75 years of Vespa Piaggios fully electric future

Status: 23.06.2021 8:15 a.m.

The Vespa, Piaggio’s most popular product, has been around for 75 years. Thanks to Corona, business is booming. Nevertheless, the Italian two-wheeler manufacturer wants to reposition itself strategically.

By Jörg Seisselberg, ARD-Studio Rome, currently in Milan

There is a good mood in Via Broletto. At the Milanese headquarters of Piaggio, not far from the famous cathedral, Maurizio Carletti is sitting in his office on the third floor and is bubbling over with optimism. “I hope this year will be the best,” says the Piaggio Vice President, “we are about to achieve results in 2021 that are really extremely remarkable.”

The figures for the first three months of the year: Piaggio sold over a fifth – 22 percent – more vehicles than in the same period of 2019 before the Covid crisis. Net sales are the highest in 14 years. These are golden times for the company.

Two-wheelers sought-after alternatives in times of crisis

One reason is that scooters and motorcycles are in demand in the corona pandemic – as an alternative to bus and train travel. Among other things, those responsible at Europe’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer had counted on it. At the plant in Pontedera, Tuscany, they kept working almost at full speed during the pandemic, apart from the weeks of complete lockdown in spring 2020. Now the Piaggio dealers have the vehicles that are in demand. In addition, analyst Monica Bosio says that Piaggio is benefiting from its platform strategy, which was introduced years ago, of lowering costs. The result: Piaggio is currently in the “best economic situation” since going public in 2006. “I would say,” says Bosio, “that the company is in excellent health”.

There is still room for improvement in e-mobility

From the height of its current success, the traditional Italian company is working on perhaps the most important future task: not to miss the connection to e-mobility. In the market for electric scooters and motorcycles, Piaggio has to make up ground, with market shares only in the lower single-digit percentage range. “Maybe there was a bit of a delay. But Piaggio is in the process of catching up,” said analyst Bosio.

One reason for the “delay” is that Piaggio has always positioned its vehicles in the upper part of the market in terms of price. So far, this also applies to the new world of e-scooters. Piaggio launched an electric-powered version of the iconic Vespa – and only sold a few copies. The E-Vespa is almost twice as expensive as some competing products. Next month, Piaggio will make the next attempt and want to start selling its new electric model in Europe. It’s called Piaggio One, was presented at the Beijing Auto Show and targets the entry-level electric market, which is dominated by models with a purchase price of up to 3000 euros. “One allows us to go into a price segment that we cannot reach with the Vespa at the moment,” says Vice President Carletti, confidently adding: “Now we will be represented in this segment, but with Piaggio quality.” The brand’s reputation, European production quality, the close international network of dealerships and workshops as well as a now competitive price should give Piaggio a new boost in e-mobility.

Conquer the sharing market with a cheaper model?

So far, the gasoline giant Piaggio is still lagging behind in the electric world. Also because sharing services and rental companies struggle with Piaggio’s expensive e-Vespa. This could change now, believes analyst Bosio: “With the Piaggio One you are trying to close the gap”. Sharing services have so far made up a large part of the e-scooter market in Europe. Piaggio is not competitive here in terms of price. “With Piaggio One, however, it cannot be ruled out,” says the analyst, “that there will be a presence again in this market.”

When asked, Piaggio Vice President Carletti, who is responsible for Europe among other things, does not rule out that Piaggio will also be active in the sharing sector with its new model. Getting active again – because six years ago the Italians tried their hand at the scooter sharing business. A model project with Piaggio MP3 scooters in Rome and Milan was quickly discontinued for cost reasons, shortly before the global sharing trend took off.

Standard replacement battery as the key to success

At Piaggio, the question of batteries is crucial for the future of e-scooters. Those in charge of the Italian company dream of e-scooter filling stations where drivers don’t have to spend a lot of time charging their batteries, but can quickly exchange an almost empty battery for a full one. The Piaggio managers do not consider it realistic for customers to charge their scooters for half an hour at a charging station. Vice-boss Carletti admits that he himself becomes restless if he has to wait a few minutes for his predecessor to finish at the gas station.

Therefore, the principle in the future of e-electric should be: pull the batteries out of your scooter, put them in a compartment at an e-charging point and pull out another, charged battery. Uniform battery connections in the industry would be a prerequisite. That is why Piaggio has teamed up with competitors KTM, Honda and Yamaha in a consortium for the vision of the battery swap. The goal: to develop standardized batteries for all future e-scooters and e-motorcycles

Car market Used car prices are rising rapidly

Status: 22.06.2021 2:17 p.m.

