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The heads of online furniture and homewares retailer Temple & Webster are confident the business can maintain its high growth rates throughout 2021 after the company reported a six-fold increase in profit for the half-year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 556 per cent to $14.8 million for the six months to the end of December, the company said on Tuesday, as it continues to ride a COVID-induced surge in sales.

The number of active customers shopping at the e-tailer doubled over the half to 687,000 as did sales, up 118 per cent to $161.6 million, though this signified a slowdown from earlier in the half where revenue was up as much as 160 per cent.

However, chief financial officer Mark Tayler said he could see no obvious headwinds for the business through 2021, remaining optimistic that growth rates could stay high despite a cooling of COVID shopping appetites.

“There’s not a lot in front of us at the moment that’s telling us the year’s going to be really tricky,” he said. “Housing market data and some of the restrictions around travel should mean there’s a lot of demand locally.”

The business’ selection of homewares and furniture, especially office furniture, has been popular during the pandemic as many Australians spent most of their time at home and opted to shop largely online.

Shares in the retailer have boomed nearly 300 per cent since February last year thanks to its rapid growth. However, they fell 3.4 per cent on Tuesday as investors reacted to the slightly worse-than-expected figures.

Chief executive Mark Coulter said the business was now putting a focus on turning its revenue growth into more significant earnings that would allow Temple & Webster to invest more into areas of its business such as data, technology and further marketing.

The company is also looking out for future acquisition opportunities, though Mr Coulter said the company had no immediate plans to snap up any other companies.

Temple & Webster currently ships 75 per cent of its product from international suppliers, but it is looking to expand its higher-margin private-label range, investing $13 million in the segment over the half.

“At the moment private label is 25 per cent of sales and it could get to 30 per cent,” Mr Coulter said. “But the actual percentage will be determined at a subcategory level.”

Growth at the business has continued into the new year, with January revenue up over 100 per cent. Mr Coulter said the business would look to use some of its $85 million in cash to reinvest in the business to cement the company’s gains in market share.

RBC Markets analyst Tim Piper said the overall result was slightly below market expectations but noted the business’ investment into private label products seemed sensible. “We think Temple and Webster will continue to benefit from the significant acceleration in online penetration rates in the category,” he said.

Shares were down more than 4 per cent to $10.57 in late afternoon trading.

Black Friday has once again cemented itself as the e-commerce sales holiday of the year, with retailers on multiple sides of the industry seeing sales erupt.

According to data from e-commerce business Shopify, its merchant’s trade on Black Friday this year grew by 80 per cent compared to the year prior, with 65 per cent of sales made on mobile and Australia taking the fourth spot in global sales volumes.

Australia Post said trade more widely had improved 45 per cent, and that it had delivered more than 3 million parcels since Friday Morning, and expects a further 3.1 million parcels to be delivered on Monday. If it does, it will be the biggest day in Australia Post’s history.

“We’ve made the right investments in our network and stand ready today to set a new record – the busiest day in our 210-year history – as we head towards our biggest peak in history,” said Australia Post executive general manager of deliveries Rod Barnes.

Department store Myer also saw trade explode, with chief customer officer Geoff Ikin stating the holiday was “massive” and that it had broken its own online records each hour.

And Myer isn’t alone, according to National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lamb.

“We don’t have figures yet, but anecdotally there has certainly been quite a surge in terms of foot traffic and people taking advantage of sales,” Lamb told AFR.

Last week the NRA predicted Australians would cough up over $5 billion over the Cyber Week spending period, with online sales having been accelerated by the COvid-19 pandemic.

And, with many Australians having seen limited spending opportunities this year, Lamb is confident retail will get the strong showing the association expects.

“We’re not spending money on travel, which is typically what we do at this time of year. In Victoria, the fact that you’ve had limited time to go to bricks-and-mortar stores means it is about the experience, actually touching and feeling things, because you haven’t been able to do it for so long,“ Lamb told the AFR.

The startup offers website hosting and enables customers to build websites without having to code by using pre-built templates.

"We don't talk about the current valuation, it's still private," Mr Casalena said. "We've grown significantly since then."

