Showing posts with label Walmart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walmart. Show all posts
Chinese e-commerce Alibaba overtook America's Walmart to become world's largest retailer, according to Stationery News.
According to the report, Alibaba's executive vice chairman Joe Tsai said that with 10 days remaining to its year to march, Alibaba's China retail marketplace platforms had surpassed RMB3 trillion in GMV.
Alibaba Group Holdings said that as of 31 March it has “become the largest retail economy in the world as measured by annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) on its China retail marketplaces.”
The company has not yet released its trading figures for the year 2016.
According to recent ranking by Investopedia, WalMart, generated an annual worldwide revenue of $485.7 billion in 2015, making it last year's biggest retailer.
In a China Daily report, the Alibaba group said that it "used 13 years to demonstrate the power of a different business model compared with brick-and-mortar retailers."
Alibaba CEO Jonathan Lu said that "the company expects to triple the volume of transactions on its marketplaces to about 3 trillion yuan or $490 billion by 2016, overtaking Wal-Mart as the world's biggest retail network."
Looks like Alibaba's wish has fulfilled as in a 2014 Forbes report, founder Jack Ma had shared that his group "wants to be bigger than Walmart"
Walmart has become the latest U.S. retailer to ask for permission to test drones for making deliveries to customers in its parking lots and at customers' homes, following the lead of Amazon and smaller companies seeking exemptions from government drone rules.
Walmart also wants to use the aerial technology to check on its buildings, warehouses and distribution centers.
The retail giant applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for an exemption from current regulations Monday.
Walmart has tested drones inside its facilities but now wants to do outdoor tests. To do that, it needs FAA permission to operate "small unmanned aircraft systems," as the industry calls drones.
Walmart is using drones in an effort to create a more efficient supply chain, company spokesman Dan Toporek says.
“You test for a reason,” he said, "because you learn during tests and you tend to evolve and figure out which approaches are most compelling to customers and most efficient for the business.”
Toporek says Walmart is ready to start outdoor tests immediately if the FAA gives approval.
The approval process typically takes 120 days, said Michael Drobac, executive director of the Small UAV Coalition, a drone industry group.
Multiple other companies, including Amazon and Flirtey, a drone delivery startup based in Nevada, also are exploring how to conduct deliveries via drone. Through Oct. 22, the FAA has granted 2,020 permits for commercial drones for purposes such as aerial photography, pipeline inspection and agricultural monitoring.

