Amazon Local Services will allow customers to order plumbers and mechanics alongside books and boxsets November 28, 2014 In the midst of this week’s Black Friday madness, Amazon quietly launched a brand new site for service providers. Instead of cut-price plasma screen TVs, Amazon Local Services puts you in touch with those who can put one back together again following a ruckus at Tesco in Edmonton. Amazon Local Services was launched in [...]
Black Friday UK 2014: 5 of the worst Amazon lightning deals savvy shoppers have not been waiting for November 26, 2014 Everyone loves a bargain, but there are some things that scream “rather not” than “must have”. Among quite a few decent deals on expensive tech and electrical items, some of Amazon’s early flash deal Black Friday treats are, well, a little underwhelming, let’s say. Here are five of the least exciting deals waiting for you [...]
Amazon debuts Post Office pick-up service in new deal with Royal Mail November 24, 2014 Shoppers will soon be able to collect products ordered on Amazon at their local Post Office branch in a new deal announced today by the online retail giant and the Royal Mail. Amazon said it has signed up Royal Mail’s Local Collect service, giving its customers the option of collecting goods from any one of [...]
The best places to look for Black Friday deals 2014: John Lewis, Amazon, Marks & Spencer, Very, Curry’s PC World and Halfords November 24, 2014 Retailers are gearing up for Black Friday to be one of – if not the – biggest online shopping day of the year, with hundreds of promotions being planned to tempt consumers to join the spending bonanza. According to the Centre for Retail Research, shoppers will spend £1.32bn over the four days between Black [...]
Amazon UK opening Shoreditch studio to boost fashion business November 23, 2014 Amazon is planning to step up its assault on rival online fashion retailers such as Asos and Next with the opening of a 46,000-square foot fashion photography studio in Shoreditch next year. The move comes as Amazon has been boosting its fashion efforts, signing up more than 100 brands in 2014, including Hugo Boss and [...]
Royal Mail frets over Amazon taking business November 19, 2014 FIRST it was publishers, then high street retailers, now US giant Amazon is set to disrupt the business model for Britain’s postal service. Industry leader Royal Mail yesterday warned that the growing dominance of rival delivery offerings from Amazon would cut revenue growth in half at its key parcel delivery division. Royal Mail, which was [...]
Amazon and Hachette give up their pricing war – just in time for Christmas November 13, 2014 It's a brave brand that takes on the might of Amazon – but US publisher Hachette gave it a good go, arguing that it should have control over the price of its ebooks. The battle was keenly observed by fellow publishers, not least because underneath, they were grumbling about the same thing. But it looks [...]
Alibaba share price rises to record high as company now worth over $100bn more than Amazon November 4, 2014 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its shares rose to a record high yesterday of $106.07 after it reported strong second-quarter results and said it would invest for the long term to expand its customer base. It was Alibaba’s maiden quarterly results since its $25bn (£15.6bn) float on the New York Stock Exchange in September, when [...]
“Amazon is like IS” terrorist group says Andrew Wylie, literary agent of Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie October 31, 2014 One of the most powerful people in the publishing world has compared Amazon to the Islamic terrorist group IS. Andrew Wylie, agent to literary stars such as Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie, called the online retailer a “sort of Isis-like distribution channel” in a speech at the International Festival of Authors on the future of [...]
Top economists reject Paul Krugman’s call for government intervention to curb Amazon’s market power October 29, 2014 Rarely far from controversy, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman caused quite the stir in his New York Times column a couple weeks back. Krugman argued that e-commerce giant Amazon "has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt Americans". Furthermore, state intervention was necessary to protect the public. Amazon drew Krugman's [...]