Hair by Amazon

Amazon has announced a surprise move into the world of hairdressing with the opening of a hi-tech hair salon in London that boasts special mirrors able to show customers how they would look with a different hair colour before they take the plunge. With its promise to showcase the latest in cutting edge technology, the Amazon Salon in Spitalfields, east London, could consign hair dye swatch books to the dustbin of history with its augmented reality mirrors. As well as experimenting with virtual looks, clients will be able to pass time scrolling through magazines loaded on tablets placed at each “styling station”. Amazon is leaving the haircuts and highlights to the professionals with the salon manned by Neville Hair & Beauty, an independent salon based in the capital. The permanent salon will initially be road-tested by Amazon staff ahead of opening up to the public for appointments “in the coming weeks”. A price list has yet to be released but Amazon Salon will offer a “full range of hairdressing services” including highlights, treatments and braids, it said. The salon is being billed by Amazon as an “experiential venue” to show off new products and technology and, as yet anyway, there are no current plans for any others. The move comes after the e-commerce giant launched a professional beauty section on its website, selling 10,000 products ranging from clippers to curlers and hair dryers, aimed at the small businesses which have only recently been allowed to reopen as lockdown restrictions are eased.

Hair By Amazon

Netflix Boom Over

Video-streaming giant Netflix has reported a slowdown in subscriber growth, sending its shares tumbling. About 3.98 million people signed up for Netflix between January and March, well short of the projected 6 million. The company said a lack of new shows may have contributed to the shortfall, adding that it expected this to recover as sequels to hit shows are released. Netflix shares fell 11% in after-hours trading to $489.28, wiping $25bn off the company's market capitalization.The streaming service added 15.8 million new subscribers last year as Covid-19 forced people around the world to stay home. Much of that growth came in Asia, where Netflix added 9.3 million new subscribers in 2020, an increase of about 65% over the previous year. But the pandemic has proven a double-edged sword for Netflix, because it also disrupted its production pipeline.The company projected poor customer growth ahead, with an additional 1 million new streaming customers in the second quarter, far short of the previously predicted 5 million. Netflix also faces increasingly stiff competition from new streaming services entering the market. Disney+, a much newer streaming service, already has 100 million subscribers, compared with Netflix's 207.6 million.Even with sluggish customer growth, Netflix has reported revenues of $7.16bn and net income of $1.71bn. Netflix predicted stronger growth in the second half of the year when it releases new seasons of "You," "Money Heist," "The Witcher" and action movie "Red Notice," among other titles.

 Netflix Slump

Could A New Cup Save The Planet?

The UK's caffeine addiction sees us drink around 35 billion cups a year, but that comes at a huge environmental cost. We throw away more than 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups annually, and around half a million tonnes of ground coffee waste goes to landfill. The coffee industry also contributes to the UK's carbon emissions, which the government has pledged will be neutral by 2050. Some coffee companies think they have the solutions to help tackle these problems. Called a ButterflyCup, it's 100% paper - there is no plastic coasting - and nor is there a lid. Or rather, you create the lid by doing two simple folds after your drink is poured. It was developed by a pair of entrepreneurs in Ireland. "We believe it is the world's most environmentally friendly disposable cup," says Tommy McLoughlin, chief executive and founder of ButterflyCup. The cup works out slightly more expensive than the typical disposable ones containing plastic, says Mr McLoughlin. This may prevent some large chains from adopting it, since they operate very fine profit margins at vast scale. But the ButterflyCup is cheaper than the compostable ones with separate cup and lids, he says.

Eco Cup

Disney Inclusive

Disney employees will now be able to have visible tattoos and more freely express themselves with their clothes and haircuts as a result of a new initiative from the company to become more inclusive for its workers and visitors. Josh D’Amaro, Disney Parks chairman, said a 16-month focus group of employees suggested adding “inclusion” to the company’s core values, saying the new key element will be “essential to our culture and leads us forward”. The company’s values will now be known as The Five Keys (previously there had been four) that are safety, show, courtesy, efficiency and, now, inclusion. As a part of the company’s new inclusivity efforts, employees will now have more autonomy when dressing for work. Our new approach provides greater flexibility with respect to forms of personal expression surrounding gender-inclusive hairstyles, jewelry, nail styles and costume choices; and allowing appropriate visible tattoos. We’re updating them to not only remain relevant in today’s workplace, but also enable our cast members to better express their cultures and individuality at work,” D’Amaro said in a statement. Deadline reports the company has long had strict restrictions on the appearance of their employees. According to the publication, people who worked at the park when it first opened in 1955 through 2012 were not allowed to wear facial hair.

