Monthly Archives: July 2018

Le lien avec le producteur modifie le comportement du consommateur, même si cet aspect est plus difficile à évaluer quantitativement. Ainsi, le contact direct avec le producteur favorise la connaissance des modes et cycles de production, conduisant à une évolution des pratiques alimentaires : plus de produits frais, de saison, moins de produits transformés...Redonner du sens, tant à l’activité de production qu’à celle de consommation, permet également de redonner de la valeur à l’alimentation, avec un réel potentiel pour encourager une évolution durable et globale du système alimentaire, incluant une meilleure répartition de la valeur économique, un consentement à payer pour des produits de meilleure qualité et issus de modes de production agro-écologiques, une relocalisation de l’alimentation en somme. La diversité des circuits courts de proximité ne permet donc pas d’affirmer qu’ils présentent systématiquement un meilleur bilan environnemental que les circuits longs, ils présentent cependant de réelles opportunités pour améliorer la durabilité des systèmes alimentaires. Complémentaires des circuits longs, insérés dans des projets alimentaires territoriaux, ils permettent, dès lors qu’un certain nombre de conditions sont remplies, de répondre localement à une partie des besoins ali- mentaires, de façon responsable et respectueuse de l’environnement

July 30, 2018With the June acquisition of PillPack and quieter forays into beauty, Amazon has demonstrated its intent to move into the online pharmacy business as well as the space dominated by Sephora and Ulta Beauty. We estimate Amazon's US sales of health, personal care and beauty products will total $16.00 billion this year, a 37.9% increase over 2017, making it the third fastest growing category after food and beverage and apparel and accessories. While that's only 6.2% of Amazon's total retail ecommerce sales, it represents 44.3% of total retail ecommerce sales of health, personal care and beauty products in the US. One Click Retail estimated that Q2 2018 sales of health and personal care items on Amazon totaled $1.9 billion, increasing 23% year over year. Sales for beauty products reached $950 million, up 26%. Nutrition and wellness and mass skincare were the top-selling product subcategories within health and personal care and beauty. The biggest gains were in luxury beauty, though. The category that was slow to take to Amazon grew 57%, accounting for $250 million in sales. "The eMarketer Ecommerce Insights Survey," conducted in July 2018 by Bizrate Insights, found that medicine, vitamins, minerals or supplements was the second most digitally purchased product category by US internet users in the past 30 days. It also had the distinction of being the only category where internet users ages 60 and older had higher levels of purchasing than all other age groups (31.7%). Personal care and hygiene (27.4%) and cosmetics and fragrances (24.8%) were the next most popular digital categories, with a considerable proportion of respondents ages 18 to 29 buying them online (48.8% and 42.5%, respectively).

C'est du jamais vu depuis 1973. Au deuxième trimestre 2018, le taux de production des énergies vertes (hydroélectricité, éolien, solaire, biomasse) a atteint 31 % de l'électricité consommée en France, annonce ce mardi le Syndicat des énergies renouvelables (SER) et les gestionnaires des réseaux électriques RTE, Enedis et l'Adeef,  dans un communiqué de presse conjoint. Contre 23 % au trimestre précédent. 

P&G has had challenges in its U.S. business, as upstarts eat into its market share and retailers squeeze it on price.Activist investor Nelson Peltz got a seat on the P&G board in March.Peltz told members of the media in June the reorganization he has been pushing for is under "very serious consideration,"Procter & Gamble reported quarterly earnings that topped analysts' expectations on Tuesday, though fell short on sales.The revenue miss is likely to do little to allay investors concerns regarding continued shrinking market share amid increased competition from private label brands and upstart companies. The maker of everyday household goods like Pantene hair products, Crest toothpaste and Charmin toilet paper reported net sales of $16.5 billion, less than the $16.54 billion anticipated by Wall Street analysts.It reported organic sales growth, which strips out the impact of currency and other adjustments, of 1 percent, less than the 2.3 percent anticipated by analysts.Here's how the company did compared with what Wall Street expected:Adjusted earnings: 94 cents per share vs. 90 cents per share forecast by Thomson ReutersRevenue: $16.50 billion vs. $16.54 billion forecast by Thomson Reuters

According to eMarketer forecasts, the gap between US first-party sales on Amazon and third-party sales is widening. In 2017, direct sales grew 20.9% to reach $70.40 billion. By 2019, that total will climb to $95.08 billion. By comparison, marketplace sales jumped 41.4% to $129.45 billion last year. And marketplace sales are expected to log growth topping 30% this year and next.Amazon is famously close-mouthed about the performance of many of its units, and marketplace sales is no exception. In his annual letter to shareholders in April 2018, founder Jeff Bezos said that more than 300,000 small businesses in the US started selling on Amazon in 2017. He added that customers worldwide ordered more than 40 million items from marketplace sellers on Prime Day 2017, a 60% increase over Prime Day 2016.Digital shoppers like marketplaces because they can buy from multiple brands with one transaction. There is also a perception that marketplaces have better prices because of the ability to comparison shop. According to "The eMarketer Ecommerce Insights Survey," conducted in June 2018 by Bizrate Insights, 41.5% of US internet users had purchased via an online marketplace in the past 30 days. 

