Worker Bees: Cyber Monday piles on the pressure November 30, 2014 Today’s Cyber Monday event could be the biggest shopping day of the year – keeping Amazon’s warehouses packed to the rafters. Amazon, which sold 5.5m items on Friday at a rate of 64 purchases a second, has filled warehouses, such as this one at Peterborough, with 13,000 extra staff to meet pre-Christmas demand. The Centre [...]
The UK political system is dying and can only be saved by wholescale digitisation March 17, 2015 Look at the retail industry which has been revolutionised by digital, by online brands such as Amazon; and the likes of the taxi industry which is being disrupted by brands like Uber. But what about the UK political system, how is it using digital to engage with the electorate? To put it simply, it isn’t. [...]
Office supplies firms to bind in mega merger February 4, 2015 LEADING US office supply firm Staples is set to acquire Office Depot in a $6.3bn (£3.4bn) deal in the hope of creating a mega corporation with the muscle to take on Wal-Mart and Amazon and giving it pro forma annual sales of approximately $39bn. The deal will see the leading US supplier of office basics [...]
Amazon preparing to push into your pocket April 14, 2014 FOLLOWING its move into the living room last week with the Fire TV, Amazon is reportedly going to launch a smartphone later this year capable of displaying 3D images, similar to a hologram, on its screen. The smartphone will be announced in June and start shipping in September ahead of the holiday shopping season, according [...]
Amazon teams up with Twitter to launch tweet-to-buy service May 6, 2014 AMAZON’S customers can now order items from the online retail giant directly from Twitter. The Amazon Basket service lets users who have connected their Amazon and Twitter accounts to add items to their baskets just by tweeting the link of an Amazon product along with the #AmazonBasket hashtag. “When Amazon customers see an Amazon.co.uk product [...]
Royal Mail chairman Donald Brydon steps down January 29, 2015 Donald Brydon has announced he will step down as chairman of Royal Mail after six years at the postal service. Having overseen the one of the most significant periods in the Royal Mail's history, Brydon said the time was right to step down. Brydon helped lead the controversial privatisation of the UK's postal service in [...]
How to unlock creativity as a driver of success April 6, 2015 Most business people are clear that creativity is an essential driver of success. Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Virgin, Tesla, and Uber set the standard that others aspire to achieve. Regular surveys of business leaders rate creativity as the most important characteristic their organisation needs to show. There’s very little disagreement: creativity is [...]
Trio of banks forced to shelve deal work on Spanish flotation January 29, 2015 CITIGROUP, Morgan Stanley and Santander were yesterday forced to scrap a deal to list Spanish firm Isolux Corsan after the company decided to put the flotation on ice. The banks were joint global co-ordinators on the proposal, which would have raised €600m (£451m) to pay down Isolux’s debt pile. CaixaBank, Natixis and Societe Generale were [...]
Amazon’s sales surge but costs continue to rise April 24, 2014 AMAZON’S sales soared 23 per cent during the first quarter to $19.74bn (£11.74bn), but were offset by a sharp increase in spending on technology, content and new warehouses as the e-commerce giant branches out into new businesses. Despite Amazon’s profits falling 19 per cent to only $146m, shares in the company showed a new lease [...]
Royal Mail share price falls more than 8 per cent after it warns on parcels business November 19, 2014 Shares in Royal Mail had fallen more than eight per cent to 431p in early afternoon trading, after the company posted disappointing half-year profits and warned its parcel business is likely to be impacted by heavy competition. The business, which was floated at 330p last October, has been the subject of fierce debate, with MPs [...]