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☆ China gives suspended death sentence to Tian Huiyu, former China Merchants Bank president
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The court said he had used his privileged access to information to make more than 290 million yuan ($41 million) in illegal gains from the stock market. He also leaked inside information about stocks to other people, which yielded more than 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in illicit profits, it said. In return, he accepted bribes worth more than 210 million yuan ($30 million), it said. In 2013, Tian was promoted to head China Merchants Bank, serving as its president and its Communist Party boss. The Communist Party has stepped up its crackdown on the country’s state-owned financial system since last year.

Persons: Tian Huiyu, Xi Jinping, Tian, Wang Qishan, ”, Li Xiaopeng, Liu Liange, Bao Fan, Bao Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank, China Cinda Asset Management, Beijing, Communist Party, Central Commission, Communist, Adobe, China Everbright Group, Bank of China, China Renaissance Locations: China, Hong Kong, Changde city, Hunan, China’s, Shanghai, Changde

☆ Why is Travis Kelce so concerned about my credit score?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

And now, he would like to talk about everybody's — credit scores. It's the type of message that can briefly fill you with panic since credit scores can make or break your financial life. The checking account and debit card are pretty vanilla, and Boost doesn't guarantee a higher credit score. America is filled with people with bad credit scores who want to improve, and probably a lot of them are football fans. "But America is filled with people with bad credit scores who want to improve, and probably a lot of them are football fans."

Persons: Travis Kelce, Taylor, He's, It's, Experian, Kelce, Katie Stratman, it's, isn't, Matt Schulz, Aaron Klein, Rajiv Bhatia, Chi Wu, Swift, —, Klein, Emily Stewart Organizations: Kansas City Chiefs, American Express, Chiefs, Netflix, Citibank, Brookings Institution, Treasury, Morningstar, National Consumer Law Center, Capital, Business Locations: Experian, America

☆ Startup funding is falling in most major cities. So why is Boston pulling ahead?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Melia Russell | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

AdvertisementThe Bay Area took the lion's share of capital raised on Carta in 2023, followed by Boston, then New York. AdvertisementAccording to Carta data, select metro areas saw the total early-stage funding raised decline by at least a third from 2022 to 2023. Yet early-stage funding was only down 24% in Boston, however, the smallest decrease of the metro areas that Carta tracks. According to Carta data, about $2.6 billion of capital raised in biotech flowed to Boston startups last year. Beyond biotechThe Carta data shows Boston also had strong showings across investment in software-as-a-service and hardware.

Persons: —, Zach Weinberg, Roche, Carta, Founders, that's, Rudina Seseri, Seseri, Peter Walker, Michael Greeley, Greeley, Mark Castleman, Castleman, Clement Cazalot, Cazalot, Walker Organizations: Service, Massachusetts Turnpike, Partners, Business, Carta, Boston, East Coast, Companies, Area, Flare Capital Partners, pharma, Intel Ignite, Glasswing Ventures, Founders, Machinery, Pritzker Group, Armory Square Ventures, Way Ventures, Klaviyo's, New York Stock Exchange Locations: Boston, New York City, East, Boston , Cambridge, Newton , Massachusetts, Newark, Jersey City , New Jersey, New York, San Francisco, Bay, France, Copley

☆ A bullish options bet on a rallying fintech into earnings
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Michael Khouw | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Nevertheless, we're going to take advantage of lower- than-average longer-dated options premiums in an e-commerce payment services company to frame a modestly bullish bet going into earnings. Companies might beat earnings expectations but still see their stock price fall due to other factors like future earnings guidance, revenue quality, or broader market conditions. Guidance: Companies often provide forward-looking statements or guidance about future earnings and performance during their earnings calls, which can have an immediate and unpredictable impact on their stock price. Analyst expectations: The market's reaction can be more about how the actual earnings compare to analyst expectations rather than the earnings themselves. In some cases though, the options market is not anticipating particularly sharp moves, and this may present an opportunity.

