News brief

Trending topics

7-Eleven will enter Vietnam. The Japanese chain 7-Eleven will open its 1st store in Ho Chi Minh City in early 2017 via a franchising agreement with IFB Vietnam, which also runs Pizza Hut in the...

12 January 2017

Department stores travel from Japan to Southeast Asia

Department stores travel from Japan to Southeast Asia. Faced with a declining population, Japanese department stores are looking for growth elsewhere in South East Asia. Takashimaya is preparing a...

12 January 2017

Spar-China celebrates a 12-year anniversary with an I.P.O

Spar-China celebrates a 12-year anniversary with an I.P.O. Jijiayue Group, which controls the franchisor of Spar’s operations in China, is now listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Funds...

12 January 2017

Lego makes inroads in South Korea via a department store

The 1st Lego store opened in December 2016 in South Seoul as a “corner” within the high-end Hyundai Department Store, Pangyo branch. This store houses an array of international...

12 January 2017

Muji will open a hotel in Beijing

The Japanese retailer Muji will open an hotel (41 rooms, café, bookstore and lounge) during the 2nd half of 2017. The 4th floor has a café & restaurant overlooking Tiananmen...

12 January 2017

Can Africa become a source for global textiles?

Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius and Ethiopia are proving that sub- Saharan Africa has the capability to produce export quality clothing for a global market. “Saying that Africa will be the next...

12 January 2017

The Emirates move to attract tourists

Hotel occupancy in Abu Dhabi fell by 10% in October 2016 (to 73%) within a supply surplus. The length of stay dropped by 9% year-on-year to 2.8 nights. As a result, the government introduced...

12 January 2017

Amazon is eager to invest in the Gulf’s biggest online retailer

Amazon is in discussions to buy a stake in Souq. com, the region’s biggest e-commerce site. In December, Al Tayer Group, which runs Bloomingdale’s, Crate & Barrel, Coach and...

12 January 2017

Cash-on-delivery leads in the Gulf region

In the U.A.E., 70% of payments to online retailer Sivvi.com (which sells 140 fashion brands, average ticket of €90) are by cash when delivered. In Saudi Arabia, this is 85%. “The...

12 January 2017

Saudi firm invests in McDonald’s in South-East Asia

The Saudi Arabian firm Lionhorn, led by Sheik Fahd and Abdulrahman Alireza and franchisee for 100 McDonald’s restaurants in Saudi Arabia, has purchased new franchise rights for Singapore and...

12 January 2017

Barnes & Noble goes further in catering services

The U.S. bookstore chain (sales down by 3.5% in the quarter to October) is testing a fullservice restaurant named “Barnes & Noble Kitchen” at 3 U.S. locations (2,000 sq.m, 120...

12 January 2017

A French-U.S. giant for children’s clothing is born

After months of discussions, the French retailer Orchestra-Premaman finally signed a deal in December 2016 to buy U.S. rival Destination Maternity, which is valued about US$100 million. The deal...

12 January 2017

Victoria’s Secret has high ambitions in China

In 2017, the U.S. lingerie retailer plans to sell products on Tmall, Alibaba’s online marketplace. “We look at China as a 2nd home market with a potential equal to the U.S.,”...

12 January 2017

Fashion retailer Jennyfer lands in Guatemala

In December, the discount retailer Jennyfer opened its 1st stores in the capital of Guatemala, in Oakland Mall and Naranjo Mall. They cover 198 sq.m GLA and 190 sq.m GLA respectively. Jennyfer...

12 January 2017

56% of Russians regret the fall of Soviet Union

According to a poll conducted by the Levada Centre Institute in November 2016 for 1,600 people in 134 Russian cities, 56% of the polled people regretted the collapse of the U.S.S.R. 28% felt no...

12 January 2017

The British retailer Tesco enters East Africa

Tesco made a debut in Kenya via the F&F fashion chain. The first store opened in December 2016 in The Hub (Karen vicinity in Nairobi), where Majid Al Futtaim already operates a Carrefour...

12 January 2017

1…145 146147148 149…154

Our other services

Research

Conducting customized studies: benchmarks, overviews, personalized newsletters, white label content.

Training courses

Our training courses & masterclasses: short formats for management, executive coaching, and skills development for junior profiles.

Events

Our networking activities: half-day conferences dedicated to industry issues and open to the entire ecosystem.

Our mind news

See all

Refurbished smartphones: why Largo relies on Speeral automation

The start-up founded by the duo behind Teester and Skeepers is accelerating automation of second-hand product flows. The strategy is to use AI to direct products to high-traffic marketplaces such...

9 December 2025

Leroy Merlin and Aroma‑Zone launch in‑store analytics pilots with XXII

French retail tech XXII, which aims to become the Google Analytics and Contentsquare of physical stores, has already signed with 15 retailers and shopping centres, mind Retail learned. A year...

5 December 2025

Already in POC, Dialog’s conversational agent shows up in the search bar

Buoyed by a €3.8 million seed round closed in mid‑November 2025, French start‑up Dialog, specialised in AI‑based conversational e‑commerce, is accelerating. Initially placed on product pages, this...

4 December 2025

E‑commerce: How Hive customises free‑delivery thresholds using customer data

With 500 e‑merchant clients, including Embryolisse, Hindbag, Airup, Hygée or Jacks Beauty Line, German logistics provider Hive is capitalising on data to raise e‑commerce conversion via a finely...

2 December 2025

Most viewed articles of the month on mind Retail

What readers clicked on the most last month.

In the category

What readers clicked on the most last month.

How Maison 123 generated €420,000 on WhatsApp in 5 months

Riding on a reduction in Meta’s commercial policy, Wax start‑up specialised in WhatsApp engagement, is gaining ground, capitalising on messaging as a customer acquisition and retention channel in...

3 December 2025

Laurent Hugou (Les Mousquetaires): “With Diebold’s camera system, shrinkage at self-check-out is reduced by a third”

Shift towards an omnichannel payment service provider, roll-out of mobile payment and Diebold’s computer vision solution for self-checkout, impact of one-click payment on online sales, adoption of...

11 December 2025

Retail media: Marionnaud bets on print with Figaro to boost drive-to-store

According to our sources, Marionnaud’s beauty retailer will expand an advertising unit into 3 new countries in 2026 and is launching another retail media lever in the French key market. The goal...

26 November 2025

Carmila join forces with Unlimitail and JCDecaux to equip 252 malls

On December 9, Carrefour and Carmila signed a partnership with Unlimitail and JCDecaux to create a retail media network combining indoor DOOH and outdoor OOH across their sites in France and...

12 December 2025

Deborah Van Dessel (Lagardère Travel Retail): “We are testing AI tools and prompts for store layout”

Between global governance, local ambassador clubs and deployments at scale, Lagardère Travel Retail identified major operational gains thanks to AI, while other use cases reveal the current limits...

25 November 2025

Coupang’s C.E.O. resigns after data leak of 33.7 million customers

On December 10, Park Dae-Jun, CEO of South Korean e-commerce retailer Coupang (2024 revenue: US$31.5 billion up by 29%) resigned. The cause was a security breach that exposed the personal...

12 December 2025