Mr Casalena said Australia played an important part in Squarespace's growth with new commerce subscriptions which allow customers to sell goods up 75 per cent in Australia compared to the same time last year, monthly active sellers up 64 per cent and the total value of merchandise sold up 119 per cent.

"Alongside the United States market, really UK, Canada, and Australia are our next three biggest markets and 30 per cent of our customers come from outside the US and have for some time," he said. "[There are] a lot of great entrepreneurs in Australia, a lot of demand for what we're doing there."

He said despite the increasing dominance of social media networks websites were still important particularly for businesses which want to collect customer information and enable transactions.

"It's more important than ever, for people to maintain a place online that they own right," he said. "I think that people who just constrain themselves to one social presence, no matter what that network is are sort of at the whims of that provider when it comes to what they could put online."

Art marketplace Redbubble has announced Michael Ilczynski will take up the role of the business’ chief executive effective 27 January 2021.

Ilczynski formerly worked as CEO of employment site Seek, and will bring his years of experience turning that site into a global force to Redbubble.

“That track-record, including the successful development of his team, evolution of the product and scaling of the business, are the right combination to continue Redbubble’s transition from a niche to mainstream global consumer marketplace,” Redbubble chair Anne Ward said.

“Seek is one of the few companies in Australia to have been down this path before Redbubble, and we are delighted to be able to attract a proven, senior leader of Michael’s calibre to join Redbubble.”

Ilczynski said he is very thankful for having been given the opportunity, and that he sees opportunities to build on Redbubble’s three-sided marketplace offer.

Interim CEO and founder Martin Hosking said the appointment is the next milestone in Redbubble’s ambition to pursue the growing global e-commerce opportunity.

“As founder and as a director, like the rest of the board I was determined that our next CEO had the experience, skills and passion for growing our global community of independent artists and customers, plus the leadership track record and spark to inspire and develop our incredible global team,” Hosking said.

“Michael is that person.”

The search for a new CEO came about when former CEO Barry Newstead was ousted by the board in February, after it decided a change of leadership was necessary.

Amazon.com has launched an online pharmacy for delivering prescription medications in the US, increasing competition with drug retailers such as Walgreens, CVS Health and Walmart.

Called Amazon Pharmacy, the new store lets customers price-compare as they buy drugs on the company’s website or app. Shoppers can toggle at checkout between their co-pay and a non-insurance option, heavily discounted for members of its loyalty club Prime.

The move builds on the web retailer’s 2018 acquisition of PillPack, which Amazon said will remain separate for customers needing pre-sorted doses of multiple drugs.

Shares of pharmacy chains, drug wholesalers and grocers fell in afternoon trading. Amazon’s shares were up nearly 1 per cent.

Over the past two years, Amazon has worked to secure more state licenses for shipping prescriptions across the country, which had been an obstacle to its expansion into the drug supply chain, according to analyst notes from Jefferies Equity Research.

The company founded as an online bookseller has disrupted industries including retail, computing and now potentially pharmaceuticals, drawing criticism of its size and power from labor groups and lawmakers along the way.

TJ Parker, PillPack’s CEO and vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, said in a statement the retailer aimed to bring “customer obsession to an industry that can be inconvenient and confusing.”

The company faces entrenched competition from Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, CVS Health, Walmart, Rite Aid, Kroger and others. Take-up of online ordering of drugs has been low, according to market research from JD Power.

“Amazon’s launch of an online pharmacy is a meaningful threat to brick and mortar pharmacies,” Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management professor Craig Garthwaite said.

“These retail pharmacies must now offer more than just easy access to a prescription.”

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Rite Aid and CVS tumbled between 8 and 15 per cent, while those of drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen were down 3 to 7 per cent.

Amazon injects a new look and feel into a space that has been dominated by a few large mail order pharmacies like CVS, Cigna and UnitedHealth’s Optum, analysts from brokerage Evercore ISI said in a note.

“New entrants to the highly competitive pharmacy market come as no surprise to us,” CVS Health said in a statement. “While pharmacy is a core component of our business, CVS Health is so much more than your corner drug store.”

