News brief
Klarna claims 100 million European customers
Amid a backdrop of tighter regulation for BNPL with a revision of the European Credit Directive, online payment and BNPL solution provider Klarna reported a 14% increase in business volume in...
13 October 2023
Israel: Inditex, Ikea, Mango and H&M close their stores
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...
- Retail
- Retailer and e-commerce
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...
- Retail
- Retailer and e-commerce
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...
- Retail
- Retail tech
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...
- Retail
- Retailer and e-commerce
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...
- Retail
- Retailer and e-commerce
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%...
- Retail
- Retailer and e-commerce
22 September 2023
Our mind news
Against a backdrop of growing pressure on household budgets, the European CCD2 Directive coming into force and a new legal framework for assisted purchasing journeys, Oney is stepping up an...
- Retail
- mind Exclusive
- Retail tech
29 October 2026
Amid an ownership shake-up following its acquisition by Evoriel, shopping centre operator Advantail has signed with Formality to digitise the management of commercial leases and contracts across...
23 October 2026
With an average basket of €3,500 and a payment journey that includes a financial deposit at the time of ordering, Mobilier de France shares with mind Retail its assessment of the rollout of...
- Retail
- mind Exclusive
- Retail tech
15 October 2026
Eager to bring together customer data and improve data accuracy, jewellery and watch retailer Maison A.Constant built its own Single Customer Repository (SCR) using n8n, an orchestration platform...
7 October 2026
Most viewed articles of the month on mind Retail
What readers clicked on the most last month.
What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
AI agents: the KPIs that led L’Oréal to scale up across its warehouses
After testing 7 AI agents in its warehouses, L’Oréal is scaling up. Deployed to coordinate picking waves, manage replenishment and handle stocktaking, Manhattan’s agents have helped cut several...
- Retail
- Retail tech
- News
20 October 2026
2
How Mobilier de France reduced the share of cheque payments from 80% to 50%
With an average basket of €3,500 and a payment journey that includes a financial deposit at the time of ordering, Mobilier de France shares with mind Retail its assessment of the rollout of...
- Retail
- mind Exclusive
- Retail tech
15 October 2026
3
Danone turns to AI to personalise marketing campaigns and test advertising in ChatGPT
AI is being rolled out across some marketing activities, while others remain in a testing phase. If campaign automation and personalisation are among the most advanced applications, visibility in...
- Retail
- Retail tech
- Analysis
16 October 2026
4
Julien Cailleau, Oney: “With 3 retailers, we are testing the use of Valiuz data to streamline financing approvals”
Against a backdrop of growing pressure on household budgets, the European CCD2 Directive coming into force and a new legal framework for assisted purchasing journeys, Oney is stepping up an...
- Retail
- mind Exclusive
- Retail tech
29 October 2026