Persons: we're, Fiserv Locations: United States

☆ Mastercard jumps into generative AI race with model it says can boost fraud detection by up to 300%
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

(Photo by Joan Cros Garcia/Corbis via Getty Images)Payments giant Mastercard says it has built its own proprietary generative artificial intelligence model to help thousands of banks in its network detect and root out fraudulent transactions. The company told CNBC exclusively that its new advanced AI model, Decision Intelligence Pro, will allow banks to better assess suspicious transactions on its network in real-time and determine whether they're legitimate or not. Ajay Bhalla, Mastercard's president of cyber and intelligence business unit, told CNBC that the new AI solution is a proprietary recurrent neural network — a core part of generative AI — from Mastercard built from scratch by the company's cybersecurity and anti-fraud teams. "We are using the transformer models which basically help get the power of generative AI," Bhalla told CNBC in an exclusive interview earlier this week. Mastercard's proprietary algorithm is trained on data from the roughly 125 billion transactions that go through the company's card network annually.

Persons: Joan Cros Garcia, Corbis, Ajay Bhalla, Bhalla, we've, — Organizations: MasterCard, Mobile, Congress, Getty, Mastercard, CNBC Locations: BARCELONA, SPAIN, Barcelona, Spain

☆ Palestinians are eating grass and drinking polluted water as famine looms across Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Sana Noor Haq | Rosa Rahimi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

“They are weak now, they always have diarrhea, their faces are yellow,” El Jamara, whose family was displaced from northern Gaza, told CNN on January 9. “Unfortunately, many relatives and friends are still in the northern Gaza Strip, suffering a lot,” Hamouda, a father-of-three, told CNN. The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are “absolutely critical” for physical growth and cognitive development, Inglis told CNN. “It is not enough to meet my family’s needs at all,” the student, who is sheltering in a tent in Rafah, told CNN. “We simply don’t have enough, and we cannot keep up with the overwhelming needs of people on the ground,” she told CNN.

Persons: CNN — Hanadi Gamal Saed El Jamara, El Jamara, Arif Husain, Martin Griffiths, “, ”, El, Mohammed Hamouda, Odeh Al, Haw, Hamouda, Yahya Hassouna, Israel, ” Hamouda, Jabalya, Gihan, Baz, ” El Baz, Hoor, Hazem Saeed Al, Mohammed Hamouda Hamouda, Abu Youssef Al, Rebecca Inglis, Inglis, Shadi Bleha, Khan Younis, OCHA, Mohammed Hamouda Juliette Touma, Naizi Organizations: CNN, Food Programme, Integrated Food Security, UN, of Health, “, Getty, United Nations Relief, Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, Najjar Hospital, UNICEF, World Health Organization, United Nations Population Fund, WFP, OCHA, World, Al Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Israel, Egypt, “, Gaza City, AFP, East, Britain, Al, Territories, Deir al, Balah

☆ 'The shooting has to stop': World's biggest shipping company pleads with Congress to help end Houthi Red Sea chaos
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Lori Ann Larocco | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ralby stressed the crisis in the Red Sea is not just a U.S. problem, but recent attacks by the U.S. military have led to greater targeting of its vessels. After those attacks, Maersk announced it would no longer be transiting the Red Sea. MSC announced on December 17 that it would divert its services that would typically transit the Red Sea and the Suez Canal around the Cape of Good Hope. Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea adds one to two weeks to a one-way shipping journey relative to the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Rising freight costs were a big component of inflation during Covid and the Red Sea crisis has renewed fears that another bout of supply chain-triggered inflation could occur.

