When the pandemic forced Dick’s Sporting Goods to close its hundreds of stores in March, the retailer hustled to set up curbside pickup within two days. Its initial attempt, though, was just this side of a children’s lemonade stand.

“When you drove up, there was a sign in the window with a phone number, and people used the landline to call the stores and they’d deliver it out,” Lauren Hobart, president of Dick’s, said of the “very scrappy” operation. Email and text alerts would come later.

Scrappy or not, curbside pickup not only rescued Dick’s sales during the lockdowns, it has also emerged as many retailers’ best strategy for long-term survival in the e-commerce age. And what started as a coronavirus stopgap is likely to have a permanent impact on the way people shop, along with giving them a new reason to continue to visit beleaguered physical stores.

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The popularity of curbside pickup reveals that the future of retail is not just more packages piling up on people’s doorsteps. Beyond satisfying the need for contactless shopping in the pandemic, it taps into Americans’ desire to drive to a store, a pull that can be just as strong as, or even stronger than, the convenience of home delivery.

“Americans are used to their cars and actually do like stores, so this is kind of a hybrid where you’re getting the best of both worlds,” said Oliver Chen, a retail analyst at Cowen.

As of August, about three-fourths of the top 50 store-based retailers in the United States offered curbside pickup, according to Coresight Research, an advisory and research firm that specializes in retail and technology. Anything from a sweater to a book is now as easy to pick up as a sandwich.

Target said its curbside sales grew more than 700% in the last quarter, while Best Buy reported nearly $5 billion in online revenue in the second quarter, a company record, and said 41% of that had come from curbside or in-store pickup.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/spain-invokes-state-of-emergency-over-madrid-lockdown-as-europe-grapples-with-virus-334020">Also read|&nbsp;Spain invokes state of emergency over Madrid lockdown as Europe grapples with virus</a>

The rise in curbside pickup, part of a larger surge in e-commerce sales, has implications for preserving retail jobs, though workers’ duties are likely to transform. It is also helping to keep brick-and-mortar spaces relevant when thousands of storefronts have emptied out as more customers move online.

Curbside allows certain big-box retailers to convert their stores into mini e-commerce fulfillment centers, while avoiding the money-losing step of shipping goods to homes.

By driving to the store to pick up an online order, “the customer takes the last mile,” Chen said, referring to the typically expensive final step in package deliveries.

The rising popularity of curbside coincided with Amazon’s struggles with its vaunted supply chain and usually seamless home delivery system in the early months of the pandemic. As people rushed to place orders for everything from toilet paper to backyard swimming pools, Amazon dealt with out-of-stock items, price gouging and delayed or inaccurate shipments.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/why-dont-young-people-vote-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-334085">Also read|&nbsp;Why don’t young people vote, and what can be done about it?</a>

That was a boon for chains like Dick’s, Best Buy, Target and Walmart, which harnessed the merchandise in their thousands of stores to new effect especially as summer began.

“Amazon struggled a bit at the beginning like everybody did, because, boom, when the demand came, it was so great it hit the whole system and kind of overwhelmed it,” said Walter Robb, a former co-chief executive of Whole Foods and executive-in-residence at S2G Ventures, a venture fund focused on food. “Those that have been able to be agile on their feet with these digital offerings have made some gains.”

But nowhere is the shift more significant than at big-box chains that also sell groceries. The 700% growth in Target’s Drive Up offering has spurred the chain to add fresh and frozen groceries to the service and create up to 12 additional parking spaces for pickup at stores. It has announced plans to double the number of store employees dedicated to in-store and curbside pickup services during this holiday season. The retailer has even included product samples in orders.

Walmart, with about 4,700 stores in the U.S., was one of the earliest chains to offer curbside pickup, with a focus on groceries. Curbside orders are part of an overall boost in its e-commerce sales, which accounted for 11% of the chain’s revenue in the quarter that ended July 31, up from 6% a year earlier.

It’s helping the retailer keep pace with Amazon online, though the gap between the two remains large. Robb noted that Amazon seemed to be expanding its own physical footprint — through its ownership of Whole Foods and a partnership with Kohl’s — to match Walmart on curbside.

The drive-up service is giving Walmart and other chains another significant advantage — the ability to make a profit on online orders, where the economics are notoriously difficult. Target has said that its order pickup and curbside services at stores cost the company about 90% less on average than fulfilling orders from a warehouse.

On a $100 curbside order, the labor costs of picking the groceries reduce Walmart’s profit by $1.50 while still leaving $3 in profit, estimated Edward Yruma, an e-commerce analyst at Keybanc. By comparison, Walmart loses money on its traditional e-commerce sales, in which customers order online and the products are shipped to their home, Yruma said. In its recent second-quarter-earnings report, Walmart said that it had “significantly reduced losses” in its traditional e-commerce business.

Walmart now employs 74,000 workers across more than 3,000 stores to pick groceries on orders and then take them out to customers’ cars. Five years ago, there were fewer than 1,000 of those jobs. But during the pandemic, filling those roles was a big driver behind Walmart’s hiring boom, which increased the company’s 1.5 million-person workforce by 14%.