Because of the often long delivery times for new cars, the market for used cars is booming – also on the Internet. But consumers should pay attention to a few things, especially when buying online.

From Till Bücker, tagesschau.de

Buy or sell a used car from the comfort of your own home with one click: The online market for used cars is becoming increasingly popular. So it is not surprising that the Berlin trading platform Auto1 has risen to the MDAX. The company, which was founded in 2012, was only launched in early February dared to go public – with success. Because with 1.8 billion euros it was the largest IPO in Germany after almost one and a half years. The Auto1 Group claims to be Europe’s largest digital automotive platform with more than 450,000 cars sold last year. The company buys vehicles from private customers via wirkaufendeinauto.de as well as from dealers. These are then primarily passed on to other car dealers via auto1.com. But consumers have also been able to purchase new used vehicles through the Autohero brand since 2017. The private business is to be massively expanded with the fresh money from investors.

Semiconductor shortages delay deliveries

That could be worth it. Because according to calculations by the Metzler bank, the European market for used cars reaches around 600 billion euros. 2020 was due to long delivery times and falling demand for new cars during the Corona crisis a real boom . In July alone, according to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, there were almost 750,000 car ownership transfers – more than ever before in a month and almost 100,000 more than in July 2019. This year, too, the transfers are well above the previous year’s figures.

The high demand is also reflected in the price development: During the prices for used e-cars have recently plummeted , the asking prices for used cars reached a new record high in May with an average of around 22,600 euros per vehicle. The buyers paid almost 200 euros more than in April and even around 2200 euros more than in May 2020, according to data from the online portal AutoScout24. Experts expect an increase as the semiconductor shortage is delaying the delivery of new cars worldwide and the supply of used cars is falling.

Platform growth opportunities

So far, however, only one percent of used cars have been sold online. “The used car market in Europe is still one of the last markets that go almost exclusively through brick-and-mortar retail,” said Tom Diedrich from the Metzler bank Deutschlandfunk . Therefore, there are still great growth opportunities for online platforms.

A first trend seems to be emerging. “We are seeing a real boom,” said Stefan Schneck, sales manager for the German market at AutoScout24. For example, the number of contacts made by potentially interested parties shot up by 40 percent at times in May. According to a current AutoScout24 survey of more than 1000 users, car fans see a good alternative to buying completely online: almost one in two (47 percent) would “definitely” or “maybe” order their car from the sofa. A year ago, only 35 percent of those surveyed were ready to do this.

Extreme bargains should make you suspicious

Buying a used car on the Internet has the advantage that interested parties can quickly and easily fall back on a huge range. A contract can be concluded at the push of a button, and the car is delivered to your doorstep. But regardless of whether it is on digital platforms such as Auto1 or via an exchange such as AutoScout24 or mobile.de, on which dealers or private individuals sell their vehicles directly: Consumers should pay attention to a few things when buying a used car.

First the price. For used cars, this depends on the model, year of construction, equipment, kilometers driven, wear and tear, extras and preferences. But how can a fair offer be recognized? “If you watch the market for your desired vehicle for a week or two, you get a very good feeling for a reasonable price,” explains Silvia Schattenkirchner, Head of Consumer Law at ADAC. Some exchanges such as mobile.de are now also giving ratings for offers from private individuals. Consumers should generally be cautious about extreme bargains. In addition, there is possible manipulation of the mileage. According to ADAC estimates, the so-called odometer has changed in every third used car. Verification is not easy. “It is best to have the mileage guaranteed,” advises Schattenkirchner. Otherwise, consumers could have repair invoices or TÜV certificates shown. Even comparing the kilometers driven with the year of construction is already informative in some cases.

Test drives essential

The expert considers test drives to be particularly important. “Buying a pig in a poke without a test drive, especially when it comes to used cars, is a big risk.” Only then should a contract be concluded. Schattenkirchner also advises against high down payments or other advance payments as well as purchases from abroad. In addition, consumers should be aware that contracts concluded online are also binding – for example by email. There are numerous scams on the Internet. The most common problems are listed on the website of the initiative “Safe car purchase on the Internet” from ADAC and the police crime prevention.

