Amazon Sells E-Books To Schools In New York City

Amazon is about to deliver E-books worth millions of dollars to the schools in New York

Tech companies have long coveted classrooms, made efforts in the past to encourage schools to employ their specialized software and devices with mixed success. Amazon will know soon that whether it is accepted into the biggest school district of the country. The Seattle based organization is in line to get a contract to deliver e-books to the schools of New York City worth $64.5 million in half a decade.

The department of education of the city will vote on April 19, 2016 on the first three years of the agreement, valued at around $30 million. The department hopes to purchase content worth $4.3 million from the online retailer in the contract’s first year, $8.6 million in its second year and $17.2 million in its third year, with the organization receiving a commission ranging from 10% to 15%.

Under the agreement, which would be implemented in the upcoming school year, executives can use the agency’s internal marketplace website to purchase electronic textbooks and the rest of the content from the organization for use by students on every sort of device.

Once bought, the city of New York will retain rights to the e-books and might transfer them from one school to another, said representative of the education department. The agreement does not cover the Kindle e-readers of Amazon or other hardware.

Schools are a lucrative target for technology organizations due to the chance to modernize what many people think to be inefficient and outdated classrooms. There is an included bonus of potentially connecting numerous students on services and devices while they are young.

The web of bureaucracy in state-provided education has many times kept the recent technologies outside of classrooms. Apple was troubled when it tried to distribute iPads to pupils in Los Angeles after the leakage of an internal report that doubted the bidding procedure.

It has nevertheless signed a deal to supply hardware to the rest of the school districts. The potential contract of the organization with the city, which serves 1.1 million pupils, was almost derailed due to concerns that it did not include sufficient considerations for vision-impaired and blind children.

The state’s education department postponed voting on the agreement in August 2015 so the American e-commerce company could review its plans to satisfy the non-profit organization National Federation of the Blind (NFB).

The non-profit had been worried that most of the e-Book content would not permit the use of specialized software that can help the blind by reading books for them. A spokesperson of Amazon refused to comment.

Some advocates of education worry that pupils retail fewer details when they peruse online, and that by using e-books instead of textbooks teaches might be allowed to closely observe what pupils peruse and how much they do.

 

Amazon Revamps Strategies To Dominate Indian E-Commerce Market

Amazon increases its authorised capital to lead the online trading market of India to turn it into a more profitable organization

Amazon India has nearly increased its capital by two times to $2.42 billion, crossing its huge capital pledge of $2 billion, which it made in July, two years ago and pointing out the intent of the company to inject whatever money is required to turn into the biggest e-commerce company of India.

Amazon Seller Services Private Limited (Amazon India) increased its authorized capital from a sum of $1.28 billion in February, the Registrar of Companies has revealed through documents. The authorized capital of the company was $230 million in July 2014, when CEO Jeff Bezos pledged that the American e-commerce company would invest a sum of $2 billion in the country in few years.

The organization’s authorized capital is the largest amount of shared capital, which is permitted by the charter of the company and an approval given by the shareholders can change it. Usually, large amount of shares is authorized than needed, allowing the organization to issue shares to generate capital when it requires money.

The company did not respond to any email seeking its views. Amazon India is boosting up its investment rate to overtake local competitors such as Snapdeal and Flipkart, both of those companies are not easily generating money.

Last week, the Indian government allowed 100% FDI in online retail of items and facilities under the so-called, legalizing current businesses of online e-commerce companies, such as Flipkart and Amazon.

It also informed about new regulations, which could possibly end discount battles between these organizations. Since Jeff pledged $2 billion, his Amazon Seller Services has previously raised approximately $1.62 billion to splurge on advertising, recruiting, discounts, etc., according to documents with RoC.

This is in addition to the organization’s cash injection in its own logistics division Cloudtail India (the joint project of Amazon and Catamaran Ventures) and Amazon Transportation Services. The company wants to desperately grow in India, the last huge online trading market across the globe, after failing in the country to Alibaba.

The e-commerce sales of the country could reach a sum from $48 billion to $60 billion by 2020 from the figure of $4.47 billion two years ago, reported by UBS. The huge investments of the organization have helped it to achieve immediate results.

While Snapdeal – the web retailer’s e-commerce webpage in India – and Flipkart have not formally launched their recent sales figures, officials aware of the matter stated the three companies are racing to dominate the Indian online trading market.

The rate at which the organization has been competing with Snapdeal and Flipkart, which were introduced many years before their US competitor, has surprised investors and experts.

