most influential player now and in the next decade. Two-thirds of respondents also viewed the U.S. less favorably than four months ago, according to the survey.
“Some of Trump’s statements and actions since he came to power have undermined the U.S. strategic position in the region, but most regional countries would like to see Washington’s continued engagement with the region,” Le Hong Hiep, a research fellow at the Iseas Yusof Ishak Institute, said.
“As such, his concept of a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ is likely to be welcomed by most regional countries,” Hiep said. “But again, at this stage, it is just a policy concept. Washington needs to follow up with concrete actions aimed at maintaining and strengthening economic and strategic engagement with the region to restore its strategic position in this part of the world.”
His attendance at the APEC Summit is part of his 13-day five-nation Asia tour, the longest tour of Asia by any U.S. president since George Bush in late 1991. Trump had planned to skip the East Asia Summit, a key gathering of Southeast Asian leaders in the Philippines on November 13. He only made a last-minute change to attend apparently at the request of other leaders.
“It is still not too late for the U.S.,” Dennis C. McCornac, an economics professor at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, said, “to come to its senses and understand that this so-called ‘American first’ policy is really a disguised form of isolation – a policy that will and has never really worked for any country,”
A year after introducing Australian craft beer to Thailand, Beerlicious has partnered with Canadian brewery Molson Coors International to introduce Cobra Premium beer.
Initially the company offered six craft beers from Bridge Road Brewers, an award-winning small-batch brewery near Melbourne. It soon expanded to 10 different beers from the brewery, and has just introduced a range of Christmas brews.
“We chose to work with Bridge Road Brewers as it is a family business, conceived by a father and son who focus on traditional brewing techniques,” says Beerlicious MD/founder Niran Khanijou.
Cobra Premium beer, brewed in the UK for Molson Coors, has won more than 94 gold medals at the international Monde Selection awards.
“Our immediate plans are to introduce not only Cobra but also King Cobra, a ‘champagne lager’ in an impressive 750ml bottle, to the Thai market over Christmas,” says Khanijou. King Cobra has won the Grand Gold award, the highest accolade, at Monde Selection.
“Our Australian selection will have a limited stock of the two seasonal beers Fat Man, Red Suit, Big Sack and Magical Christmas Unicorn, a vanilla ice-cream ale.”
Beerlicious products are available at select Bangkok restaurants and craft-beer venues as well as branches of Central Food Hall, Gourmet Market and Tops.
Global technology platform and digital payments company PayPal Holdings has launched in India.
This enables Indian consumers to use PayPal to shop online. Merchants offering PayPal will be able to process both local and global payments, gaining access to the brand’s more than 218 million customers across 200 global markets.
Offering cross-border payments in India for nearly a decade, PayPal has now rolled out secure transactions and such benefits as One Touch, Buyer and Seller Protection and Refunded Return Shipping.
India has all the ingredients to become a true digital economy, says PayPal Private CEO Rohan Mahadevan.
“India is transitioning away from our biggest competitor, cash, and our digital platform and technology has immense scope to enable this at scale,” says PayPal India MD Anupam Pajuja. “For us, the marathon has just begun.”
PayPal has set up a customer service centre in India with multilingual support and on-ground sales team.
As digital payments become more mainstream in India, PayPal is partnering with government and state-owned banks on such initiatives as a digital financial literacy program and an eTourist visa.
Parisian affordable luxury brand Ba&Sh plans to ramp up its Asian presence after early success in Hong Kong.
The region has become a top priority for founders Barbara Boccara and Sharon Krief after a cornerstone 50 per cent investment by LVMH-linked PE fund L Capital in 2015. Ba&Sh plans to open 12 more stores in China, Macau and Hong Kong next year.
The co-founders made their first personal appearance in Asia at the recent Spring-Summer 2018 collection media preview in Beijing.
“Ba&Sh is spreading fast in Asia and seems to match the local way of life, confirming the universal reach of its lifestyle,” said Ba&Sh CEO Asia Isolde Andouard.
Hongkongers quickly embraced the Ba&Sh label, with growing foot traffic in the three stores which have opened since April, at Times Square, Harbour City and IFC Mall.
“The shops are flourishing, so the brand is all the more optimistic and enthusiastic at the time of launching Ba&Sh in China,” she said.
Five Mainland China stores have opened since September in fashionable and luxury malls in Beijing – Shin Kong Place, Galeries Lafayette and Taikoo Li – and in Shanghai – Reel and Taikoo Hui.
The Asia roll-out is being led by Andouard, who previously headed up rival fashion operator, the Chinese-owned French company SMCP, parent of the Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot.
“Isolde is the right person to achieve ba&sh development in Asia,” explained Ba&Sh global CEO Pierre-Arnaud Grenade. “Her versatile background and her in-depth understanding of the Asian market are strong assets to support Ba&Sh implementation there.”
Authenticity wins following
Andouard says the brand’s authenticity won over French women and believes that same authenticity appeals to Asian consumers.
Despite its LVMH-linked ownership, Barbara and Sharon remain the faces of the brand “and, as such, they do reinforce the customers’ identification with Ba&Sh. But above all, Ba&Sh benefits from its success in France and from the LVMH network to carry out a daring expansion strategy. The launch in Asia and in the US were done simultaneously, a bold move that is starting to show tangible results,” she said.
The co-founders, high school girlfriends, have given the first two letters of their names and more than 10 years of their lives to create the brand before attracting the attention of LVMH.
Globally, Ba&Sh now has 500 points of sale worldwide, including 163 direct retail stores.
The brand’s two core values – freedom and friendship – are at the heart of the creative process.
“Trend books never set foot in the Ba&Sh workshop, where only refined fabrics and craftsmanship ignite the spark of the stylists’ creativity. Barbara and Sharon dreamed of building the ideal wardrobe, and that’s why our products are so versatile, in fitting with today’s never-resting metropolitan woman who parties when she’s not working or with her family.”
The new SS18 collection mixes Anglo-Saxon and Asian inspirations to embody “the joyful and Parisian Ba&Sh spirit”.
Most prints draw their inspiration from the heart of Asia; Japanese and traditional Chinese patterns are reinterpreted with flair.
Arl-shipping.com has launched it’s Facebook chatbot tracking of containers on the road en route from discharge port to import warehouse, giving real-time visibility of the truck(s) on the road. Import customer and warehouse operator follows the trucks in real-time and prepare for speedy container unstuffing upon arrival to the warehouse. The tracking is facilitated by truck drivers using arl-shipping.com’s free app, tracking the shipment and OCR’ed container numbers via driver’s smartphone GPS location services. The Facebook tracking service is fully embedded into the transport provider’s Facebook page as an integral service.
“On top of Facebook chatbot cargo tracking, we are soon launching also Skype and WeChat Last Mile Container Tracking for shipping line agents, freight forwarders, warehouse operators or other intermediaries via the arl-shipping.com powered chatbot,” said arl-shipping.com director, René Bendt. He added, “We explore maturing technologies, which can be deployed with little effort to the benefit of real life shipping scenarios like container number OCR, GPS trackers and other IoT devices, drones and blockchain technology.”
The tracking is facilitated by truck drivers using arl-shipping.com’s free app, tracking the shipment and OCR’ed container numbers via driver’s smartphone GPS location services.
The Facebook chatbot Last Mile Container Tracker tracks shipment en route from discharge port to warehouse, prepping the warehouse operator for warehouse dock, unstuffing gang and x-docking operation readiness. Upon providing the warehouse’s location to the chatbot via smartphones’ built-in location sharing services, Last Mile Container Tracker alerts in Facebook messenger when container(s) is close to the warehouse, as well as giving hourly status messages while container(s) is on the road, en route to the warehouse.
Soon the chatbot will also advise warehouse ETA imbedding online traffic pattern services into the Last Mile Container Tracker.
Dachser India has moved its Chennai branch to a new location to facilitate the company’s prospects for growth and development. The new premises are centrally located in the modern KRM Plaza, and offers easy connectivity by road, rail and air travel.
Dachser India has moved its Chennai branch to a new location to facilitate the company’s prospects for growth and development.