That is a significant number for the nation’s largest private employer, particularly at a time when the economy has been shedding jobs.

But some retailers are not hiring more employees to pack online orders — they are simply adding these tasks to the workers’ workloads without increasing their pay. In fact, many retailers have ended the raises and bonuses that workers were receiving in the early months of the pandemic, a decision labor groups have criticized because workers now face both heavier workloads and the threat of contracting the virus in the store.

“If you are having an increase in sales and in productivity, the workers should share in that benefit,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, representing tens of thousands of grocery store workers. “Right now, the owners of these companies are the only ones benefiting.”

Labor experts and Wall Street analysts also predict that the job of picking items off the shelf and taking them to a customers’ cars can easily be done by machines, which means that the boom in jobs may be fleeting.

Even now, that work is highly automated. Workers fulfilling curbside orders at Walmart use a hand-held device that indicates the order in which they should pick each item, for maximum efficiency.

“They can sometime feel like robots,” Perrone said.

A recent report by the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the nonprofit Working Partnerships USA predicted that workers would come under new pressure as stores began to resemble Amazon warehouses, and noted that “stock clerks’ jobs seem destined for more radical change than any of the other major retail job categories.”

“On the store floor, they also will be more frequently prompted by ‘alerts’ to replenish stock,” the report said. “As with cashiers, this could make stocker jobs more varied and interesting, but in combination with new ways of tracking work, it also could result in jobs that are surveilled, closely watched, sped up and stressed.”

Jean-André Rougeot, chief executive of Sephora Americas, said that on a recent visit to Walmart, he saw more employees pushing carts for pickup orders than he did shoppers. He anticipates that people will return to Sephora’s stores to touch and try its beauty products, but acknowledged that the pandemic would transform how people shopped and received goods.

“Every grandparent in America knows how to use Zoom now because that’s how they spoke to their grandkids for the last six months, so it’s not just young people,” Rougeot said. “The whole population has become much more comfortable with technology and the ability to order things differently.

“There’s a whole group of consumers that literally discovered e-commerce during this period,” he added. “These people, because of COVID, started to do that, and I don’t think you can put the genie back in the bottle.”

When the pandemic forced Dick’s Sporting Goods to close its hundreds of stores in March, the retailer hustled to set up curbside pickup within two days. Its initial attempt, though, was just this side of a children’s lemonade stand.