It is also not always easy for sellers of used cars. Platforms often promise higher prices than are ultimately paid. In order to find out how much one’s own car is still worth, the lawyer Schattenkirchner has two tips ready: “On the one hand, sellers can search for their own car and comparable offers. The other option are ADAC test centers.” Most of the time, only the initiation of business deals takes place on the Internet. “With mobile.de or AutoScout24 it is usually still the case that both parties are mediated,” said Schattenkirchner. The contract will still be concluded outside of the Internet. It remains to be seen whether the newcomer Auto1 will bring about long-term change

EY study Corona is changing the pharmaceutical industry

Status: June 21, 2021 3:53 p.m.

The corona pandemic did not give the pharmaceutical industry a boost in 2020, it actually slowed it down. According to an EY study, only cancer medicine and ophthalmology are booming.

by Notker Blechner, tagesschau.de

Is “Big Pharma” but not a beneficiary of the corona pandemic? The management consultants from EY (formerly Ernst & Young) are convinced: “The corona crisis was not a growth driver in the past year, on the contrary, it led to higher spending on research and development”, says Klaus Ort, head of EY’s Life Sciences & Healthcare market segment in German-speaking countries. “The pharmaceutical industry wasn’t a big winner from the pandemic.” In fact, sales of the world’s 21 largest pharmaceutical companies rose by just 4.4 percent in 2020. In the year before the pandemic, the increase was almost 13 percent. However, this was also due to a billion-dollar takeover in the industry.

Corona slowed growth

According to Ort, Corona led to delays in various treatments. Among other things, the fact that fewer operations were carried out in hospitals had a negative effect. This slowed down sales of the corresponding drugs and therapies. In the case of funds for heart and circulatory diseases, for example, revenues stagnated after having increased significantly in 2019. Sales of therapeutics for respiratory diseases even fell. Place refers to the wearing of face and nose masks as the reason, which also prevented infectious diseases such as flu.

Corona surge will not come until 2021

With sales of 26.4 billion euros, vaccines only made up a good five percent of total sales last year “Big Pharma” out. That should change in 2021. The US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has already announced that the corona vaccine Comirnaty will flush a good 15 billion dollars into the coffers. That’s a good quarter of Pfizer’s total sales. “At Pfizer, Corona will only have an impact on sales in 2021″says EY expert Ort.

Pfizer partner BioNTech also expects an enormous growth spurt in new, unimagined dimensions this year. The Mainz corona vaccine pioneer expects sales of 9.8 billion euros for 2021 and should thus become the third largest German pharmaceutical manufacturer – behind Bayer and Boehringer.

766 Covid vaccines and therapeutics pending

EY was unable to quantify how high the market volume for combating corona is. However, the management consultants see huge potential. They refer to 260 vaccine candidates who are currently in studies. So far, only four vaccines have been approved. “The four big players dominate the market and will continue to do so”, predicts Alexander Nuyken, co-author of the study and head of life sciences transaction consulting at EY. Because of the increasing number of mutations, the hurdle for approval will become higher and higher in future.

EY has found out that 506 therapeutics are in the pipeline for drugs against Covid-19. However, no means of this have yet managed to obtain approval. “Despite all the vaccination euphoria, one should not lose sight of this fact”, warns EY expert Nuyken. People are still dying of Covid-19 due to a lack of medication. After all, the number of drug candidates has doubled since the end of 2020. And: 162 therapeutics are in the clinical phase III study. The most promising means is considered the cortisone drug dexamethasone . According to a large-scale study by Oxford University, it lowers the death rate of seriously ill Covid patients by at least 25 percent. In the initial phase of the corona disease, Remdesivir, which was the first Covid drug approved in Europe, also works – albeit only under certain conditions.

Price drop for corona tests

The EY experts see the market for corona tests as completely oversaturated. There are currently 1,021 diagnostic tests on the market, more than half of which are so-called immunassays (including rapid antigen tests). “We see a drop in prices here”says EY expert Nuyken. Individual drugstore and supermarket chains are now offering self-tests for 80 cents.

Thanks to Corona, the vaccine business has experienced a renaissance, emphasize the EY experts. The biotech sector in particular benefits. Due to new trends such as digitization as well as gene and cell therapies, it is on the threshold of further growth. According to EY, the German biotechs received more capital in 2020 than ever before.

