Alibaba Singles Day 2014 sales are three times bigger than last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined November 11, 2014 Alibaba has made over $9bn from its Singles Day sales bonanza. $9.3bn (£5.67bn) worth of sales to be exact. In 24 hours. No wonder investors were so keen to get a slice of that pie earlier this year. What started as a day for lonely hearts to celebrate singledom by purchasing gifts for [...]
RBS and Natwest hit by new IT failures on Cyber Monday December 2, 2013 CUSTOMERS at RBS and NatWest were frozen out for at least four hours last night as the giant bank’s payment system crashed for the third time in 18 months, and on the busiest shopping day of the year so far. Hundreds of thousands of transactions were blocked by the fault yesterday evening, stopping customers making [...]
John Lewis hit by week delay of Black Friday November 24, 2013 CHRISTMAS sales at John Lewis slowed last week, as tough comparatives from a year ago prevented a repeat of last week’s stellar growth. The department store group reported sales of £111.9m in the week to 23 November, up 2.1 per cent on the same week last year, as the cold weather drove sales of coats [...]
Wall St The Week Ahead: Thanksgiving lull ahead of Black Friday November 24, 2013 Wall Street set another record last week, and the rally that has taken the S&P 500 index nearly 30 per cent higher for the year shows no sign of losing steam as Americans prepare to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Trading volume is likely to be light as US stock markets will be closed on Thursday [...]