“The new office is designed to provide a pleasant and comfortable workplace for our Chennai team and is easily accessible for our customers,” said Sivagurunathan B, deputy general manager India South Air & Sea Logistics.
“This new office provides a perfect environment for our teams to serve our customers better. Markets in South India, especially Chennai and other cities in Tamil Nadu, have always contributed significantly to Dachser’s success in India. We expect very strong growth from this market in the years to come,” added Huned Gandhi, managing director Air & Sea Logistics India
Life sciences and healthcare companies will follow the lead of other industries and integrate connected technologies including Internet of Things (IoT) and intelligent scanners across their ecosystems as a means to improve operational efficiencies, enhance supply chain visibility and deliver better patient care – but the increasing use of such technologies will accelerate security risks, according to a new set of predictions from experts at Unisys Corporation.
“Market forces that to this point have primarily affected other industries are now demonstrating the potential to transform the way life sciences and healthcare companies operate,” said Jeff R Livingstone, PhD, vice president and global head, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Unisys. “For example, if the pharmaceutical industry looks at the processes and best practices being used in other types of manufacturing, they can apply and adapt those technological advancements in how they manufacture, provision and supply therapeutics. Ultimately, there is a lot of interconnectivity between industries that can be taken advantage of.”
Consequently, Dr Livingstone predicts a fundamental consumer-driven shift based on the “retailisation” of industries such as healthcare, which incorporates expanded roles for security, and which in turn facilitates a shift from on-premise data management to the cloud.
Prediction: The “retailisation” of healthcare – based on the IoT – will fundamentally alter how life sciences and healthcare organisations conduct business
As industries such as retail have already started using connected technology like intelligent scanners and e-readers to track and ship their products, so too has this technology demonstrated potential for life sciences and healthcare.
Unisys predicts that in the coming year, connected technology will take a more prominent role within the supply chain, as sensor-based track-and-trace technology will allow companies to verify product shipping information, monitor temperature issues and adjust routes based on environmental factors affecting drug viability, as well as using cross-platform analytics based on tracking data to help improve route efficiencies and deliver critical medications to people who need them, when they need them.
Prediction: Continued rise in cyberattacks and shift in how patient data is accessed will require a multi-tiered approach to cybersecurity
According to a recent report, in the second quarter of 2017 life sciences and healthcare organisations suffered more security incidents than any other industry, surpassing the public sector. Simultaneously, as more providers use personal or hand-held devices to access data, it means extremely valuable patient data is more vulnerable to cyber threats. In the coming years, the industry will see a rapid rise in ransomware and DDoS attacks that threaten patient data, as well as the business reputations of the organisations trusted to protect it.
These security risks are not lost on consumers; the recent Unisys Security Index found that a large majority of US respondents registered concern about the possibility of hackers or malicious intruders gaining access to internet-connected medical devices such as defibrillators, pacemakers or insulin pumps belonging to them or someone they know.
As a result, Unisys predicts companies will shift toward a multi-tiered, holistic approach to security. To ensure proper security, all devices will require equally strong protection, including personal devices that interact with multiple networks. While it will require more than one type of protection, those that are best poised to adapt will start with a thorough security assessment to analyse network and devices, which in turn can determine how different aspects of security can work together best for the business.
Prediction: Compliance and certification move to the cloud
Historically, legacy hardware and a lack of centralised mandates for certification have hindered migration to the cloud in life sciences and healthcare. This has largely been based upon a general distrust of allowing critical IP and patient information “outside the gates”.
Unisys predicts that advancements in cloud-based software and security, coupled with proper guidance, will help providers more quickly adapt to ensure up-to-date compliance based regulatory needs and help bridge the gap between compliance, security and privacy.
“To prepare for what’s to come, first you have to take a step back,” Livingstone said. “Completing a thorough review and assessment of one’s technological and security needs, as well as data and compliance management as it relates to IP, patent and regulatory issues, life sciences and healthcare companies will make one well-positioned to succeed in the digital future.”
The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place.” – Orison Swett Marden
I know, I get it, it’s November and we need to get staff on board for our Christmas period, not too early and certainly as inexpensively as possible.
