Tag: amazon

Retailers step up personalization on their websites to get more connected to customers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Shoppers will see more personalization based on where they are and what they’ve bought before on the Walmart website, as the retailer and several other stores try to build stronger connections with shoppers used to the customization of Amazon.

Walmart says it’s including a section that highlights top-selling items in a customer’s location, feature services like online grocery that are available in the area, and make it easy for people to buy again items they’ve bought most often in stores and online. It’s part of a site overhaul set for next month.

Building an emotional tie with shoppers starts with emotional content, and that will make people more likely to shop there, said Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart.com’s U.S. division. “We’re going to continue to get smarter over time,” Lore said, though he declined to offer details about further personalization.

Several retailers have made efforts toward personalizing their websites for customers, but large-scale success has been elusive. Often, customers get deluged with offers based on an item they bought just once.

Amazon set the standard with recommending products based on what shoppers bought or searched for early in the dot.com years. But now personalization involves localization and even customizing products, says Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Some smaller online retailers are farther along in customization. At online clothing retailer Stitchfix, customers fill out questionnaires that allow stylists and algorithms to find appropriate fashions. At Wayfair, shoppers who have been browsing modern furniture won’t be presented with more traditional designs.

Still, some major brick-and-mortar retailers are making inroads. Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said last month at a conference that the company will take “a big step forward” this year in tailoring its merchandise on the site based on the customers’ past shopping and searches. At Best Buy, customers who log into the website and have a local store selected can see if what they’ve searched for recently is available at a nearby location.

“There are different spins of personalization,” said Mulpuru-Kodali. “The challenge for retail is to figure out what, based on all the data, is actually useful.”

Walmart has been relying on Lore — who founded Jet.com, which Walmart later bought — to update its online feel. The company is trying for a more upscale look, and later this year will launch a dedicated Lord & Taylor page as part of their partnership.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon, Infosys use radio to connect with staff and associates

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon is now using a radio service to communicate and entertain their associates and employees, a report in The Economic Times said.

Amazon India has launched a radio service for its associates across fulfillment centres, sort centres and delivery stations, according to the report.

Similarly, Infosys has been using radio as a communication and entertainment tool for its staff since 2011.

The radio service allows the employees in both firms to come on air, request for songs and enter contests. Amazon has the radio streaming service in five languages, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada and Tamil.

“We have a set of five streams for fulfilment centres and sort centres and another unique set of five streams for the delivery stations…this is because the nature of work by the associates in a delivery station is very different and hence the programme design for this audience is very different,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.

Infosys, on the other hand had revamped its entire streaming service last year and has included many new features. “We… added in a few new features like archives, playlists, more information on the shows and RJs, etc…Our experience of using radio as a communication and fun medium at the workplace has been encouraging,” Richard Lobo, executive vice-president was quoted saying.

The radio service, besides providing refreshment to the staff also provides a proper medium for conveying important information to the associates thus satisfying both entertainment and information needs of the firms and its employees.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon trains guns on Flipkart with smartphone price cuts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon India is said to be considering price cuts to attract customers, as it looks to raise its market share and close the gap with e-commerce giant Flipkart and other domestic rivals, Mint reported.

The company is planning to raise its spending for the next few quarters to improve its market share in India, sources told Mint on Thursday.

It is primarily looking at reducing prices of smartphones, the sources said.

“We continue to seek out opportunities to make smartphones more affordable for our customers. Our exchange and EMI schemes have gained momentum with customers. We are working closely with brands to enable them to reach out to customers across India,” Noor Patel, director of smartphones category management at Amazon was quoted by Mint.

Amazon has also stepped up its efforts to acquire a significant stake in Flipkart which is said to be in advanced talks with Walmart for stake sale. A FactorDaily report  had said that Amazon may offer a breakup fee of up to $2 billion for deal talks with the Indian e-commerce company.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon arm to create New-Age tech workforce in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Realising the need to create a workforce for Next-Gen technologies, several tech companies have started accelerators and incubators in the recent past to nurture talent in disruptive technologies in India.