When the pandemic forced Dick’s Sporting Goods to close its hundreds of stores in March, the retailer hustled to set up curbside pickup within two days. Its initial attempt, though, was just this side of a children’s lemonade stand. “When you drove up, there was a sign in the window with a phone number, and people used the landline to call the stores and they’d deliver it out,” Lauren Hobart, president of Dick’s, said of the “very scrappy” operation. Email and text alerts would come later. Scrappy or not, curbside pickup not only rescued Dick’s sales during the lockdowns, it has also emerged as many retailers’ best strategy for long-term survival in the e-commerce age. And what started as a coronavirus stopgap is likely to have a permanent impact on the way people shop, along with giving them a new reason to continue to visit beleaguered physical stores. Also read| Romance fraud on the rise in UK amid coronavirus pandemic The popularity of curbside pickup reveals that the future of retail is not just more packages piling up on people’s doorsteps. Beyond satisfying the need for contactless shopping in the pandemic, it taps into Americans’ desire to drive to a store, a pull that can be just as strong as, or even stronger than, the convenience of home delivery. “Americans are used to their cars and actually do like stores, so this is kind of a hybrid where you’re getting the best of both worlds,” said Oliver Chen, a retail analyst at Cowen. As of August, about three-fourths of the top 50 store-based retailers in the United States offered curbside pickup, according to Coresight Research, an advisory and research firm that specializes in retail and technology. Anything from a sweater to a book is now as easy to pick up as a sandwich. Target said its curbside sales grew more than 700% in the last quarter, while Best Buy reported nearly $5 billion in online revenue in the second quarter, a company record, and said 41% of that had come from curbside or in-store pickup. Also read| Spain invokes state of emergency over Madrid lockdown as Europe grapples with virus The rise in curbside pickup, part of a larger surge in e-commerce sales, has implications for preserving retail jobs, though workers’ duties are likely to transform. It is also helping to keep brick-and-mortar spaces relevant when thousands of storefronts have emptied out as more customers move online. Curbside allows certain big-box retailers to convert their stores into mini e-commerce fulfillment centers, while avoiding the money-losing step of shipping goods to homes. By driving to the store to pick up an online order, “the customer takes the last mile,” Chen said, referring to the typically expensive final step in package deliveries. The rising popularity of curbside coincided with Amazon’s struggles with its vaunted supply chain and usually seamless home delivery system in the early months of the pandemic. As people rushed to place orders for everything from toilet paper to backyard swimming pools, Amazon dealt with out-of-stock items, price gouging and delayed or inaccurate shipments. Also read| Why don’t young people vote, and what can be done about it? That was a boon for chains like Dick’s, Best Buy, Target and Walmart, which harnessed the merchandise in their thousands of stores to new effect especially as summer began. “Amazon struggled a bit at the beginning like everybody did, because, boom, when the demand came, it was so great it hit the whole system and kind of overwhelmed it,” said Walter Robb, a former co-chief executive of Whole Foods and executive-in-residence at S2G Ventures, a venture fund focused on food. “Those that have been able to be agile on their feet with these digital offerings have made some gains.” But nowhere is the shift more significant than at big-box chains that also sell groceries. The 700% growth in Target’s Drive Up offering has spurred the chain to add fresh and frozen groceries to the service and create up to 12 additional parking spaces for pickup at stores. It has announced plans to double the number of store employees dedicated to in-store and curbside pickup services during this holiday season. The retailer has even included product samples in orders. Walmart, with about 4,700 stores in the U.S., was one of the earliest chains to offer curbside pickup, with a focus on groceries. Curbside orders are part of an overall boost in its e-commerce sales, which accounted for 11% of the chain’s revenue in the quarter that ended July 31, up from 6% a year earlier. It’s helping the retailer keep pace with Amazon online, though the gap between the two remains large. Robb noted that Amazon seemed to be expanding its own physical footprint — through its ownership of Whole Foods and a partnership with Kohl’s — to match Walmart on curbside. The drive-up service is giving Walmart and other chains another significant advantage — the ability to make a profit on online orders, where the economics are notoriously difficult. Target has said that its order pickup and curbside services at stores cost the company about 90% less on average than fulfilling orders from a warehouse. On a $100 curbside order, the labor costs of picking the groceries reduce Walmart’s profit by $1.50 while still leaving $3 in profit, estimated Edward Yruma, an e-commerce analyst at Keybanc. By comparison, Walmart loses money on its traditional e-commerce sales, in which customers order online and the products are shipped to their home, Yruma said. In its recent second-quarter-earnings report, Walmart said that it had “significantly reduced losses” in its traditional e-commerce business. Walmart now employs 74,000 workers across more than 3,000 stores to pick groceries on orders and then take them out to customers’ cars. Five years ago, there were fewer than 1,000 of those jobs. But during the pandemic, filling those roles was a big driver behind Walmart’s hiring boom, which increased the company’s 1.5 million-person workforce by 14%. That is a significant number for the nation’s largest private employer, particularly at a time when the economy has been shedding jobs. But some retailers are not hiring more employees to pack online orders — they are simply adding these tasks to the workers’ workloads without increasing their pay. In fact, many retailers have ended the raises and bonuses that workers were receiving in the early months of the pandemic, a decision labor groups have criticized because workers now face both heavier workloads and the threat of contracting the virus in the store. “If you are having an increase in sales and in productivity, the workers should share in that benefit,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, representing tens of thousands of grocery store workers. “Right now, the owners of these companies are the only ones benefiting.” Labor experts and Wall Street analysts also predict that the job of picking items off the shelf and taking them to a customers’ cars can easily be done by machines, which means that the boom in jobs may be fleeting. Even now, that work is highly automated. Workers fulfilling curbside orders at Walmart use a hand-held device that indicates the order in which they should pick each item, for maximum efficiency. “They can sometime feel like robots,” Perrone said. A recent report by the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the nonprofit Working Partnerships USA predicted that workers would come under new pressure as stores began to resemble Amazon warehouses, and noted that “stock clerks’ jobs seem destined for more radical change than any of the other major retail job categories.” “On the store floor, they also will be more frequently prompted by ‘alerts’ to replenish stock,” the report said. “As with cashiers, this could make stocker jobs more varied and interesting, but in combination with new ways of tracking work, it also could result in jobs that are surveilled, closely watched, sped up and stressed.” Jean-André Rougeot, chief executive of Sephora Americas, said that on a recent visit to Walmart, he saw more employees pushing carts for pickup orders than he did shoppers. He anticipates that people will return to Sephora’s stores to touch and try its beauty products, but acknowledged that the pandemic would transform how people shopped and received goods. “Every grandparent in America knows how to use Zoom now because that’s how they spoke to their grandkids for the last six months, so it’s not just young people,” Rougeot said. “The whole population has become much more comfortable with technology and the ability to order things differently. “There’s a whole group of consumers that literally discovered e-commerce during this period,” he added. “These people, because of COVID, started to do that, and I don’t think you can put the genie back in the bottle.”

Customers still like to shop in person, even if they get only to the curb

AR mirror allow customers to review products without touching it in cosmetic stores. Watch this report!

AR mirror allow customers to review products without touching it in cosmetic stores

The Indian unit of Amazon.com Inc has eliminated all single-use plastic in its packaging across fulfillment centers in the country, in line with its target to weed out the packaging material by June, the e-commerce giant said on Monday.

The company said in addition to replacing packaging materials such as bubble wraps and air pillows with "paper cushions", it had also swapped out packaging tapes with other bio-degradable options.