Gillian Hayes, a professor who works on human-computer interaction at University of California at Irvine, said the Plataine project and plugging Google’s AI services into Glass play to the strengths of the controversial hardware. Hayes previously had tested the consumer version of the app as a way to help autistic people navigate social situations. “Spaces like manufacturing floors, where there’s no social norm saying it’s not OK to use this, are the spaces where I think it will do really well,” she added.Improvements to voice interfaces and image recognition since Glass first appeared—and disappeared—could help give the device a second wind. “Image and voice recognition technology getting better will make wearable devices more functional,” Hayes said.

A CryptoKitty digital artwork incorporated into a sculpture that recently sold for $140,000 at a charity auction in New York.CreditCryptoKitties   How does one invest in art without going through the complications of buying and owning an actual artwork?That is the question behind financial products for investors attracted by soaring art prices but intimidated by the complexity and opacity of the market. It is why art funds were all the rage in the early 2000s, and why new variations continue to emerge.At the same time, entrepreneurs are trying to iron out the archaic inefficiencies of the art world with new types of financial products, particularly the secure ledgers of blockchain. While the technology is best known as the basis of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, its promise of transparency could transform sectors like banking and insurance and, some say, art.“More transparency equals more trust, more trust equals more transactions, more transactions equals stronger markets,” Anne Bracegirdle, a specialist in the photographs department at Christie’s, said on Tuesday at the auction house’s first Art & Tech Summit, dedicated to exploring blockchain.According to Ms. Bracegirdle, blockchain’s decentralized record-keeping could create a “more welcoming art ecosystem” in which collectors and professionals routinely verify the authenticity, provenance and ownership of artworks on an industrywide registry securely situated in the cloud.Hers was one of the more utopian visions put forward by the roughly 30 panelists at Christie’s daylong conference, however. There was plenty of skepticism on offer.Sébastien Genco, a blockchain specialist at the auditing and financial services company Deloitte, said the percentage of global investment in this technology that related to art represented “almost nothing.”Mr. Genco, in his talk at the Christie’s event, titled “Why the Art World Wasn’t Ready for Blockchain,” cited the art world’s slow embrace of technology, limited collaboration, lack of trust in a process that is not fully understood, and costs as some of the reasons blockchain had yet to have a significant impact on the art trade. But that could change, he said. “We just need to educate people.”As the Christie’s event progressed, a clearer picture emerged of what blockchain could and could not (yet) do for the art world. The technology’s potential for verifying provenance, authenticity and ownership was widely cited by speakers and attendees.“I see the benefit for my clients in terms of reliability of information,” said Harco van den Oever, chief executive of Overstone, a London-based company providing specialist services to banks that issue art-secured loans. “Blockchain is a secure database. I can’t rely on a piece of paper.”And blockchain has already proved to be a game-changer in one important area of growth, according to those at the Christie’s event: art in digital forms.“Digital art is a computer file that can be reproduced and redistributed infinitely. Where’s the resale value?” John Zettler, president of Rare Art Labs, a company building a platform for cryptocurrency art sales, said at the event. Blockchain’s proof-of-ownership technology, combined with blockchain-based cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, have resulted in the “invention of scarcity” and a stronger market for digital art, he said.Peter Brant, a seasoned collector who is part of the management team for a new art investment fund, with his wife, Stephanie SeymourCreditMax Lakner/BFA, via ShutterstockSales that attest to the viability of this market include the equivalent of $14,000 for one of the 10,000 characters created by the New York-based CryptoPunks, with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. There are also CryptoKitties, tradable virtual felines that have attracted more than 250,000 registered users and more than $25 million in transactions.For other art and technology experts, “tokenization” — using the value of an artwork to underpin tradable digital tokens — is the way forward. “Blockchain represents a huge opportunity for the size of the market,” said Niccolò Filippo Veneri Savoia, founder of Look Lateral, a start-up looking to generate cryptocurrency trading in fractions of artworks.“I see more transactions,” added Mr. Savoia, who pointed out that tokens representing a percentage of an artwork could be sold several times a year. “The crypto world will bring huge liquidity.”But the challenge for tokenization ventures such as Look Lateral is finding works of art of sufficient quality to hold their value after being exposed to fractional trading. The art market puts a premium on “blue chip” works that have not been overtraded, and these tend to be bought by wealthy individuals, not by fintech start-ups.With so much attention focused on such technological endeavors, the emergence of a new fund might seem like a blast from the art finance past. But that’s what we have in the recently and very discreetly introduced UTA Brant Fine Art Fund, devised by the seasoned New York collector Peter Brant and the United Talent Agency in Los Angeles.The fund aims to invest $250 million in “best-in-class” postwar and contemporary works, according to the prospectus, using the expertise of a management team that consists of Mr. Brant; Jim Berkus, a co-founder of the talent agency, who is also a collector; and Joshua Roth, who leads the agency’s fine arts division. It has a target hold period of five to seven years, the prospectus says, and the minimum investment is $1 million.ImageThe United Talent Agency, which has started an art fund, also recently opened an art space in Los Angeles.CreditUnited Talent AgencyNoah Horowitz, in his 2011 primer, “Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market,” listed 36 funds that had been introduced since 2000, of which at least 20 had folded by the end of 2009. High-profile failures, such as Fernwood Art Investments in the United States and the Osian Art Fund in India, rattled confidence in the model of fixed-term art investing, and few newcomers have been entering the sector.