 

Amazon Lobbies For New Uses Of Commercial Drones

Amazon is persuading lawmakers to permit new uses of drones to speed up its deliveries.

Ever since Jeff Bezos started Amazon to deliver books, he had to struggle with how to sell its products as cheaply and as quickly as possible. Today, the American e-commerce company is still obsessed with this matter, developing its own drone fleet, signing up drivers to provide on-demand deliveries and purchasing trailers for trucks.

Now the push by the online trading company to turn into a delivery and logistics powerhouse is more obvious. The Seattle based organization has grown into the most outspoken players of the technology industry in Washington, paying millions of dollars on this effort and having meetings on a regular basis with regulatory bodies and legislators.

The company has lobbied officials to allow the use of commercial UAVs for new purposes – to expand the maximum level of distance covered by trucks, enhance bridges and roads and support its delivery ally, United States Postal Service.

Most of its new efforts are in the initial stages but the company already has detractors, especially for its efforts to fly UAVs. Some drone manufacturers claim that the organization is pushing too fast, too rapidly. Pilot and airline groups said that opening up the skies to commercial drones, which are remote-controlled flying machines, could create security risks.

The money paid by Amazon to lobby last year increased by almost double to a sum of $9.4 million, compared with two years ago, which helped it to reimburse a bigger number of lobbyists and for setting up a new office to accommodate them. The record, compiled from the public records of the Center for Responsive Politics, just includes the expenditure that the company should legally disclose.

The organization’s figure is yet behind those of many companies that have been lobbying from a long period, such as Boeing, which paid around $21 million in the last year. It is behind the leading technology lobbyist, Alphabet, by a huge amount.

Spending by Amazon rose more rapidly than that of any other huge technology company. When the global head of policy at Amazon, Paul Misener, took charge in Washington in 2001, he had a workforce focusing on retail tax regulations and other tech-related matters.

Now, the organization has over 60 people registered as its lobbyists, including both workers and contractors – two times greater than the number of lobbyists working  two years ago, as revealed from data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The lobbyists include people as important as the former majority leader in the Senate, Trent Lott, who helps lobby Congress members.

 

Amazon Set To Launch Digital Wallet In India

Amazon India is aiming to launch a digital wallet to lure buyers in India towards its online marketplace

Amazon India is planning to introduce digital wallet as an effort to establish an online payments business, possibly through takeovers, 4 persons aware of the matter stated. Digital wallet was launched by its biggest local rival, Flipkart last week  as online payments have been quite important in the battle to dominate the online trading market of India, providing greater control to companies over transactions.

According to a source, the organization has started talks with newly emerging payment service providers and digital wallets. In February, the online trading giant purchased Noida based company Emvantage, its first takeover in India

The introduction of the company’s digital wallet in India is probably three months away, stated another source, refusing to be recognized as the others. In United States, a digital wallet was previously launched by the Seattle based company in 2014 but after six months it  was shut down.

Ex official of the Citibank Sriraman Jagannathan, who was  hired by Amazon India in February to lead its payments business is probably expected to spearhead the unveiling of the digital wallet, stated a person aware of the plans.

Sriraman played an instrumental role in introducing the digital wallet of Bharti Airtel, Airtel Money three years ago. The company didn’t specifically comment on whether it has planned to release a digital walletby saying it was “always exploring” acquisitions. Presently, gift cards are used by Amazon India as pre-paid tools to let buyers buy on its electronic marketplace, providing customers an option to avail these cards up to a limit of $148.86 which according to Indian rules can be applied to digital wallets.

This month, the company provided customers cashbacks on Amazon.in gift cards in its Super Value Day sale provided that they purchased goods offered for a specified minimum amount.

Bengalaru based company Qwik Cilver powers the gift cards of the organization, in which the US company purchased a minority share 2 years ago.

A source stated enterprise might use Qwik Cliver which has been licensed tor run a semi-closed loop wallet to release its digital wallet. Digital wallets’ adoption has fairly been quick in the country.

The digital wallet transactions have grown by more than two times from 65.96 million in the earlier period of the corresponding year to 153.11 million in the most recent October to December quarter, the data provided by Reserve Bank of India has shown. In terms of value, the rise was from around $331.37 million to around $824.5 million.

The Alibaba backed Paytm is the biggest digital wallet business in the country with users totaling at over 120 million. Competitors include Ola Money of cab service provider Ola and Freecharge which is owned by Snapdeal, along with independent companies Citrus, Oxigen and MobiKwik.