On the other hand, global Cloud services platform Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, started on the mission long back to prepare an industry-ready workforce and nurture start-ups in the country.

According to a senior AWS executive, the company is working very closely with the entire accelerator and incubator space in India.

“AWS has various programmes that it runs in India that help all the stakeholders further drive invested or incubated companies move forward on New-Age technology. This includes giving AWS credits for free. We do mentorship, we do training. We take them through labs,” Bikram Bedi, Head (India Region) at Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd (AISPL), told IANS.

AISPL is an Indian subsidiary of the Amazon Group which undertakes the resale and marketing of AWS Cloud services in the country.

“Next, we help them in terms of ‘connect’. One programme we run is called ‘Enterprise Connect’ where we go to a bank or a manufacturing company, for example, and ask what kind of new solutions they are looking for in the digital space.

“They tell us that they are looking at such-and-such five areas. We will then go back to our start-up space and say hey, these AWS customers want these five kinds of solutions. The next step is proof of concepts (POCs) and then adoption,” Bedi informed.

When it comes to creating the right set of skills in the market, AWS has a clear-cut strategy.

“The effort is broken into a couple of things. The first is around the existing workforce — start-ups, big enterprises and the thriving small and medium businesses (SMBs), etc. We regularly run training classes. Every office that we open in this country has a training room attached to it,” Bedi told IANS.

AWS has been running training prgrammes for the existing customers across segments — around system administration, solution architecture and more.

“The second piece you need to focus on is the emerging workforce, like students. We’ve built two separate programmes for them. One is called ‘Educate’ and the other is called ‘Academy,'” the AWS executive said.

With the increasing demand for Cloud employees, AWS Educate provides an academic gateway for the next generation of IT and Cloud professionals.

Educate is primarily a shorter duration programme that helps academicians build assets, study programmes and learning modules around AWS.

“Academy is the full-term course. We are working with a number of educational institutes to see how we can help build the right skill-sets for the market,” Bedi added.

The third part of building skills is to go out and organise regular outreach programmes across communities.

AWS recently organised a full-day programme around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) called the “AIML Conclave” in Bengaluru that was attended by business leaders, data scientists, engineers and developers.

The event helped developers learn about Amazon AI and real-world use cases developed by Amazon and AWS customers — to build smart, customer-centric, scalable solutions in the Cloud and on the edge, using Amazon AI, AWS Internet of Things (IoT) and AWS Deep Learning.

AWS AI is also helping Indian developers build chatbots. Haptik, an AI-based chatbot platform, has partnered with AWS to offer solutions to customers in the country. In cooperation with AWS, Haptik aims to rapidly expand in the Indian chatbot AI market.

The functionality within the AWS AI platform leverages ‘Amazon Polly’ — a text-to-speech service that uses advanced deep learning technologies to synthesise speech that sounds like a human voice.

“We are striving hard to reach out to the wider community in India. We are trying to connect several pieces into one and create a right mix of skilled workforce for the new technologies in the market,” Bedi told IANS.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Facebook, Amazon buoy Wall Street as trade concerns cool

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Facebook, Amazon and industrial stocks helped Wall Street extend its recovery on Thursday as fears over a trade war between the United States and China eased.

Technology stocks, which have taken a beating in the past three weeks, were higher.

Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Netflix — collectively known as the “FANG” group — were up between 0.8% and 2.6 %.

Shares of Boeing, Caterpillar — hit the most on Wednesday after China retaliated with $50 billion in tariffs on US goods such as soybeans, autos, chemicals and some types of aircraft — also rose more than 1%.

In the opening hour, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.57% at 24,403.74. The S&P 500 rose 0.37%  to 2,654.55 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.55% to 7,080.71.

The Dow bounced back from a 500 point drop on Wednesday after President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration was involved in a “negotiation” with China rather than a trade war.