Disney Inclusive

Free Cuthbert

Marks & Spencer has begun legal action against Aldi, arguing the supermarket's Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake infringes its Colin the Caterpillar trademark. M&S claims that their similarity leads consumers to believe they are of the same standard and "rides on the coat-tails" of M&S's reputation. It lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court this week. M&S wants Aldi to remove the product from sale and agree not to sell anything similar in the future. The retailer has three trademarks relating to Colin, which it believes means Colin has acquired and retains an enhanced distinctive character and reputation. The product was launched around 30 years ago. Colin's appearance has been substantially unchanged since around 2004, except for adaptations for events such as Halloween and Christmas, and related products such as Connie the Caterpillar. M&S was the first retailer to sell a caterpillar cake, but many supermarkets have since created their own similar products. Despite the legal challenge Alid decided to mock M&S using the hashtag #freecuthbert which attracted a lot of engagement over the weekend.

Free Cuthbert

Matchbox Makeover

Matchbox is launching a series of toy cars based on real-life electric vehicles and making some using recycled materials as part of a global relaunch. The first will be a mini version of the Tesla Roadster and will be followed by other models along with scaled-down charging stations. The toymaker wants to raise awareness among children of the environmental impact of motoring. Other firms, including Lego, are also bringing out more sustainable toys. The formerly UK-based Matchbox, which is now owned by US toymaker Mattel, was created in 1953 and sells more than 40 million die-cast vehicles each year. Mattel, which also owns the Hot Wheels brand, plans to use 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials in the manufacturing of all its products and packaging by 2030. Lego has said it will start replacing plastic packaging with paper bags this year as the toy brick maker aims to become more sustainable. The Danish company said it had been prompted by letters from children asking it to remove the single-use plastic bags.

Matchbox Makeover

ASOS Pandemic Profits

 

Online fashion group Asos has said the pandemic forced it to "rip up the playbook" as its young customers came to terms with being cooped up at home. Chief executive Nick Beighton said its 20-something core market normally bought clothes for going out. But the company's swift "pivot" to casual clothing paid off, with surging sales, profits and customer numbers. Asos added one and a half million customers in the past six months, giving it a total of 24.9 million. Sales rose 24% in the six months to 28 February, with profits jumping to £106.4m, up from £30.1m a year earlier. Mr Beighton told a conference call that under lockdown, there had been a greater emphasis on activewear, casual wear and beauty products. Asos had "quickly pivoted the customer offer to meet demand" in those areas, he said, with jersey tops and casual bottoms proving strong sellers. As an online-only business, Asos is one of the few retailers that have benefited from lockdown. Asos said it was still cautious about the outlook in the short term, because of uncertain economic prospects for its youthful target group. Asos said its integration of Topshop and other Arcadia brands, which Asos bought in February, was "progressing to plan". As well as Topshop, Asos also acquired the Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands in a £295m deal, but not their network of about 70 shops. The company said its latest "record results" had been driven by "exceptional execution". In the UK, where Asos now has more than seven million customers, sales were particularly strong, climbing by 39%.

ASOS Success

LG Hangs Up

LG Electronics said it would close down its loss-making smartphone business. In January, the South Korean electronics giant said it was looking at all options for the division after almost six years of losses totalling around $4.5bn (£3.3bn). LG had made many innovations including ultra-wide angle cameras, rising to third largest smartphone maker in 2013. But bosses said the mobile phone market had become "incredibly competitive". While Samsung and Apple are the two biggest players in the smartphone market, LG has suffered from its own hardware and software issues. As LG struggled with losses it had held talks to sell part of the business but these fell through. It still ranks as the third most popular brand in North America but has slipped in other markets. LG phones are still fairly common in its domestic South Korean market. "LG's strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics and artificial intelligence," it said in a statement.  Last year it shipped 28 million phones, which compares with 256 million for Samsung, according to research firm Counterpoint. The smartphone business is the smallest of LG's five divisions, accounting for just 7.4% of revenue. Currently its global mobile phone market share is about 2%.

LG Hangs Up

Work from Pods

Recent surveys from around the world suggest that a majority of employers will permanently adopt a hybrid working model when the pandemic finally ends - staff will be able to continue to work from home part of the time. However, home working has raised new questions about who pays for what. For example, if employees work from a kitchen table or study, should their employers pay for their internet connection or their ergonomic chairs?  Switch thinks its booths may offer a solution, and some of its corporate clients already allow their employees to charge the cost of a booth to the company.The pods, which cost less than four Singapore dollars ($3; £2.15) per hour, have been created by a Singaporean company called Switch. They follow similar booths that have been around for a few years in Japan, where a handful of companies like Telecube and Cocodesk have placed them in metro stations, hotel lobbies and convenience stores. However, Switch's main competition in Singapore appears to be Starbucks, or any other coffee shop with free wi-fi. Switch has now opened more than 60 of its booths in Singapore. They are in addition to its 3,500 hireable desks in shared co-working offices that are the more typical way of hiring somewhere to work. Switch aims to place many more booths across the city-state. And overseas expansion is on the horizon too.

Working Pods