For so many retail businesses, the Christmas trading period is the most profitable trading period of the year. This applies to both small and large businesses where typically some categories can take as much as 25 per cent of their annual sales in December, which could translate into more than half of their annual profit. Department stores included.
Yet during this period, so many sales positions are left to the young inexperienced junior casuals who have been poorly trained, if at all, in the art of selling. The product knowledge can be mixed, their selling skills can be variable and in many cases their care factor is careless.
So, why would a retail business, at the best time of the trading year, have the most inexperienced people on the front line, dealing with customers who are in the mood and mindset to spend, perhaps more freely than at any other time of the year? Is this good logic?
When a retail business seeks the very best temporary sales people, invests in training them on products, the features and benefits thereof and as well as the art of selling, we consistently see a huge difference to the sales outcome.
Although what is the commercial sense of training staff that may not be with us in the New Year?
Well here’s the logic of investing in all staff regardless of their tenure,
Let us assume a business decided to attract the best casuals, and employed them on attitude, paid them 20 per cent above the going rate (NSW) of $13.65 per hour and rewarded them for over achieving their sales targets, could we expect them to produce 33 per cent more sales than the normal, unmotivated casual staff that we so often see in stores at that time of the year. And the wage cost % improves in that equation.
Weekly wage Sales Wage per cent
Normal 17 yo @ award rate 30hrs pw $410 $2,000 20 per cent
Not only is the business ahead in pure financial terms, but in the experience that customers will have and the lasting impression of the business though having these ‘Effective People’ in your business.
I suggest that one of the best investments a business can make around Christmas is to make sure it has the very best skills available to care for their customers in the best possible way. After all, one indifferent experience in a store is another reason to go online and avoid inferior service and sale skills, in stores.
Train, motivate, measure and reward your casuals and Christmas sales could be as good as you hope! Put untrained, unmotivated and cheap staff to serve your customers and Christmas could be not to your liking.
UK department store chain Marks & Spencer is about to announce further store closures along with reduced profits amid worsening high-street trading conditions.
Last year, the company announced the closure of 30 stores, but The Guardian newspaper reports a plan has been devised by CEO Steve Rowe and incoming chairman Archie Norman for a bolder store rationalisation plan.
The company is struggling to regain market share in its apparel division, which is almost exclusively own-label and has failed to keep pace with design and innovation of branded rivals.
Analysts are tipping the company to announce a further 10 per cent decline in profits for the six months to September 30, to around £201 million. That’s a far cry from the £1 billion full-year profit back in 2008.
In place of apparel, the company is redirecting its focus onto its successful food category, with some of the full-line stores to be converted into food-only stores.
Last year, the company exited the China market and this year began preparations to sell its Hong Kong business to Al-Futtaim under a franchise agreement.
The Guardian suggested that if M&S decides to close more stores it will deal a blow to the towns involved, where the retailer is often the main destination store, especially following the demise of BHS.
“But with more purchases made online, stores in smaller or less attractive town centres and shopping centres are finding life difficult especially amid rising costs for retailers.”
For the past few years, Black Friday has become a focal point for many US and UK retailers – and for media outlets hungry for images of shoppers bursting into stores in pursuit of posh televisions. The event, supposedly named after the moment when retailers move into profit for the year, has quickly escalated into a four-day shopping festival. But it is not the only game in town – or even the biggest.
Black Friday falls the day after Thanksgiving in the US (November 23 this year) and is followed up by a long-weekend extravaganza which culminates in the online-focused “Cyber Monday”. It has recalibrated, and brought forward, many consumers’ pre-Christmas shopping plans.
However, unlike Black Friday, China’s November 11 “Singles Day” is still predominately focused on local consumers and completely dominated by one online retailer – Alibaba. The economic impact of Black Friday is dwarfed by this online one-day retail festival from China. Singles Day has gone under the radar for most of the general public in the West, but in 2016, Chinese shoppers spent an incredible US$17.8 billion in 24 hours on the Alibaba online platform – China’s Amazon equivalent.
This online sales bonanza shifts more goods than the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales days in the US combined. Black Friday in the US saw online sales hit a record of just over US$3 billion in 2016.
