Retail

Bloomberg Target Corp.’s online sales push paid off in the first quarter even as profit missed forecasts, and the retailer said performance will improve further in the current period. Digital revenue rose 28 percent in the period ended on May 5, the company said. That contributed to a 3 percent lift in same-store sales, beating analysts’ average prediction, according to ...

Bloomberg Big Texas-based department-store chain seeks new leader: must be willing to tackle sluggish sales, failed fashion and $4 billion in long-term debt. JC Penney Co., once again, is searching for a new chief executive after Marvin Ellison was poached by home-improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. on May 22, a surprise exit that sent JC Penney’s stock down to historic lows. ...

Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc owned up to its mistakes, saying it needs to close more stores and catch up to rivals in e-commerce as Chairman Archie Norman tries to pull the UK retailer out of a crisis that has dragged on for more than a decade. A decline in sales of food and clothing in the fourth quarter ...

Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc plans to close around a third of its large UK stores over the next four years, as the retailer belatedly adapts to the rise of e-commerce. M&S will close more than 100 stores that sell both clothing and food by 2022, the company said in a statement. The London-based retailer intends to increase the ...

Bloomberg A ban on mohair by dozens of clothing retailers, including Hennes & Mauritz AB and Esprit Holdings, is threatening a $117 million industry in South Africa, the world’s biggest producer of the fibre. Almost 70 clothing companies worldwide have announced they’ll stop using mohair following the release this month of video footage from twelve Angora goat farms in South ...

Bloomberg As an online grocer, Ocado Group Plc has always commanded a higher valuation than traditional retailers. But last week’s US deal puts its valuation multiples squarely in-line with Amazon.com Inc., and leagues away from the likes of Tesco Plc and J Sainsbury Plc. The company’s landmark technology-licensing deal with Kroger Co. sent the shares up 44 percent, squeezing short ...

Bloomberg Chinese actress Li Yuchun glides down the hallway of Cannes’ Hotel Martinez in a tuxedo-inspired Jean Paul Gaultier gown and blue-gray pixie haircut, with a pack of L’Oreal videographers trotting backward to stay out of the frame. After striking a few poses on the marble staircase, she heads for the red carpet. The footage is rushed to L’Oreal’s editing ...

Bloomberg At Zara’s new flagship store in London, shoppers can swipe garments along a floor-to-ceiling mirror to see a hologram-style image of what they’d look like as part of a full outfit. Robot arms get garments into shoppers’ hands at online-order collection points. iPad-wielding assistants also help customers in the store order their sizes online, so they can pick them ...

Bloomberg Ocado Group Plc soared to a record after Kroger Co. agreed to buy a stake in the UK online grocer, which is breaking into the US market with a landmark deal to license its home-delivery technology to the supermarket chain. Ocado’s first US licensing pact marks Kroger’s response to Amazon.com Inc.’s purchase of Whole Foods Market Inc., which extended ...

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd. climbed after delivering record profit that topped analyst estimates, calming investors who’d braced for a big hit to margins. The stock jumped 3.7 percent in Hong Kong, conceding some of its earlier gains. China’s largest social media and gaming company posted a faster than expected 61 percent jump in net income last quarter as growth on ...