"It's a seismic moment that could play into the next phase of change for the supermarket industry... [Amazon] is Pluto in the supermarket solar system."

Shore Capital analyst Clive Black was only half joking when asked about the opening on Thursday of the e-commerce giant's first physical store outside North America. 

After three years searching for a right location, the 25,000 sq ft convenience site in Ealing, west London opened its gates today, unveiling technology that could shape the way we shop in years to come. With queuing at the till set to become a thing of the past, instead ceiling cameras, motion sensors and advanced AI mean you can shop, swipe and leave. It has yet to be seen how the UK's existing "Big Four" food retailers will respond to these radical developments.

The first big corporate name to take advantage of the planned relaxation in listing rules on the London Stock Exchange has been revealed. Home delivery start-up Deliveroo, which boasts revenue growth of more than 650 percent since its launch in 2013, has plumped for London for its impending $7 billion flotation.

The firm, and no doubt others to follow, has been attracted by proposals unveiled earlier this week to allow an easier listing regime for so-called "dual-share" flotations. The development, backed by UK finance minister Rishi Sunak, is seen as an inducement for tech firms globally to choose London ahead of other markets when listing.  

Elsewhere, the parent group of Japan's biggest fashion retailer, Uniqlo, is cutting prices by 9 percent amid COVID-19 slowdown fears, but just in its home market for now. Could more of Uniqlo's 2,250 stores globally follow?  

If there is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) out there looking for the next big opportunity, then India's Flipkart would love to hear from you. It's seeking an investment partner ahead of a planned $35 billion float in New York later this year. As we have reported previously, Flipkart's sales have boomed exponentially in lockdown as many middle-class Indians turn to online grocery shopping for the first time.

And while some retail analysts have questioned why Amazon wants to dip its toe in the ruthless UK food retail market, our graph below explains.  

Read on for more on this and the rest of the day's business news in full.

Louise Greenwood,

Digital business correspondent 

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Amazon has opened its first physical store outside North America as it tests the market ahead of a further possible roll-out. The Amazon Fresh store in Ealing, west London, is similar in concept to the 27 convenience Amazon Go stores which began trading in the U.S. three years ago. The store will offer a private food brand called "by Amazon" and will let consumers skip the checkout line when they shop. 

Analysts say the move is an attempt by Amazon to crack into the higher-spend section of the European grocery market, after its breakthrough purchase of the U.S. Whole Foods chain in 2017. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has chosen the UK as a test ground for a wider global roll-out, despite strong price competition between British supermarkets. 

As at existing U.S. Go stores, customers will scan a smartphone app to open the store's entry gates while ceiling cameras and shelf weight censors will determine what they add to their carts with their credit cards billed after they exit. The Ealing site, which is smaller than a standard British supermarket, will also offer a counter for picking up and returning Amazon orders bought online.

Meanwhile, British supermarket group Sainsbury's plans to cut an additional 500 management jobs and cut office space in the post-pandemic period. The job closures are on top of 3,500 redundancies earmarked in a major restructuring exercise announced last November, that also led to the closure of in-store meat, fish and deli counters.

Deliveroo has chosen London for its much-anticipated flotation later this year. The home food delivery service says it opted for London after the UK's chief finance minister Rishi Sunak approved plans to liberalize listing rules, as part of a bid to increase share trading in the capital post Brexit.

Deliveroo is expected to list for around $7 billion when it goes public, making it the biggest new share issue in the UK in three years. Boss Will Shu says the firm is "proud and excited" to list in London, where the business first began eight years ago, with paperwork expected to be filed with regulators as early as next week.

A report out on Wednesday by former EU commissioner Jonathan Hill has recommended loosening the regulations around dual-share listings, which are already popular with tech giants such as Facebook and Google parent Alphabet, as they allow firms to float while retaining management control in areas like boardroom structure and pay. 

Lufthansa may permanently ground more of its jets in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the German carrier reported record losses of $8.10 billion for 2020. The group, which also owns Austrian Airlines and the Swiss and Eurowings brands, said it is "examining whether all aircraft older than 25 years will remain on the ground permanently." Lufthansa, which received a $10.8 billion government-backed bailout last June, cut its global workforce by 20 percent last year and is now seeking to eliminate another 10,000 German jobs, while operating at 40-50 percent of pre pandemic capacity in 2021.