Walgreens said in a statement it already provides a full and growing range of pharmacy, health and wellness solutions to its customers and patients, and offers free same-day and next-day delivery options.

Should Prime members prefer buying in person, Amazon said its discounts on non-insurance purchases apply at more than 50,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacies – including those run by rivals. Inside Rx, a subsidiary of Cigna’s Evernorth, administers that benefit, Amazon said.

Still, the pandemic may help bring drug orders online. E-commerce has surged this year as governments told people to stay home to stave off infections of Covid-19, and Prime members – more than 150 million globally – may be receptive to buying medication online now that it’s from Amazon.

The company said Prime subscribers get up to 80 per cent off generic and up to 40 per cent off brand drugs when they pay without insurance, as well as two-day delivery.

Amazon’s online pharmacy is not yet available in Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Hawaii, a spokeswoman said.

In a little over a decade, Gen Z will be taking over the economy.

Gen Z currently earns $US7 trillion across its 2.5 billion-person cohort, according to a Bank of America Research primer on the generation, called “OK Zoomer.” By 2025, that income will grow to $US17 trillion, and by 2030, it will reach $US33 trillion, representing 27% of the world’s income and surpassing that of millennials the following year.

The report defines Gen Z as those born between 1996 and 2016. The oldest of Gen Z turn 23 in 2020, and the oldest millennials turn 39 this year. The youngest generation has the fastest-growing income, per the report, led by the US, closely followed by China.

This earnings growth is short of what it would be without the pandemic, of course. Gen Z students could lose $US10 trillion of lifecycle earnings due to Covid lockdowns, the World Bank has estimated.

Repeating millennials’ rocky career paths

American Gen Zers and millennials have been financially hardest hit in the coronavirus recession, suffering from unemployment rates greater than those during the peak of the Great Recession. But Gen Z is repeating the same rocky start to their careers as the oldest millennials: graduating into a recession.

Stanford research shows that recession graduates typically see stagnant wages, lasting for up to 15 years. The author behind this research, Hannes Schwandt, assistant professor at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, previously told Business Insider that this the delay in wealth accumulation isn’t necessarily due to lack of jobs, but that recession graduates typically start at “lower quality” jobs.

A potential upside to this, Schwandt said, is that graduates job-hop to play financial catch-up, which can make them more flexible and help advance their career.

“Over time, what you see in these cohorts is a higher degree of mobility from one employer to the next,” Schwandt said. “It helps them climb up the quality ladder.”

Gen Z may want to look to millennials for an idea of what’s to come, as the so-called “job-hopping generation” graduated into the 2008 financial crisis, then entered the 2020 recession before their oldest members turned 40 years old. Now, before the economy has even recovered from the effects of the pandemic, millennials have just another decade left as the major driving force of the economy.

Since the IPO four years ago, Kogan and Shafer have trousered more than $350 million selling their shares in the company. Why the hell should shareholders be diluted to hand them even more?

All three proxy houses – ISS, CGI Glass Lewis and Ownership Matters – are recommending shareholders vote against the resolution to approve the options package. Kogan and Shafer cannot vote their shares.

It is so telling that Kogan himself, not Kogan.com’s chairman, conducted this 11th hour round of investor engagement. That Rusty even deemed it necessary suggests the proxy votes have been tracking badly for him.

If the resolution is defeated, this will be a genuine test for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Section 211 of the Corporations Act deals with paying “reasonable remuneration” to executives without shareholder approval. Why is the statutory provision even there if a board can hand their CEO and CFO the equivalent of two years’ earnings after investors have expressly repudiated the proposal? We can only hope ASIC dusts off its rule book rather than being another study in inaction.

Uber’s pandemic recovery isn’t happening as quickly as investors would like.

The ride-hailing giant on Thursday revealed third-quarter financials that fell below analyst expectations and sent shares lower in late trading.

Overall losses for the quarter ended Sept. 31 totaled $US1.09 billion, on adjusted revenues of $US2.81 billion. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected an adjusted net loss of $US876 million on revenues of $US2.82 billion. Losses not including taxes and depreciation were smaller than last quarter, but greater than a year ago.

