“shopping” – Google News

“shopping” – Google News

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https://fox4kc.com/news/holiday-shopping-helps-save-local-toy-store/
CAIiEOutaVeXUh7d4gZNJDWv_ZcqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowno7_CjC7hPgCMNW65AU
<p><em>[unable to retrieve full-text content]</em></p><a href=”https://fox4kc.com/news/holiday-shopping-helps-save-local-toy-store/” target=”_blank”>Holiday shopping helps save local toy store</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color=”#6f6f6f”>WDAF FOX4 Kansas City</font> Mon, 21 Dec 2020 03:18:00 +0000 en-US
https://fox4kc.com/news/holiday-shopping-helps-save-local-toy-store/


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-online-shopping-addiction-killing-210020217.html
CBMiVWh0dHBzOi8vZmluYW5jZS55YWhvby5jb20vbmV3cy9jaGluYS1vbmxpbmUtc2hvcHBpbmctYWRkaWN0aW9uLWtpbGxpbmctMjEwMDIwMjE3Lmh0bWzSAV1odHRwczovL2ZpbmFuY2UueWFob28uY29tL2FtcGh0bWwvbmV3cy9jaGluYS1vbmxpbmUtc2hvcHBpbmctYWRkaWN0aW9uLWtpbGxpbmctMjEwMDIwMjE3Lmh0bWw
<div><img src=”https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/XcuKz1UDuGMHLKntuRUFhw–~B/aD0xMzM0O3c9MjAwMDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/bloomberg_technology_68/22ec25016399e85a9318ac38830d06ec” class=”ff-og-image-inserted”></div><p>(Bloomberg) — If you worry about all the waste generated by the annual rush of holiday shopping and gift giving, it’s nothing compared to the mountains of discarded packaging that comes from a single event in China.</p><p>On Nov. 11 each year, the world’s biggest consumer market goes into overdrive as e-commerce giants like Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and JD.com Inc. lure shoppers with huge bargains during the Singles’ Day bonanza. Alibaba reported almost 500 billion yuan ($76 billion) of sales this year, nearly four times U.S. Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending combined. On its Tmall platform, transactions reached a peak when 583,000 orders were made in a single second.</p><p>All those purchases meant 675 million packages had to be delivered, a 26% increase from 2019. Online shopping in China generated 9.4 million tons of packaging in 2018, according to Greenpeace, which projects that the amount could rise to 41 million tons by 2025, about the same as all the waste produced by Japan in a year.</p><p>Greenpeace estimates that Singles’ Day generated 52,400 metric tons of CO2 from manufacturing, packaging and shipping in 2017. The national railway has to employ hundreds of high-speed trains to help with deliveries every year.</p><p>As President Xi Jinping pushes for stronger environmental protection and consumers grow more eco-conscious, the nation’s e-commerce giants are under pressure to find greener ways to handle the annual extravaganza, starting with plastic. China’s soaring use of the material has become one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues, but switching to other materials is costly for smaller businesses and the government has struggled to implement a plan to phase out single-use plastics.</p><p>Zipper Boxes</p><p>E-commerce companies are trying to stem the tide. For Singles’ Day this year, Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao designed recyclable corrugated cardboard boxes that don’t have to be sealed with plastic tape. The company offered the packaging to more than 500 sellers on Tmall, including brands like Nestle SA and Procter &amp; Gamble Co. The so-called zipper boxes cost twice as much as their usual packaging, but sellers that opt to use them get extra promotion on the website. Cainiao says it used 190,000 plastic-free boxes and 3 million biodegradable bags to package Singles’ Day orders this year. While that’s a step forward, it’s just a fraction of the total increase in packaging this year.</p><p>At one of Cainiao’s warehouses in Langfang city southeast of Beijing, the zipper boxes appeared frequently on the assembly line as employees worked in shifts around the clock to meet demand during the busiest week in November. Cainiao emblazons the boxes with dolphin images to “raise awareness of how plastic pollutes the oceans,” said Tang Linrong, a member of the company’s packaging solutions team. Tang said his team plans to promote the zipper boxes at other shopping events throughout the year.