Persons: Ralby, Ian Ralby, Darr, Charles, Bud, Salud Carbajal, Biden, Hapag Lloyd, Bab, Good Hope, Jon Gold, Phillips, Ralph Lauren, Levi Strauss, Gold Organizations: U.S, Mediterranean Shipping Company, U.S . Navy, Coast Guard, Maritime Transportation, MSC, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Maersk, Maersk Detroit, Maersk Chesapeake, Navy, Intelligence, Suzuki, Volvo, Michelin, Ikea, National Retail Federation, Bank of America, Van Heusen Corporation, Birkenstock, Capri Holdings, Nike, Corp Locations: Suez, Ismailia, Egypt, Yemen, U.S, Iran, Gulf, Aden, Maersk, Good, Europe's, Asia, Europe, Vietnam

☆ What China’s E.V. City Says About the State of the Economy
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Keith Bradsher | Joy Dong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ultramodern factories churn out electric cars and solar panels in Hefei, an industrial center in the heart of central China. Yet at Hefei’s market for construction materials, which fills 10 city blocks, local merchants are gloomy. Nowhere better showcases the opportunities and vulnerabilities of China’s economy than Hefei. Government-directed growth in industries like electric vehicles and solar panels has turned China into the world’s export superpower, making Hefei a model for other Chinese cities. But a nationwide decline in real estate has devastated the finances of millions of families and small businesses — including in Hefei.

Persons: Wu Junlin, “, ” Locations: Hefei, China, Government

☆ Ex-Shopify merchants built a no-code platform to simplify e-commerce. Check out the 13-slide pitch deck Krepling used to raise $3.3 million.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Brothers Liam, 23, and Travis Gerada, 20, were Shopify merchants before they decided to get into the more technical side of e-commerce. They found that running a modern e-commerce business requires many different software integrations that often don't share data with each other, making it difficult to manage and make decisions. Some use Shopify or other platforms like WooCommerce, while others have used Krepling to grow from the ground up. "We found that merchants were typically expanding their e-commerce stack to optimize the cost to reach different consumers across many different channels. Take a look at the 13-slide pitch deck that Krepling used to raise its seed round:

Persons: Liam, Travis Gerada, they're, Krepling, Jason Calacanis, Liam Gerada, Gerada Organizations: Business, Bull City Venture Partners, Ventures, Tribes Ventures, Colabora Ventures, Broadshade Investments Locations: GMV

☆ TikTok Shop buyers will have to pay higher order minimums to get free shipping as the company cuts back
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Madeline Stone | Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewTikTok is making it harder to get free shipping on its e-commerce platform, Shop. The threshold for free shipping will remain at $5 for first-time buyers. TikTok's updated guidance notes that free shipping does not apply when it determines the shipping costs exceed "fair market price." TikTok acknowledged in its documentation that its free shipping subsidies may not last forever. Michael Herling, a merchant who sells hats on TikTok Shop, described the planned fee increases as a "real downer."

Persons: —, Sellers, TikTok, It's, Michael Herling, downer, Herling Organizations: Service, Business

☆ Temu was one of the fastest-growing websites in 2023, new data shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Temu was among the fastest-growing large websites in the US last year, according to a new analysis by Similarweb. When considering only websites with more than 10 million monthly visits, Temu came in second only to OpenAI, which saw its traffic grow by 2,690% in 2023 as AI exploded into the mainstream. The ad intelligence company told Modern Retail that Temu spent an estimated $517 million on US ads between September and December 2023. AliExpress, the Alibaba-owned online marketplace, was in third place behind Temu with year-over-year traffic growth of 290%. AliExpress was launched in 2010 but still saw significantly less traffic than Temu in 2023, with an average of about 24.2 million monthly visits.