 

Amazon.com Enters The Fashion Industry

Amazon stock, amazon shares, amazon clothing brands, amazon fashion, amazon retail, amazon clothes

The world’s largest retail giant Amazon.com has also decided to tap the clothing market as now it officially owns its own clothing line.

According to a report by Quartz, the retail giant rolled out over 1,800 fashion products under the over seven trademarked brand names. As per the report by WWD, the Seattle tech company has a variety of fashion clothes for men, women and children. The products have been launched under seven brands which include Lark and Ro, Society New York, North Eleven, Franklin & Freeman, Franklin Tailor and Scout + Ro.

This is not the first time, Amazon has tried to dip its toes in the fashion market; it has done so for over decades now but has not always been successful. However, it’s a first for the company to be making the clothing products itself – initially in 2012 it shut down one of its fashion site by the name of Endless.com which had shoes, bags, jewelry etc. This site had operated for more than five years but did not do much for the organization.

At this point, the retailer has not yet confirmed the launched of these in-house brands but the vice president of the fashion sector of the company, Jeff Yurcisin stated that when the company’s sees a gap in the market and other brands decided to not sell their products with us, the customer still wants that product and our job is to get it for them.

The aim of the organization is to provide its 300 million customers with those products that the businesses third party seller do not offer to the customers via amazon’s platform. Ever since 2006, the retailer has been trying to venture into the fashion market – at this time it acquired Shophop and later on it acquired My Habit and East Dance as well.

The clothing and accessory industry in the United States is worth as much as $250 billion; that is an opportunity that the e-commerce will not let go of that easily. As per Cowen and Company, Amazon could surpass the largest clothing retailer in the country; Macy’s and become the biggest seller in the U.S.

The clothing products in the website are mostly priced below $100 and have been on the website for the past few months. However, customers cannot tell that the products are made by amazon itself – as it just display’s the brand name.

An analyst stated that the organization is being quite strategic about this move and if amazon succeeds in this venture it would be quite disruptive for the industry as a whole.

 

Amazon and Ericsson Boost Cloud Computing Speed

Amazon has partnered with Ericsson to ensure that customers are able to enjoy one of the best cloud services.

Ericsson, which makes the gear running most of the wireless networks across the world, wants to establish its foothold in the cloud sector. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the public cloud computation leader, is interested in ensuring that the mobile applications deployed and developed on its infrastructure are delivered to users in the most efficient manner.

On Monday, at the Mobile World Congress, both organizations announced to collaborate to help the conventional customers of Ericsson – telecommunication service providers – speed up the cloud facilities using the infrastructure of the online ecommerce company.

It will help those facility providers to develop gateways connecting AWS data storage to their own datacenters. Another objective is to pioneer technology that manages workflow between AWS datacenters and internal facilities of telecoms.

Amazon’s appeal is that networking capacity, computing power and storage space can be rented from a cloud service provider, which is maintaining and owning all the resources in its own datacenters. The advantage for customers is that they are paying for that which is used by them and do not need to update all that software and hardware at the backend.

Conventional telecoms such as Century Link and Verizon have all entered the cloud sector but have not been able to get a share while the Seattle based company has developed what seems to be a cloud business of $10 billion per year.

Expertise of Ericsson in mobile communications service and industrial-grade networking gear coupled with cloud of Amazon are capable of winning together, head of Ericsson cloud business, Jason Hoffman, spoke to Fortune.

The technology of the Stockholm-based company can ensure graphics-rich video or page  are delivered reliably and quickly over wireless connections, something that mobile developers are very much concerned about – particularly in remote regions lacking wire-line connections.

Plans have been made by Ericsson to establish “cloud innovation centers” to speed up its customers on cloud. The first similar facility established with Australian telecom ‘Telestra’ is already working. The communications company will provide consultants and engineers while Amazon will chip in professional services, training and solution architects.

In other news, Ericsson joined ‘Open Compute Project’ (OCP), a consortium of tech organizations that specifies open source designs for servers and other datacenter hardware. Initially introduced by Facebook five years ago, OCP attained a large number of members in the interim. AT&T and Verizon joined in January. Ericsson also plans to work on next-gen datacenter hardware with Quanta.

 

 

Amazon Establishes Warehouse In Kent Which Worries Locals Of Region

Locals in Kent believe that Amazon would establish a warehouse and threaten the future of the listed medieval church.

