Retail

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc.’s relaunch of its online payments business in 2013 was greeted with scepticism. PayPal Holdings Inc. had a huge head start and credit card companies like Visa Inc. already had products that made buying something on the Web as easy as swiping a card. It seemed doubtful digital shop owners would want to team up with Amazon and ...

Frankfurt / AFP German retail sales, a closely watched measure of household confidence, declined in February, as consumer morale in Europe’s top economy feels the heat from global economic risks, official data showed on Thursday. Retailers’ sales fell by 0.4 percent in February compared with January, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. The previous month, retail sales ...

TOKYO / Reuters Japan plans a wave of new gas-fired power stations as the country’s electricity retail market opens up from April 1, allowing new entrants to compete for a market of 85 million customers with annual sales of about $70 billion. In the biggest shakeup in the industry’s history in Japan, regional utilities are losing their monopoly rights for ...

Frankfurt / AFP German retail giant Metro announced it will spin off its businesses into two separately listed units, sending its shares sharply higher. “The management board of Metro is preparing the creation of two independent and sector-focused companies through a demerger of the group,” Metro said in a statement. Metro shares were the strongest performer on the mid-cap MDAX ...

Bloomberg Seven & i Holdings Co. will meet this week to discuss leadership succession, days after billionaire activist investor Dan Loeb warned Japan’s largest retailer against creating a family dynasty, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company’s nomination and compensation committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified ...

Bloomberg Shin Kyuk Ho, the 93-year-old founder of Korean-Japanese retail giant Lotte Group, has lost his board seat at the family-controlled conglomerate’s lodgings and duty-free sales unit Hotel Lotte Co. amid a leadership struggle between two of his sons. Shin’s term expired on March 28, Lotte Group said in a statement. He had been a board member since 1973, when ...

NEW YORK / AP Enjoy, an online concierge service for gadgets, is expanding beyond San Francisco and New York City nearly a year after it was launched. The startup, founded by former JC Penney CEO and Apple executive Ron Johnson, will be adding certain neighborhoods of Los Angeles this week and then Chicago in May. The service allows customers to ...

Bloomberg Craigslist could learn a thing or two from Quikr. The Indian equivalent of the free classifieds service publishes product ratings, handles payments and shipping and — crucially — releases payment only after a buyer gives their purchase a once-over and a virtual thumbs-up. In so doing, the site that lists for sale everything from smartphones to cars is trying ...

LONDON / Reuters British consumers are still driving the country’s recovery despite a gloomier outlook for the economy and the approach of the European Union membership referendum, figures showed. Official data showed retail sales fell more gently than expected in February after a bumper January. A separate survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) showed sales volumes fell slightly ...

Rome / Reuters Italy’s luxury fashion house Versace said that its revenues in 2015 grew 17.5 percent, thanks largely to sales of its accessories and its cheekier second line, Versus. While the brand’s revenues grew by 645 million euros ($720 million), its retail sales were 28.9 percent higher at 400.7 million euros and income from e-commerce was up 31.2 percent. ...