Persons: Temu, David Carr, AliExpress, Carr Organizations: Pinduoduo Holdings, Business, Modern, Duo Security Locations: Boston, China

☆ Amazon's latest layoffs hit its Buy with Prime unit
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon is laying off about 30 employees in its Buy with Prime unit, CNBC has learned, as it continues to look for ways to trim costs. The cuts affect fewer than 5% of staff in the Buy with Prime division, Amazon said. Buy with Prime is a service that lets online stores offer the same two-day shipping benefits available to Prime subscribers. Amazon said it's assisting Buy with Prime employees who were laid off in finding new roles elsewhere within the company. WATCH: Amazon lays off hundreds of roles across Twitch, Prime Video and MGM Studios

Persons: we've, Santos, Peter Larsen, Amazon Organizations: CNBC, Amazon, Prime, MGM, Google, Xerox, Unity, Employees, MGM Studios

☆ The Wine Heiresses Apparent
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Eric Asimov | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

She was far more interested in making wine herself, so she earned a degree in winemaking and found jobs with wineries elsewhere in Tuscany. But she felt drawn to Radda-in-Chianti, where some of the most ethereal Chianti Classicos are from. They made wine but sold it in bulk to merchants who bottled it. Having proven herself at winemaking, she took over the family vineyards to make the wine for Istine, her new Chianti Classico label. Today, they are critically acclaimed around the world, and she has begun to bottle single-vineyard wines from each of the family’s plots.

Persons: Angela Fronti Locations: Chianti, Radda, Tuscany

☆ A Mexican bride was arrested when police ambushed her on the way to her wedding. The groom escaped.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewA Mexican bride's wedding day took an unexpected turn last month as she found herself in handcuffs instead of saying "I do." The woman, identified only as Nancy N., was arrested on the day she was due to get married. Mexico state prosecutors said the woman was apprehended and is accused of taking part in an extortion scheme alongside her would-be husband and six others. The couple was part of a group accused by state prosecutors of extorting chicken and egg merchants near Toluca, Mexico. The group is also suspected of kidnapping workers from a poultry shop, state prosecutors said in the news release.

Persons: —, Nancy N, Clemente, El Organizations: Service, Business, General's, El, CBS News, Familia, Prosecutors, BBC News, The New York Times Locations: Mexico, El Sol de Toluca, Villa Guerrero, Toluca, Guerrero , Mexico, Texcapilla

☆ A Redditor discovered that a San Francisco pizzeria operates over 70 brands on DoorDash from its kitchen, selling pasta, wings, desserts, and halal food
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A San Francisco pizzeria appears to operate more than 70 virtual brands on DoorDash selling falafel, pasta, and wings. AdvertisementA pizzeria in San Francisco appears to operate more than 70 different virtual brands on DoorDash. Restaurants sometimes design their own virtual brands, but they can also host other virtual brands. Uber Eats removed 8,000 last spring and summer and DoorDash says it will remove brands that virtual brands quality requirements. Reddit users didn't seem surprised to discover that the Polk Street address operates a network of virtual brands.

Persons: Redditor, —, N'Sert, Hoodline, We're, Fresco, DoorDash, Uber, they've, Philly, Polk Organizations: San, Service, DoorDash, Business, Polk, Fresco Inc, Google, Cupid's Locations: San Francisco, Burger, DoorDash

He started making money on the app by offering fishing baits through TikTok Shop, selling around 92 strawberry- and sweet-corn-flavored "little bitz," for instance. "TikTok product violations are nearly enough to make me walk away," one merchant who sells children's products on TikTok Shop told BI. TikTok Shop officially launched in the US in September after months of testing and previous rollouts in other countries like the UK and Singapore. But lately, its AI detection system has run amok, Shop sellers told BI. Several TikTok Shop merchants told BI that it felt like submitting a ticket through the creator center felt like a dead end.