</p><p>The nation is making other efforts to cut shipping waste. China’s State Post Bureau says 96% of the country’s delivery services have adopted digital waybills and switched to thinner packaging tape to reduce plastic use. Suning.com, an appliance seller, last year launched shared delivery box programs in 13 cities.</p><p>But it’s the millions of smaller retailers which are the backbone of China’s consumer goods industry that are the sticking point.</p><p>Unlike Tmall, which mostly caters to established brands and international companies, Alibaba’s Taobao platform allows these vendors to sell directly to customers. Prices are so competitive that reducing packaging and shipping costs are crucial for sellers to make a profit. Angela Cai, Cainiao’s head of international communications, said Taobao will give retailers who join their green initiatives special perks to help them attract customers.</p><p>Red Tape</p><p>Still, without government regulation, companies are left to decide if they want to use more sustainable packaging. Online shopping has become such a key driver of China’s domestic economy, especially during the pandemic, that authorities have been reluctant to institute rules that could hurt the industry. The environment ministry, which drives climate policies, doesn’t have the power to mandate greener packaging.</p><p>“There is a mismatch between which department has the power to manage, what can they manage and what needs to be managed,” said Tang Damin, Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia. “The regulator in charge of packaging in the delivery sector can do nothing more than give suggestions to the e-commerce business.”</p><p>China officially banned free plastic bags at markets in 2008 and has said that non-degradable plastic straws should be eliminated by 2020, but those declarations have largely been ignored by the public. Plastic bags are freely available at most markets. Days before the deadline for eliminating straws, drink shops in Beijing’s most upscale neighborhoods still provided them. An ambitious mandatory recycling pilot program that was rolled out in cities including Shanghai and Beijing has struggled to take off.</p><p>Experts caution that the degradable plastics many Chinese companies are switching to aren’t necessarily more environmentally friendly. The majority of degradable plastic, for example, breaks down within six months only in facilities with temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius and certain humidity conditions. These plastics often end up in landfills, where they can remain intact for much longer.</p><p>Switching to cardboard also has its environmental issues. Cardboard production is water intensive, generates emissions and runs the risk of encouraging deforestation if not sourced sustainably. It’s also hard to recycle if contaminated with food or other waste.</p><p>Ultimately, the most effective way to curb the surge in packaging may be to encourage people to consume less. Days after this year’s Singles’ Day, staff at a recycling station on Beijing’s Beixinqiao street were still working overtime to sort through the tons of plastic, cardboard and polystyrene foam that had poured in.</p><p>“The government put out slogans on garbage sorting everywhere, but I see more and more unsorted trash,” said a worker surnamed Zhao. “I guess it’s easy to talk about the environment but it’s hard to resist the temptation to buy.”</p><p>For more articles like this, please visit us at <a href=”https://www.bloomberg.com” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:bloomberg.com” class=”link rapid-noclick-resp”>bloomberg.com</a></p><p><a href=”https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/67obqkd5zdp5lj8/?utm_source=yahoo_usn” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:Subscribe now” class=”link rapid-noclick-resp”>Subscribe now</a> to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.</p><p>©2020 Bloomberg L.P.</p><p><strong><a href=”https://blockads.fivefilters.org”></a></strong> <a href=”https://blockads.fivefilters.org/acceptable.html”>(Why?)</a></p> Sun, 20 Dec 2020 21:00:00 +0000 en-US
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-online-shopping-addiction-killing-210020217.html