"We have successfully eliminated single-use plastic in all our fulfillment centers a 100%," Akhil Saxena, vice-president of customer fulfillment for the APAC, LATAM and Middle East and North Africa regions, said in an interview.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/technology/amazon-to-use-ai-tech-in-its-warehouses-to-enforce-social-distancing-306310" hreflang="en">Amazon to use AI tech in its warehouses to enforce social distancing</a>

Amazon, often criticised for using too much plastic and thermocol to wrap its billions of packages of shipments, had said last September that its India unit would replace single-use plastic in its packaging by June 2020.

Saxena said on Monday the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down some of their work, but Amazon India managed to meet its target as the unit had started on the elimination project even before the national lockdown was imposed.

Last October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on citizens to help end the usage of single-use plastic - seen as a pollutant - by 2022.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/world/amazon-pledges-2-billion-venture-capital-fund-to-invest-in-clean-energy-308037" hreflang="en">Amazon pledges $2 billion venture capital fund to invest in clean energy</a>

The Asian country of 1.3 billion does not have an organized system for management of plastic waste, leading to extensive littering.

Many Indian cities rank among the world's most polluted, and waste generated from single-use plastic has been a growing problem.&nbsp;

Walmart Inc's India e-commerce unit Flipkart, a local rival to Amazon, said last month that it had cut down the usage of plastic packaging in its own supply chain to about 50%.

The Indian unit of Amazon.com Inc has eliminated all single-use plastic in its packaging across fulfillment centers in the country, in line with its target to weed out the packaging material by June, the e-commerce giant said on Monday.

The Indian unit of Amazon.com Inc has eliminated all single-use plastic in its packaging across fulfillment centers in the country, in line with its target to weed out the packaging material by June, the e-commerce giant said on Monday. The company said in addition to replacing packaging materials such as bubble wraps and air pillows with "paper cushions", it had also swapped out packaging tapes with other bio-degradable options. "We have successfully eliminated single-use plastic in all our fulfillment centers a 100%," Akhil Saxena, vice-president of customer fulfillment for the APAC, LATAM and Middle East and North Africa regions, said in an interview. Also read: Amazon to use AI tech in its warehouses to enforce social distancing Amazon, often criticised for using too much plastic and thermocol to wrap its billions of packages of shipments, had said last September that its India unit would replace single-use plastic in its packaging by June 2020. Saxena said on Monday the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down some of their work, but Amazon India managed to meet its target as the unit had started on the elimination project even before the national lockdown was imposed. Last October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on citizens to help end the usage of single-use plastic - seen as a pollutant - by 2022. Also read: Amazon pledges $2 billion venture capital fund to invest in clean energy The Asian country of 1.3 billion does not have an organized system for management of plastic waste, leading to extensive littering. Many Indian cities rank among the world's most polluted, and waste generated from single-use plastic has been a growing problem. Walmart Inc's India e-commerce unit Flipkart, a local rival to Amazon, said last month that it had cut down the usage of plastic packaging in its own supply chain to about 50%.

Amazon India scraps single-use plastic in packaging across centres

For years, Jiang Zhuoyue enjoyed buying nice things and chasing discounts. In doing so, she filled wardrobe after wardrobe with clothes, shoes, handbags and other luxury items. After the coronavirus outbreak, the former shopaholic has now started to do the opposite.

Chinese former shopaholic empties wardrobes, turns thrifty due to COVID-19 outbreak

US retailers are&nbsp;expected&nbsp;to ring up record sales on Super&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;this year, as fewer&nbsp;days than usual between Thanksgiving and&nbsp;Christmas&nbsp;have squeezed shoppers to finish their purchases.

In recent years, the&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;before&nbsp;Christmas&nbsp;has seen a late surge in shopper traffic. With retailers maintaining deep discounts late into the holiday&nbsp;season, total sales on Super&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;have edged closer to Black Friday, the&nbsp;day&nbsp;after Thanksgiving which traditionally kicks off the season in November.

Many retail consultants and analysts estimate the surge will bump Super&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;into the&nbsp;biggest&nbsp;shopping&nbsp;day&nbsp;this year.

Craig Johnson, president at retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners, expects people to spend $34 billion this year on Super&nbsp;Saturday. These estimates include in-store and online purchases but exclude sales generated at gas stations, restaurants, and automobile dealers. In comparison, Black Friday&nbsp;generated $31.5 billion in sales, he said.

"Consumer demand remains strong," Johnson said. "While mall traffic is weak, those that are going to stores are buying more."

Despite slowing global growth,&nbsp;US&nbsp;consumer spending is benefiting from wage growth and a strong labor market, retail consultants and analysts said.

Also, prices have remained steady instead of rising as widely&nbsp;expected, they said, which has spurred spending. According to an analysis, retailers including Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc&nbsp;held prices steady for many popular holiday&nbsp;products sold online despite pressure from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-heaps-another-5-tariff-on-chinese-goods-in-latest-tit-for-tat-escalation-245211">US&nbsp;tariffs</a> on Chinese imports.

Many retailers are responding to the late surge in spending by keeping stores open for longer in the&nbsp;days&nbsp;before&nbsp;Christmas. They have also added more staff in stores this year, reversing a trend that saw more workers being added to warehouses to ship online orders.

