According to the Verizon Business Retail Trends Report, online retailers are booming as COVID-19 restrictions led to an increase in online shopping this holiday season.
As per the National Retail Federation (NRF) first week of November 2020 shows 82% Y/Y increase in data traffic.
20% fewer people are moving to and around malls vs. last year and 59% more people visiting malls since the height of COVID-19 restrictions which led to 28% Y/Y increase in use on payment sites.
Michele Dupre, VP of Sales Vertical Markets, Retail and Hospitality for Verizon Business said, “Online retailers will need to continue to invest in creative and innovative customer experiences, to capture revenue and offset lost sales from in-person shopping.”
Deloitte also forecasts that e-commerce sales will grow by 25% to 35%, Y/Y during the 2020-2021 holiday season vs. sales growth of 14.7% in 2019. E-commerce holiday sales are expected to generate between $182B-$196B this season.
Sector Watch: Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), The Kroger (NYSE:KR), Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA), Target (NYSE:TGT) Home Depot (NYSE:HD), Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) and Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW).
Retail ETFs: (NYSEARCA:XLY), (NYSEARCA:XRT), (NYSEARCA:VCR), (NYSEARCA:FDIS),(NASDAQ:RTH), (NYSEARCA:RETL), (NYSEARCA:EMTY), (NYSEARCA:WANT), (NYSEARCA:FXD), (NYSEARCA:RCD), (NYSEARCA:JHMC), (NASDAQ:FTXD).
The Competition Commission of India approves Future Group’s sale of its retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail for $3.4B.
Future Group is India’s second largest retailer and Reliance takes the top slot.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has protested the deal and obtained an injunction in Singapore, alleging its stake in a Future subsidiary prohibited the company from entering into deals with certain firms. Amazon issued a separate complaint with CCI in India, asking the watchdog to uphold the injunction.
Future argued back that Amazon’s injunction wasn’t legally binding.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has acquired Arca, a Spanish engineering services company with a focus on network operations and business services.
The acquisition enhances ACN’s ability to drive comprehensive transformation across 5G deployment and network operations.
Arca’s employees will join ACN in Spain.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Mobileye (NASDAQ:INTC) has tapped lidar technology startup Luminar to furnish sensors for its first-generation autonomous vehicle fleet.
The agreement expands on a two-year partnership between the companies.
Mobileye hopes to have a robotaxi service in operation by 2022. The company also aims to sell its autonomous tech stack to other companies.
In August, Luminar announced it would go public via a $3.4B SPAC merger with Gores Metropoulos Inc (NASDAQ:GMHI).
Gores shares closed today up 20.3% to $12.75.
Microsoft (MSFT -0.1%) and Apple (AAPL -0.5%) are working together to make the new Xbox Series X and Series S controllers officially supported in iOS and iPadOS.
“Microsoft and Apple are working together to bring compatibility for the Xbox Series X controller to customers in a future update,” says Apple.
In other Microsoft news, the company is responding to Zoom Video (ZM +6.8%) dropping its 40-minute meeting limit for Thanksgiving by offering free Teams all-day video calling.
“To help you stay connected in the coming months, you will be able to meet for 24 hours with up to 300 participants until further specified,” says Microsoft’s blog post.
The feature is now available in preview in the Teams desktop and web apps.
Users can share a video call invite to anyone even if they don’t have Teams.