Amazon plans to develop a warehouse in Kent are being discussed in the region. It is expected that nearly $72.03 million would benefit the company’s project and threaten the listed medieval church’s future.

Local residents and councilors expressed their concerns about the opening of a new 1m sq. ft. warehouse at a site in Sevington, arguing it would create low paid job opportunities and “worst kind of corporate citizenship” to the region.

The GMB trade union claimed that Amazon participated in the venture and council documents suggested that the planned development is related to it. However, Ashford borough council and the Seattle-based organization have denied the claims, while the planning application submitted by the developer reveals it has not yet signed up a tenant.

The row highlights how the company has turned into an emotional issue in localities and has echoes of Tesco’s regular clashes with villages and towns as it tried to grow a year ago. Tesco submitted planning applications under names of different companies so that they get a better opportunity to succeed and avoid opposition from locals.

The planned development would establish on boggy greenfields next to the villages of Mersham and Sevington in Kent, which have been locked between the M20 and the A2070, two of the Southeastern major travel routes.

The developers, supported by national and local government, are interested in building a new junction on the M20 to facilitate businesses that will occupy the site. The new junction’s cost estimated by Highways England is $100.84 million. The Department for Transport will provide $38.9 million, $28.81 million will be provided by the South East Local Enterprise Partnership. Developer and the occupiers would pay the remedial cost. Organizations, which will employ the site, would benefit from millions of pounds provided by the government.

The GMB trade union has been convinced that the American company is participating in the venture after going through the disclosed council documents. It fears that Amazon could be expecting financial support despite of the tiny amount of tax paid by it and the method employed by it to treat its employees.

Guardian saw the budget documents of the Ashford Borough council, which indicates that it believes a venture simply labeled as “Amazon” would contribute to its income.

Nevertheless, the council has denied that Amazon will occupy the site will. A number of factors have led to the speculation that the e-commerce giant is linked to the site. First, in the submissions given to the council regarding their plans, the developers – Axa – named Amazon amongst those organizations that will be occupying the warehouse.

 

 

Amazon To Open Numerous Physical Stores

Amazon is considering to increase its margins through newly planned brick and mortar stores

 

According to Venture Beat, the online retailer has finally started to consider its profit margins in the coming times. The first launched its first ever physical book store last year. Usually, the US tech firm makes waves but this time it is completely silent. Sources suggest that this silence could result in something gold in the coming times. It was reported last week that Amazon is set to open 300 to 400 brick and mortar stores in the United States.

The CEO of General Growth Properties, Sandeep Mathrani, also stated during the earnings call of Amazon that the firm is ready to open hundreds of physical stores. Furthermore, the focus of these brick and mortar stores would not be limited to books only it could go beyond them as well. Mr. Mathrani later changed his statement however Amazon did not respond to the comments. This suggests that the firm indeed has big plans in sight in the near future.

Amazon opened its first ever physical book store last fall and it is believed that the online retailer must have seen good outcome from its test store in Seattle. This can be one of the reasons of as to why the company is determined and increasing its bet on building hundreds of brick and mortar stores. The irony is that Amazon entered this market as an e-book service provider in order to put the traditional physical book stores such as Barnes & Noble out of business.

Barnes & Noble, which is still the largest US book store chain, cannot compete against the offerings of Amazon. It is believed that extra discounts for the buyers and dealing in bulk has benefitted the US e-commerce behemoth. Analysts say that if the firm really opens as many stores in the foreseeable future then it will get more easier to get access to the content in bulk.

Nearly half of the American online shoppers prefer Amazon as their first destination for shopping hence it would not be jumping into this sector for no reason. The company already faced massive losses with its Fire Phone product line but it has now recovered all of it and the journey has been smooth in the past quarters.

Amazon missed to meet expectations if the fourth quarter of its 2015 fiscal year which resulted in 10 percent decline in its stock. Even then it remains the clear market leader in terms of market share and revenues when compared to its domestic competitors such as Wal-Mart and EBay etc.

The new store openings might surprise other companies as well as analysts as the industry leaders in brick and mortar section including Macy’s, Wal-Mart, and others are constantly closing down numerous stores every now and then. This move is a gamble but considering the market status and position of Amazon as of this moment, it is a risk worth taking.

Previously, the reigning monarch of American online shopping did not care about its profit margins but with expanding into numerous physical stores, it is considering to increase its margins through this.

