Новости за 05.03.2021

In this week’s news, we saw that Walmart hired away two executives from Goldman to join the commerce firm’s FinTech efforts, in addition to new insights on healthcare payments and digital disbursements. The Weekender is here to catch you up. News Walmart, Super Apps and the Rise of the New ‘Retail’ Bank Recent news that […]

It was a little too much to hope that the world would somehow magically revert back to the way things were a year ago when the clock struck 12 on New Year’s and 2021 kicked off. But slowly but surely the year-long COVID-caused hibernation has left consumers with a lot of pent-up demand to get back […]

In today’s top news, Chinese regulators have instructed banks to scale back loan amounts in 2021, and Plaid launched a new income verification tool. Plus, Amazon Alexa can now give users their health data from the fitness tracker Halo. Bubble Fears Prompt China to Curtail Bank Loans Chinese regulators are instructing banks to scale back […]

Albertsons, the country’s second-largest grocery store chain, is partnering with automated logistics startup Tortoise to pilot the beta launch of a robotic fleet of Safeway delivery carts in the towns of Tracy and Windsor in Northern California. Albertsons acquired Safeway in a $9.2 billion merger deal in 2015.  “Our team is obsessed with trying new […]

Another week in payments ends, and per usual, there’s no shortage of things to discuss as vaccines go out, the road to recovery begins to widen and major players look to position and pivot to prepare for what’s next. It all adds up to a particularly challenging set of circumstances when no one knows exactly […]

Supermarket chain Safeway will pilot remote-controlled, driverless carts to deliver grocery orders to neighborhood homes, Safeway’s parent company Albertsons Companies announced on Friday (March 5). “Our team is obsessed with trying new and disruptive technologies that can bring more convenience for our customers,” Chris Rupp, the company’s EVP and chief customer and digital officer, said […]

Concerned it could lose out by having a traditional initial public offering (IPO), Instacart is mulling the idea of going public through a direct listing, Reuters reported Friday (March 5), citing sources. The San Francisco-based grocery delivery company has yet to make a final decision on its next move, the sources said. Earlier this week (March 2), […]

There was talk about making big investments in technology and aiming for 6 percent growth as China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, met this week in Beijing. The announcements came despite the ongoing worldwide pandemic and warnings from Big Tech that China’s not far behind the U.S. in terms of technological advancement. Google’s former CEO […]

Mastercard has finalized its 2.85 billion euro purchase of Nets Group’s account-to-account (A2) division, which includes clearing and settlement, real-time payments and eBilling solutions. Paul Stoddart, president of new payment platforms at Mastercard, said the acquisition marks a decisive point as the company advances multi-rail payments beyond cards.  “This acquisition brings top talent and innovative technology, […]

The owner of 100 shopping malls in more than two dozen states is under pressure following multiple news reports that Washington Prime Group (WPG) is set to file for bankruptcy protection. The reports not only cut WPG’s already beleaguered share price in half, but also extended a month-long slide that has reduced its market value by 75 […]

The parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue said Friday (March 5) it was splitting its eCommerce and 40 traditional retail stores into “separate but related sister companies” in a move it said would “redefine the luxury shopping ecosystem.” By establishing the Saks.com brand as a standalone eCommerce company, as well as receiving a $500 million […]

Walmart plans to invest in purchasing merchandise that is manufactured, grown or assembled domestically to advance American-made goods. In brick-and-mortar retail, Disney intends to close a number of stores in North America this year. And in restaurants, diners are reaching for their smartphones more frequently than laptops to order their food. All this, Today in Data. Data: $350B: Amount Walmart will spend on merchandise made, […]

With the fourth-quarter earnings season safely behind them, the country’s top two retailers have gone back to executing the plans they just updated. The battle between Amazon and Walmart is taking on global proportions, with milestones being set in several different countries and several lines of business. All of this, amid a week filled with […]

Gap Inc. reported as part of its fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2020 results that pandemic-required store closures in global markets and softer store traffic in some U.S. regions with stay-at-home limitations impacted sales in the fourth quarter. However, the company reported that online sales jumped by 49 percent in contrast with last year. Online comprised […]

Dealmaking – and clearing regulatory hurdles – is paving the way for real-time payments to make the leap from concept to reality. Progress continued as Mastercard said on Friday (March 5) that it completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Nets’ Corporate Services business after satisfying conditions set out by the European Commission. The […]

With a bit of wind at its back — in the form of December’s $900 billion U.S. stimulus package — the economy took a step toward a pandemic recovery in February. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday (March 5) that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 379,000 last month. The encouraging BLS […]

Costco Wholesale Corporation, which operates just over 800 warehouses, reported its net sales for the second quarter climbed by 14.7 percent. The company’s eCommerce sales jumped 74.8 percent for the quarter excluding the impacts from changes in gasoline prices and foreign exchange, while same-store sales increased 12.9 percent on that adjusted basis. Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and […]

Giving a sense of the scope of digital transformation happening in developing markets, contemplate this: “The share of Brazilian consumers who consider digital channels their preferred means of shopping has grown by more than 30 percent to make up 46 percent of consumers.” It marks a definitive sea change, occurring in a very compressed timeframe. […]

Healthcare providers have faced new obstacles to serving patients during the pandemic as many are thinking twice about visiting doctors’ offices in person. Treating these patients safely and conveniently may require hospitals and clinics to think more broadly on how to reach them in their homes. This is leading many providers to turn to telemedicine […]

The start of 2021 opened up with a flurry of activity in the B2B FinTech venture capital space, but as March moves ahead, funding activity seems to have settled down. This week's investment roundup includes just four deals, but still managed to pull more than $114 million in collective funding. Notable investments include funding for […]

The small business accounting landscape is on an evolutionary fast-track thanks to a variety of factors, from the rise of B2B FinTech solutions to the global pandemic and remote working requirements. Increasingly, the role of accountant no longer means number-cruncher, though unfortunately, so many small businesses today continue to face the burden of having to […]