Tag: Retailing

e-male order: Buying clothes on the net is no longer just for girls

Posted by | Apr 28, 2008 | |

Internet shopping might always have suited the reluctant male shopper – he could stay seated, beer in one hand, keyboard at the other, and shop from the comfort of his armchair at any time of day or night. However, it is only recently that men have outpaced women in their use of online shopping.

Internet shopping might always have suited the reluctant male shopper – he could stay seated, beer in one hand, keyboard at the other, and shop from the comfort of his armchair at any time of day or night. However, it is only recently that men have outpaced women in their use of online shopping.

A survey by management consultants Accenture suggests that most men (56 per cent) today prefer shopping online to the high street, and now premium fashion sites are responding.

“Shopping for fashion online is a new experience for many men – they have to be educated to convert to it and, unlike women, the media hasn’t been busy bombarding them with ‘the new look’ on a weekly basis,” says Ali Khan, founder of menalamode.com, a site set up as a men’s alternative to net-a-porter.com. “Lots of retailers have been reluctant to cater online to the male fashion customer when women have been so ready to buy online. But it’s changing.”

Certainly, internet fashion retail is booming, with, according to market researchers Nielsen, 36 per cent of consumers with internet access having bought clothes, footwear or accessories online in the last quarter of 2007, almost double the figure two years ago. That suggests fashion is second only to books as the most popular internet purchase.

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Netflix moves firmly, but cautiously into more web-enabled entertainment

Posted by | Apr 23, 2008 | |

Netflix Inc. is well on its way to transitioning from a DVD rental company into an organization that will deliver subscribers Internet-based entertainment content to a variety of web-enabled devices, CEO Reed Hastings told analysts on the company’s first quarter earnings call.

Netflix, No. 18 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, announced in January a relationship with LG Electronics to develop a new device that consumers can hook up to their high-definition TVs, enabling them to use the Internet to purchase and download movies. Netflix is pursuing deals with four other unidentified consumer electronics companies, which Netflix expects to have signed and in place by the end of the year, Hastings told analysts.

With web-enabled TVs and mobile devices, subscribers can watch movies streamed from Netflix.com just as they can do now on their personal computers, says Netflix. The company has 90,000 DVD titles in its library and more than 6,000 movies and TV episodes that members can purchase and download to their computers.

Despite the deals with additional manufacturers, Netflix is cautious and will not move away too quickly from its current DVD and entertainment content business model. “Nothing about these agreements will be material to our financial results for the foreseeable future,” Hastings told analysts. “We’ll take it year by year and model by model as we and our consumer electronics partners come to understand the opportunity better.”

Netflix reported net income of USD 13.4 million on revenue of USD 326.2 million in the first quarter compared with net income of USD 9.9 million on revenue of USD 305.3 million in the prior year.

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DHL signs new agreement with Borderlinx to improve global ecommerce (U.S)

Posted by | Apr 21, 2008 | |

DHL announced a new five-year agreement with Borderlinx, a U.K.-based provider of cross-border e-commerce solutions. The new agreement between DHL and Borderlinx gives shoppers outside the U.S. the ability to order products from any U.S. Internet retailer. The Borderlinx solution also provides simple access to a global marketplace for US internet retailers who have previously only offered delivery within the U.S. marketplace.

U.S. Internet retailers can integrate directly with Borderlinx to make their products immediately available to the international marketplace. Borderlinx provides internet merchants with payment solutions, order fulfillment and DHL delivery services for product delivery to any of the 225 countries and territories served by DHL.

All purchases are sent to and stored at DHL’s primary air and ground hub in Ohio until the customer requests delivery. One consolidated delivery of purchases saves consumers significantly on import fees, duties and transportation charges.

DHL Solutions will provide full-service warehousing and fulfillment services including product storage, picking, packaging and consolidation of customer products for Borderlinx at the DHL hub in Wilmington, Ohio. Hosting operations on-site at the DHL hub in Wilmington, Ohio allows for direct access to international flights and late cutoff times. DHL’s logistics solutions will scale to adjust to retail cycles throughout the year.

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Wal-Mart eyes e-commerce in fast-growing Brazil

Posted by | Apr 17, 2008 | |

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday it will branch out into electronic commerce this year in Brazil, where it plans to invest 1.2 billion reais (USD 722.8 million) to keep up with fast-growing consumer demand.

Hector Nunez, chief executive of Wal-Mart Brazil, said the plunge into e-commerce will be a crucial part of the U.S. retailer’s growth strategy in Latin America’s largest country, where an economic boom is lifting millions out of poverty.

“We’re … entering into new channels, the most important being e-commerce that we will launch in the second half of this year,” he said at the company’s international analyst field trip in Salvador, in northeastern Brazil.

Nunez, who declined to provide further details on the e-commerce project, also reiterated Wal-Mart’s investment plans to open 36 new outlets this year in Brazil, almost twice as many as in 2007.

“We will continue aggressively expanding all of our formats,” he said in a speech broadcast over the Internet.

The discount behemoth has been focusing on expanding its international operations to supplement its U.S. business, where growth is slowing as it saturates many markets and now operates more than 4,100 stores.

The Wal-Mart Stores segment had net sales of USD 239.5 billion in its latest fiscal year ended January 31, up 6 percent from USD 226.3 billion a year earlier, while its Sam’s Club warehouse store division had sales of USD 44.36 billion, up almost 7 percent from USD 41.58 billion a year earlier.

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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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