Lululemon is getting all Abercrombie& Fitch.

If you don’t think it works with some women’s bodies, why do you have size from 2 to 12 in the first place? When consumers are paying $100 for a yoga pant, they are not expecting a pant with see-through feature and pilling after a few uses. And by the name “yoga” pants, it is expected that people will rub the thighs when doing yoga or other sports. What is worse, they blame it on cement floors. As a company with great social responsibilities and sustainability, Lululemon should own it instead of making ridiculous excuses.

When I went on to their website checking out the Scuba hoodie, one of the comments made me laugh, “I can’t zip the 12 up over my boobs and the length is way shorter”; first Wunder Under pants and now Scuba hoodie? Lululemon really need to rethink their design so it fits all types of customers, because as yoga clothing company, wearing their clothes doing sports supposed to make people feel comfortable not exposed.

Link to article: http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/lululemon-founder-says-yoga-pants-don-t-work-with-some-women-s-bodies-1.1532005#ixzz2jyuixeJh

Link to blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ofirovadia/

An unprecedented idea it is!

From my research, project Ara is originally from the idea, Phonebloks. In short, Phonebloks allows consumers to alter and customize all features such as camera, battery, Wi-Fi, etc. And when one feature needs to be updated or it’s broken, they can simple take the bad part out and replace it with a new one. Thus, instead of throwing away the whole phone that is only partially inoperative, switching the damaged part out can significantly reduce electronic wastes. This Google/ Motorola project sets up a good example for CSR& Sustainability.

As long as Motorola can figure out how to incorporate the technical parts, it not only meets the triple bottom line (profit, people, planet), this plan is also promising. It shows great social responsibility and sustainability by reducing electronic wastes and could lead a dramatic change in the industry.

Link to blog: http://motorola-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html

Link to article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24726071

Link to Youtube—-Phonebloks

Interest rate, as an indicator of the economy, it represents the cost of borrowing money that is the price of money. Bank of Canada uses interest rate as a tool in conducting monetary policy to foster economic growth and inflation.

Dropping a warning of a higher interest rate will create an incentive of borrowing immediately. As a result, people have the tendency to stop spending since they have a huge amount of debt to pay; and when consumption is low, it slows down the economic growth as well as inflation. Keeping a 1% interest rate for three years since the crisis in 2007 indicates that Canadian’s economy is still in recovery. It also proves the statement in the article that “[t]he Canadian economy has struggled, struggled with a growth rate that is below two per cent”.

Business Forecast: Bank of Canada interest rate announcement

Link:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/bank-of-canada-opens-door-to-interest-rate-cuts-downgrades-growth-1.1509477#ixzz2iZeXmDYI

As Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw is “streamlining [their] organization to strengthen [their] competitive position”. As I have lived in both Ontario and BC, it is easy to tell that Loblaw’s main focus is on the east coast, which is also where it was founded in 1919. With a variety of banners from its high-end store Loblaws to No Frills, a low end, from T&T, the Chinese supermarket to Shoppers Drug Mart which they’re buying, Loblaw has almost covered every need with different consumption levels. Comparing with its domestic (Sobeys) and international (Wal-Mart and Target) rivals, price is not the important factor for shoppers, instead, consumers rely on brand loyalty which is gained from past shopping experience (e.g., whether the food is organized and easy to find, cleanness of the store and staffs’ performances, etc.) From my opinion, the act of cutting administrative jobs does not have any effect on its market or the company’s general well-being, but simply decreases the cost of labour.

Link: http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/loblaw-axes-275-management-administrative-jobs-1.1499542

Online shopping is the new fashion. A large proportion of people would love to stay at home and click some bottoms waiting for commodities being shipped directly at their doors instead of going out and coming back with a 41 inch TV and boxes of shoes.

WalMart foresees the market of online grocery shopping. Transportation and logistics should be the focus in order to succeed in its new strategy. Consumers seek for fresh food as well as on-time delivery when shopping grocery online. To ensure that, WalMart will have to practice guarantee 2-day or 3-day shipping when it comes to grocery orders. Especially for Vancouver, I haven’t seen any virtual WalMart stores but only Save-On and Safeway. As a result of which, WalMart loses customers who don’t own cars and who lives away from their stores. Using statistics to prove logistics on top of a guaranteed delivery policy, WalMart will be able to draw potential consumers’ attentions and keep current customers. From another perspective, it also helps the business predict inventory since grocery shopping it’s a periodic activity.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/wal-marts-online-food-foray-opens-new-front-in-grocery-battle/article14854841/

As a customer who has been traveled with Air Canada, I don’t consider Air Canada as a low-cost company. Since the company has a Focus Strategy and it is not low cost like Ryanair does, they should find a way to differentiate themselves before expanding. Not by cutting the limit of checked bags to one, Air Canada should think of providing flight passes for international passengers. Especially for Canada, an immigrate country, many people who are not residents could travel back and forth internationally with Air Canada. 

