DHL unveils online shopping portal

DHL says 600 companies have responded to its release of a Germany-centric shopping portal designed for small and medium-sized retailers and consumers aged 50 and older, notes Air Cargo World.

The company says it is not trying to compete with Amazon or e-Bay. However, by leveraging an unmatched express and mail brand in Germany, the new portal can expect to win new business for DHL as the automatic carrier for the retailers and their suppliers, as well as the consumer.

“For retailers and manufacturers to consistently achieve success in the market, there is no way around Internet sale,” said Ingo Bohlken, Deutsche Post DHL's chief marketing officer Mail and CEO Parcels, Germany.

Two prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms are betting an e-commerce model that has worked in the West for high-end consumers will work in China for that country's vast and growing middle class, reports Portfolio.

DCM and Sequoia Capital have invested $20 million in Vipshop, a Chinese site that focuses on 'flash sales' of brand names like Adidas,Pepsi, even 'Harry Potter'-related items, the firms said.

The site sells the items for a limited time, at a discount, then moves on to other sales. It's a model similar to that of Gilt Groupe in America or Vente Privee in France, except that the two Western companies focus on luxury merchandise like Prada, and high-end customers.

Roberts Mart & Company, a flexible packaging manufacturer, revealed that it has selected Syspro ERP from K3 Business Technology Group to help drive improvements throughout the firm's manufacturing, distribution and accounting operations, writes TMC.

Syspro 6.1 is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that supports sustainability, saving K3 customers money by eliminating waste and duplicated effort, reducing energy consumption and adding profit to the bottom line.

It has new green architecture and modules, feature sets, workflow and customisation capabilities, all designed to allow for users to access the data they need in any application without the need for software development skills.