Origins
Singles Day started as an obscure “anti-Valentine’s” celebration for single people in China back in the 1990s. The popular story is that it was started by students at Nanjing University who celebrated their singledom by treating themselves. It takes place on November 11 every year and is sometimes known as “bare sticks holiday”, after the way the date is written (11/11).
The event is also known as “Bachelors’ Day”, and it’s not hard to see why. China has a surplus of males caused by years of the government’s “one child” policy. By 2020, sociologists expect the gender imbalance to have widened to 35m and by 2030, it is estimated that one in four Chinese men in their late 30s will never have married. That is a big market.
Black Friday was, of course, initially driven and then “exported” to the UK and other markets by major US retailers, specifically Walmart and Amazon. In China, it was the e-commerce giant Alibaba which adopted Singles Day in 2009, just as online shopping started to explode.
It has now become a day when everyone, regardless of their relationship status, buys themselves gifts. Alibaba spotted this as a chance for retailers to generate interest and excitement and to boost sales in the lull between China’s Golden Week national holiday in October and the peak Christmas season.
Like much of the global growth in online sales, Singles Day has been driven by mobile. Nowhere is this more stark than in China where, with 1.3 billion smartphone users, mobile shopping is huge. Around 37 per cent of Chinese shoppers buy products using their phones, compared to the global average of 13 per cent.
We’ve seen that Alibaba’s sales numbers for Singles Day are astonishing. And the growth has been too. The chart below shows how Singles Day sales for Alibaba have risen over the past seven years. Last year alone, sales were up 32 per cent on the previous year.
Alibaba/BBC, Author provided
According to Alibaba, during the event on 2016 they processed more than a billion payment transactions in total, with 120,000 transactions per second at peak and their distribution system processed more than 657m delivery orders.
Analysts have predicted this year’s event could see Alibaba rack up sales of US$20 billion despite a slowdown in China’s economy, partly due to it having a broader audience.
Copy cats
Of course those kinds of numbers attract the interest of Western retailers too and the 2016 event saw 37 per cent of total buyers purchasing products from international brands or merchants. Companies like US retailers Costco and Macys as well as Britain’s Top Shop and House of Fraser have marketplaces on Alibaba’s Tmall site have already got involved.
And, for the first time, Alibaba’s 2017 Singles Day festival will bring more than 100 Chinese brands to overseas buyers, offering special promotions targeting over 100m overseas Chinese consumers in Asia and around the world.
There is one rather sensitive obstacle to the adoption of Singles Day in the UK, however. The eleventh day of the eleventh month is Armistice Day when Britain marks the end of World War I and the nation remembers all those who have died in military service. There will be many who think it distasteful to run a shopping event on that day. However, as David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, pointed out: “Singles Day in China is the biggest promotions day in the world. [The date] will stall its entry to the UK, but not forever.”
Given the rapid globalisation of most retail trends and the way online retail now allows immediate access to millions of products from thousands of manufacturers, it is indeed impossible to envisage that Singles Day won’t extend it’s reach, in some form, to Western consumers very quickly.
EU regulators have asked iPhone maker Apple for details of its recent tax structure following last year’s order to pay back taxes of up to €13 billion (A$20 billion) to Ireland, Europe’s anti-trust chief says.
European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who issued the record back-tax bill against Apple in August 2016, said she wanted to make sure the company now complies with the bloc’s rules which ban unfair state aid.
“I have been asking for an update on the arrangement made by Apple, the recent way they have been organised, in order to get the feeling whether or not this is in accordance with our European rules but that remains to be seen,” Vestager told a news briefing on the sidelines of an international tech summit in Lisbon.
“We are looking into this of course without any kind of prejudice, just to get the information,” she said.
Vestager said her request preceded reports based on the “Paradise Papers” which showed that Apple shifted key parts of its business to Jersey as an offshore tax haven in a move to maintain a low tax rate. Apple has said no operations were moved from Ireland.
“We have no contact after the Paradise Papers. We are in the process. There is no particular need,” she said.
She also said it was too early to say whether the latest leaks on tax arrangements by companies would lead to any investigation.
“That remains to be seen if we will open more cases after the Paradise Papers.”
The European Commission last month sued Ireland for its tardiness in collecting the money from Apple.