Persons: Joel, livestreaming, TikTok, Sellers, Jessica Slone, Anastasia Wesselink Moellering, Etsy Organizations: Business, TikTok Shop, Singapore, Bloomberg, TikTok, Shopify Locations: Chicago

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Persons: you've, It's, You'll, HBO Max, Hulu, you'll Organizations: Business Insider, U.S, EV, Business, Netflix, Spotify, Bank, Go, Card, Quicksilver, Capital, U.S . Bank, Amazon, Amazon Prime, Apple Music, Apple, DirecTV, ESPN, HBO, MLB TV, NBA, NHL, Paramount, Showtime, Slacker, Starz, YouTube, Go Visa, Visa Locations: U.S, Luminary

☆ The Score: Shopify, GM, Tesla and More Stocks That Defined the Week
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Francesca Fontana | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

E-commerce platform Shopify said its merchants hit a sales record. Photo: David Kawai/Bloomberg NewsThe Score is a weekly review of the biggest stock moves and the news that drove them. ShopifyBlack Friday and Cyber Monday brought in big sales for online shopping firms.

Persons: David Kawai, Shopify Organizations: Bloomberg

☆ The secret history of Japan’s best sweets
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Lilit Marcus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Many of Japan’s present-day favorite wagashi – sweets – have their origins on Kyushu. Castella (kasutera in Japanese) also makes an appearance in another popular Japanese sweet, dorayaki. Here, the castella cake is thinner and made into a pancake with a layer of sweet red bean paste inside. Europe meets Japan, Japan meets EuropeAnother European sweet that got the Japanese treatment is macarons. For him, it’s a way of honoring Japan’s small producers, in addition to introducing these flavors to the hotel’s guests.

Persons: Joyi Chang, It’s, ”, Michele Abbatemarco, there’s, Margaret, Emperor, –, Miyamoto Shoko, it’s Organizations: CNN, Japan CNN Locations: Kyushu, Japan, Macao, Nagasaki, Portuguese, Japan’s, Portugal, Fukusaya, Fukuoka, Fukusaya’s, Hakata Station, Europe, Otemachi, Saga City, Tokyo, Spain, Netherlands, England

☆ Wordline shares surge on report Credit Agricole could take stake
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The logo of payments company Worldline is seen at the company headquarters in the financial and business district of La Defense, near Paris, France, October 26, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsPARIS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Shares in Worldline (WLN.PA) surged almost 12% on Friday after a media report said Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) was considering acquiring a stake in the French payment processing company. Other French financial institutions could also look at playing a role in Worldline's future, Bloomberg added, citing some of the people. Italian payments company Nexi (NEXII.MI) last month confirmed its guidance while the Netherlands' Adyen (ADYEN.AS) reassured the market with its "more realistic" medium-term guidance. Worldline shares have fallen more than 58% this year.

Persons: Gonzalo Fuentes, Piotr Lipinski, Sharon Singleton, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: La Defense, REUTERS, Rights, Bloomberg, Credit, Thomson Locations: La, Paris, France, Worldline, Germany, cybercrime, Netherlands

☆ ‘Bone biographies’ reveal what life was like for medieval commoners
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“An osteobiography uses all available evidence to reconstruct an ancient person’s life,” said lead study author John Robb, a professor at Cambridge University, in a statement. “Our team used techniques familiar from studies such as Richard III’s skeleton, but this time to reveal details of unknown lives — people we would never learn about in any other way.”An illustration shows a typical marketplace in medieval Cambridge. Mark Gridley/After the PlagueThe bone biographies are available on Cambridge University’s After the Plague project website. Together, the bones tell a collective story about a cross section of people living in medieval Cambridge and the hardships they faced. “Everyday diseases, such as measles, whooping cough and gastrointestinal infections, ultimately took a far greater toll on medieval populations,” Robb said.

