The home shopping group N Brown Group Plc has grabbed the online lingerie and swimwear retailer Figleaves for about £11.5m.

The group has bought the total share capital of Figleaves Global Trading Ltd, having a sales figure of £23m for the year to June 2010.

The online group Figleaves.com deals in more than 100 brands and sizes starting from AA to K cup and size 28"-56". The site has been visited by more than 1.2 million customers and the business is spread across in 100 countries, entailing USA as well.

Supermarket chain Tesco said it would introduce an iTunes like service, dubbed Digital Locker, which will allow its users to access any content they buy online on a number of devices.

Those Tesco customers who own a Clubcard will also have a Digital Locker as it is linked to company’s reward-card database. For example, if a customer purchases a CD or DVD online, the digital copy of the title will automatically get transferred to customer’s Digital Locker.

The customer can stream or download the digital title on as many as 12 registered devices, including phone or laptop.

Supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury's are expected to post bleak trading figures this week amid uncertain economic conditions as emergency budget is looming. A growth of just 0.8 per cent reported by Morrisons for the quarter ended May 2nd is an indication that Tesco and Sainsbury's will also report anaemic like-for-like sales growth for the most recent quarter.

To maintain the stability of the boardroom at Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco, David Reid has vowed to stay on as its chairman for at least another 18 months. Last week, the long-serving Chief Executive, Sir Terry Leahy said he would resign next year. It has been reported that Reid, 63, initially had decided to step down but now he has committed to stay.

Once Philip Clarke, the International Director, succeeds Leahy next March, David is tipped to remain for at least several months.

British retailer John Lewis reported an increase of more than 20 per cent in sales for the week ended June 5 as customers purchased more flat-screen TVs to watch World Cup.

Total sales excluding VAT, reported a jump of 17.9 per cent to £53.99 million, while like-for-like sales climbed 14.5 per cent.

John Lewis said that its total sales climbed to settle at £53.99 million during the week, up from £44.78 million in the corresponding period of last year.

American consumers are shocked and confused and reluctant to spend by the constant torrent of complex and often conflicting data on the state of the economy. The University of Michigan and Reuters conducted an early reading of consumer sentiment which jumped to the highest level in more than two years. Retail sales dipped 1.2% in May, which brought an end to a seven-month streak of gains.

David Wyss, Chief Economist for Standard & Poor's, said, “We're all schizophrenic. People remain nervous about borrowing money and about spending money, and they darn well ought to”.

Home Retail Group reported worse-than-expected drop in sales at its catalogue-based Argos stores for the quarter ended May 29th, in a move that dragged shares down by 4.08 per cent or 9.7 pence to 228.3 pence-a-share. Like-for-like sales at Argos slipped 8.1 per cent over the 13-week period, leading to a 5.2 per cent fall in revenue. Total sales slipped 5.2 per cent to settle at £889 million.

Home Retail Group also announced that its Homebase chain suffered a fall of 1.4 per cent in sales over the same period.

In the wake of extremely disappointing and poor sales, Agro’s parent Company, the Home Retail Group witnessed a fall in its shares at the rate of 9.7%.

As per the reports, the shares fell 9.7% to 228.3p.

Further, it was confirmed by Home Retail that the sales at its Homebase chain also declined by 1.4pc, over the period.

Commenting on the performance, Home Retail's Chief Executive, Terry Duddy said that the figure revealed were not what the Company was anticipating or expecting.

Asos, which targets young women with its celebrity-inspired fashions, has reportedly been in discussion with several retailers including chemist chain Alliance Boots to let customers to collect their orders at Boots stores, in a bid to steer clear of the frustration of missed deliveries.

Asos wants to expand its service without having to open stores. Reports suggest that Alliance Boots is pursuing talks with Asos to bring more brands into its stores. Argos and WH Smith could also follow move, however, Asos declined to make any comment on the report.

Retailing giant WH Smith has reported a fall in its sales at the airport and travel centre sites in the third quarter, holding the recent volcanic ash cloud crisis responsible for it.

It posted a 4% fall in like-for-like sales across WH Smith Travel operating via 495 units in airports, train stations and at motorway service stations, following the flight chaos caused by the ash cloud.

Its travel stores sales dropped by 2% in the 14 weeks to June 5, WH Smith has affirmed. He said the drop in the sales is unlikely to alter its profits.

In a recent survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), it has been found that the UK retail sales experienced recoil in May, helped by the warm weather and discounting prices.

The report suggested that like-for-like sales, with opening of many new stores inclined 0.8% as compared to the figures a year ago.

Last year, the retail sales growth was timid in May, and in April also, retail sales dipped sharply.

But since last month, it has been observing an increase. BRC's director general Stephen Robertson said that the “sunnier second half of May” heighten overall sales.

Asda, for the first time in four years, posted a drop in quarterly underlying sales, due to lower food price inflation. The Britain's No. 2 grocer shared that high petrol prices and rising taxes would keep expenses passive.

Asda, owned by U. S. retailer Wal-Mart revealed that sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.3 percent, exclusive of petrol and VAT sales tax in the first quarter of the year, which was low from a surge of 4.6 percent in the final quarter of 2009.

No. 1 U. S. home-improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. has reported its first-quarter profit by 41% on margin and sales growth, helped by enhanced demand for appliances and other bigger-ticket items.

The No. 1 U. S. home-improvement retailer also elevated its current-year forecast to earnings from continuing operations of about $1.88 a share on a sales increase of about 3.5%. In February, the company had forecast earnings of $1.79 on 2.5% same-store-sales growth.

The recent reports showed that in March, Singapore's retail sales fell because of the rising car prices. These rising prices halted the consumers to make purchases.

"Weaker car sales continue to exert a drag on the numbers. Car prices were driven higher due to the shortage of certificates of entitlement that allow the ownership of cars", said Alvin Liew, an Economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, before the report.

For the customers who want to connect their e-mails, movies, games and music, Wall-Mart Stores Inc., this year, has started selling Apple Inc’s iPad in some U.S. stores. It is as a result of the competition from other electronic chains and stores like Best Buy, who’s started selling Apple’s iPads when launched in April.

Apple’s iPhone had been in both, Wal-Mart and Best-Buy since 2008. With a discount of $2 from the retail price, the Apple iPhone 3GS costs $197 in Wal-Mart. Heavier concession than this cannot even be anticipated.