Cancer medicine is the major growth driver

The main market for “Big Pharma” but oncology remains. In the fight against cancer, the industry has a turnover of over 200 billion euros, which is more than a third of the entire pharmaceutical business. In 2020, the world’s 21 largest pharmaceutical companies increased their sales in oncology by 14.6 percent. Experts are also predicting growth rates of ten percent for the coming years. Only ophthalmology promises similarly strong growth. Because of the trend towards home office in the pandemic, myopia increased in many people, especially children.

Biotech companies could provide a new boost in the cancer market. Amgen recently made a breakthrough in cancer therapy with Lumakras. For the first time, an active ingredient was approved that is directed against mutations in the KRAS gene. The KRAS mutations are one of the most common causes of pancreatic, colon and lung cancers. The mRNA technology that BioNTech and Moderna are successfully using in the fight against Corona also promises huge potential for cancer research.

Hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s

Biotech could also bring progress in the fight against Alzheimer’s. In early June, Biogen received “green light” for the active ingredient aducanumab . It is the first Alzheimer’s drug to receive FDA approval since 2003.

According to the study by EY, the Swiss Roche Group has maintained its top position in the ranking of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with 43.4 billion euros. AbbVie climbed to second place – just ahead of Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co. Pfizer slipped to sixth place in the rankings. Due to the corona surge, the US pharmaceutical giant should regain the top spot in 2021

Online competition is growing Fashion retail in upheaval

Status: 16.06.2021 7:16 p.m.

The sale of fashion on the Internet is booming: The Otto subsidiary About You, which launched successfully on the stock exchange today, is growing rapidly. Stationary fashion retailers, on the other hand, are increasingly disappearing. Do you still have a future? The former glamor of the fashion industry has long since vanished in German city centers. There is bare existential fear. Many fashion retailers feel they have been stripped down to the last shirt. In the corona pandemic, textile retailers and manufacturers had to give up in a row. Well-known names such as Escada, Hallhuber, Bonita, Appelrath Cüpper and Adler-Modemärkte filed for bankruptcy. More fashion retailers will soon follow, predict the credit insurer Euler Hermes and the textile trade association (BTE). Euler Hermes does not expect a return to pre-crisis levels until 2023.

“Home office and suit don’t go together”

During the lockdown, new clothes were hardly in demand. Who needs an expensive new outfit for work at home? “Home office and suit don’t go together,” says Gerd Oliver Seidensticker, President of German Fashion.

The turnover in the fashion industry shrank in the Corona year by more than 20 percent to around twelve billion euros. “The pandemic has plunged the fashion industry into a deep crisis,” complains German fashion boss Seidensticker. “Many of our companies are dependent on help from the state.”

Structural crisis even before Corona

But even before the pandemic, the stationary fashion houses were under pressure. Corona has accelerated the structural crisis in the industry. Sales in stationary retail have been declining for years. The death of fashion retailers began a long time ago. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of companies in the clothing industry fell by 31 percent, according to a study by the management consultancy PwC. Retail expert Gerrit Heinemann, retail expert at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, speaks up tagesschau.de of a “collective restructuring case”.

The increasing low-cost competition from textile discounters such as Primark and the triumphant advance of online retail have long been troubling the classic fashion industry. Online retailers such as Zalando and About You are flourishing. Only H&M and Zara have successfully resisted the online competition and also held their own in the Corona crisis.

More and more mono labels

There is also a trend towards mono labels. More and more fashion manufacturers such as Hugo Boss or the sporting goods supplier Adidas are setting up their own flagship stores and selling their products there – to the chagrin of classic fashion retailers who traditionally follow the multi-label approach.

The end of the multi-month lockdown and the return of walk-in customers in the cities should give the stationary fashion retail some breathing space again in the short term. In the long run, however, the industry has to reinvent itself, demand experts. Only those who meet the needs of customers with innovative concepts will survive, says PwC retail expert Stefan Schwertel.

Regional or sustainable concepts as a way out?

Heinemann sees the Mannheim fashion retailer Engelhorn as a positive example. The company has focused on a regional market and now sells a good half of its clothing over the Internet.

Other fashion retailers focus on niches such as sustainability. Some also flee into the arms of their biggest competitor, Zalando. A good 2,400 stationary fashion retailers now also sell their clothing via the Zalando “Connected Retail” platform.