Le nombre de trajets des nouveaux clients a augmenté de 15 % depuis qu'ils ont le choix entre le vélo électrique et la voiture dans leur application Uber. Le nombre de courses avec chauffeur a, en revanche, reculé de 10 %, et même de 15 % pendant les heures de pointe.« Ce partenariat (avec Jump, NDLR) a un impact positif sur les villes, notamment en matière de bouchons et d'émissions de carbone », se réjouit Andrew Salzberg, en charge du programme de recherche sur les transports chez le géant des VTC.Satisfait de son programme pilote à San Francisco, Uber a fait l'acquisition de la start-up de vélos électriques en avril pour un montant estimé à 200 millions de dollars, selon une  source citée par Techcrunch .Il reste cependant à voir si l'exemple de la ville de la Silicon Valley se vérifiera sur la longue durée et, surtout, si ces résultats se reproduiront dans les autres villes où Jump est disponible (Austin, Chicago, Washington, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Providence et bientôt New York).Uber mise aussi sur les trottinettesSoucieux de conserver une longueur d'avance dans la bataille de la mobilité urbaine, Uber a également  investi dans la start-up Lime , présente dans 70 villes,  dont Paris depuis la fin juin .En un an d'existence, cette jeune pousse valorisée 1,1 milliard de dollars assure avoir déjà enregistré 6 millions de trajets avec ses vélos et trottinettes électriques en free floating (libre service sans bornes). Dans son  premier rapport annuel , Lime estime qu'utiliser ses véhicules en complément des transports en commun coûte 80 % moins cher en moyenne que de posséder sa propre voiture

Whistler is a hungry place. It wants anyone and everyone who will have it. The folk behind the scenes, the ones crafting the Whistler experience for guests, take advantage of every opportunity to reach untapped audiences.For those not so into adventure sports, the Peak 2 Peak gondolas take you from the peak of Whistler Mountain to the peak of Blackcomb; both boast restaurants with stunning views. One even has a Nintendo gaming lounge in the basement (perhaps for people who hate beautiful views). For the more artistically inclined, the new chief curator at the Audain Art Museum is launching a “guerrilla marketing campaign” to draw visitors to the museum’s upcoming pop art exhibit.When developers realized that the snowplowing at the peak created massive, 40-foot-tall snow walls, they made it an attraction for hikers. This summer, under the direction of Rob McSkimming, the vice president of business development for Vail Resorts, a 425-foot suspension bridge at Whistler’s peak will offer yet another way to take in the views.Whistler is the travel equivalent of an overeager student-council nominee passing out brownies and buttons to anyone who might vote for her. But this come-one-come-all, please-like-me vibe is also what makes it a place where you can find adaptive sports programming, a ski-themed LGBTQ pride festival and the birthplace of Pride House, and a one-of-a-kind collaborative cultural center of the Lil’wat and Squamish nations. As Nelson calls it, Whistler might be considered “an adult version of Disneyland” — where everyone is invited.