Thought of the Day:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Cicero
Did you know?
Workers at Amazon’s distribution centres can be expected to walk upto 11 miles per shift, picking an order every 33 seconds.
India:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Cicero
Did you know?
Workers at Amazon’s distribution centres can be expected to walk upto 11 miles per shift, picking an order every 33 seconds.
India:
- Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal on how the Internet Revolution is changing India: When people ask me about the biggest change that I see in India today, it is no doubt the internet revolution. Millions of consumers and businesses are benefiting from it and lives are betting better. When we look back at India a decade ago, the broadband penetration in India was very low and the internet experience was restricted to those living in larger cities. Since then, with the growth of the telecom industry, broadband penetration increased within India and the internet moved beyond offices and cyber cafes to individual homes. This quickly changed the way we communicated as we embraced new ways to do business online. Online platforms developed to include services that ranged from distance learning to e-commerce and a new generation of entrepreneurs emerged that changed the way we worked. Some of these achievements have been to create reliable supply chains and systems in a country where few things work smoothly.
- More than 20% orders Flipkart through mobile phones: Country's leading e-commerce player Flipkart today said it is receiving over 20 per cent of its orders from mobile phones on the back of growing penetration of smart phone users who prefer buying merchandise through m-commerce mode. "More than 20 per cent of our orders are coming from mobile at present. And we see a lot of mobile users, who place orders, are from non-metro cities where we see a lot of potential for growth," company's Director (Mobile Marketing) Mausam Bhatt told reporters here. Mobile users currently prefer to order mobile phones, tablets, cameras, footwear and apparels, he further said. "Increasing smart phone penetration and lower costs of devise has further contributed to growth of m-commerce," he said. Quoting a report of Boston Consulting Group, Bhatt said at present 45 per cent online consumers in India use only their mobile devices to access the internet which is expected to increase to 60 per cent over the next three years. Sensing immense potential in m-commerce, Flipcart had launched its first android-based mobile application in September last year to allow smart phone users to buy products online. It launched iOS-based application in December.
- LVMH owned Sephora to open 7 stores in India this year: Louis Vuitton owned Sephora is planning to open 7 stores in India by the end of this year; Afif Haddar, General manager, South East Asia for Sephora. When queried on the choice of cities for expansion, Haddar said Delhi would continue to be of prime focus for Sephora in India. The other cities on radar for expansion for this world's beauty behemoth are Pune and Hyderabad. Sephora is a French-based beauty retailer founded in 1970, and specialises in beauty cosmetics, fragrances and personal care.The French luxury goods conglomerate Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (LVMH) acquired Sephora in the year 1999 and operates 1300 stores in 27 countries worldwide. Currently, Sephora operates two store in India - both of them present in Delhi. The second store recently opened at the DLF Promenade mall.
- Retail inflation declines to 25-month low in February: Aided by a drop in food prices, Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation fell to 8.1 per cent in February, the second-lowest since the index was launched in 2012, showed data released on Wednesday. Only for January 2012 did CPI-based inflation stand at a lower level (7.65 per cent). In February 2013, inflation stood at 10.29 per cent; in January this year, it was 8.79 per cent. Economists cautioned in the coming months, inflation would remain close to the level seen in February, and this was unlikely to allow the Reserve Bank of India to cut the policy rate at its meeting next month. Also, it is expected the El Niño phenomenon might disrupt the monsoon this year. “Notwithstanding the better-than-expected print for February 2014, elevated retail inflation is unlikely to set the stage for monetary easing in the immediate term,” said Icra senior economist Aditi Nayar. In rural areas, retail inflation fell from 9.35 per cent in January to 8.51 per cent, while in urban regions, it declined from 8.09 per cent to 7.55 per cent.
- Why investors are betting big on Indian e-commerce firms: Investors are pumping huge sums of money in yet-to-be profitable e-commerce firms in India in the hope that these companies will gain sizeable market share as more young people with higher disposable incomes start buying online over the next five years, say analysts. Already, this year has seen 10 transactions worth $288 million (around Rs.1,785 crore) in the space, according to VCCEdge, a deals tracker. On Tuesday, Mumbai-based online and mobile classifieds firm, Quikr India Pvt. Ltd, said it has raised $90 million from Investment AB Kinnevik of Sweden. “The proceeds (of the $90 million) will be used for marketing, talent acquisition and improving customer experience,” said Pranay Chulet, co-founder and chief executive of Quikr. On 26 February, Snapdeal.com, one of India’s largest online marketplaces, said it was raising $133.7 million from existing investors, including eBay Inc., a company that has struggled in India despite being an early mover. In comparison, 2013 saw 57 deals worth $602 million in the space.
