Alibaba Group shares fell the most in 18 months and cut its market valuation by about $30 billion after investments in brick-and-mortar assets and digital media squeezed profit margins in the December quarter. The largest Chinese e-commerce retailer reported revenue that topped analyst estimates and raised its growth forecast for the 12 months ending in March to 55 to 56%. But operating margin shrank to 31% in the last quarter from 39% a year earlier. Shares fell 5.9% in New York trading, the sharpest decline since June 2016.
India’s leading e-commerce grocer BigBasket has secured $300 million in a funding round headed by China’s Alibaba, according to Reuters. An Alibaba unit invested $146 million, which will give its Indian counterpart more leverage to compete with US nemesis Amazon.
International recycling company Vanden Recycling has called the current 30% recycling rate of consumer plastic packaging 'woeful', while demanding new and cooperative approaches to waste. Companies needed to recognise that the core problem continues to be plastic that can’t be recycled easily or cost effectively, according to David Wilson, managing director of Vanden Recycling.
Michael Gove, the UK's secretary of state for environment and food, has vowed to push supermarkets on their use of plastic packaging. This came in response to a question from MP Ian Lucas in the House of Commons yesterday, who accused supermarkets of using "appalling" amounts of plastic, according to the Financial Times.
UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's has bought the Nectar loyalty programme and related assets from Canadian analytics company Aimia for £60 million. Sainsbury's was a founding partner of the Nectar scheme when was it launched in 2002, replacing its own loyalty card with a system that allows shoppers to gain rewards from a number of retailers and brands. Now, the supermarket group is bringing loyalty back in-house, in a move that will see it acquire large amounts of customer data.
© 2018 - Checkout Magazine by Kevin Duggan