https://www.wsj.com/articles/luxury-brands-will-go-shopping-again-11608543580
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<img src=”https://images.wsj.net/im-276010?width=620&amp;size=1.5″ layout=”responsive” placeholder height=”413.3333333333333″ width=”620″ alt=”Moncler’s deal for Stone Island stood out in an otherwise quiet year for luxury companies.”>
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<p class=”imageCaptionContent”>Moncler’s deal for Stone Island stood out in an otherwise quiet year for luxury companies.</p>
<p class=”imageCredit”>Photo: Pietro Recchia/Zuma Press</p>
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<p>This year, luxury companies were more likely to try to back out of deals than to sign new ones. That could soon change as cash piles up on the larger players’ balance sheets, while independent brands come under pressure to invest.</p>
<div class=”paywall”> <p>Deal-making in the sector has been understandably muted during the pandemic. This month brought an exception: Italian apparel brand
<a href=”https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/IT/XMIL/MONC” class=”company-name”>Moncler</a>
announced a tie-up with Stone Island in a transaction that valued its smaller streetwear competitor at €1.2 billion, or $1.4 billion at current exchange rates. Otherwise, the tone of 2020 was set by
<a href=”https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/LVMUY” class>LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton</a><span class=”company-name-type”>’s</span>
legal push to get out of its pre-pandemic $16 billion bid for U.S. jeweler Tiffany &amp; Co., which was eventually settled out of court with <a href=”https://www.wsj.com/articles/lvmh-saves-face-but-little-money-11603973014?mod=article_inline” target=”_blank” class=”icon none”>a minor price discount</a>.</p>
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<p>Management teams were too busy cutting costs and <a href=”https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-sell-luxury-online-deep-pockets-matter-more-than-ever-11607682603?mod=article_inline” target=”_blank” class=”icon none”>scrambling to sell online</a> during lockdowns to consider the distraction that comes with buying a new brand. Companies like
<a href=”https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/BURBY” class=”company-name”>Burberry</a>
that have traditionally been seen by investors as potential targets remained on the shelf despite sharp valuation falls. Based on its share price, the British trench-coat maker could at one point in March have been picked up for half what it commanded in January.</p>
<p>Soon, though, the biggest luxury brands will face their old dilemma of what to do with the piles of cash they generate. By the end of next year, the top five listed European players by market value will have aggregate net cash of around €3 billion, based on FactSet estimates. While Birkin handbag maker Hermès is happy to keep billions of euros sitting on its books, more-acquisitive names like LVMH and its rival Kering, which owns the Gucci brand, might consider doing deals instead.</p>
<p>Even after digesting Tiffany, LVMH will have modest net debt of roughly one times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It has been opportunistic in the aftermath of previous downturns. The French company built a stake in family-owned Hermès in 2010 but ultimately failed to take it over. It bought Italian jeweler Bulgari out of private ownership in 2011.</p>

<p>Next year, there might be chances to pick up other independent names. After this year’s massive shift toward digital shopping, underperforming listed brands like Tod’s, or those still in founders’ hands such as shoemaker Christian Louboutin, are more likely to ask whether their stand-alone days are numbered.</p>
<p>By the middle of the decade, e-commerce is expected to generate almost one-third of all global luxury sales, according to estimates by consulting firm Bain &amp; Company. Even before the pandemic, a notable gap had opened up between the strong sales performance of big brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci and the less impressive growth of many smaller peers. Without investment in digital, independent companies will fall farther behind. Some may prefer to sell out to deeper-pocketed peers. Others may couple up to create new luxury conglomerates, as appears to be the case with Moncler’s Stone Island deal.</p>
<p>For now, the industry is still trying to understand what business will look like once the crisis has passed. But the pandemic has also brought fresh urgency to the need for scale and digital know-how. Moncler may be setting a trend.</p>
<p><strong>Write to </strong>Carol Ryan at <a href=”mailto:carol.ryan@wsj.com” target=”_blank” class=”icon “>carol.ryan@wsj.com</a></p>

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</div><p><strong><a href=”https://blockads.fivefilters.org”></a></strong> <a href=”https://blockads.fivefilters.org/acceptable.html”>(Why?)</a></p> Mon, 21 Dec 2020 09:39:00 +0000 Carol Ryan
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https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/luxury-brands-will-go-shopping-again-11608543580

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