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Walmart's 'Radical' Plan to Deliver Customers' Online Purchases

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By Reuters

Walmart Shoppers shopping for other shoppers - ZUMAPress.com

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ZUMAPress.com

By Alistair Barr and Jessica Wohl

SAN FRANCISCO — Walmart is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).

Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world’s largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as “crowd-sourcing,” or the “sharing economy.”

A plethora of start-ups now help people make money by renting out a spare room, a car, or even a cocktail dress, and Walmart would in effect be inviting people to rent out space in their vehicle and their willingness to deliver packages to others.

Such an effort would, however, face numerous legal, regulatory and privacy obstacles, and Walmart executives said it was at an early planning stage.

Walmart Stores Inc. (WMT) is making a big push to ship online orders directly from stores, hoping to cut transportation costs and gain an edge over Amazon and other online retailers, which have no physical store locations. Walmart does this at 25 stores currently, but plans to double that to 50 this year and could expand the program to hundreds of stores in the future.

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Walmart currently uses carriers such as FedEx Corp. (FDX) for delivery from stores — or, in the case of a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go that is being tested in five metro areas, its own delivery trucks.

“I see a path to where this is crowd-sourced,” Joel Anderson, chief executive of Walmart.com in the U.S., said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Walmart has millions of customers visiting its stores each week. Some of these shoppers could tell the retailer where they live and sign up to drop off packages for online customers who live on their route back home, Anderson explained.

Walmart would offer a discount on the customers’ shopping bill, effectively covering the cost of their gas in return for the delivery of packages, he added.

“This is at the brain-storming stage, but it’s possible in a year or two,” said Jeff McAllister, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. innovations.

Indeed, the likelihood of this being broadly adopted across the company’s network of more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. is low, according to Matt Nemer, a retail analyst at Wells Fargo Securities.

“I’m sure it will be a test in some stores,” he added. “But they may only keep it for metro markets and for higher-priced items.”

Legal Boundaries

Start-ups such as TaskRabbit and Fiverr already let individuals rent out their time and expertise to companies and people looking for small jobs to be completed.

Zipments was founded in 2010 as a crowd-sourced delivery network that allowed …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

FedEx Earnings Fall on Fewer Airfreight Shipments

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By The Associated Press

fedex earnings fall airfreight

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Wilfredo Lee/AP

By DAVID KOENIG

DALLAS — FedEx said Wednesday that its third-quarter profit fell 31 percent as customers shifted to slower and less-expensive international air-shipping options.

The company says it will cut capacity to and from Asia starting next month and might retire some of its older airplanes. FedEx shares fell more than 3 percent in trading before the opening bell.

FedEx Corp. (FDX) said its net income fell to $361 million, or $1.13 a share, in the three months ended Feb. 28. That’s down from $521 million, or $1.65 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding costs of voluntary buyouts for some U.S. employees, the company says it would have earned $1.23 a share. Revenue rose 4 percent to $11 billion. Analysts were looking for $1.38 a share and revenue of $10.9 billion, according to FactSet.

The company’s fiscal year ends in May. It expects adjusted earnings of between 94 cents to $1.34 a share in its fourth quarter and $6 and $6.20 a share for the year. That is below analyst forecasts of $2.12 and $6.35 a share, respectively.

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Memphis-based FedEx is the world’s second-biggest package-delivery company. It’s seen as a gauge of the overall economy because so many consumers and a range of businesses use its shipping services.

Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith said the company’s fiscal third quarter, which ended Feb. 28, was “very challenging” due to weakness in the global air freight business and customers picking slower, less-expensive ways to ship packages.

Smith said the company will respond by cutting capacity to Asia and directing less profitable shipments into “lower-cost networks.” He said the company was studying whether the moves will let it retire older, less-efficient planes.

FedEx plans to cut annual costs $1.7 billion by 2016 with buyouts that will reduce its workforce by at least 10 percent by May 2014. The company said Wednesday that it will spend $450 million to $550 million in cash on the buyouts during the fiscal year ending in May, with “some additional costs” in the following 12 months.

FedEx lowered its capital-spending plan for the current year to $3.6 billion from $3.9 billion.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — March 19, 2013: Market Closes Mixed Without Solution in Cyprus (JNPR, RIO, CHK, EBAY, EA, FF, SBLK, FDS, WAG, ADBE, CTAS, FTEK, WSM, FDX, GIS, LEN, AFFY, S, HAL, SLB)

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By 24/7 Wall St.

Bull and Bear figures

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U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning but worries about a resolution to the banking crisis in Cyprus soon took over and pushed shares down. In other parts of Europe, Spain’s bad loan ratio rose to 10.78% in January and eurozone economic sentiment came in far below expectations. German 10-year bond yields fell on a rising dollar. In Asia, China’s central bank will drain 39 billion yuan in liquidity with a short-term repurchase agreement after foreign direct investment fell less than expected in the month. In the U.S., the report on housing starts was somewhat better than last month, with an annualized 917,000 new homes being built (more coverage here). The Cypriot parliament rejected a revised tax proposal on bank deposits (more coverage here), so it’s anyone’s guess what tomorrow may bring.

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.35% today, now at 82.983. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.3% at 650.30, with commodities prices mixed today. WTI crude oil closed down 1.7% today, at $92.16 a barrel. Brent crude trades down 1.8% at $107.50 a barrel. Natural gas is up 2.1% today at about $3.96 per million BTUs. Gold settled up 0.4% today at $1,611.30 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 4 points to 14,455.90 (0.03%), the NASDAQ fell more than 8 points (-0.26%) to 3,229.10, and the S&P 500 fell -0.24% or nearly 4 points to 1,548.35.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) cut to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO) cut to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) cut to ‘underperform’ at Sterne Agee (more coverage here); eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) raised to ‘buy’ with a price target of $56 at Cantor Fitzgerald; and Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) cut to ‘hold’ at Needham.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in several price moves today, including these: FutureFuel Corp. (NYSE: FF) is down 9.2% at $12.40; Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ: SBLK) is up 5.7% at $6.50; FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE: FDS) is down 5.6% at $92.52; and Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) is up 5.2% at $44.65 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear from Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), Cintas Corp. (NASDAQ: CTAS), Fuel Tech Inc. (NASDAQ: FTEK), Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM), FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS), and Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Affymax Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFY) is down 62.6% at $1.09 after posting a new 52-week low of $1.02 earlier today. The drugmaker fired 75% of its workforce today and will begin exploring “strategic alternatives” including bankruptcy. More coverage here.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is up 2.9% at $6.05 after posting a new 52-week high of $6.09 earlier today. The telecom company had no big news today, but led a sector that was up on a down day.

Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) is down 3.4% at $39.36. The oil field …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance