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Inditex, Ikea, H&M, Mango. International retailers are temporarily ceasing operations in Israel. Conflict has intensified since October 7th, 2023 after the Hamas terrorist organisation...

12 October 2023

US housing crisis: Home Depot and Lowe’s on the front line

In the United States, existing-home sales fell again in August 2023 (down by 0.7% compared with July), marking the worst property crisis for a decade. Over a year, sales fell by 15.3%. Since...

4 October 2023

China’s Temu (Pinduoduo) accused of espionage

According to the American research company Grizzly Research, Temu, a subsidiary of PDD Holdings (capitalisation: US$130 billion), contains spyware. “It has all the characteristics of the...

4 October 2023

Urban stores: Why Ikea is reintroducing mazes

Since 2018, Ikea’s urban expansion has been accompanied by a redesign of the customer journey. These stores, 4 times smaller than those in the suburbs, were initially designed without a...

4 October 2023

USA: Macy’s wants to triple small format stores

Macy’s (sales of US$5.1 billion in Q2 2023, up by 8% year-on-year) is stepping up expansion focused on small formats. The firm wants to triple small stores by Autumn 2025. On October 3, the...

4 October 2023

India: Reliance Retail steps up fund-raising ahead of possible IPO

While Amazon and Walmart are stepping up investments in India, Reliance Retail Ventures (2022 sales of US$31.7 billion, net margin of 3.5% of sales) raised US$250 million from the New-York based...

3 October 2023

Building materials: sales plummet in China

As China’s property crisis reverberates through all sectors of the economy, the building materials sector, which is closely correlated with new home purchases, has been in double-digit...

3 October 2023

Travel retail: the LVMH subsidiary DFS invests in a large luxury mall in Hainan

On 1st October, travel retail specialist DFS Group announced plans to open an ultra-luxury shopping centre in Sanya on Hainan island by 2026. Named “DFS Yalong Bay”, this 128,000 sq.m...

3 October 2023

Bain, GIC: In the face of US-China geopolitical tensions, Vietnam is attracting investors

According to Reuters, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is in the running to acquire up to a 20% stake in Bach Hoa Xanh supermarkets (sales of US$558 million, up 7% in H1 2023 via 1,700...

3 October 2023

Cdiscount: +30% conversion thanks to GPT-4

Since July 2023, Cdiscount (80 million products) has been exploring the industrial use of generative AI, particularly for product categorisation. “When a seller creates a product sheet, we...

2 October 2023

Lego abandons production of recycled PET bricks

Danish retailer Lego (sales of €3.7 billion in H1 2023, up by 1% vs H1 2022) is giving up manufacturing toys in recycled plastic (Polyethylene Terephtalate) because they produce too much CO2...

29 September 2023

Japan’s 7-Eleven takes a first step into Laos with CP All

On September 7 2023, 7-Eleven opened a first convenience store in Laos in Vientiane, the country’s capital. A total of 7 stores are planned. This new supermarket is operated by CP All...

29 September 2023

TikTok: Indonesia is about to ban commerce on social networks

Indonesia, the most populated country in South-East Asia (270 million inhabitants), is taking action to limit the risk of the major social networks, such as TikTok, becoming a monopoly. At a...

27 September 2023

Generative AI: Amazon to invest up to US$4 billion in Anthropic

The digital cloud giants are not slowing investments in generative AI, which needs massive computing power to function properly. Following Google and a US$300 million investment in Anthropic in...

26 September 2023

Headwinds in China force SMCP to reduce annual forecasts

On 18th September, the SMCP group (Maje, Sandro, Claudie Pierlot, Fursac) announced an adjustment of annual growth targets due to disappointing sales. While an operating margin in excess of 9.2%...

22 September 2023

USA: How Walmart and Amazon are embracing generative AI

While companies like Amazon and Apple have reduced access to generative A.I. tools in workplaces, this is not the case for Walmart (net sales of US$314 billion in H1 2023, up by 6.6%). On August...

16 September 2023

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Aroma-Zone and Najar reveal the behind-the-scenes of a strategic partnership

As the adoption of AI results in increasing cost volatility for companies, mind Retail spoke in Monaco with Christelle Glaszer, Manager of Indirect Purchases at Aroma-Zone natural beauty retailer...

13 March 2026

After-sales service: Prolong aims to become the OS of repair and adds 3 luxury brands

Signing of three high-end clients, launch of a maintenance passport, imminent Seed funding round and cloud migration project in China… At a 1-to-1 conference in Monaco, the Founder of Prolong...

12 March 2026

Regulatory: With 200,000 Digital Product Passports issued, Darty scales up

While the European Commission is set to vote on delegated acts to specify requirements for home appliances, Darty is accelerating a Digital Product Passport (DPP) push by integrating new products...

11 March 2026

Electronic labels: Hanshow accelerates breakthrough and signs with a leading British retailer

While the leader in electronic labels, Vusion exceeded €1.47 billion in revenue in 2025, rival Hanshow is stepping up a global offensive, winning a strategic account in the U.K. and a new POC for...

27 February 2026

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Electronic labels: Hanshow accelerates breakthrough and signs with a leading British retailer

27 February 2026

Conflicts in the Middle East: what impact on the supply chain and European retail?

With US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggering a major crisis on February 28, 2026, retailers already have to face the closure of strategic trade routes, rising freight costs and import...

5 March 2026

Regulatory: With 200,000 Digital Product Passports issued, Darty scales up

While the European Commission is set to vote on delegated acts to specify requirements for home appliances, Darty is accelerating a Digital Product Passport (DPP) push by integrating new products...

11 March 2026

Following a complaint from the FTC, Walmart agrees to pay US$100 million to Spark delivery drivers

On February 26, 2026, Walmart (2025 revenue: US$713.2 billion, up by 5.1% at constant rates) agreed to pay US$100 million in response to allegations of misleading compensation to delivery drivers...

4 March 2026

Agentic commerce : After Stripe, Mirakl partners with JPMorgan Payments

On March 10, 2026, Mirakl and JPMorgan Payments (JPMP) unveiled a partnership to deploy agentic commerce by combining the Mirakl Nexus agentic orchestration platform with the U.S. bank’s...

16 March 2026

Online authentification : Prelude expands a “message free” solution globally

A competitor to Twilio, Vonage and Plivo, the French startup Prelude, which has 75 retail clients, is actively deploying Prelude Zero, an authentication method that requires no message delivery...

13 March 2026