With store shoppers becoming more deliberate about their purchases, retailers' investments in improving the customer experience is resulting in stronger sales, analysts said.

"The shoppers that are coming into the store during the holidays want the personal touch...otherwise they'd be online," said Andrew Challenger, vice president at placement firm <a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-%26-economy/us-job-growth-seen-picking-up-unemployment-rate-falling-164155">Challenger, Gray &amp;&nbsp;Christmas&nbsp;Inc</a>. "They want somebody to guide them through the inventory and in some ways help them select the right products at the right prices," he said.

Target said it is giving employees in stores a serious bump in hours, investing an extra $50 million into the effort. Similarly, Walmart's holiday&nbsp;strategy this year has also focused on customer service improvements.

For instance, its Check Out With Me feature, which allows; shoppers paying by credit card to skip out on long lines by having employees equipped with cellular devices and bluetooth printers check them out anywhere in the store, is available in all big stores.

The <a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/us-cyber-monday-sales-to-hit-record-92-billion-265856">National Retail Federation</a> estimates&nbsp;US&nbsp;holiday&nbsp;retail sales in November and December will increase between 3.8 per cent&nbsp;and 4.2 per cent&nbsp;over 2018, for a total of $727.9 billion to $730.7 billion. That compares with an average annual increase of 3.7 per cent&nbsp;over the past five years .

US retailers are expected to ring up record sales on Super Saturday this year, as fewer days than usual between Thanksgiving and Christmas have squeezed shoppers to finish their purchases.

US retailers are expected to ring up record sales on Super Saturday this year, as fewer days than usual between Thanksgiving and Christmas have squeezed shoppers to finish their purchases. In recent years, the Saturday before Christmas has seen a late surge in shopper traffic. With retailers maintaining deep discounts late into the holiday season, total sales on Super Saturday have edged closer to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving which traditionally kicks off the season in November. Many retail consultants and analysts estimate the surge will bump Super Saturday into the biggest shopping day this year. Craig Johnson, president at retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners, expects people to spend $34 billion this year on Super Saturday. These estimates include in-store and online purchases but exclude sales generated at gas stations, restaurants, and automobile dealers. In comparison, Black Friday generated $31.5 billion in sales, he said. "Consumer demand remains strong," Johnson said. "While mall traffic is weak, those that are going to stores are buying more." Despite slowing global growth, US consumer spending is benefiting from wage growth and a strong labor market, retail consultants and analysts said. Also, prices have remained steady instead of rising as widely expected, they said, which has spurred spending. According to an analysis, retailers including Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc held prices steady for many popular holiday products sold online despite pressure from US tariffs on Chinese imports. Many retailers are responding to the late surge in spending by keeping stores open for longer in the days before Christmas. They have also added more staff in stores this year, reversing a trend that saw more workers being added to warehouses to ship online orders. With store shoppers becoming more deliberate about their purchases, retailers' investments in improving the customer experience is resulting in stronger sales, analysts said. "The shoppers that are coming into the store during the holidays want the personal touch...otherwise they'd be online," said Andrew Challenger, vice president at placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. "They want somebody to guide them through the inventory and in some ways help them select the right products at the right prices," he said. Target said it is giving employees in stores a serious bump in hours, investing an extra $50 million into the effort. Similarly, Walmart's holiday strategy this year has also focused on customer service improvements. For instance, its Check Out With Me feature, which allows; shoppers paying by credit card to skip out on long lines by having employees equipped with cellular devices and bluetooth printers check them out anywhere in the store, is available in all big stores. The National Retail Federation estimates US holiday retail sales in November and December will increase between 3.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent over 2018, for a total of $727.9 billion to $730.7 billion. That compares with an average annual increase of 3.7 per cent over the past five years .

Saturday before Christmas expected to be the biggest US shopping day of 2019

Well-Known shopping site Amazon opt to start the food delivery business in India soon. Reports said that for this Amazon is in contact with Uber Eats for this. Well, official statements are not out yet.

Amazon in contact with Uber Eats, could start food delivery business in India soon

A gadget-filled car used in the James Bond movies Goldfinger and Thunderball will be auctioned in mid-August.

James Bond car with spy gadgets heads to auction

Amazon.com Inc has launched an international shopping feature that will enable customers across the world to shop more than 45 million items that can be shipped to their country from the United States.

The international shopping feature, which is available on a mobile browser and the mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, has been extended to users to purchase products outside their home markets and is available in five languages, including Spanish, English, simplified Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese and German, Amazon said on Tuesday.

It will allow customers to shop in 25 currencies, with more languages and currencies to be added in 2018.

Customers can also choose from different shipping options and delivery speeds.

The international shopping feature will display pricing, shipping costs and import duty estimates, with Amazon managing courier service and customs clearance in case of potential surprises at the time of purchase or delivery.

