China's Alibaba Group will combine its Ele.me food-delivery service with its Koubei food-and-lifestyle unit, creating a local service company as competition heats up with Meituan-Dianping. Alibaba acquired Ele.me for $9.5 billion earlier this year.
The US Postal Service is requesting an increase of 9% to 12% on its parcel select service, which is used by Amazon, UPS and FedEx for the last leg of package delivery. The USPS has also proposed increases on other priority mail services, along with a 10 percent rise in the price of first-class stamps.
Amazon has used robotics to automate functions in its warehouse, but it still relies on humans to pick up each item and put them in the areas to be shipped. Now, the company is exploring robotic technology that could eventually replace human pickers, sources said.
Los Angeles mall developer Rick Caruso grew up around the city's Farmer's Market, and his early lessons on attention to detail and giving shoppers things they won't find anywhere else have driven his career. One of his malls, The Grove, drew 20 million visitors in 2017, and there is a three-year waiting list for new retail space.
The exit of Sears stores would be a positive thing for high-traffic malls while creating new challenges for struggling shopping centers, commercial real estate experts say. Popular malls that negotiated low-priced leases with Sears long ago would now have opportunities to sign new tenants at higher rates, but less-trafficked malls could find it hard to attract new stores.
Shopify has opened its first brick-and-mortar showroom in Los Angeles to demonstrate its new hardware and services. The Toronto-based company provides logistics and payment services and software to merchants of all sizes.
Garmin on Thursday unveiled its GPS watch, the Instinct, which offers a barometric altimeter, a 3x-axis compass and multinavigation platform support. The Instant also provides a built-in heart rate monitor, plus UltraTrac mode for long-term battery use.
Facebook is fulfilling the promise it made this year to deliver 3D-esque capabilities for photos. The new capability is powered by artificial intelligence and works with mobile, desktop and virtual reality devices.
Walmart will spend $175 million to improve its stores in Canada and make other improvements to further integrate in-store and online sales, the company said. The retailer will renovate 23 of its more than 400 Canadian stores by early next year, as well as create new store spaces and parking lots to accommodate online shoppers.
India's e-commerce companies, led by Amazon India and Flipkart, booked an estimated $1.5 billion in sales in less than three days of the five-day festive sales event, according to RedSeer Consulting. Top sales categories included mobile phones, appliances and apparel.