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People shop for Black Friday deals in Pico Rivera, Calif., on Nov. 25. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images Cautious shoppers hunted for the best deals at stores and online as retailers offered new Black Friday discounts to entice consumers eager to start buying holiday gifts but weighed down by inflation. Due to elevated prices for food, rent, gasoline and other essentials, many people were being more selective, reluctant to spend unless there was a big sale. Some were dipping more into savings, turning to “buy now, pay later” services that allow payment in installments, or running up their credit cards at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking rates to cool the U.S. economy. Sheila Diggs, 55, went to a Walmart in Mount Airy, Maryland early Friday looking for a deal on a coffee maker. To save money this year, she said the adults in her family are drawing names and selecting one person to shop for. “Everything’s going up but your paycheck,” said Diggs, who manages medical records at...

Early data for Black Friday suggest a mixed bag for online sales as inflation hits shoppers ahead of the holiday season. Shopify Inc. SHOP-T said sales by merchants on its system set a new record for Black Friday as they rose 17 per cent compared with a year ago. The e-commerce company said merchant sales from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through to the end of the period in California totalled US$3.36 billion, with sales of US$3.5 million per minute at the peak. However, Salesforce said online sales in Canada were down year over year for Black Friday, though they increased globally by three per cent. Traffic from customers on computers was down 10 per cent, while traffic from mobile devices was down one per cent Discounts were also steeper, up 10 per cent from last year, Salesforce said. Shopify said top product categories were apparel and accessories, followed by health and beauty, and home and garden. Shopify provides e-commerce tools for businesses in more than 175 cou...

The early results are in for Cyber Week retail sales, and they show the pre-holiday online blitz was a washout with Canadian shoppers – another sign the consumer side of Canada’s economy may be hitting a wall. Online sales in Canada during Cyber Week, a marketing term that refers to the period surrounding U.S. Thanksgiving, dropped 8 per cent from last year and capped a month of disappointing online shopping, according to Salesforce, which specializes in sales management software for retailers. Globally, Cyber Week sales rose 2 per cent to US$281-billion, the firm said, while U.S. shoppers pushed online sales up 9 per cent during the period. A couple of factors could be at play in the weak Canadian results. Cyber Week, like its marketing cousin Black Friday, has been losing some of its lustre, with retailers offering similar deals at other times – often, confusingly, under the same banners. And, as the pandemic has waned, shoppers have abandoned their keyboards for the experience of ...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In a Slack message sent to employees on Friday, co-CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff declared the company's new hires weren't productive enough and asked what the cause might be. Bloomberg | Getty Images Benioff asked, "Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture?" in a message first reported by CNBC. Benioff reportedly followed up by attempting to soften the question's intensity with a joking "asking for a friend" smiley angel emoji. According to CNBC, Benioff emphasized that it was "an issue that he said was affecting employees who joined Salesforce this year and last." It was clear that the productivity problem might be partly related to the nature of widespread remote work, which has become much more common due to the COVID-19 ...

Activist investor Elliott Management Corp has made a multi-billion dollar investment in cloud-based software firm Salesforce Inc, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear what Elliott, one of the world’s most prominent activist investors, is pushing for at Salesforce. “We look forward to working constructively with Salesforce to realize the value befitting a company of its stature,” Jesse Cohn, managing partner at Elliott told Reuters. Cohn, who has served on the boards of several technology companies including Twitter and eBay, called Salesforce “one of the pre-eminent software companies in the world.” He added that he has “developed a deep respect for Marc Benioff and what he has built.” Benioff co-founded the company and is its co-CEO. Benioff’s co-CEO, Bret Taylor, is expected to leave this month, leaving Benioff as the sole CEO. Salesforce did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment and Elliott declined to comment. Elliott has made many techno...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In a Slack message sent to employees on Friday, co-CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff declared the company's new hires weren't productive enough and asked what the cause might be. Bloomberg | Getty Images Benioff asked, "Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture?" in a message first reported by CNBC. Benioff reportedly followed up by attempting to soften the question's intensity with a joking "asking for a friend" smiley angel emoji. According to CNBC, Benioff emphasized that it was "an issue that he said was affecting employees who joined Salesforce this year and last." It was clear that the productivity problem might be partly related to the nature of widespread remote work, which has become much more common due to the COVID-19 ...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. In a Slack message sent to employees on Friday, co-CEO of Salesforce Marc Benioff declared the company's new hires weren't productive enough and asked what the cause might be. Bloomberg | Getty Images Benioff asked, "Are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture?" in a message first reported by CNBC. Benioff reportedly followed up by attempting to soften the question's intensity with a joking "asking for a friend" smiley angel emoji. According to CNBC, Benioff emphasized that it was "an issue that he said was affecting employees who joined Salesforce this year and last." It was clear that the productivity problem might be partly related to the nature of widespread remote work, which has become much more common due to the COVID-19 ...