Analysis

After a 9% increase in franchised stores last year, the General Delegate of the FFF is anticipating a slowdown in new franchise openings in France in 2024. While BPCE, the leading bank for...

5 November 2024

[mind Retail Exclusive] Kiabi deploys CrushOn Connect second-hand solution in 70 stores

When availability of second-hand products is a growing challenge for retailers, Kiabi signed up with technology publisher CrushOn, mind Retail has learned. The aim is to streamline the sourcing of...

30 October 2024

Auchan Retail to sell Russian stores to Gazprombank

Auchan Retail is in the process of withdrawing from Russia, with the sale of all 232 stores, according to La Lettre. While the company announced that it will remain in Ukraine, it is considering...

30 October 2024

[mind Retail Exclusive] 9 months after the launch of customer calls, Etam’s sales conversion jumped between 4 and 7 points

In France, Etam underwear retailer (2023 sales of €480 million, down by 94% in one year, via 860 stores in 57 countries) launched a new initiative at its 317 French stores. Sales staff...

29 October 2024

[Regulatory] Indonesia, South Africa and Chile join the U.S. in an attempt to curb Shein and Temu

As the European Commission opened formal proceedings against Temu on October 31, global governments are mobilising to defend local economies against Shein, AliExpress and others. While the U.S. is...

25 October 2024

Didier Veloso, GS1: “At Decathlon and L’Oréal, the usages’ growth of QR code scanning is very encouraging”

As traditional barcode is reaching its limits, QR codes are proliferating on home-electrical, fashion and food products. Didier Veloso, Executive President of GS1 France, and Diana de Bernardy...

18 October 2024

Chatbot: between Castorama and ManoMano, the transformation capacity of GenAI can be doubled

Deployed over the past year on DIY websites and marketplaces, the integration of generative AI within chatbots has improved efficiency in pre-sales. Here's a look at the results from Kingfisher...

17 October 2024

Norauto teams up with Klaro to boost staff purchasing power

Since June 2024, Norauto's HR department has been offering all 7,000 French staff use of Klaro, a start-up simplifying access to welfare benefits and local assistance. Staff using the app are now...

11 October 2024

Cécile Margnac, Snowflake: “Data clean room can add great value to retail promotional efficiency”

Need help with a strategic issue? mind Research helps you tackle strategic and operational challenges in digital and business model evolution, delivering quick insights to guide your decisions and...

10 October 2024

Omnichannel, video, photo: online and in-store, customer reviews are re-inventing themselves

As e-commerce returns to growth, online retailers need to optimise customer reviews to stay ahead of the game. We look at the strategies of Amazon, Shein, Temu, Fnac Darty, Decathlon, Picard...

8 October 2024

[mind Retail Exclusive] How Custplace’s AI automates the collection of customer reviews for Darty, Optical Centre and KparK

On October 1, 2024, Custplace, the SaaS platform managing customer and employee reviews, announced the beta test launch of “Inbox IA”. This solution enables customer reviews to be...

1 October 2024

[mind Retail Exclusive] Carrefour tests the retail media solution developed by Vusion and Mediaperformances

In-store operational teams will be able to manage retail media campaigns That’s the promise of the partnership announced on September 18, 2024, between omnichannel retail media specialist...

26 September 2024

[case study] With Smartway’s AI, Auchan Retail targets a food breakage rate of 0.75%

At Paris Retail Week, and while Smartway has just received €1.4 million in funding as part of the i-Nov innovation competition under Plan France 2030, Martine Demaret, Program Manager Officer at...

23 September 2024

[mind Retail Exclusive] Veesual signs up Lululemon and Adore Me

According to our information, start-up Veesual added Lululemon and Adore Me to its portfolio. These companies will be testing the AI-powered virtual fitting solution.

19 September 2024

Pierre Chassigneux, b.connect: ‘Around 20% of e-commerce baskets are abandoned due to authentication issues’

Recruiting major e-retailers in France, defining the right business model, opening up to other banking partners... The b.connect authentication solution, supported by 5 French banks, is due to be...

18 September 2024

[mind Retail Exclusive] Buoyed by the success of Daumesnil, a 2nd Ikea design studio is announced in Paris

At the inauguration of a first Ikea store in Paris within its own shopping centre, C.E.O. Jesper Brodin confirmed his retail and CSR priorities for 2025. With more than 10,000 appointments per...

16 September 2024

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Marketplaces: Stockly enters Switzerland with MediaMarkt, Decathlon, Galaxus and Manor

After a loss-making but high-growth year in 2025, the stock-pooling start-up for marketplaces signed agreements with 4 Swiss retailers, mind Retail learned. By taking on one of Europe’s most...

30 January 2026

Save launches an e-commerce site to support a shift towards sales

Having just reached break-even, the French subsidiary of refurbished specialist Save intends to go beyond an historical model of repair to develop sales of accessories and refurbished products...

23 January 2026

Shoptimus AI scales up in grocery smart shopping lists and prepares for a new funding round

After securing a strategic partnership with Spanish grocer Bon Preu, retail tech firm Shoptimus AI—first spotted by Carrefour—is accelerating a rollout. By leveraging AI agents to automate grocery...

11 January 2026

Agentic AI: Hymalaia attracts retailers and announces imminent fundraising

According to our sources, the young start-up Hymalaia is continuing development in retail with 4 new retailers currently in POC and an imminent fundraising. We examine the details.

16 December 2025

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Shoptimus AI scales up in grocery smart shopping lists and prepares for a new funding round

11 January 2026

With Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Zalando and Carrefour, Google launches an agentic commerce protocol

Following the launch of payments in Copilot, Google is preparing to join OpenAI and Microsoft, but with a more integrated version focused on its own payment method, Google Pay. These moves...

13 January 2026

Circana: French e-commerce ended 2025 with strong growth, hypermarkets continue to decline

After four years of decline, volumes of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) rose again in 2025 in France and Europe, although they did not compensate for four years of losses. The rebound was...

15 January 2026

2026 Trends – Chatbots, WhatsApp, social networks: don’t miss out on conversation

(Trends 2/6) After a cautious observation phase by retailers and some high-profile hallucination issues, 2025 was a turning point operationally for chatbots and conversational tools. Positioned...

13 January 2026

2026 Trends – How far should retailers open the door to AI Search engines ?

(Trends 1/6) With data visibility, recommendations, transactions on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, LLMs are establishing themselves as new entry points for e-commerce. As search, comparison and...

8 January 2026

Black Friday: Amazon’s AI assistant Rufus featured in 38% of sessions in the US

While peak season sales, revealed at the NRF Big Show, rose by 4.1% in the US from November 1 to December 31, 2025, Rufus, Amazon’s conversational chatbot, confirmed its traction. During the...

15 January 2026