- Ex-boss a twit? Don’t tweet it: Cussing the company that you just quit online? If you’re that type, you might have a lawsuit on your hands. Given how easy it is today for disgruntled or ex-employees to vent in cyberspace, a number of Indian companies are introducing social media policies and non-disparagement clauses. Globally, companies adopt social media policies that dictate what any employee can say, or more importantly, not say online. Use is also made of non-disparagement clauses, especially in top-level exits. With 10 crore Facebook users and more than three crore active Twitter accounts in the country, India Inc is now following suit. As Shivaram T, HR leader at SAP Labs, India, points out, “In today’s networked environment, negative remarks spread quickly and have a multiplier effect. Thus, companies are moving towards having legally watertight clauses in employee agreements which protect the company, its brand, customers and other stakeholders.” Most likely to bad-mouth a firm are ex-employees, so companies are making severance pacts of key employees tighter. “We have increasingly seen use of non-disparagement clause linked to exit packages in severance agreements with senior employees. We are also seeing a trend of including non-disparagement clauses in new executive employment agreements. Automatically, employees would be under an obligation to comply with the clause on exit,” says Anand Mehta, partner, Khaitan & Co, a law firm.
International:
- Twitter crashes second time in nine days, blames software glitch : Twitter Inc. crashed on Tuesday for the second time in nine days when a software glitch stalled the popular messaging service for about one hour. The company apologized to its 250 million users in a status blog, saying it had encountered “unexpected complications” during “a planned deploy in one of our core services.” The outage began around 11am Pacific time and service had “fully recovered” by 11:47am, the San Francisco-based company said. The stock rose as much as 3.7% before Twitter confirmed the glitch, but gave up most of the gains to end 0.25% higher. The outage occurred just as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone took the stage in Austin, Texas, to speak at the South by Southwest Interactive festival, the annual gathering of tech enthusiasts that helped propel Twitter to national fame in 2007. Twitter crashed briefly on 2 March during the Academy Awards, when the company’s infrastructure was overwhelmed by a flood of tweets and retweets about a “selfie” featuring Oscar show host Ellen DeGeneres, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and many other celebrities.
- Vanessa Friedman Joins The New York Times: Vanessa Friedman, the longtime fashion editor of The Financial Times, has joined The New York Times as fashion director and chief fashion critic. She will start at the newspaper next month and oversee fashion reporting and coverage for both The New York Times and The International New York Times editions. “I’m thrilled to welcome Vanessa to the Times. She is the perfect journalist to be our leading voice on global fashion,” said executive editor Jill Abramson, in a statement. Friedman will take on the dual roles left by Suzy Menkes, who announced last week that she is leaving The International New York Times (formerly The International Herald Tribune) for Condé Nast International, and Cathy Horyn, who left her position as fashion editor of The New York Times in January for personal reasons. Importantly, Friedman will also play a crucial role in organising the newspaper’s lucrative annual luxury conference, now in its 14th year. The next installment of the conference is set to be held at the Mandarin Oriental Miami Hotel from December 1st to 3rd to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach. Friedman will join a Times fashion team that includes Deborah Needleman, editor of T Magazine, and Stuart Emmrich, editor of the main newspaper’s Style section. At the FT, Friedman helped to coordinate the the paper’s Business of Luxury conference, which was last held in June of 2013 in Vienna.
- LVMH Unveils Finalists for Young Designer Prize: It seems there is no shade under the umbrella of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — only exposure. So say finalists vying for the inaugural LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize, describing their two days in Paris for the semifinalist judging round last month as a windfall in terms of publicity, networking and confidence boosting. The 12 contenders for the crown — which comes with a grant of 300,000 euros, or $415,900 at current exchange, plus a year of coaching — are CG by Chris Gelinas, Gabriele Colangelo, Shayne Oliver’s Hood by Air, Simon Porte Jacquemus, Miuniku by sisters Nikita and Tina Sutradhar, Thomas Tait, Tillmann Lauterbach, Tim Coppens, Simone Rocha, Suno by Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis, Vika Gazinskaya, and Julien Dossena for his brand Atto. (Dossena also designs Paco Rabanne). They are to congregate in Paris on May 28 to face an all-star panel of judges including Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Raf Simons, Phoebe Philo and Riccardo Tisci, along with Kenzo’s creative duo Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, plus LVMH executives Pierre-Yves Roussel and Jean-Paul Claverie.