Besides, Air Canada doesn’t have much of a supplier power. With tons of substitutes such as British Airway and Lufthansa who also have similar or cheaper pricings, Air Canada does not have a cost advantage. Thus, buyers like me would rather choose other cheaper airline companies or those who allow two checked bags.

Finally, they use Boeing 787, which was banned for a period of time because of some battery issues. Even though it is low cost and more fuel-efficient, passengers would never save money on their lives. Just focus on the current market and figure out how to lower the price in order to get the most profit out of us customers.

Link to the news article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/air-canada-to-expand-european-service-keeps-eye-on-costs/article14741761/

Despite the number of criticisms exist on the announcement of new iPhones, with an 80% increase in sales, Apple has once again proved that its era has not ended yet.

Why Apple is able to keep its buyers purchasing new iPhones? They tie consumers to the Apple-ecosystem. What does that mean? For example, when you are used to wearing American Eagle’s jeans you will probably keep buying American Eagle instead of Hollister since they run in different sizes with different measurements. Therefore, Apple users may find it hard to switch to Android or Windows and don’t want to spend time on learning new systems.

More importantly, Apple has China. With a population of 1.4 billion, China is the biggest market. Moreover, as I am a Chinese, I know exactly how consumers behave: we think highly of brand recognitions, most of us stick to one brand until our deaths unless the company declares bankruptcy and we buy every new technology that we can afford, put aside the quality or the value of it. So if Blackberry could think of something before Apple conquers the Chinese market, they would not be dying right now.

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-23/apple-sold-9-million-iphones-last-weekend-dot-heres-why

It is known that Blackberry is now living on the edge, losing the technology battle against Android and IOS. It reminds me of Nokia: just a few years ago, before the intrusion of iPhone and Galaxy, almost everyone on the street had a Nokia in China. However, only jokes are left about the unbreakable Nokia that people can still remember now.

The same misfortune is taking place on Blackberry now; and his friends are turning their back on him. In current financial condition, I cannot deny that it is a wise choice. Taking Blackberry off the shelf is not only saving space for new iPhones and Samsung who have greater market shares, but also keeps the retail distribution system efficient.

If you ask why it happens on Blackberry who used to be such a legend, take a look at Blockbuster who is now replaced by Netflix, Gameboy and Xbox, IBM and Acer… due to the change in consumer expectation, there must be eliminations in technology so as to move forward.

Adios, Blackberry.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/25/us-blackberry-tmobileus-idUSBRE98O16P20130925

By having Gmail users’ emails read, Google has made a critical wrong step that will light up its backyard.

Nowadays, as the technology develops every single day, as the world getting so digital that you can search someone and get to know their whole life in details on the internet before meeting them, more and more people think highly of their privacy. The most significant reason why Google, such a young company facing numerous completions, can be successful in such a short period of time is its treasure, that is the data Google collected from each user. Using personalized data, Google is able to find what users are interested in so as to place advertisements fittingly. It’s definitely a sufficient way of marketing because the user is actually looking for something specifically like this according to the data Google has collected. The downside of it is litigation. Google has crossed the boundary and is currently facing lawsuits, which can make an impact on its users that they may turn to another company such as Yahoo.

Google really need to take this as a warning in order to prevent making decisions like this in the future.

Link to article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/privacy-lawsuit-against-google-can-proceed-us-judge-rules/article14567435/

The action of charging fees on carry-on baggages will invoke consumers’ angers and complains; and to some degree, there will be a decline in demand. Many consumers consider such act as unethical. However, it is not a law but a convention that no extra service charges can be applied. As a potential customer, the extra charge will not have a serious impact on my decision of purchasing from Ryanair for the action is their way of making profits. Moreover, Ryanair is not the only airline company and if one is not satisfy with what he or she is paying for, tons of other European airline companies have better service. Thus, I do not believe Ryanair’s policy is unethical.

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/blogs/travellers-check/coming-soon-fees-for-carryon-luggage-20130819-2s65s.html