The Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has signed an API agreement with Maori fintech startup BlinkPay to provide online shoppers with a cardless payment option. “This collaboration allows BNZ merchants to access BlinkPay’s payment products like Blink PayNow and, in the future, Blink AutoPay. Both products provide a straightforward and secure payment method from a customer’s BNZ bank account,” said Adrian Smith, chief product officer and co-founder of BlinkPay. To use Blink PayNow, customers simply select the service at checkout on a BlinkPay-integrated website and choose their bank. They are then redi ..read more

Trans-Tasman online retailer Kogan’s full-year profits declined due to soft trading conditions however, the business is off to a strong start in FY24. For the year to June 30, gross sales reached A$844.8 million, down 28.4 per cent while statutory tax-paid profits fell to A$25.9 million and EBITDA of A$20.8 million. For July, the first month of the new trading year, Kogan said adjusted management accounts showed an EBITDA of A$3.5 million. For the year to June, active customers totalled 2.95 million comprising 2.19 million on Kogan.com and 755,000 for Mighty Ape. The Kogan First loyalty progra ..read more

One of the many challenges that emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic was an increase in the number of people experiencing loneliness and social isolation. This experience was keenly felt among migrant and refugee women across Australia, who can face various barriers establishing businesses and other enterprises, from a potential lack of digital and financial literacy, to challenges around navigating technical jargon with English as a second language.  Overcoming these challenges became even more difficult during Covid-19, when access to social networks and infrastructure critical for helpin ..read more

Luxury fashion house Gucci has partnered with JD to launch its digital flagship store on the e-commerce platform.  The launch emphasises Gucci and JD’s dedication to technological innovation and represents an important turning point in their cooperation. JD offers digital solutions to meet a range of needs in the digital ecosystem. Meanwhile, Gucci will improve shopping experiences that are customised to the preferences of JD’s customer base, strengthen its market reach in China, and pioneer innovative approaches to digital marketing. The JD.com app’s “Gucci” search function allows users ..read more

With customers pulling back spending following months of financial pressure, and with increasing cost of doing business dragging down any increased spend captured, retailers are beginning to feel the hurt.  On Friday morning, baby-goods retailer Baby Bunting revealed a 51 per cent drop in net profit during FY23, though sales ticked up 1.7 per cent. During the same period, its cost of doing business rose to $175.5 million (A$161.7 million), up 11 per cent on the prior year. Acting CEO Darin Hoekman said that the business is moving to focus on lowering its cost of doing business and managin ..read more

Apple is likely to report a dip in iPhone sales in the April-June quarter as shoppers held out for a new model in a slow economy, making it important for the company to detail how it is using artificial intelligence to augment growth, analysts said. The world’s most valuable firm will wrap up Big Tech earnings on Thursday, with a likely 1.6 per cent drop in total quarterly revenue, according to Refinitiv – its steepest drop in third-quarter revenue since 2016. IPhone sales likely fell more than 2 per cent in the period, according to 24 analysts polled by Visible Alpha, compared with a near 3 p ..read more

Amazon on Monday said it hit record delivery speeds in the United States in the second-quarter while continuing to cut costs, as investors look for signs of growth in its e-commerce business when it reports its Q2 financials on Thursday. Investors tuning into the company’s earnings call this week also want updates on the tech giant’s cloud business, ad revenue growth and signals on consumer health heading into the holidays as inflation continues to impact spending for corporations and consumers. Investors want to know how Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud provider, stands up ..read more

Australian e-commerce company Redbubble is no stranger to turmoil. In the past five years, the business, which operates an online marketplace where customers can purchase original artwork and have it printed on a variety of products, from T-shirts to phone cases to doona covers, has seen three chief executives pass through its doors. Co-founder Martin Hosking returned to the business in March to lead it back to growth.  However, Redbubble’s problems run deep. With the artists that power the platform under financial pressure from a new fee structure, and some investors questioning Hosking ..read more

Instant delivery service Milkrun has launched in New Zealand, initially delivering groceries in Wellington and central Auckland suburbs. The service will be extended to other parts of New Zealand in the coming months. Woolworths Group acquired the collapsed Australian grocery-delivery startup in May, rebranding it to Metro60 in Australia. In New Zealand it will retain the former name. Products will be picked and packed at local Countdown supermarkets and will reach customers in under an hour. At the time of launch, customers are eligible for free delivery on their first three orders and after ..read more

JD.com unveiled its own 100-billion-parameter large language model (LLM) called ChatRhino, or Yanxi in Chinese, at the 2023 JDDiscovery tech summit earlier this month.  The AI model – which is the same type of technology used to train chatbots like ChatGPT – is designed to address challenges in sectors such as retail, logistics, finance, health, and urban planning, by leveraging a mix of 70 per cent generalised data and 30 per cent native intelligent supply chain data.  JD.com has also unveiled plans to develop a generative large model that would enable businesses to use ChatRhino in ..read more