The U.S. is to suspend tariffs on a variety of UK goods including single-malt whiskies in its ongoing row with the EU over state subsidies to the French aircraft maker Airbus. Tariffs will also be lifted on cheese, Scottish cashmere and some machinery products for four months, while talks continue on a long-term settlement.

UK regulators are investigating tech giant Apple over complaints that its terms and conditions for app developers are anti-competitive. The Competition and Markets Authority will consider whether Apple has an unfairly dominant position in the distribution of apps on its own devices.  

TikTok owner ByteDance is reported to be working on a Clubhouse-like app for the Chinese market. While discussions are at an early phase, several copycat apps to the exclusive invite-only social media forum that counts Elon Musk and Bill Gates among its subscribers are already in development or launching in China. While Bytedance seeks to extend its operations, rival Xiaomi Corporation is reworking its Mi Talk app into an invitation-only audio service, targeted at professionals. 

Japan's Fast Retailing says it is slashing prices by around 9 percent at Uniqlo and GU stores in its home market in response to COVID-19. The company, which has recently overtaken Spain's Inditex to become the world's largest clothing retailer by volume, despite the impact of the pandemic on sales, says it recognizes that many customers are experiencing "unprecedented difficulties" as lockdowns continue.

Indian e-commerce company Flipkart is looking to float on the New York markets this year. The Bengaluru-based firm, which is owned by U.S. giant Walmart is reported to be seeking talks with various special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in a deal that could value the firm at $35 billion. Flipkart recently announced plans for a huge roll-out, expanding deliveries in 50 new cities, as online grocery spending across India booms.

Japan's Honda Motor Company is to begin selling a limited number of its autonomous driving sedan model 'Legend'. The vehicle, which offers conditional automated driving in limited situations such as heavy congestion, is the current flagship model for Honda's ambitious autonomous plans. The announcement that 100 units are to go on sale in Japan comes after regulators awarded a safety certification to Honda's "Traffic Jam Pilot" software in November.   

Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel has said the tech company expects to deliver 50 percent annual revenue growth over coming years, without growing its user base. Speaking at an industry conference Spiegel clarified a previous estimate that the increase did not depend on further users but reflects the "steady state" of the current business, as Snapchat  continues to add media content and improve additional features, photo filters and add more media content. Parent company Snap had revenues of $911 million and 265 million daily active users during its fourth quarter.

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The UK's chief finance minister has outlined what many believe is the most critical budget in a generation – with borrowing set to top $560 billion, Rishi Sunak set out how he plans to plug that huge hole. 

CGTN Europe was joined by Fiona Cincotta, analyst at London's City Index, and asked if the tax and spending proposals set out by the UK Chancellor will work？ 

I think it will definitely help, it's a very supportive budget and that is what the UK does need in order to help it through this sort of hopefully final stage of the pandemic – the lockdown into the reopening. The support is still desperately needed as far as growth is concerned. There is some good news, we do expect the UK economy to return to pre pandemic growth quicker than previously expected, about six months quicker. Also, as far as unemployment is concerned, there is some good news there with the furlough scheme, it means that unemployment is only expected to peak at 6.5 percent, which is lower than what was expected previously. 

Have furlough schemes worked? 

This has been a really important theme across the world and across Europe particularly, the idea of protecting jobs and furloughing employees. So that's going to be a key theme across different countries. In Germany, for example, they've actually got a much bigger furlough scheme than we do have here in the UK, even with the extension. And, again, France was more generous than ours. So, although this is generous and it is very supportive, I do think it is just slightly lacking, when compared [with others].

Is there a general acceptance now that it's going to be businesses that are going to foot the bill for COVID-19? 

As far as taxing businesses is concerned, that is something is going to have to happen. Also, we've heard that the threshold for income tax here in the UK will also be frozen. That's not exactly a tax hike, but it is in some sort of sneaky way. So, I mean, it's definitely going to have to see tax hikes in order to pay for this because it does need to get paid for. 

And finally, some analysts are questioning Amazon's entry into the UK supermarket industry, where a price war has been raging between the "Big Four" leading retailers for years. However, the figures show that lockdown food and drink spending has delivered the industry's big players bumper returns.