‘Close down the online operation’ looks as though it has made its way to page one of the instruction manual for what to do when a retailer is on the edge of bankruptcy.

Maternity wear specialist Blooming Marvellous is the latest to post a ‘closed’ sign on its website as the retailer, owned by troubled Icelandic investor Arev, hovers on the brink of collapse.

Visitors to the main bloomingmarvellous.co.uk front page are greeted with the message:

Sorry.

We are experiencing technical difficulties with our website and ordering systems and are unable to process any orders or queries at the moment. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Other Blooming Marvellous pages return error messages.

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