Tag: Amazon

The South African Post Office posts a 7pct rise in revenue and a 12pct growth in profit before tax

Posted by | Aug 26, 2008 | |

Presenting the results today, the South African Post Office (Sapo) posted a 12pct rise in profit before tax of R565m (2007: R507m) for the 2008 financial year on the back of a 7pct rise in revenue from R5.2bn in 2007 to R5.6bn in the year under review.

She said that the group’s shareholder had agreed to continue providing a subsidy to the Sapo of R372m for the coming year. This will be increased to R383m in 2010. This subsidy is primarily used to assist with the necessary operational and capital expenditure required to service areas that are not commercially viable in South Africa, yet do require services as mandated by the shareholder in terms of its licence and agreed upon by Sapo as part of its Universal Service Obligations.

The past year has seen many operational highlights, top of the agenda being the new business model that was defined and approved by the board of the Sapo, which in itself made major strides towards further compliance with codes of good corporate governance and the King 2 code, by establishing a Group Chairperson’s Committee, equivalent to an Investment Committee in a Public Company. The new operational design sees the group structured into 5 divisions:
• Mail
• Logistics
• Financial Services
• ICT and
• Property.

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Amazon, others to suck up holiday shipping costs

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

Online retailers cannot afford to raise shipping prices. The high cost of fuel is hurting the wallets of American consumers and businesses alike, but online retailer Amazon.com Inc and others will likely forgo shipping price increases on its discount programs this upcoming holiday shopping season for fear of alienating hard-pressed shoppers in the weak economy.

Long-term contracts with shippers may insulate Amazon and some others, even as companies small and large scramble to find other costs to cut. Margins could suffer more as time goes on, but the biggest companies could watch smaller rivals fade away as the move to online shopping continues to accelerate.

Avoiding shipping price hikes may appear foolhardy — after all, the cost of diesel fuel has risen 154 percent in the last year. But companies such as Amazon and Overstock.com Inc rely on low or free shipping to stoke business in good times — so any rise in bad times could be a major problem.

Free shipping is a major competitive advantage for Amazon, which has already been lowering prices to stave off rivals, said Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

U.S. carriers like United Parcel Service Inc, FedEx Corp and the U.S. Postal Service have been raising prices due to higher fuel costs.

But Amazon and some brick-and-mortar companies with major online businesses say they’ve largely been able to insulate themselves by being more efficient elsewhere in their businesses, whether through better distribution or less waste.

Overstock will not raise its blanket USD 2.95 shipping price on a full order, and fuel increases have not affected the company’s profit margins, Chief Executive Patrick Byrne said.

Large online shippers have bargaining leverage over transport carriers when it comes to contracts, Amazon and Overstock said.

However, smaller online retailers that aren’t as nimble as Amazon will be struggling this holiday with higher fuel costs and be forced to raise shipping prices.

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Post Office blacklisting confirmed

Posted by | Jun 23, 2008 | |

Internet retailer Amazon.com has confirmed that it will not use the South African Post Office for door-to-door deliveries, citing the need for the postal utility to improve its customer services.

In an interview via e-mail, Patty Smith, director of corporate communications for Amazon.com, diplomatically confirmed that a decision had been taken to change postal options, and this commenced on June 12.

Smith would not elaborate on why the SAPO’s customer services needed improving.

On Sunday, the Sunday Tribune made damning claims that the country’s postal service is the only one in Africa to have been blacklisted because of the large number of items that have gone missing, presumed stolen.

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Amazon launches major distribution centre in Swansea

Posted by | Apr 16, 2008 | |

Online retailer Amazon has announced that it has opened a major new distribution centre in South Wales.

The company is now seeking more than 1,000 new workers to staff the 800,000 sq ft site at Swansea Bay, located on 33 acres of land near the city’s seaport.

According to Amazon, hundreds more jobs will be created in the area over the next five years and the new centre is the company’s fourth and largest distribution facility in Britain.

The US retail giant has sites at Glenrothes and Gourock in Scotland and Milton Keynes in the south of England.

Amazon’s new Swansea centre, built by Australian construction firm Macquarie Goodman, will play a key role in meeting current and future demand, as the company continues to see profits rise from the continued growth of Britain’s internet shopping sector.

Swansea is the second largest city in Wales and the opening of the new centre speeded up building of a new access road to Jersey Marine in Swansea, where the centre is located.

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Over 875 Million Consumers Have Shopped Online – the Number of Internet Shoppers up 40pct in Two Years

Posted by | Jan 28, 2008 | |

More than 85 percent of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase — increasing the market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years — according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits. Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.
Among Internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is found in South Korea, where 99 percent of those with Internet access have used it to shop, followed by the UK (97pct), Germany (97pct), Japan (97pct) with the U.S. eighth, at 94 percent. Additionally, in South Korea, 79 percent of these Internet users have shopped in the past month, followed by the UK (76pct) and Switzerland (67pct) with the U.S. at 57 percent.
Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are Books (41pct purchased in the past three months), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36pct), Videos / DVDs / Games (24pct), Airline Tickets (24pct) and Electronic Equipment (23pct).
Credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online purchases — 60 percent of global online consumers used their credit card for a recent online purchase, while one in four online consumers chose PayPal. Of those paying with a credit card, more than half (53pct) used Visa.
According to Nielsen, online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60 percent saying they buy mostly from the same site. “This shows the importance of capturing the tens of millions of new online shoppers as they make their first purchases on the Internet. If shopping sites can capture them early, and create a positive shopping experience, they will likely capture their loyalty and their money,” said Paul.

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