Amazon.com Inc has launched an international shopping feature that will enable customers across the world to shop more than 45 million items that can be shipped to their country from the United States

Amazon.com Inc has launched an international shopping feature that will enable customers across the world to shop more than 45 million items that can be shipped to their country from the United States. The international shopping feature, which is available on a mobile browser and the mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, has been extended to users to purchase products outside their home markets and is available in five languages, including Spanish, English, simplified Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese and German, Amazon said on Tuesday. It will allow customers to shop in 25 currencies, with more languages and currencies to be added in 2018. Customers can also choose from different shipping options and delivery speeds. The international shopping feature will display pricing, shipping costs and import duty estimates, with Amazon managing courier service and customs clearance in case of potential surprises at the time of purchase or delivery.

Amazon launches international shopping from United States

Cyber Monday was on track to become the biggest-ever internet shopping day in the United States as people snapped up bargains on toys and electronics, with many more buying from their phones.

The shopping event is expected to generate $6.6 billion in sales, up from $5.6 billion a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which measured 80 per cent of all online transactions from the top 100 US&nbsp;web retailers. As of 10:00 pm&nbsp;EST (03:00 GMT), revenue from smartphones was $1.12 billion.

The buying frenzy has gone on for the better part of a week. Amazon.com Inc said it broke sales records this weekend and was on pace to do so on Cyber Monday. Thanksgiving and Black Friday, during which shoppers spent $7.9 billion, according to Adobe, had also generated record online sales.

The world&#39;s biggest shopping event was China&#39;s Singles&#39; Day earlier this month, in which Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reported sales of $25.4 billion.

Online sales have brightened the overall outlook for traditional US&nbsp;retailers that have expanded beyond brick-and-mortar. However, the availability of deals and promotions for weeks hurt foot traffic at stores.

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A worker uses a forklift to retrieve products stored inside of a large Amazon fulfillment center (Reuters)
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The lengthening of the holiday shopping season has had another effect, too: many Cyber Monday promotions were run of the mill.

&quot;It&#39;s not as exciting as what the marketing makes it out to be,&quot; said Guru Hariharan, CEO of e-commerce software firm Boomerang Commerce, in Mountain View, California. &quot;The majority of these &#39;deals&#39; have been around since early November or late October.&quot;

Amazon came under criticism this year for marketing discounts off list prices it infrequently charges, so shoppers perceive their purchases to be bargains - an allegation it has denied.

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The lengthening of the holiday shopping season has had another effect, too: many Cyber Monday promotions were run of the mill (Reuters)
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According to an analysis by Boomerang Commerce, online retailers including Amazon were offering bigger savings for more of their most popular toys this year than last. Amazon said it sold 3 million toys halfway through Cyber Monday.

Top rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc is within striking distance of matching Amazon&#39;s online prices for the first time, a key milestone in its effort to regain the &quot;low price leader&quot; title, data gathered for Reuters show.

Amazon shares closed up 0.8 per cent, while Wal-Mart and Target Corp shares were about flat. JC&nbsp;Penney Company Inc closed up three&nbsp;per cent, and Macy&#39;s Inc closed up 0.7 per cent.

Online sales have brightened the overall outlook for traditional US?retailers that have expanded beyond brick-and-mortar

Cyber Monday was on track to become the biggest-ever internet shopping day in the United States as people snapped up bargains on toys and electronics, with many more buying from their phones. The shopping event is expected to generate $6.6 billion in sales, up from $5.6 billion a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which measured 80 per cent of all online transactions from the top 100 US web retailers. As of 10:00 pm EST (03:00 GMT), revenue from smartphones was $1.12 billion. The buying frenzy has gone on for the better part of a week. Amazon.com Inc said it broke sales records this weekend and was on pace to do so on Cyber Monday. Thanksgiving and Black Friday, during which shoppers spent $7.9 billion, according to Adobe, had also generated record online sales. The world's biggest shopping event was China's Singles' Day earlier this month, in which Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reported sales of $25.4 billion. Online sales have brightened the overall outlook for traditional US retailers that have expanded beyond brick-and-mortar. However, the availability of deals and promotions for weeks hurt foot traffic at stores. A worker uses a forklift to retrieve products stored inside of a large Amazon fulfillment center (Reuters) × The lengthening of the holiday shopping season has had another effect, too: many Cyber Monday promotions were run of the mill. "It's not as exciting as what the marketing makes it out to be," said Guru Hariharan, CEO of e-commerce software firm Boomerang Commerce, in Mountain View, California. "The majority of these 'deals' have been around since early November or late October." Amazon came under criticism this year for marketing discounts off list prices it infrequently charges, so shoppers perceive their purchases to be bargains - an allegation it has denied. The lengthening of the holiday shopping season has had another effect, too: many Cyber Monday promotions were run of the mill (Reuters) × According to an analysis by Boomerang Commerce, online retailers including Amazon were offering bigger savings for more of their most popular toys this year than last. Amazon said it sold 3 million toys halfway through Cyber Monday. Top rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc is within striking distance of matching Amazon's online prices for the first time, a key milestone in its effort to regain the "low price leader" title, data gathered for Reuters show. Amazon shares closed up 0.8 per cent, while Wal-Mart and Target Corp shares were about flat. JC Penney Company Inc closed up three per cent, and Macy's Inc closed up 0.7 per cent.