Model H&M and Zara

Above all, however, Zalando is using that and is not enough to save the stationary business permanently, complain experts like Gerrit Heinemann from the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. “This is a one-way street.” In his opinion, stationary fashion retailers should primarily operate on demand in the future – following the example of H&M and Zara. In fact, C&A is currently starting to produce jeans “on demand” at the Mönchengladbach location in Germany.

The traditional fashion house Köhler from Hessen is breaking new ground. It offers fashion advice and sales via video. The customer fills out a questionnaire on the Internet before receiving a video consultation. During the video call, the customer then decides what he wants to have delivered to his home. The concept is particularly worthwhile with regular customers, says Paula Vordemfelde, managing director of Köhler. Her motto: “We have to be creative and be able to react quickly.”

Real estate market in Europe Construction is not booming everywhere

Status: 16.06.2021 2:01 p.m.

Construction is one of the boom industries in Germany even during the crisis. But what about in other European countries? Our correspondents report that the situation there is only partially comparable.

Poland: increasing demand, increasing prices

By Jan Pallokat, ARD studio Warsaw Anyone in Poland who thought that the corona pandemic would slow down the construction industry, which has been booming in the country for years, was caught on the wrong foot at the beginning of the year. Housing construction in particular is buzzing even more; In the first quarter, developers in major cities sold 40 percent more than in the previous year and three percent more than in the previous record year of 2017. And because the supply of modern living space still lags behind demand in the country, the sales prices achieved are also rising steadily: on average by almost eight percent for new buildings and six and a half percent for used residential property. The rising prices for building materials and an increasing shortage of staff also play a role here. Because construction workers are scarce, market experts are now warning that construction sites could be paralyzed in rows during the high season in summer. The downside of the building boom: home ownership is often unaffordable for young families. Already today, 43 percent of under 35-year-olds in Poland lived with their parents, the Eurostat statistics office recently reported. This puts Poland in the top group in the EU when it comes to “Hotel Mama” and is on a similar level to Italy.

Spain: no construction boom in sight

By Reinhard Spiegelhauer, ARD studio Madrid Construction boom and Spain – wasn’t there something? Yes, Spain has actually experienced an absolutely ludicrous construction boom – but that was 20 years ago. In the nineties and noughties, the number of planned apartments practically doubled from year to year – up to the highest level in 2006 with almost 900,000 apartments. Then came the big bang: the real estate bubble burst, banks had to be bailed out, Spain rushed past bankruptcy, hundreds of thousands could no longer service their real estate loans, apartments were evicted. The market then recovered very slowly. But still, roads, lamps and park benches built in boom times are rotting in many development areas. In 2019, the year before the corona pandemic, the foundation stones were laid for a good 100,000 apartments. Since then, however, the sector has largely been paralyzed again. Unemployment fell again after peaking at around 25 percent after the euro crisis, but it again reached 15 percent during the pandemic. For young adults it is more than 30 percent. According to experience from the times of the real estate bubble, far stricter criteria now apply to the granting of loans. All of this is currently preventing any kind of construction boom in Spain.

Switzerland: mainly redevelopment and densification

By Dietrich Karl Mäurer, ARD studio Zurich Instead of a “construction boom”, the umbrella association of the Swiss construction industry, Building Switzerland, speaks of “continuously good work”. A large part of the orders are so-called consolidations and energy-efficient building renovations. But not least because of the low interest rates, large investors like to invest in construction projects such as new building complexes with rental apartments. The demand is good, although there are vacancies in some rural regions. Housing is still in short supply in cities. This is also because net immigration has recently risen again; During the pandemic, many foreigners who actually wanted to leave the country after a certain period of time in Switzerland preferred to stay – mainly because of the comparatively difficult labor market conditions in their home countries. The construction industry accounts for ten percent of Switzerland’s economic output and employs around half a million skilled workers. According to a recent economic survey, the situation in the construction industry is stable. However, the limited availability of building materials and preliminary products could become a problem. Incidentally, real estate prices in Switzerland have risen faster than they have been in eight years.

An employee scans and checks products in a Tiki warehouse in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: Bloomberg) Crossing the crowded streets of Ho Chi Minh City in a Honda, Ho Duc Quang carries toys, books and other packages to deliver to Tiki.vn customers. Quang, 25, needs to be quick, as Tiki promises to deliver in 2 hours. He uses AirPods to notify customers of his arrival, but there is one thing that slows down this shipper: Quang has to wait for customers to open the package, confirm the correct goods before departing for the next trip. It is a mandatory operation for those who do not trust online sellers. Quang’s speedy deliveries between the city of 9 million people are just part of a campaign to win over customers, many of whom shop online for the first time due to the pandemic. Winning isn’t easy where only about a third of adults have a bank account and less than 5% have a credit card. Most shopping at convenience stores, traditional markets. Although Euromonitor International estimates that e-commerce will only account for 3% of Vietnam’s retail market in 2020, the lowest in Southeast Asia, the potential of the market is extremely attractive. According to a report by Google, Temasek, Bain & Co, Vietnam’s digital economy is predicted to reach US$52 billion by 2025, an increase of 29% compared to 2020. Competition for customers Startups backed by Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs, JD.com or Shopee, Amazon are all targeting the Vietnamese middle class. From 2016 to the first half of 2020, investors poured $1.9 billion into the domestic online sector. Mr. Ralf Matthaes, Managing Director of Infocus Mekong Research, assessed that Vietnam is in the early stages of becoming a digital society with a young and technology-loving population. Therefore, these companies have to compete with each other to provide services. The government has set a target of online shopping to account for 10% of Vietnam’s retail sales by 2025. The regulator wants to reduce cash payments to create a more transparent, modern economy through increased non-payment of transactions. cash for public services and improve the regulatory framework for electronic payments. The consortium led by Alibaba and Baring Private Equity Asia will invest $400 million in exchange for a 5.5% stake in CrownX of Masan retail group. Under the agreement, Masan will cooperate with Lazada – Alibaba’s e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. Kenny Ho, Southeast Asia Investment Director of Alibaba, affirmed that the combination of Alibaba’s online retail expertise, Lazada’s Vietnam platform, and Masan’s offline network will be a powerful catalyst for the company’s success. modernization of Vietnam’s retail market. In January, M-Service, the startup behind the Momo e-wallet, raised more than $100 million from an investment group, including Warburg Pincus. For the first time in their shopping life, Vietnamese people are “encircled” by the form of customer-first retailing that is common in developed economies. Trust of customers Online retailers are trying to woo shoppers wary of scam stores that don’t offer return policies. According to economist Nguyen Tri Hieu, “Vietnamese people don’t trust what they can’t see. Usually, they need to know what they’re buying. They have to smell it and touch it.” So e-commerce sites raced to launch marketing campaigns, offering discounts on everything from AirPods to Samsung washing machines. E-wallet startup that offers coupons. Tiki applies a refund policy of up to 30 days. Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, 31, who works for an entertainment website, said that 70% off and customer-oriented items attract her. Buyers are empowered to evaluate products and services online. If normal, they often have to go to the store complaining about the low quality of the product and there may be quarrels but nothing is corrected. According to Mr. Matthase, the epidemic will boost digital retail as 30% more Vietnamese will shop for everything from food to electronics online in 2020. Retail shifting According to Jeffrey Perlman, managing director of Warburg Pincus in Singapore, Vietnam’s retail market changes faster than other markets. Tiki is currently the largest domestic e-commerce platform in the country. Software engineer Tran Ngoc Thai Son built Tiki in 2010 from $5,000. Mr. Son writes code, buys 100 English books from Amazon, and delivers it by himself by motorbike. Currently, Tiki has 3,100 employees and a state-of-the-art logistics operations system overseen by Henry Low, former head of Amazon and Coupang. Along with the company’s growth is the effort to attract customers. Mr. Son deployed a system to filter counterfeit goods and sided with customers. For example, if there is a defect in a newly purchased phone, the customer wants to return it, they will support 100%. If the seller is not okay with this decision, Tiki will shut down their account. From diapers to beer According to Crunchbase, investors like Sumitomo, JD.com have invested $192.5 million in Tiki. Mr. Son anticipates more rounds of funding and prepares for an IPO. According to Mr. Low, Tiki handles less than 2 million orders per month. Employees busy arranging everything from diapers and diapers to Corona beer in the 10,000-square-foot fulfillment center. Tiki applies artificial intelligence and robots capable of transporting 800kg products to speed things up. Thanks to the logistics system, Mr. Son aims to transport 500,000 products in 2 hours, up from 200,000 currently, helping Tiki achieve its profit target. Du Lam (According to Bloomberg)