Retail news round-up on March 25, 2015: Stores to cut back on Black Friday deals, Amazon blasts aviation watchdog and Ikea snaps up shopping centre stake.
Amazon blasts aviation watchdog for ‘inadequate’ drone regulation
Amazon has blasted the US Federal Aviation Administration for being slow to approve commercial drone testing – and warned the nation is falling behind other countries in the potentially lucrative area of unmanned aviation technology.
“Nowhere outside of the United States have we been required to wait more than one or two months to begin testing,” Paul Misener, Amazon.com’s vice president for global public policy said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security.
Stores set to cut back on Black Friday discounts
Retailers are poised to cut back on Black Friday discounts this year to avoid chaos caused by the backlog of deliveries, the Daily Mail reported. IMRG has warned retail chains that they will have to fundamentally rethink how they handle Black Friday this year. It suggests stores might want to spread the discounts and promotion over a longer period, perhaps a weekend or week, in order to avoid the spike in orders.
Ikea to snap up remaining stake in shopping centres company
IKEA Group has agreed to acquire a 51% stake in a company that owns shopping centres in the Nordics. The price tag for the 13 shopping centres that makes up the remaining stake remains undisclosed; however, the spokeswoman said their combined market value was estimated at around €1bn (£734.9m). Upon the conclusion of the deal, the group will own and operate 58 shopping centres across 13 markets.
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