Amazon to recreate Black Friday deals frenzy for Prime members July 6, 2015 AMAZON is hoping to stir up the same shopping frenzy as Black Friday by launching a new global shopping day next week with thousands of promotional deals. The online retail giant is turning 20 years old next week and, as part of its celebrations, will launch Prime Day at midnight on 15 July, which it [...]
Amazon’s UK sales jump by 14pc June 25, 2015 UK sales at online retailer Amazon rose 14 per cent to £5.3bn last year, as British consumers engaged in an online shopping bonanza. A filing with Companies House showed Amazon’s UK division recorded a profit of £34.4m during the period, paying out £11.9m in tax. UK sales accounted for 9.4 per cent of Amazon’s global [...]
What does the future hold for mutant equity crowdfunding? September 1, 2016 For the first time since the industry emerged in 2011, according to Beauhurst data, the number of successful equity crowdfunding campaigns fell in the first half of this year. It is therefore an appropriate moment to reassess what the sector’s future may look like. Equity crowdfunding platforms have a simple business model: they enable companies to raise [...]
Amazon overtakes Walmart as US’ biggest retailer: But has it really stolen its crown? July 24, 2015 The king is dead: Long live the king. If Americans still had monarchic leanings that might be how they would have viewed last night’s shock announcement that Walmart, that behemoth of retailing, had lost its crown as the nation’s biggest retailer. The fact that it lost it to Amazon, a dot-com upstart with no physical [...]
BT just had a really great quarter July 28, 2016 BT surged ahead despite concerns over its Openreach business, sending shares three per cent higher in early trading. The figures Revenues at the telecoms firm jumped 35 per cent in the first quarter to £5.7bn while pre-tax profit increased by 13 per cent on the same period last year to £717m. The recently acquired EE landed [...]
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May to make Top Gear-style show for Amazon July 30, 2015 Former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have found a new home at Amazon, after being ditched by the BBC earlier this year. Read more: Chris Evans picked to replace Jeremy Clarkson as Top Gear presenter The trio will create a Top Gear-style motoring show for Amazon's Prime Video service, with long-time [...]
British business lost a billion pounds to cyber crime last year June 13, 2016 The cost of cyber crime to British business came in at £1bn last year but the true price could be even higher, experts have warned. The number of online fraud crimes jumped nearly a quarter for the year to March, with 37,070 reported to the City of London's national Action Fraud reporting centre, which is the central [...]
Alibaba invests $1bn in cloud computing arm Aliyun to compete with Amazon Web Services July 29, 2015 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning a $1bn push into the cloud, taking on Amazon by expanding its cloud computing unit Aliyun into international markets. The company, often described as the “Chinese Ebay”, is expanding its cloud computing arm from its current bases in China and Silicon Valley to the Middle East, Europe and Japan, [...]
These are Britain’s best companies for customer service: First Direct, Amazon and John Lewis July 15, 2015 Anyone who detests being taken for granted by a company will be pleased to know there's a list of firms offering shoppers the best customer service experience. Online bank First Direct scored 87 for the overall level of customer satisfaction, helping it overtake better-known brands such as Amazon and John Lewis in a ranking compiled [...]
Tips from business, suppliers and buyers on getting your product noticed September 22, 2016 If there's one thing we’ve learned since Brexit, it’s that the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) always have big ambitions. No one ever said it was easy. Some of Britain’s largest and most influential businesses started out with nothing but an idea. Often, the most successful had very little initial investment, but made up [...]