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Many shoppers said "no thanks" to wild crowds over the holiday weekend as more people opted to shop online than in stores, initial data show. As retailers seamlessly transitioned from Black Friday deals to Cyber Monday deals as early as Saturday, they were riding the tailwind of a shopping weekend that found more than 103 million…

Online shoppers outnumbered their brick-and-mortar counterparts during U.S. retailers’ pivotal Black Friday weekend, underscoring the challenges facing American malls this holiday season as Amazon.com exerts more pressure. More than 103 million people shopped online over the four-day weekend, which started Thursday on Thanksgiving and continued with Black Friday, according to an annual survey commissioned by…

It’s an interesting time of year to look at retailers’ digital strategies. Given the over-the-top hype over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, one would perhaps expect that any digital strategy would be pounded flat under the weight of promotional offers — if consumers want deals, and they have holiday budget to spend, it’s basically now…

Federal regulators scrutinizing Staples’ $6 billion-plus bid to buy rival Office Depot are leaning against the deal and are preparing to block it, The Post has learned. Regulators are wary of a tie-up that will result in a single nationwide office supply giant to serve big corporate and government clients, two sources said. The Federal Trade Commission…

Neiman Marcus shoppers hoping to scoop up Black Friday deals were instead greeted with an error message. According to Catchpoint Systems, which monitors retailers' web performance, the luxury brand's homepage has been mostly unavailable since 8 a.m. ET. It represents the first significant outage of the day, and follows a smooth day of web performance on Thanksgiving,…

Wal-Mart’s website malfunctioned during the Thanksgiving shopping rush Thursday morning, throwing a wrench in some shoppers’ plans to avoid long lines by grabbing deals online. For the first time, the world’s biggest retailer offered most of its Black Friday “doorbusters” on its website hours before they were available inside its U.S. stores. The discounts, which were…

Crowds were thin at U.S. stores and shopping malls in the early hours of Black Friday and on Thanksgiving evening as shoppers responded to early holiday discounts with caution and bad weather hurt turnout. Bargain hunters found relatively little competition compared with previous years. Some on Friday morning said they had already shopped online or visited…

Early reports for Thanksgiving sales show a record number of consumers using their mobile devices for shopping. Software firm Adobe, which tracks sales at 4,500 websites, predicts $1.7 billion will be spent for the 24-hour Thursday period. Researcher Shoppertrack says retail stores rang up $3.2 billion in sales last Thanksgiving, while the Thursday/Friday period total was…

Once upon a time, Black Friday shopping actually took place on Friday. In recent years, retailers have pushed the envelope by offering deals as early as Nov. 2, allowing consumers to start shopping ahead of the official holiday season kickoff. Many have even kept their doors open on Thanksgiving Day to the dismay of retail…

A U.S. investigation into potential foreign bribery by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has unearthed evidence of possible misconduct by the retailer in Brazil, after investigators found little to support the sweeping allegations involving Mexico that initially prompted the probe, according to documents and people familiar with the matter. Federal prosecutors are examining $500,000 in payments that…