Elena Rossi 
Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Argos released their Christmas 2026 adverts at midnight on 1 November, with home delivery at the heart of two of them. Here is what each film shows, how the Argos sale affects shoppers and when Christmas delivery slots open.
ASOS publishes full-year results on Thursday 5 November, its first numbers since hackers took customer data in October. Profit is already flagged above the midpoint of guidance; trading since the hack is the figure that matters.
Royal Mail has set Friday 18 December as the last second class posting date for Christmas 2026, with first class on Monday 21 December and Special Delivery on Wednesday 23 December. Here are the Evri, DPD, Parcelforce, international and forces deadlines, and what shoppers and sellers should do now.
Poundland’s owner is weighing a solvent rescue bid from Martin Property Group against break-up offers from rivals including B&M, Lidl and Poundstretcher’s owner. The Telegraph reports the government is on alert, days before the Budget.
The Very Group, owner of Very and Littlewoods, reported record adjusted EBITDA of £317.5m on flat sales of £2.09bn as home and credit offset falling fashion. Shoppers face a free delivery trial over £75, InPost lockers and new Very Pay instalment plans.
Walmart has launched an MCP-based Agent Gateway, per-agent account profiles with spending limits, and published terms that bar agents from card data. The move sets Walmart against Amazon, which has been blocking outside AI shopping agents such as Meta Muse.
Leslie’s filed prearranged Chapter 11 petitions on September 30, 2026 and closed 76 underperforming stores, with lenders holding over 80% of its debt backing the plan. The restructuring targets elimination of roughly $685 million, about 90% of funded debt, and hands majority ownership to the lender group.
Best Buy will open a native storefront on TikTok Shop in late October 2026, offering close to 10,000 products with its own fulfilment and in-store returns. It is the first US big-box chain of its scale to commit a general-merchandise assortment to the platform.
Britain’s Competition Appeal Tribunal certified an opt-out class action against Apple and Amazon covering Apple and Beats products bought on Amazon’s UK marketplace, a claim the claimant values at £289m to £306m including interest. It refused to certify the larger portion covering purchases from Apple directly and from other retailers.
Retailers have booked most of their IEEPA tariff refunds, and the second-quarter filings split into reinvestors (Walmart, Dollar Tree, Burlington) and bankers (Target, Home Depot, TJX, Ross, Dollar General). The signals point to the banked cash reaching shareholders by the March 2027 reporting round, with Target resuming buybacks as the test case.