Uber’s stock price sank as much as 5% following the announcement, paring sharp gains from earlier in the week after the company got a pivotal victory in California. Voters there approved Prop. 22 on Tuesday, a controversial measure that allows gig-work companies to classify workers as contractors rather than employees, while also guaranteeing some benefits like minimum earnings and healthcare stipends.

“Despite an uneven pandemic response and broader economic uncertainty, our global scope, diversification, and the team’s tireless execution delivered steadily improving results,” chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a press release.

Deliveries continue to be a bright spot for Uber during the pandemic, with revenues from that segment more than doubling compared to last year.

Uber has yet to turn a profit in its more than 10-year history, though executives have said it will be able to in 2021 on an adjusted basis despite the pandemic, though that milestone was not included in Thursday’s release. Executives are likely to be pushed for clarification on that timeline during a conference call with investors later Thursday.

“Rome was not built in a day … and neither will the ridesharing recovery,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, told clients earlier this week. “The overall environment is starting to considerably improve for Uber over the coming quarters with 2Q marking a clear trough in volumes and fundamentals in our opinion.”

Lyft, Uber’s largest competitor, will report results next week.

The company was on the hunt for $56 million via a placement of new shares.

Canaccord Genuity – which was at hand for Marley Spoon's raising in May and helped float it in 2018 – was lead manager and underwriter on the deal, while Wilsons was chipping in as co-manager.

The placement was priced at $3.22 a share, which represented a 5 per cent discount to Marley Spoon's one-day volume weighted average price.

The capital raising coincided with the release of Marley Spoon's results for the September quarter.

Market darlings in the home delivery and retail space such as Temple & Webster, Kogan, Redbubble, Breville, and Marley Spoon all added to recent losses, as investors bet the worst of Australia's movement restrictions were over.

"It's unlikely we'll see another lockdown in Australia," said Mr Clark. "Never say never, but the market looks a year or two forward, and what it's saying is that in 2021 and 2022 these trends we've seen in the last six months are going to normalise.

On Tuesday it was announced NSW residents can travel to Tasmania without quarantine from November 6. Quarantine-free travel between South Australia and other states (except Victoria) has been allowed since October 24.

"What we're seeing is the fundies and maybe the long-short funds starting to look at getting out of the 'COVID winners' and pick up stocks that've been hammered by COVID," Mr Clark said.

"So I think there's more of a rotation going on. We're getting close to vaccine announcements, and that's probably going to be the catalyst for that trade to keep going."

IPO rush

After an initial public offer (IPO) priced at $6.75 and listing last Thursday, online-only retailer Adore Beauty has swung between a low of $5.51 and a high of $7.42 over four volatile trading days.

Another e-commerce retailer that listed last week, MyDeal, plunged 13.7 per cent to $1.33 on Tuesday, after posting an intra-day high of $2.20 on its October 22 ASX debut.

Dean Fergie, a portfolio manager at Cyan Investment Management, questioned Adore's $635 million valuation on 181 times estimated profits, when an omni-channel retailer trades on 10 to 20 times estimated profits.

"It was crazy, you've got a business making 1 million or 2 million bucks," Mr Cyan said of Adore. "[It's] selling third-party cosmetics through a website. There's no large barriers to entry for that. No way. You've got reputation, customer experience, brand, but they're reselling products.

"MyDeal we thought was a second-rate Kogan and it started trading at a 100 per cent premium, again with no profitability.

"There's starting to be a reality check. Investors are like, maybe we don't need a portfolio full of these things on ridiculous valuations. We've had a good time of it, maybe it's time to take a few chips off the table."

Mr Fergie noted, though, that some IPOs had impressed, including Credit Clear and protective equipment manufacturer CleanSpace. Last week CleanSpace raised $131.4 million at an IPO price of $4.41 and traded at $6.90 on Tuesday.

The lockdown-leveraged buy now, pay later sector also plunged on Tuesday. Market leader Afterpay shed 4.3 per cent and Zip Co fell 6 per cent to $5.99 – its lowest since September 25.