Executive Summary

April13, 2018

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” discusses order-collection options such as lockers and towers that Amazon, Walmart and others are installing to ease product pickup.
• Moody’s said in a report on Tuesday that retail sector defaults hit a record high during the first three months of 2018 as the rise of e-commerce and decline of malls continues to eat away at profits.
• UK total retail sales grew by 2.3% in March against a decline of 0.2% in March last year and were positively distorted by the timing of Easter, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.
• China now has the world’s highest-valued artificial intelligence startup, following SenseTime’s announcement that it has secured a $600 million series C investment round, which values the company at over $4.5 billion.