- Footwear Is Growth Area for Retailers: Men are having a Cinderella moment, propelling footwear to become one of the fastest-growing categories in an already buoyant market for men’s fashions. And retailers around the world are gearing up to take advantage of it. “Shoes are to men what bags are to women,” said Emmanuel de Bayser, owner of The Corner in Berlin. “Because bags don’t work in men’s wear, 90 percent of my budget for accessories goes into shoes, 80 percent of which are sneakers.” Among the best-selling items de Bayser cited are sneakers from brands including Valentino, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Saint Laurent and Christian Louboutin, for which there is a waiting list at his boutique. “What’s interesting is, the customer today knows exactly what he wants; it’s imperative that we keep up with his specific demands,” de Bayser said. The retailer said his shoe budget doubled in the last three seasons, and he recently installed a “sneaker wall” in his men’s boutique, an element he borrowed from his women’s shop and “an instant hit.” Most retailers polled by WWD cited double-digit growth in men’s footwear in 2013, which they forecast will continue this year, in concert with substantial investments in the sector.
- Bottega Veneta Receives Green Certification for Eco-friendly HQ: Bottega Veneta has received its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED 2009 NC) platinum certification from the Green Building Council, said the fashion firm’s president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri on Wednesday. The confirmation came after Bottega Veneta, which is controlled by Kering, purchased Villa Schroeder-Da Porto in Montebello Vicentino, outside Vicenza, Italy, in 2005, and began a lengthy restoration project to transform the 18th-century residence into an eco-friendly new headquarters. “To start with, our [growing] staff no longer fit into the old atelier, and so we made virtue out of necessity,” said Bizzarri, adding that providing employees with pleasant surroundings and generous benefits was good for business. “The products are made by people, and our real innovation comes from the interaction between our artisans and creative director and of the artisans amongst themselves. So we needed to ensure that they had the best possible place to work.” Bizzarri also highlighted Bottega Veneta’s inclusion in the 2014 Great Place to Work ranking in Italy.
- ICSC: Retail Sales Gain Momentum: Attempts to sell spring merchandise got a helping hand from better weather to begin March, helping to lift chain-store sales 2.1 percent over those of the comparable 2013 week. The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs, in their weekly chain-store sales index, reported that sales for the week ended Saturday were up 1.3 percent from prior-week levels. The year-over-year change matched the level of the week ended Feb. 15 and the sequential figure was the best since the 2.5 percent mark registered during the February week. Michael Niemira, vice president of research and chief economist at ICSC, told WWD that less severe weather conditions aided the sales pickup but weren’t solely responsible for it. “I suppose we’re still struggling at this point to find the catalyst for spring selling that you would hope better weather might be,” he said. “Weather is going to continue to be an issue this month, based on all the forecasts, but I feel better with a good start to the month.” While department stores and e-commerce have done better than the retail market in general in recent weeks, sales have been challenging at discount and dollar stores. “There was better activity at discounters this past week, but some segments continue to struggle,” Niemira noted. “Dollar stores still look weak.”
Currency:
· 1 USD= ₹ 60.934
· 1 EUR= ₹ 84.728
· 1 GBP= ₹ 101.339
· 1 AUD= ₹ 55.236
Glitter Meter: India
Gold (INR/10g) | Silver (INR/kg) | |||
City | Current | Change | Current | Change |
Chennai | 30420.00 | 580 | 46445.00 | 575 |
Mumbai | 29950.00 | 110 | 46445.00 | 575 |
Delhi | 29700.00 | 100 | 46445.00 | 575 |
Kolkata | 29820.00 | 100 | 46445.00 | 575 |
World Indices:
Exchange | Last | Change |
DJIA | 16340.08 | -11.17 |
FTSE 100 | 6620.90 | -64.62 |
CAC 40 | 4306.26 | -43.46 |
DAX | 9188.69 | -119.10 |
Nikkei | 14893.54 | +63.15 |
Hang Seng | 21999.79 | +97.84 |
Sensex | 21900.33 | +44.11 |
NASDAQ | 4323.33 | +16.14 |
*Disclaimer:
World One Consulting Pvt Ltd will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information contained within this newsletter including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals.
World One Consulting Pvt Ltd will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information contained within this newsletter including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals.