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Marks & Spencer is likely to add to the gloom surrounding the high street by announcing weak clothing sales for the Christmas period. The figures, due to be released on Tuesday, will give the biggest guidance to date of festive trading as it is the sector’s bellwether, with over 700 stores in the UK and [...]
(Read More)28th Dec 11
Mobile consumers snap up bargains
by Natasha Redman
Bargain hunters have taken advantage of mobile shopping, with retailers reporting a large increase in consumers using smartphones to check prices and snap up sales online. Mobile traffic to John Lewis’s online clearance sale has jumped by 119 per cent in comparison with levels seen last year and the amount of money spent online from [...]
(Read More)28th Dec 11
Retail fears persist in spite of boom
by Adam Richards
The embattled retail sector is predicted to continue to enjoy its post-Christmas shopping boom, although analysts have warned that it may not ensure some of the weaker outfits survive. Retail analysts Experian revealed that the amount of people who headed to the shops this Boxing Day was 21.5 per cent above the same day last [...]
(Read More)20th Dec 11
Seasonal sales boost for retailers won’t last
by Harry Oldfield
Hopes of a seasonal boost to lift the continuing gloom of retailers have been raised by record-breaking weekly sales figures published by the John Lewis department store chain. Sales for the week ending Saturday 17 December soared to £133.1m, the highest weekly trade which John Lewis has ever reported. It represents an increase of 10.6 [...]
(Read More)16th Dec 11
La Senza calls for the help of restructuring experts
by Adam Richards
Embattled lingerie chain La Senza is the latest retailer to request the help of restructuring experts, but John Lewis’s director Andy Street remains optimistic that the festive period will be better than is widely anticipated. A number of retailers on the high street are struggling to survive, with shoe shop Barratts Priceless finally calling administrators [...]
(Read More)11th Dec 11
by Adam Richards
Embattled lingerie chain La Senza is the latest retailer to request the help of restructuring experts, but John Lewis’s director Andy Street remains optimistic that the festive period will be better than is widely anticipated. A number of retailers on the high street are struggling to survive, with shoe shop Barratts Priceless finally calling administrators [...]
(Read More)8th Dec 11
Blacks Leisure put up for sale
by Katie Naylor
The biggest outdoor retailer in the UK, Blacks Leisure, has been put up for sale in a last-ditch attempt to save the loss-making company from collapse. Blacks, which has 208 Millets stores and 98 Blacks outlets, warned that selling the group or its brands, which include Eurohike and Peter Storm, was unlikely to give shareholders [...]
(Read More)5th Dec 11
Retailers benefit as strikes lead to shopping surge
by Harry Oldfield
Consumers took advantage of last week’s day of strikes by hitting the shops to start their Christmas shopping, giving the embattled retail sector a welcome boost. Regional out-of-town shopping malls, with the added convenience of easy parking, enjoyed an influx of shoppers as parents missed work to look after their children whose schools were closed. [...]
(Read More)21st Oct 11
Back to school boost for consumer spending
by Katie Naylor
Purchases of laptops and other gadgets at the beginning of the new school term gave retailers an unexpected boost in September but failed to ease concerns over the sector during the build-up to the busy Christmas trading period. Retail volumes in September increased by 0.6 per cent month-on-month on the back of a downwardly revised [...]
(Read More)10th Oct 11
John Lewis blames heatwave for horror week
by Harry Oldfield
John Lewis suffered a huge collapse in trade during the last week of September, with sales falling in every store as shoppers stayed outdoors to enjoy the autumn heatwave. Like-for-like sales fell by almost 10 per cent, an outcome which Seymour Pierce’s Freddie George referred to as “horror week”. The analyst calculated that underlying sales [...]
(Read More)