Sophie Baqué

Chief Editor of mind Retail

Latest articles by Sophie Baqué

Eddie Lampert, gravedigger or saviour of Sears?

Eddie Lampert, often compared to Warren Buffet with a stellar performance of his ESL fund, has controlled Sears’s fate for 6 years. The former Goldman Sachs prodigy is now the largest...

13 February 2019

How Ikea prepares for the future

Involved in a strategical shift, the Swedish Ikea Group is widening its city-centre footprint with an array of urban stores to open this year, including in Manhattan and in Paris (in May 2019...

13 February 2019

Luxury products : Farfetch will go public

According to a recent report from Bain & Company, the global personal luxury goods market is poised to grow by 6% to 8% in 2018, and reach US$ 446 billion by 2025. Digital players are...

11 September 2018

Our tribute to Kate Spade

In June 2018, the designer and creative entrepreneur Kate Spade (aged 55) died in New York in a sadly familiar case of depression illness. Born in Kansas City in 1962, Spade started working in New...

10 June 2018

India : Wal-Mart invests US$ 16 billion in the e-retailer Flipkart

As Walmart scales back in Brazil and in the U.K. the world’ largest retailer by sales has just signed a US$16 billion deal for 77% of Flipkart, India’s fast-growing e-merchant. The...

25 May 2018

Vincent Rey, Madura : “Our next showroom will have a zero inventory policy”

A discussion with Vincent Rey, C.E.O. of Madura’s home decoration retailer.

20 March 2018

Brazil : Diniz supports Noel Prioux as C.E.O

In Brazil, Carrefour’s largest foreign market by sales, Noël Prioux replaces Charles Demartis. Brazilian businessman Abilio Diniz, Founder of Grupo Pao de Açucar who was ousted...

17 November 2017

Nike did not need Amazon… until now

After having refused to sell via Amazon alongside its own retail channels, the sporting goods retailer Nike (sales of US$34.4 billion in the fiscal year to May 2017, up by 6%) has decided that it...

26 July 2017

[confidential] Alibaba tests Hema Fresh, a Chinese version of Amazon Go

Mind retail has learned that China's e-commerce giant Alibaba is quietly rolling out "Hema Fresh" supermarket labs. Fully digitalized and serving as e-commerce hubs, they are part of our selection...

13 June 2017

Lego considers an alternative to plastic bricks

Eager to reduce its carbon footprint,

18 May 2017

Galeries Lafayette opens an Asian version

Similar to the U.S.A., department stores in Europe are increasingly specialised. Focussed on Asian customers, Galeries Lafayette Group opened an innovative Parisian store in

18 April 2017

Trade war between Beijing and Seoul intensifies

Accusations are rising between Beijing and Seoul. As one of the largest South Korean retail conglomerates, Lotte Group is suspected to support the U.S. missile-defence system.

18 April 2017

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Retail media: Fnac Darty, Klépierre and Médiaperformances accelerate on XXL screens and international expansion

As advertising formats arrive at high speed on LLMs, omnichannel retail media players are strengthening their offerings. While Klépierre has just signed with a new partner for 3D screens...

11 September 2026

Hugues Chanoine (Hygie31 Digital): “The next step is to eliminate filters to move to 100% conversational search”

The Hygie31 retail group, known for the Lafayette Pharmacies, is continuing to transform its websites, driven by Cocooncenter. Thanks to an AI strategy and a fully redesigned IT architecture, it...

10 September 2026

ChatGPT: Bureau Vallée’s recipe to capture back-to-school spending

By launching a conversational chatbot with Algolia and a new module converting school lists into e-commerce carts this summer, Bureau Vallée aims to ease the chore of back-to-school supply list...

10 September 2026

With Claudeforce, Salesforce opens data to Anthropic and shifts into the conversational AI era

With the announcement of deep integration of the Claude LLM within the Salesforce ecosystem via MCP servers, SaaS software interfaces are fading in favour of AI agents. According to...

9 September 2026

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Before an IPO, Shein forced to reveal margin erosion in 2025 and impact of US tariff shock

Made public ahead of a Hong Kong listing planned for September, Shein’s financial documents, seen by mind Retail, confirm the shift experienced by the fast-fashion retailer. Despite a 8% sales...

21 August 2026

O’Boticario rolls out AI diagnostics across 4,000 stores with Haut.ai

On August 18, Brazilian cosmetics retail chain O’Boticario (2025 GMV up by 6.7%) announced the deployment of skin analysis technology provided by Estonian start-up Haut.AI. It will be rolled...

21 August 2026

E-commerce: click-through rate down by 5.4% since Google AIO launch in France

mind Retail has gained access to exclusive Ahrefs figures on the impact of Google "AI Overviews" responses for the e-commerce sector. Launched on July 22, 2026, in France as part of AI Mode, these...

20 August 2026

ChatGPT: Bureau Vallée’s recipe to capture back-to-school spending

By launching a conversational chatbot with Algolia and a new module converting school lists into e-commerce carts this summer, Bureau Vallée aims to ease the chore of back-to-school supply list...

10 September 2026

Hugues Chanoine (Hygie31 Digital): “The next step is to eliminate filters to move to 100% conversational search”

The Hygie31 retail group, known for the Lafayette Pharmacies, is continuing to transform its websites, driven by Cocooncenter. Thanks to an AI strategy and a fully redesigned IT architecture, it...

10 September 2026

Walmart finally accepts in-store payments with Apple Pay and Google Pay

Sanctioned by financial markets after a sharp US slowdown in Q2, Walmart is reviewing a checkout strategy. Abandoning a rejection of technological giants, the group is rolling out Apple Pay and...

24 August 2026