Executive Summary

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” discusses the deluge of negative headlines that have been published recently about the US retail sector, despite solid retail sales and consumers’ continued positive sentiment about visiting physical stores.
• One Wall Street firm estimated that Amazon will account for the majority of US online sales by 2021, helped by the popularity of its Prime membership program and its marketplaces.
• UK retail sales fell by 1% on a comparable basis in March, according to the British Retail Consortium. Total sales were down 0.2%, their first decline since August last year, impacted by Easter falling in March last year versus April this year.
• As it works to battle Amazon and Alibaba, Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart confirmed that it has raised $1.4 billion in new funding, at a post-money valuation of $11.6 billion.