Retail

  New York / Bloomberg Inside a 1.2 million-square-foot Wal-Mart Stores Inc. distribution center near its headquarters, a buzzing sound — like a swarm of bees — comes from an aisle of shelves laden with merchandise from diapers to microwaves. Flying up and down the seemingly endless aisle is a drone with a custom-built camera that takes 30 pictures a ...

  Bloomberg Amazon boasted that its virtual assistant Alexa is capable of 1,000 “skills,” as the online retail giant bolsters defenses against rivals such as Google and Apple. The Seattle-based company said in a blog post that the programs were developed specifically for the voice-commanded Alexa software used in Amazon devices such as Echo and Fire TV. Amazon released voice-enabled ...

  FAYETTEVILLE, Ark / AP Wal-Mart’s CEO urged employees to reimagine its future in a fast-shifting retail landscape. The company is at a crossroads, as its long-held dominance in pricing and convenience has been chipped away at by Amazon and dollar stores. But it’s fighting back on multiple fronts, growing more aggressive with prices and going after Amazon, both online ...

LONDON / Reuters Gucci is on course to top 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) in revenue for the first time this year as the Italian luxury brand’s revival gathers speed under its new leadership duo. Sales of items designed by new creative director Alessandro Michele have accelerated since March as more have reached shelves, Chief Executive Officer Marco Bizzarri told ...

  MENLO PARK / Tribune News Service With a microphone floating in zero gravity, three astronauts aboard the International Space Station chatted with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg via live video about life in space. The social media company has been ramping up its efforts in live video this year, taking on Twitter-owned Periscope. The recent event was the first time ...

  Singapore / Bloomberg Singapore’s state-owned investment firms Temasek Holdings Pte and GIC Pte, long-term Alibaba Group Holding Inc. investors, bought a combined $1 billion of stock in the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, the second-biggest stakes being sold by SoftBank Group Corp. The purchases add to the technology holdings of both investment firms. Temasek and GIC were early investors in Alibaba ...

  Mumbai / Bloomberg ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. has picked arrangers for an initial public offering of as much as 60 billion rupees ($892 million), people familiar with the matter said, in what could be India’s biggest first-time share sale in six years. The country’s largest private-sector life insurer selected Bank of America Corp. and ICICI Securities Ltd. to ...

London / AFP Britain’s historic menswear chain Austin Reed, whose suits were worn by Winston Churchill and The Beatles, said on Tuesday it will close 120 stores by the end of June as it winds down its operations. The company fell into administration last month and no viable offers were made for its purchase. Austin Reed’s administrators AlixPartners said: “We have ...

  SHENZHEN / AP Zhong Guoyan sifted through piles of fish at a Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, one of China’s largest cities. She studied the fins, to make sure they were bright red and firm. She peered at the eyeballs — were they bulging? “When I come here, I have a look,” she said. “If it’s good, then I will buy it. ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg Walt Disney Co. said it’s prepared to take action to protect its intellectual property rights after performers dressed as Snow White and Captain America were sighted at Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s new theme park and entertainment complex in China. “We vigorously protect our intellectual property and will take action to address infringement,” the company said in ...