The catalogue and online-shopping group N Brown yesterday announced plans to develop its Simply Be womenswear brand as a high-street business.

Outlook A few weeks ago, Simon Fox, the chief executive of HMV, used a speech to a conference hosted by Retail Week magazine as an opportunity to rebut the arguments of those who believe his company is not long for this world. "In five years' time, we will still have hundreds of stores on the high street," he said.

The auction website eBay is to buy the e-commerce company GSI Commerce for $1.96bn (£1.22bn) in cash in an attempt to win more business from large store chains.

Supermarket Morrisons today vowed to launch an online shopping operation within two years in a move to catch up with its web-savvy rivals.

Online retail giant Amazon unveiled a deal giving it full control of film and games subscription business Lovefilm today.

Online retailer Amazon is to create almost 1,000 jobs at a new flagship distribution site in Scotland.

Retailers are enjoying another hectic day as consumers hampered by bad weather grab their last chance to buy for Christmas.

Online shoppers are set to spend a total of £537 million today in what is predicted to be the busiest internet shopping day of the year.

Shop Direct, the owner of Woolworths.co.uk and Littlewoods, said it hoped to return to profit this financial year after slashing its annual losses with a a major overhaul of the businesses. The home shopping giant has been closing call centres under plans to transform itself from a catalogue firm into an online retailer. It posted a pre-tax loss of £21m for the year to 30 April against £114m the year before. But Shop Direct failed to increase year-on-year sales despite a celebrity-led launch of its fashion site Very.co.uk and adding Woolworths as an online brand after buying it out of administration.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has said that the recent price cut to its Kindle electronic reader has spurred sales of both the device and e-books.

Sales of digital books for e-readers have surpassed hardbacks for the first time on Amazon, marking what the online retailer called a "tipping point" for book publishing.

Amazon launched a challenge to supermarkets with a home delivery grocery service today.