US Cyber Monday sales jump 17 per cent, on pace for record

Poland adopted legislation on Friday that will ban most Sunday trading by 2020, with opinion surveys showing that consumers have mixed feelings about the move in the heavily Catholic EU state.&nbsp;

First presented last year by Poland`s Solidarity trade union as a citizens` initiative bill, the new legislation limits shopping to the first and last Sundays of the month as of March 2018.

Trade will only be allowed on the last Sunday of the month in 2019 before a wider ban takes effect in 2020 that will allow shopping on seven Sundays per year, including two before Christmas and one before Easter.

The move applies to foreign-owned hypermarket chains as well as other non-Polish players, but will still allow online shopping as well as smaller locally-owned shops including bakeries and petrol stations to do business.

Lawmakers in Poland`s right-wing dominated 460-seat parliament passed the ban with 254 votes in favour to 156 against and 23 abstentions.

The Solidarity trade union says it sought the move to ensure retail staff gets free weekends, but opposition politicians and other critics argue that it will limit job opportunities for students and cramp cross-border shopping from the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Slovakia.

Solidarity is allied with Poland`s governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is closely tied to the powerful Roman Catholic Church, long an advocate of shutting shops on Sundays for religious reasons.&nbsp;

Sunday shopping became a popular family pastime in Poland with the advent of the free market after the 1989 collapse of communism, but surveys published this week suggest that consumers have mixed feelings.&nbsp;

The independent Kantar TNS pollsters found that 76 percent of respondents supported a compromise that would allow Sunday shopping, but also give retail workers two free weekends per month.

However, the Warsaw-based CBOS agency found that 58 percent of respondents supported a blanket Sunday shopping ban, while just 37 percent were opposed. It also found that 52 percent of respondents said they shop on Sunday.

Switzerland and Norway limit Sunday shopping, while Austria has a blanket ban.&nbsp;

Up to now, stores in Poland have remained closed for 12 days a year for major national or religious holidays.

The Solidarity trade union says it sought the move to ensure retail staff gets free weekends, but opposition politicians and other critics argue that it will limit job opportunities for students and cramp cross-border shopping from the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Slovakia

Poland adopted legislation on Friday that will ban most Sunday trading by 2020, with opinion surveys showing that consumers have mixed feelings about the move in the heavily Catholic EU state. First presented last year by Poland`s Solidarity trade union as a citizens` initiative bill, the new legislation limits shopping to the first and last Sundays of the month as of March 2018. Trade will only be allowed on the last Sunday of the month in 2019 before a wider ban takes effect in 2020 that will allow shopping on seven Sundays per year, including two before Christmas and one before Easter. The move applies to foreign-owned hypermarket chains as well as other non-Polish players, but will still allow online shopping as well as smaller locally-owned shops including bakeries and petrol stations to do business. Lawmakers in Poland`s right-wing dominated 460-seat parliament passed the ban with 254 votes in favour to 156 against and 23 abstentions. The Solidarity trade union says it sought the move to ensure retail staff gets free weekends, but opposition politicians and other critics argue that it will limit job opportunities for students and cramp cross-border shopping from the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Slovakia. Solidarity is allied with Poland`s governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is closely tied to the powerful Roman Catholic Church, long an advocate of shutting shops on Sundays for religious reasons. Sunday shopping became a popular family pastime in Poland with the advent of the free market after the 1989 collapse of communism, but surveys published this week suggest that consumers have mixed feelings. The independent Kantar TNS pollsters found that 76 percent of respondents supported a compromise that would allow Sunday shopping, but also give retail workers two free weekends per month. However, the Warsaw-based CBOS agency found that 58 percent of respondents supported a blanket Sunday shopping ban, while just 37 percent were opposed. It also found that 52 percent of respondents said they shop on Sunday. Switzerland and Norway limit Sunday shopping, while Austria has a blanket ban. Up to now, stores in Poland have remained closed for 12 days a year for major national or religious holidays.

Poland adopts 'gradual ban' on Sunday shopping

Wal-Mart Stores Inc&nbsp;reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, saying it benefited from cleaner and more efficient US stores, investments in technology that improved online shopping and higher employee wages that fostered better customer service. 
 
The world&#39;s largest retailer has been spending heavily to entice consumers back to its stores with better stocked shelves, and improving its e-commerce business by investing in new warehouses that can deliver online shipments faster. 
 
Last week, it announced the acquisition of online startup Jet.com for over $3 billion to better compete with Amazon.com Inc&nbsp;. 
 
Wal-Mart also increased entry level wages to $10 an hour earlier this year and said it will invest $2.7 billion in employee compensation and training over two years, a move it said contributed to improved service in its stores. 
 
These steps, analysts said, helped Wal-Mart to raise its fiscal-year forecast and buck a string of weak results from higher-end brick-and-mortar competitors like Target Corp, Macy&#39;s Inc&nbsp;and Kohls Corp&nbsp;. Target cut its fiscal-year profit outlook on Wednesday after quarterly sales fell more than expected. 
 
