High street sales plunge week before Black Friday December 6, 2019 High street sales plunged the week before Black Friday as shoppers held out for bargains, according to the latest data. Like-for-like sales fell 17.14 per cent before Black Friday, in one of the worst weekly drops seen since the Beast from the East decimated sales in March 2018. Read more: Inside Amazon’s Black Friday operations [...]
Boohoo co-founders sell off £143m of shares December 5, 2019 Boohoo’s Boohoo’s co-founders have sold a whopping £142.5m of shares in their company, it emerged today, sending the online retailer’s stock down in early trading. Co-founder and executive director Carol Kane sold a third of her stake in the fashion brand – 15m shares – for 285p each to slash her stake to 2.7 per [...]
DEBATE: Are there any signs that UK retailers could be in for a merry Christmas this year? December 4, 2019 Are there any signs that UK retailers could be in for a merry Christmas this year? YES, says Nicholas Mazzei, a corporate social responsibility adviser. There has been much lamentation of the declining retail sector as a mark of our age, but this Christmas is looking to be very merry for retailers. Black Friday was [...]
Shares in Boohoo rise as it reports ‘record’ Black Friday trading December 3, 2019 Shares in Boohoo rose as much as three per cent this morning after the online retailer reported a record performance over the Black Friday weekend. The British fashion firm said trading had remained strong across its key brands since its half-year end, with a further boost from last week’s sales bonanza. Read more: International growth [...]
Black Friday 2019: Sales up in November after discount event December 3, 2019 Retail sales increased last month thanks to a bumper Black Friday, as shoppers made the most of the pre-Christmas discounting event. November sales figures – adjusted for Black Friday, which fell outside of the British Retail Consortium’s standard recording period – showed 0.9 per cent growth compared to last year. Read more: Black Friday spending [...]
Unions protest outside Amazon’s London HQ on Cyber Monday December 2, 2019 Union members demonstrated outside Amazon’s London headquarters this morning and accused the e-commerce giant of failing to pay the correct amount of corporation tax. The GMB union estimated that the retailer should have paid £103m in corporation tax last year, but claims the company’s biggest UK arm paid £14m of tax on £2.3bn worth of [...]
Asian stocks climb as Chinese manufacturing PMI beats expectations December 2, 2019 Major Asian markets showed gains on December’s first trading day after a welcome surprise from Chinese factory data. The Nikkei 225 rose one per cent on Monday, its highest increase in a month, as data showed that Chinese manufacturing and domestic demand grew, suggesting Beijing’s stimulus measures are beginning to have an effect. Read more: [...]
Ranked: Britain’s best and worst bank accounts November 30, 2019 Brits now enjoy a larger choice of bank accounts than ever before, with rival offerings from time-honoured high street stalwarts to exciting new fintech upstarts. But if the choice at times seems overwhelming, a new league table has revealed which banks score highly for customer service and communication – and which leave a lot to [...]
Black Friday spending has beaten 2018’s outlay, says Barclaycard November 29, 2019 Black Friday spending has risen 12.5 per cent on 2018’s total, Barclaycard said today. Spending was higher as of 10am this morning and “sustained” that high level throughout the day. The bank said the number of transactions then reached a “new peak” between 1pm and 2pm on Black Friday. Read more: Black Friday outages: Natwest [...]
Black Friday backlash: Amazon and GMB dispute protest numbers at UK warehouses November 29, 2019 Staff at Amazon warehouses are staging walkouts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in a row over the “appalling” treatment of workers. The demonstrations are taking place today and on Monday at Amazon’s head office in Shoreditch, as well as seven other locations across the UK, the GMB union said, and involve “100, if not [...]