Persons: —, ”, John Robb, “, Richard III’s, Mark Gridley, Sarah Inskip, osteoarchaeologist, John the, ” Robb, Anne, Eudes, Edmund, John, Wat, Robb, Christiana, Dickon, Maria, infirmity Organizations: CNN —, Cambridge, Cambridge University, University of Leicester, Cambridge’s Hospital of St, St, John’s, Stourbridge Fair, University of Cambridge, “, Cambridge Archaeological, Hospital of St Locations: Cambridge, Cambridge’s, Wat, Christiana, Norway, Stourbridge, England, ”, Europe

☆ Retailers Are Turning to AI to Get Smarter About Inventory
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Merchants like Walmart are using technology that takes in everything from weather patterns to social-media trends. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg NewsRetailers are turning to artificial intelligence technology to better predict shopper demand and repair supply chains whipsawed by volatile consumer buying patterns during the pandemic. Merchants including Walmart , retail-pharmacy giant Walgreens and online fashion seller ASOS are rolling out the increasingly sophisticated technology that takes in everything from weather patterns to social-media trends to evaluate huge sets of data and guide decisions on where to place inventory.

Persons: Victor J Organizations: Walmart, Bloomberg News Retailers, Merchants, Walgreens

☆ Asia’s tech giants lean toward desperate deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Anshuman Daga | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew arrives for a dinner, on the eve of the Paris Peace Forum at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, November 9, 2023. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was feted in Indonesia where it has 125 million monthly active users when he pledged in June to invest billions of dollars in the region. But the global giant failed to anticipate regulatory hurdles in its biggest market for online shopping. TikTok’s viral video app would provide Tokopedia with a powerful new growth avenue for its online shopping and payments business. Yet as tech companies from the People’s Republic to Indonesia pull out all the stops to lift growth amid waning investor support, desperate new alliances are bound to emerge.

Persons: Shou Zi Chew, Gonzalo Fuentes, TikTok, China’s, GoTo, Patrick Walujo, Indonesia’s GoTo, Una Galani, Thomas Shum Organizations: Paris Peace, REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Companies, Google, Temasek, Bain &, Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics, Tokopedia, HK, Global Digital, Djarum, Bloomberg, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, Rights SINGAPORE, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics Jakarta, Tokopedia, Lazada, Singapore, Indonesian, Thailand, People’s Republic, China

☆ Southeast Asia is on the cusp of a 'supercharged' digital payments revolution, PwC says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Widespread mobile ownership, together with rapid digitalization after the pandemic, helped spur the expansion of digital financial services in Southeast Asia, said PwC. PwC"This enhanced availability and convenience of digital payments will see the bulk of the regional population leveraging mainstream digital financial products, such as e-wallets, further expediting the expansion of financial services," said PwC. watch now"Consumers are adopting digital financial services at a rapid pace. Cash is no longer king, as digital payments now make up more than 50% of the region's transactions," a recent Google, Temasek and Bain & Company report wrote. "In some regions such as Southeast Asia, [digital payments via e-wallets] are already more common than physical card payments and set to dominate point-of-sale [systems] overall," wrote Dan Jones and Alex Walker of OliverWyman.

Persons: PwC, hawkers, —, Cash, Dan Jones, Alex Walker of OliverWyman Organizations: Banking, Getty, Careem, Mercado Libre, Temasek, Bain & Company Locations: China, East Asia, Shanghai, Banking Asia, Asia, Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Paytm, India, AliPay, Latin America

☆ Australia Oct retail sales slip as consumers hold off for Black Friday sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Women shop for clothes on a store in a shopping mall in Sydney's central business district (CBD) Australia, February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSYDNEY, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Australian retail sales unexpectedly slipped in October as consumers cut back on everything but food, though analysts believe many were merely saving some money to splurge on Black Friday sales that took place this month. Retail sales fell 0.2% from September to A$35.77 billion, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed on Tuesday. "This is a pattern we have seen develop in recent years as Black Friday sales grow in popularity." Data from e-commerce firm Shopify also showed that point-of-sale sales made by its merchants in Australia during this year's Black Friday sales grew 27% from a year ago.

Persons: Daniel Munoz, Ben Dorber, Shopify, that's, Marcel Thieliant, Michele Bullock, Stella Qiu, Tom Hogue, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Black, ANZ, Asia Pacific, Capital Economics, Reserve Bank of Australia, Thomson Locations: Australia

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