 

Amazon Suffered Heavy Loss In India

The American online trading giant has suffered from a heavy loss of Rs 17.24 bn  in India last year

The net loss of the American E-commerce company business in India, increased to $250 million in the year ending in March last year, which took the three online trading giants’ combined losses to $740 million. Others include Snapdeal and Flipkart. The losses have been made as the organizations tried to lure buyers by providing deep discounts.

The Seattle based company has filed to the Registrar of companies that Amazon Seller Services(ASS) succeeded in registering a 600% rise in sales from $20 million to $150 million an year earlier. The organization earns its income from advertisement revenue, seller commissions and sales of online reader kindle on its platform. In 2014, the online retailer made a net loss worth $50 million.

While the 3 companies moved ahead to dominate a major portion of the Indian market, their profitability was hit. Expenses on promotions, marketing and workers have led to such huge losses. The 2 main companies controlled by the biggest E-commerce company of India FlipKart, reported a loss of around $290 million in the year ending March which is much more than $110 million worth loss made in the year before.

Jasper Infotech, which runs electronic commerce marketplace Snapdeal.com, recorded $200 million worth loss for the year ending in March. The spokesperson of Amazon India stated its platform was India’s most visited online trading site and was having the fastest-growing buying application amongst all E-commerce enterprises in the last year.

Amazon stated last week through a rights issue it would be injecting $250 million into ASS, turning it into the largest injection of capital since its entrance in the second most populated country in 2013. With this investment, the company would have invested around $70 million in the entity in 2015.

The Indian division of the largest E-commerce marketplace made an addition of at least 40,000 goods per day in 2015. Almost 90% of the company’s sellers employ its warehousing and logistics services. The US organization hopes that India would overtake United Kingdom, Germany and Japan to turn into its biggest market abroad, besides turning into the fastest one to take its gross merchandise value to $10bn, official Diego Piacentini spoke to Economic Times in October.

As per reports of ET in July, the online retailer might be investing around $5 billion in the emerging economy, up from $2bn promised previously by founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. A report by Credit Suisse has revealed that whereas there is a sizeable market opportunity, most electronic commerce segments are having competitive dynamics and the existing strategy looks to be building a moat around themselves by growing up and becoming larger than rivals and in the procedure, making huge losses.

 

 

Amazon Hires 1200 Workers For Warehouse In Kent

Amazon needs more staff to operate Kent warehouse and offer services.

Amazon started hiring 1200 workers to meet the staffing needs of a recently established warehouse in Kent that is highly relying on advance robots. The facility covering 800,000 square feet is part of the company’s efforts to revamp the building of a warehouse, which is seeking to cut down delivery times across the United States through establishing fulfillment centers located near important markets.

Warehouses cost around $100m each. By establishing these expensive facilities and betting much on logistics ranging from possibly purchasing its own last-mile delivery company in France and leasing aircrafts, Amazon not only seeks to battle with brick and mortar distribution centers but also avoid embarrassing and costly delays during times when demand levels reach the peak, such as in the vacation season.

Workers at Kent would work along an army of robots to ship and pack small orders, such as toys, electronics, and books. The company states these employees would be getting “competitive” hourly wages, stock awards, healthcare and 401k plans.

The Seattle-based company did not reveal when it would exactly start operating the warehouse at Kent, but a spokesperson stated it has planned “to move quickly”. It has five fulfillment centers in Sumner, Seattle, Bellevue, DuPont, and now in Kent. It announced the establishment of the warehouse at Kent at South 212^th Street and 59^th Place South, two years ago.

It is adjacent to one of the so-called “sortation centers” of the company, where packages are sorted and then delivered to individual post offices in Pacific Northwest, allowing speedy deliveries including those scheduled on Sunday and last minute orders.

Spokeswoman of Amazon said the company has “hundreds” of employees. In other news, the online trading giant has launched the “replenishment” service. A blood glucose monitor, washing machine, and printer are the first three goods that would automatically order more supplies when they are close to running out.

From Tuesday onwards, selected models of Brother printers would track their pattern of consumption and toner usage and then, if the option is selected by the user, automatically ask Amazon to deliver more when required.

Brother has made 45 models that are capable of compatibly working with the new customer-friendly replenishment service, said Brother’s senior vice president for marketing, Don Cummins.

General Electric will launch a washer that would automatically purchase its laundry detergent or notify the person to order it from Amazon. Such services can be seamless and convenient for people.