The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of e-commerce in a way no company could have imagined. Investors will find no shortage of newly energised investment opportunities. By Gerrit Smit.
Browsing: Retail and e-commerce
New research from GfK suggests there has been a marked shift by South African consumers to online shopping, with most likely to continue using e-commerce, even after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.
Woolworths saw online food sales for its South Africa business leap 87.8% in the 52 weeks to 28 June as consumers turned the Internet and shunned stores amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
eBay has agreed to sell its online classifieds business to Norway’s Adevinta for $9.2-billion (R152-billion), ending one of the largest auctions of the year.
A $20-billion fund-raising spree may take India’s Reliance closer to its dream of becoming a digital giant, further threatening the plans of US companies such as Amazon.com, Walmart and Zoom.
Having long lagged behind much of the world in terms of e-commerce, South African retailers have been doing a roaring trade online as consumers shy away from shops during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Google has agreed to buy a $4.5-billion stake in Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries, adding to a series of large investments from the US into the online venture.
Uber said on Monday it would buy Postmates in a $2.65-billion deal, looking to expand its reach into the food-delivery market as the coronavirus crisis upends its core ride-hailing business.
Prosus is in talks to increase its stake in iFood, Latin America’s biggest food delivery start-up, amid a wave of consolidation in the industry, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Uber Technologies is in talks to purchase food delivery service Postmates for about US$2.6-billion, Dow Jones reported, citing people familiar with the matter.