Retail

BLOOMBERG Macy’s Inc is laying off about 3.5% of its workforce ahead of the departure of longtime Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gennette, as the department-store operator retrenches amid lower demand. The company said the cuts include about 2,350 employees, mostly in corporate positions. It will also close five stores. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the layoffs and store closures. ...

BLOOMBERG Indian consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever Ltd posted disappointing quarterly profit as it struggled with weak demand, a subdued festival season and competitors tearing into the firm’s market share. The Mumbai-based unit of Unilever Plc reported a 0.4% rise in net income to 25.2 billion rupees ($303 million) for the quarter through December compared with the same period a ...

BLOOMBERG Retail was Europe’s top-performing sector last year, but already there are signs that gains this year will be much harder fought. Marks & Spencer (M&S) Group Plc, whose shares more than doubled in 2023, slid about 6% as strong growth in holiday sales proved an insufficient catalyst for those banking on further upgrades to guidance. The retailer noted economic ...

  BLOOMBERG The opening of Costco Wholesale Corp’s first store in southern China has drawn massive crowds, with customers queuing for hours as the country’s economic slowdown fuels a budget shopping boom. Tens of thousands of people lined up outside the warehouse club’s latest outlet in Shenzhen, a tech hub neighboring Hong Kong, before its doors opened on January 12, ...

BLOOMBERG Burberry Group Plc slumped after the UK trenchcoat maker slashed its profit forecast, a fresh sign that demand for luxury goods, particularly in the US, is waning. The British retailer wiped nearly £100 million ($128 million) off its profit outlook in the starkest sign yet that after an unprecedented surge in luxury sales during the pandemic, the bubble has ...

BLOOMBERG Walmart Inc opened up access to a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that allows shoppers to search for products by specific use cases, rather than look up one item at a time. The technology is now available for use on the Walmart app on Apple Inc’s iOS mobile operating system, the world’s largest retailer said in a statement at ...

BLOOMBERG Amazon.com Inc’s share of online orders spiked in the final days of the holiday shopping season, demonstrating how big investments in delivery speed paid off with procrastinating shoppers looking for a wide selection of products they could get quickly. Amazon captured 29% of global order volume in the final two weeks before Christmas, up from 21% the week of ...

BLOOMBERG Instacart will show advertisements on the high-tech shopping carts it sells to grocery stores, the latest addition to the company’s growing ads business and a sign of investment in products outside grocery delivery. The company will begin advertising on the carts, which include self-checkout and are equipped with cameras and sensors to detect items, at Good Food Holdings’ Bristol ...

BLOOMBERG Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has tentatively agreed to pay about $700 million to resolve an investigation by more than 40 US states of claims that it wrongfully marketed its talc-based baby powder by not warning about possible health risks, according to people familiar with the deal. The settlement would avert potential lawsuits alleging that J&J hid any links between ...

BLOOMBERG Lululemon Athletica Inc, Abercrombie & Fitch Co and American Eagle Outfitters Inc raised their sales outlooks on Monday on the back of a strong holiday quarter, bucking fears of consumer weakness amid stubbornly high inflation and elevated interest rates. The upgrades come after what had been a more cautious tone in the retail industry. Nike Inc said in December ...