Wal-Mart US Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran said on a conference call that the company&#39;s customers were still cautious with their spending but were visiting stores more often and buying more items. Store visits increased 1.2 percent, and the average size of an order rose 0.4 percent during the second quarter ended on July 31.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;We are seeing a steady improvement in the US business, and it is responding favourably to the changes we are making,&quot; he said. 
 
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said sales were strong for grocery items and apparel but weak for electronics. 
 
&quot;Walmart&#39;s strategic investments are generating traction, which is especially meaningful, given a large portion of its customer base remains challenged,&quot; said Moody&#39;s analyst Charlie O`Shea.&nbsp; 
 
The retailer said it was difficult to quantify the effects of low gasoline prices and unseasonably warm weather, but those factors contributed to overall sales growth. 
 
Online sales growth accelerated sequentially for the first time in more than five quarters, rising 11.8 per cent from 7 per cent in the first quarter.&nbsp; 
 
Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said e-commerce growth was stronger in the United States than in major overseas markets, mainly because of its larger third-party seller business and the continued roll-out of online grocery pickup options. 
 
Wal-Mart has added 7 million items to its website this year, bringing the total to 15 million. This compares with 200 million on online rival Amazon.com Inc&nbsp;. 
 
The company raised its fiscal-year earnings outlook to between $4.15 and $4.35 a share, including an estimated hit of 5 cents from the Jet.com acquisition, from a previous range of $4 to $4.30. 
 
Second-quarter earnings per share of $1.07, excluding a gain from the sale of Wal-Mart&#39;s e-commerce business in China and other items, exceeded the analysts&#39; average estimate by 5 cents.&nbsp; 
 
Sales at US stores open at least a year rose 1.6 per cent, excluding fuel prices, to beat expectations in their eighth straight quarter of growth.&nbsp; 
 
International sales fell 6.6 pe rcent to $28.6 billion but increased 2.2 per cent on a currency-neutral basis. Total revenue rose 0.5 per cent to $120.9 billion.&nbsp; 
 
Wal-Mart&#39;s shares rose as much as 2.8 per cent earlier in the trading day. They were up 1.8 per cent at $74.23 in afternoon trade. 
 
(Reuters)

Improved online shopping was another factor behind the US retailer's higher-than-expected result

Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, saying it benefited from cleaner and more efficient US stores, investments in technology that improved online shopping and higher employee wages that fostered better customer service. The world's largest retailer has been spending heavily to entice consumers back to its stores with better stocked shelves, and improving its e-commerce business by investing in new warehouses that can deliver online shipments faster. Last week, it announced the acquisition of online startup Jet.com for over $3 billion to better compete with Amazon.com Inc . Wal-Mart also increased entry level wages to $10 an hour earlier this year and said it will invest $2.7 billion in employee compensation and training over two years, a move it said contributed to improved service in its stores. These steps, analysts said, helped Wal-Mart to raise its fiscal-year forecast and buck a string of weak results from higher-end brick-and-mortar competitors like Target Corp, Macy's Inc and Kohls Corp . Target cut its fiscal-year profit outlook on Wednesday after quarterly sales fell more than expected. Wal-Mart US Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran said on a conference call that the company's customers were still cautious with their spending but were visiting stores more often and buying more items. Store visits increased 1.2 percent, and the average size of an order rose 0.4 percent during the second quarter ended on July 31. "We are seeing a steady improvement in the US business, and it is responding favourably to the changes we are making," he said. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said sales were strong for grocery items and apparel but weak for electronics. "Walmart's strategic investments are generating traction, which is especially meaningful, given a large portion of its customer base remains challenged," said Moody's analyst Charlie O`Shea. The retailer said it was difficult to quantify the effects of low gasoline prices and unseasonably warm weather, but those factors contributed to overall sales growth. Online sales growth accelerated sequentially for the first time in more than five quarters, rising 11.8 per cent from 7 per cent in the first quarter. Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said e-commerce growth was stronger in the United States than in major overseas markets, mainly because of its larger third-party seller business and the continued roll-out of online grocery pickup options. Wal-Mart has added 7 million items to its website this year, bringing the total to 15 million. This compares with 200 million on online rival Amazon.com Inc . The company raised its fiscal-year earnings outlook to between $4.15 and $4.35 a share, including an estimated hit of 5 cents from the Jet.com acquisition, from a previous range of $4 to $4.30. Second-quarter earnings per share of $1.07, excluding a gain from the sale of Wal-Mart's e-commerce business in China and other items, exceeded the analysts' average estimate by 5 cents. Sales at US stores open at least a year rose 1.6 per cent, excluding fuel prices, to beat expectations in their eighth straight quarter of growth. International sales fell 6.6 pe rcent to $28.6 billion but increased 2.2 per cent on a currency-neutral basis. Total revenue rose 0.5 per cent to $120.9 billion. Wal-Mart's shares rose as much as 2.8 per cent earlier in the trading day. They were up 1.8 per cent at $74.23 in afternoon trade. (Reuters)

Wal-Mart rides on higher store visits to boost quarterly earnings

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