Posts by Alastair Tempest
Africa’s Economic Outlook
Africa’s economic growth is projected to rise slightly to 3.9% in 2023 after a considerable decrease to 3.6% over the past year, says an overview report of recent economic and social developments in…
Read MoreNews From Africa
Logistics – Bad News from SA and Uganda The SA Post Office (SAPO) together with the communications regulator, ICASA, brought a case against PostNet about 5 years ago for ignoring…
Read MoreCross-Border Ecommerce in Europe
The EU has offered a “Single Market” since 1990, and much has been made of the benefits to SMEs which are able to enjoy economies of scale in the richest…
Read MoreThe UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Addresses Misleading Online Sales Pitches
CMA has published an online reporting form, encouraging consumers to report businesses which engage in ‘misleading tactics’ such as pressure selling, hidden charges, subscription traps and fake reviews. Alongside this form,…
Read MoreAnnual tax for ecommerce logistics players – A Spanish Experiment, and Other EU News
The Spanish city of Barcelona’s City Council believes that home deliveries cause congestion and pollution, therefore it wants to see 40% of online purchases delivered to pick-up points instead of…
Read MoreAlibaba Splits into 6 Entities
Under the new organizational restructure plan, the Chinese ecommerce giant will divide into 6 major business groups: Cloud Intelligence Group (including cloud, AI, DingTalk and other businesses), Taobao Tmall Business Group (including…
Read MoreAmazon’s New Benefit for its Consumers – and for Suppliers
Amazon is making public on its website and app the approximate sales for each product. The new metric is social proof that helps popular products stand out. At present it is testing a new product label…
Read MoreWTO Progresses with its Ecommerce Work
The WTO has been negotiating at its JSI committee on ecommerce issues for a number of years, as readers of this Newsletter will be aware. Recently the committee has been…
Read MoreBridging the Digital Divide Remains a Major Challenge in the Least Developed Countries
The digital connectivity divide separating the globe’s least developed countries (LDCs) from the world as a whole shows no sign of narrowing. In fact, it is widening on key factors,…
Read MorePromoting Women on International Women’s Day
According to the International Finance Corporation, although “the digital economy” is a very broad category, women could add over $300bn to ecommerce markets alone in Africa and South-East Asia between 2025 and 2030 through…
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