Retail

Bloomberg UK retailers are losing the battle against higher prices, potentially strengthening the case for the Bank of England to increase interest rates next month. A report on Tuesday from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG showed like-for-like sales increased 1.9 percent from a year earlier—a fourth straight month of gains. Still, the fastest growth since April was driven by ...

Bloomberg As Amazon.com Inc. pushes into Southeast Asia with a new venture into Singapore, the online retailer is facing some tough hurdles. Shopping in air-conditioned malls is practically a national sport, and e-commerce rivals moved in long ago. Delivery delays also marred Amazon’s debut in July, when on-the-ground operations began with Prime Now two-hour deliveries. Even when including orders placed ...

Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is simplifying the return process through its smartphone app, aiming to ease a major hassle of shopping in time for the holiday season. Beginning in early November, shoppers will be able to initiate the return of items bought online via the retailer’s app before going to the store. Once there, they’ll move through a dedicated express ...

Bloomberg The company once known as the Netflix of snacks looks a bit more like Blockbuster video these days—but not in a bad way. Graze, which started selling snack boxes via online subscriptions in the UK a few years back, is for the first time generating a majority of its sales through physical stores—a reminder that food is still almost ...

Bloomberg Sycamore Partners is betting on the ailing retail sector at a time when other investors are shying away. The buyout firm, which bought Staples Inc. last month, is trying to raise $4 billion for its biggest fund yet, two people with knowledge of the matter said. It’s planning to finish raising the money in January, one of the people ...

Bloomberg US online retailers like Amazon.com Inc. stand to gain from the Trump administration’s push to throw open the doors for Canadians and Mexicans to buy American goods duty-free. The US is demanding Canada and Mexico raise the threshold at which duties are applied to purchases crossing the border, according to two people with knowledge of a proposal put forward ...

Bloomberg In a sign of the intensifying battle for New York’s online shoppers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. acquired Parcel, a company specialising in same-day deliveries of groceries and meal kits. The world’s largest retailer plans to use the business to offer free, same-day delivery in New York City—the most populous city in the US—as it continues to push into e-commerce to ...

Bloomberg High-income shoppers will fuel holiday spending in the US this year, even as less affluent consumers keep their purse strings tight. That’s the finding of a survey released by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The firm expects Americans overall to increase spending by 6 percent this season, but those with household incomes under $60,000 will cut their outlays for both gifts and ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc.’s takeover of Whole Foods Markets has shaken the grocery business. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. may be hurting the most so far. Whole Foods’ foot traffic from new shoppers jumped 33 percent in the first week following Amazon’s acquisition, and Wal-Mart regulars accounted for the largest percentage of first-time customers, according to ...

Bloomberg Canadian grocer Metro Inc. pledged to sell some assets to reduce its financing needs and retain its credit rating as part of a $3.6 billion purchase of pharmacy chain Jean Coutu Group Inc. Metro will pay C$24.50 a share in cash and stock for Jean Coutu, about a 6.1 percent premium to Jean Coutu’s price before the two companies ...