“The bounce on Wednesday was really quite impressive, especially as there was not much of a catalyst for the turnaround given that neither the US or China is backing down on tariffs and negotiations were always going to take place in the background,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda said in a note.

Investors also took comfort from the fact that the effective date of China’s move depended on when the US action took effect, providing room for maneuver.

Economic data on Thursday showed that the US trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February, but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply.

While exports to China were unchanged in February, imports from the country declined 14.7%.

Facebook shares were up about 3% after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company had not seen “any meaningful impact” on usage or ad sales since the data privacy scandal.

Wells Fargo rose 1% and Citigroup gained 1.5% following upgrades by UBS.

Advanced Micro Devices jumped 3.4% after Stifel upgraded to “buy”, while Micron Technology fell 3.7% after UBS started with a “sell” rating.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 2.25-to-1 ratio and for a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon likely to submit an offer to buy Flipkart

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc may submit an offer to buy Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, which is currently in talks with Walmart Inc for a stake sale, local daily Mint reported, citing sources.

A deal with Walmart is more likely to go through, according to people with knowledge of the matter, the report added. Amazon declined to comment while Flipkart did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Walmart is in talks to buy a stake of over 40 percent in Flipkart, a direct challenge to Amazon in Asia’s third-largest economy. The U.S. retailer will buy a majority stake through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases in a deal that could value Flipkart at $21 billion, the Mint report said.

The deal with Walmart is expected to aid Flipkart in its fight against Amazon, which has committed to investing $5 billion in India as it expands aggressively, including into online grocery deliveries, which analysts tip as the next big battleground for the country’s e-commerce sector.

Flipkart, founded by former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, controls nearly 40% of India’s online retail, ahead of Amazon, according to estimates by research firm Forrester.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple hires Google’s Artificial Intelligence chief

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In a bid to catch up with its rival’s artificial intelligence technology Apple has hired Google’s chief of search and artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, reports New York Times.

“Giannandrea will run Apple’s machine learning and AI strategy, and become one of 16 executives who report directly to its chief executive, Tim Cook,” the report added.

The hire is considered as a victory for Apple, as the Cupertino giant lagging its peers in artificial intelligence.

“Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear,” Cook quoted as saying by the daily. “John shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach as we make computers even smarter and more personal.”

Apple is lagging behind many in the AI technology and iPhone’s digital assistant, Siri, is less effective than its counterparts at Google and Amazon.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon launches business-to-business global selling for Indian exporters

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Global e-commerce giant Amazon said it has launched B2B (business-to-business) selling for Indian exporters under its “Global Selling programme” to reach business customers across its international marketplaces.

“Amazon Business today announced the expansion of its Global Selling programme by launching B2B selling for Indian exporters,” the company said in a statement.

“Through this launch, B2B sellers, manufacturers and exporters will be able to reach thousands of business customers across Amazon’s international marketplaces,” it said.

The company said the programme — which started as a pilot late last year — has received a positive response with over 2,000 exporters registered for B2B global selling at present.

The company’s B2B Global Selling program is present in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Japan and India.

According to the e-commerce giant, once the sellers register for the individual marketplaces, they will then be able to export to these Amazon global marketplaces.

“Ranging from sole proprietors to the largest of Fortune 500 enterprises, Indian exporters registered with Amazon Business Global Selling program are able to directly reach out to Amazon’s global business customer base and thus get an opportunity to venture into newer market segments,” it said.

The company said the program enables features such as business-only pricing and back-end integration that helps exporters manage competitive pricing internationally and assists in managing and fulfilling bulk orders from business customers.

“Amazon Business’s Global Selling program will get the sellers in front of decisions makers of Fortune 500 companies as well as medium and small corporations across the world,” said Peeyush Nahar, Vice President B2B Marketplace Business, Amazon.

“To support tapping this excellent market of business customers for Indian goods globally, the program offers benefits to the Indian sellers such as discounted referral fees for bulk orders, business price and quantity discounts targeted for business customers, single selling account etc,” he added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow