21st June 2022
Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond
Good morning You may have heard that Kate Bush has stormed back to the top of the UK charts with her 1985 track ‘Running Up That Hill’ after the song featured on the Netflix series Stranger Things. What you may not know is that as Bush wrote, produced and has 100% rights to the song, she’s currently earning about £250,000 a week via Spotify streaming alone on the 37 year-old track.
Today's stories
Gov tightens buy now pay later rules
Primark dips toe into online retail
CONSUMERGov tightens buy now pay later rules
Lenders will have to make sure loans are affordable and that a
dverts are fair, clear and not misleading.
Other stories to keep you in the loop
Average UK house price hits £368,614 in fifth record this year
Heathrow asks airlines to cancel 10% of flights
Energy firms face limit on direct debit overpayment
Crypto industry on the brink as bitcoin struggles to stay above key $20,000 level
Rolls-Royce hands workers £2,000 to ease cost of living squeeze
RETAILPrimark dips toe into online retail
What happened?Yesterday budget retailer Primark announced a much-anticipated entry into ecommerce with the trial of a click and collect service later this year. What took it so long?For years Primark has been the odd one out of its high street peers by solely selling in store and not online. The company insisted that the low cost of its items and high cost of running an online business (processing returns, offering free delivery) meant that it didn’t make commercial sense.But during lockdown when the high street was closed, having an online presence was vital and beneficial for retailers and Primark lost over £1bn in sales.In January the company announced a U-turn and launched a website where customers could view items for the first time and check stock levels in store. The website has proved so popular that Primark is moving into trialling click and collect in 25 north east stores with 2,000 items or 40% of its range.The news came as the company reported an 81% jump in sales in the three months to May compared to last year. Primark said the return of shopping for nights out and holidays boosted trading.Last week fellow fashion retailers Asos and Boohoo reported disappointing sales citing that younger customers were started to cut back amidst the cost of living crisis. But Primark says its yet to see that same trend amongst its customers.
Stat of the day
A recent survey found that trust in the UK media has dropped from 51% in 2015 to 34% in 2022
Interesting links from around the web
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Is the economy actually bad, or does everyone just feel like it is?
10 ways to keep exercising in a heatwave
