Retail

  Bloomberg Shares of e-commerce companies from Etsy Inc to Shopify Inc tumbled after weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and forecasts deepened concern that the pace of online shopping has slowed. Etsy sank 17% after providing a second-quarter gross merchandise sales forecast that fell short of analyst expectations, while Canada’s Shopify dropped 15% in New York trading after merchandise volume and revenue ...

Bloomberg New Jersey is the first state to ban both plastic and paper bags, leaving companies and shoppers to find creative workarounds to get their groceries home. ShopRite, with more than 100 New Jersey stores, will charge a flat $1.50 per order for reusable bags. Instacart Inc, which fulfills shoppers’ lists for Aldi Inc, Lidl Ltd, CVS Health Corp and ...

  Bloomberg Amazon Inc makes it too hard and unnecessarily confusing to cancel subscriptions for services, some customers claimed in a lawsuit alleging the internet retailer is violating California’s rules on automatic renewal programs. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco federal court by three California residents who say they signed up for free trials of Amazon services only to ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s retail sales plummeted 13.8% in March, the first back-to-back contraction in more than a year as stringent virus restrictions weighed heavily on the economy and crushed consumer spending. The fall in sales value from a year earlier was worse than the median estimate of a 12.6% decline expected by economists in a survey, though it was ...

  Bloomberg Next Plc said store sales soared in the first quarter as they stayed open following the end of pandemic restrictions, even as inflation squeezes shoppers’ disposable income. The British clothing and housewares chain said sales jumped by 285% in a strong start as it reiterated that it expects annual pretax profit of $1.07 billion in the year through ...

  Bloomberg Australian retail sales jumped for a third consecutive month to hit a record, driven by a spending revival on the nation’s flood-ravaged east coast and highlighting the economy’s strong underlying momentum. Sales surged 1.6% in March to A$33.6 billion ($23.9 billion), more than triple economists’ forecast for a 0.5% increase, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed. The ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc acknowledged that a hiring and warehouse-building binge during the pandemic is catching up with the company as e-commerce sales growth inevitably slows from the torrid pace of the outbreak. That reality will weigh on revenue and profit going forward as consumers return to their pre-pandemic habits and inflation may cool their spending. Fuel and labour costs are ...

  Bloomberg Chinese holidaymakers face another holiday season ruined by virus outbreaks and controls, with the government’s stringent Covid Zero restrictions and fears of infection expected to keep many people at home during the upcoming Labor Day break. Travel was already down in March, when the biggest Covid-19 outbreak in two years prompted officials to lock down major cities like ...

Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc said profit will fall this year as normal shopping habits return following the end of lockdowns and as shoppers feel squeezed by the higher cost of living. The supermarket chain forecast underlying profit before tax of 630 million pounds ($788 million) to 690 million pounds in the year through March, citing “significant external pressures and uncertainties.” ...

  Bloomberg Aerospace and defense giant Raytheon Technologies Corp cut its 2022 sales forecast and warned of potential supplier constraints as it ends commercial ties with Russian customers and a titanium supplier. “We’re done in Russia. Full stop,” Raytheon’s Chief Executive Officer Greg Hayes said of the aerospace and defense conglomerate’s dealings with Russia in the wake of the nation’s ...