Retail

Bloomberg Walmart Inc. finally gave the US retail sector some good news. The company brushed off the industry’s disappointing December sales with its best holiday quarter in at least a decade, soothing concerns about the sector’s outlook for 2019. Comparable sales for Walmart stores in the US — a key performance barometer — rose 4.2 percent in the quarter that ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Majid Al Futtaim, one of the Middle East’s leading retailers, is spearheading the digital transformation of the region’s $313 billion retail market, both in taking a growing slice of e-commerce and enhancing Carrefour customer shopping experiences online and in-store. The Middle East retail sector is undergoing a sea-change. As more malls open, the GCC’s retail sector ...

Bloomberg Yayvo, Pakistan’s second-largest online retailer, is planning to bring in new investors amid competition from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The e-commerce company has appointed advisers to help with the fundraising, Yayvo’s head, Adam Dawood, said in an interview in Karachi last week. Yayvo aims to start meeting with potential investors in the Middle East and China next month, according ...

Bloomberg Payless Inc. is liquidating its US and Puerto Rico stores and shutting down its online operations as the upheaval in the retail industry claims its latest victim. The discount shoe chain is starting liquidation sales on February 17, and expects the stores to remain open until at least the end of March, according to a statement. The company was ...

Bloomberg So much for a merry Christmas. That is, if you trust the numbers. Commerce Department figures show US retail sales fell 1.2 percent in December from the previous month, the most since 2009, rather than the slight increase economists had forecast. Even more confusing: There was a pullback in a measure based largely on internet sales, which had been ...

Bloomberg Longreach Group, the buyout firm founded by former UBS Group AG investment banker Mark Chiba, is considering an initial public offering of its jewelry business Primo Japan Inc., reports said. The owner has been working with Nomura Holdings Inc. to explore options that could also include a sale of the Tokyo-based diamond ring seller, the people said. Any deal ...

Bloomberg Starbucks will launch its first all-day dining cafe in Shanghai, featuring fresh Italian food, the US coffee giant said in a statement. The move signals part of the company’s effort to “to play the long game in China,” according to Belinda Wong, CEO of Starbucks China. The coffee chain, which now operates more than 3,700 stores in 158 cities ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai said the e-commerce giant has experienced limited impact from China’s broader economic slowdown as more and more business moves to the internet. “Our business is delinked” from Chinese economy because “we’re in e-commerce and we’re digitizing the whole sector,” Tsai said in San Francisco. Tsai said the company’s growth would continue ...

Bloomberg Cole Haan’s most recent debt offering shows investors will still lend to at least some aging clothing brands. The footwear company is a bright spot in an industry that’s been marred by failures — Nine West is mired in bankruptcy while Payless is preparing to file for a second time. But Cole Haan, a brand that dates back to ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire Eero, a builder of WiFi-networking tools, in another deal aimed at bolstering the retail and technology giant’s home devices business. Eero, based in San Francisco, makes gadgets that extend WiFi coverage throughout a home using local networking, known as mesh technology, that removes hiccups in broadcasting internet signals. The companies didn’t disclose the ...