The department store group on Tuesday reported pre-tax profits fell to £564.3 million in the year to 30 March, down from £658 million the year before. Despite group sales rising 1.3 per cent to £10 billion, Marks & Spencer’s general merchandise lines continued to struggle, falling 4.1 per cent year-on-year and dragging down the performance of the business as a whole.

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Amazon's Leipzig factory. Amazon workers in Germany have been called on to stage a strike to persuade the online retailing giant to improve pay and benefits. According to Reuters, German labour union Ver.di on Tuesday announced a strike that will start at 6am local time and last until the end of the late shift.

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The parent company of Argos, Habitat and Homebase on Wednesday posted its fifth consecutive fall in annual profit, as customers continue to struggle under the pressure of the downturn. Home Retail Group, Britain’s biggest household goods retailer, today announced underlying pretax profit of £91 million for the year to 2 March.

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Online sales generated by UK retailers from international markets are expected to generate £28 billion by 2020, according to new research released on Tuesday. The report, by OC&C Strategy Consultants in collaboration with Google, predicts that international online sales will soon outpace domestic ones to make up 40 per cent of total online sales by 2020.

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Sales at John Lewis came in flat at -0.1 per cent for the week as customers chose to make the most of the sunshine instead of shopping. The department store’s online director Mark Lewis on Friday reported “a number of factors” had contributed into make the seven days to 20 April a “challenging” week for the retailer compared to the same time a year before, with customers reportedly soaking up the sun in their gardens instead of on the high street.

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‘Everyday luxury’ e-commerce site My-wardrobe is said to be looking stateside to further expand its fashion and accessories brand. Having launched in the UK in 2006 and Australia in 2011, founder Sarah Curran told WWD that My-wardrobe had been looking at the US market “very carefully” as it looked to expand its audience of fashion lovers.

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John Lewis reports “unprecedented” rise in online growth as it reaches £1 billion in annual online sales a year ahead of schedule. The department store group on Monday said it reached the milestone on a 52-week rolling basis. John Lewis said it expected to reach the £1 billion mark in 2014, as IT director Paul Coby said the retailer was experiencing “an unprecedented pace of online growth”;
"The billion-pound success of johnlewis.com is a reflection of our strategy to put the customer at the heart of our online operations.

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With less than two weeks to go until the entry deadline for the Online Retail Awards (ORA), My-Retail Media met with Matthew Davies, director of the awards, to discuss what to expect from this year’s line-up. Taking place at the Royal Garden Hotel on 5 September, the ORAs look to highlight excellence in online retailing on an international scale, judged by an impartial, independent group of 14 panels of retail experts from across the world.

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Debenhams focuses on second half after 5.4 per cent fall in profits for the first half of its financial year. The department store group, which has 165 locations across the UK and Ireland, on Thursday revealed a fall in first-half profit in line with expectations after the retailer issued a profit warning in March.

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