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Chinese E-commerce giant Alibaba generated a staggering $23 billion in online sales within its first nine hours of its 11.11 Singles Day launch. Sales soared $1 billion in the first minute and eight seconds, and within the first nine hours, it made two-thirds of the revenue that Amazon made in its entire third quarter this year. Alibaba’s Singles Day is an annual event that runs for 24 hours and attracts millions of shoppers. The 24-hour event was launched earlier this morning by a performance from pop sensation Taylor Swift followed by live streaming of marketing for hundreds of brands.

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This will mark the first year in History where its Chinese founder Jack Ma will not be attending its 11.11 Singles Day event, following his departure earlier this year.

After having a facility based in Rotterdam for 20 years, supply chain specialist Tigers is now planning on replacing this facility with a brand new mega hub. The new hub will be more than 550,000 square foot and is being built as part of Tigers’ ongoing plan to expand globally. Tigers’ Managing Director, Shahar Ayash, has said “The mega hub will be an advanced omnichannel fulfilment centre and Tigers’ biggest single operation in Europe.”

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The Netherlands is currently a very active spot for logistics and E-commerce businesses to thrive, and this is evident from J&P’s recent reports on UPS and FedEx Cross Border expanding to locations in the Netherlands. With Tigers’ new fulfilment centre being close to Rotterdam’s port, the Netherlands will continue to boom as a popular E-commerce platform for the rest of Europe.

To trial an easier and more accessible way to deliver E-commerce packages across India, Amazon India has partnered with Indian Railways to run a pilot of a brand new inter-city transportation programme. So far, during the pilot, Amazon India has used Indian Railways to transport E-commerce packages between two of India’s largest cities, New Delhi and Mumbai. The Director of Amazon India’s Middle Mile Transportation, Abhinav Singh, has said “The reach and speed of the Indian Railways will further help us fulfil customer orders faster and reliably across the country.”

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As India is one of the fastest growing E-commerce markets in the world, it is no surprise that Amazon is making use of India’s railway freight network to meet customer demands. Not only will Amazon India see an increase in the speed and reliability of their package delivery – Indian Railways will also benefit by utilising the capacity of the railway system.

Amazon has introduced its AI-powered visual search feature in the UK; following its initial launch in the US which took place six months ago. Amazon’s StyleSnap, is a visual search tool which works in conjunction with Amazon’s shopping app, which allows fashion shoppers to search for items via uploading photos on to the app. Once a photo has been uploaded, customers will then be presented with a range of similar products that are available to purchase on Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon also confirmed that if customers are led to a product by searching an image of a fashion influencer, then they will pay them a commission.

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Amazon’s StyleSnap is an excellent way of enhancing the customer’s journey when purchasing online since it removes the need of having to type the full product name and description. However, some users may still prefer to use the traditional way of searching for products on Amazon’s marketplace, but StyleSnap is a great alternative to use when word search does not quite cut it when searching for your desired product.

Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma reported that they blocked 300 million cyber-attack attempts each day thanks to its artificial intelligence technology. In contrast, Chinese rival tech firm Huawei has said to come under attack 1 million times per day. Notwithstanding the dramatic figures of cyber threats that have taken place on its platform, Alibaba confirmed that its payment service Alipay had not been affected.

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Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly popular amongst businesses worldwide, as it has enabled companies to develop innovate ways on how they can best serve their market as well as implementing new practices that will secure and protect their personal details from theft.