Booktopia Group says it has delivered a positive cash flow of $781,000 in the March quarter, thanks to cost-saving and efficiency efforts. The positive cash flow came despite what is traditionally a relatively lean trading period in line with the softer performance of the book market at the start of the calendar year and a quieter season for consumer goods retailers, following the Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas sales events. The company said conditions remain challenging due to economic conditions and the persisting soft performance of the book market, noting that students at the te ..read more

GrtWines, described as “a pioneering Web3 wine marketplace” allows wine enthusiasts worldwide to discover high-value wines with investment potential, invest in them, collect, store or trade them – or even have them shipped to their home for consumption.  Founded by Jonathan Slone, its CEO, wine expert (pictured above) and negociant Mathieu Chadronnier and wine critic James Suckling, the concept uses the blockchain to ascribe digital tokens for each bottle. Through tokenising real bottles of wines, GrtWines “revolutionises the way people discover, collect and relish in their favourite bott ..read more

JLL Retail Property Management has seen online website sessions of its shopping centers surge by 500 per cent year on year, just a month after launching a virtual shopper named Cindy. New site users also increased by more than 1000 per cent and page views jumped by nearly 500 per cent thanks to the “virtual shopping bestie”. Cindy is part of a strategic, multi-platform social campaign deployed by JLL and integrated agency Imaginuity at 13 of JLL’s shopping centers across the country. Imaginuity brought Cindy to life with a mix of generative AI tools driven by a proprietary recipe of procedures ..read more

Small businesses are the heart of Australia’s economy, making up 97.3 per cent of all Australian businesses. In today’s digital age, an effective online presence and engagement are crucial for the success of a small business. E-commerce has seen unprecedented growth in recent years around the world, and Australia is no exception. Despite this, only 11 per cent of businesses fully embrace digital strategies, meaning that small businesses have both opportunities and challenges to enhance their online presence. Starting an e-commerce business in Australia can ‘level the playing field’ for small b ..read more

E-commerce marketplace Temu has become a household name in the US in just 18 months, potentially setting a new benchmark for the industry. Temu is an online marketplace run by China’s PDD Holdings, offering heavily discounted consumer goods shipped mostly from China. According to a recent study by YouGov, nearly 90 per cent of Americans are now aware of the brand, a feat that other major brands usually achieve in five to 10 years.  The survey also highlights that 44 per cent of consumers aware of the company have purchased from the platform, indicating the successful conversion of brand a ..read more

Former MySale CEO Kalman Polak and ex-Catch beauty category manager Sarah Frazer are teaming up to launch an online space offering discounts and hard-to-find beauty brands. The website – Ontrendbeauty.com.au – is a response to consumer demand for the best big brand products for less, said Polak, co-owner of On Trend Beauty. “We know customers are paying too much at the checkout both online and in-store, and we know we can make a big impact on the beauty category.” Frazer, director and co-owner of On Trend Beauty, said she brings her over 15 years of experience in the beauty industry to the ven ..read more

Last week, Indian rideshare giant Ola announced that it would abruptly cease operations in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. A competitor to Uber, the company had been operating in Australia since 2018 and served most of our major cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth. Ola versus Uber wasn’t exactly a David and Goliath story. In India, Ola dominates the rideshare market, with revenues three times greater than Uber’s. But its international takings have always been far more modest. Now, preparing to list on India’s stock exchanges, the company says its i ..read more

More than half of Australian brands say that connecting customer data across channels, sources and platforms remains their biggest challenge. According to a survey by Twilio, 51 per cent of brands admitted they struggle, while 46 per cent said they are having difficulty turning data into customer insights. Twilio’s research showed that 86 per cent of businesses claim they provide ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ customer engagement but only 54 per cent of consumers agree. Moreover, Australia has the widest brand perception gap in the Asia Pacific, demonstrating a 45 per cent difference between a brand’s ..read more

Did you know that international e-commerce spending is expected to surge this year? According to Aussie-born global fintech Airwallex – which last month launched its State of Cross-border eCommerce: Key Trends of 2024 Report – a whopping 54 per cent of global consumers are expected to increase their international online spending over the next six to 12 months.  It’s the latest signal that a major opportunity is coming for retailers, reinforcing estimates that the cross-border e-commerce market will reach US$7.9 trillion by 2030. Currently, international revenue from Australian merchants a ..read more

Woolworths – together with four overseas retailers – is to launch a US$125 million (A$190 million) venture capital fund called W23 Global that over five years will invest in retail industry-related start-ups and scale-ups. The other retail investors are the UK’s Tesco, Dutch-Belgian multinational Ahold Delhaize, Canada’s Empire Company, and South Africa’s Shoprite. The fund will invest in start-ups and scale-ups that deploy technology to improve customer experience in-store and online, boost productivity across the grocery value chain, or address the sector’s sustainability challenges ranging ..read more