News brief

With more than 700 stores in Southeast Asia in December 2018 (average size of 930 sq.m GLA, sales of US$209 million in the fiscal year 2017, the last one available), the Malaysian home improvement...

15 February 2019

Billionaire James Dyson moves head office to Singapore

As uncertainly and distrust on the future prosperity or otherwise of the post-Brexit continues to cause considerable concern, Sir James Dyson, an active Brexit supporter, broadcast a flagship...

15 February 2019

Chinese giants Tencent and Anta invest in Amer Sports

Ahead of Beijing’s Olympic Games in 2022, China’s biggest sports retailer Anta signed a €4.6 billion deal to buy the Finnish group Amer Sports. The firm specialises in winter...

15 February 2019

China to be the global n°1 retail market

In 2019 China is expected to become the world’s biggest retail market with sales of US$5.6 trillion (+7.5%), outpacing the U.S., at US$5.53 trillion (+3.3%), said eMarketer. E-commerce in...

15 February 2019

How feeble is the Chinese economy?

Investors consider that China’s GDP is far more anaemic than the official growth rate of +6.6% in 2018. The economic slowdown has deepened in Q4, with a +6.4% change year-on-year. If growth...

15 February 2019

Decathlon to make inroads in Japan

Europe’s biggest sporting goods retailer (sales of €11 billion up by 11% in 2017, the latest fiscal year available) will open a 1st store in 2019 near Osaka on 2,000 sq.m. It will be...

15 February 2019

276 million consumers born between 1990 and 1999?

This is the profile of shoppers on Alibaba’s digital marketplaces, which draw a total of 552 million active consumers in China in the fiscal year 2018 (from April 2017 to March 2018). Half...

15 February 2019

India. Amazon expands into department stores

In India, the Shoppers Stop department store chain (83 department stores, 13 HomeStop stores and 102 beauty stores, annual sales averaging US$600 million in the year to March 31, 2018) revealed...

15 February 2019

Africa. Is the race for cash & carry on?

In Western Africa, a joint-venture* between CFAO and Carrefour has rolled out physical expansion since 2013, following a moderate pace. We met Jean-Christophe Brindeau, who has been in charge of...

15 February 2019

Savills aims to grow again in the Gulf

Following the integration of Cluttons Middle East in 2018, Savills said it aims to complete other external acquisitions in the region

15 February 2019

Shoprite, from South Africa to Kenya

In December, Shoprite opened its first supermarket in Nairobi, in a location formerly occupied by the struggling Nakumatt grocer. It will add 3 stores in Kenya this year. Despite a particularly...

15 February 2019

UAE. How the sneakers market is finding its own style

“People want what their friends won’t have, they want to stand out on social media, they want to stand out in their circle. They want to be exclusive,” said Anuvrat Gaurav, head...

15 February 2019

Eight direct-to-consumers U.S. brands to keep an eye on

As we attended the NRF Big Show last month in New-York, the appetite of Internet-first brands* for physical retail particularly struck us. As it is more cost effective to win customers offline...

15 February 2019

Two million visitors in 6 months?

This is the footfall recorded at the first Indian Ikea store, which opened in August 2018 in Hyderabad. This 37,000 sq.m store sells 7,500 products, with about 1,000 items being priced under 200...

13 February 2019

Amazon. A law to prevent product destruction

Amazon’s digital marketplace operations destroyed about 3 million unsold items in France in 2018. These are goods from third-party sellers for its marketplace. The government wants to pass a...

13 February 2019

Eating solo at the restaurant?

In Amsterdam, Antwerp and London, the MVGCA association has launched a one-person pop-up restaurant called “Eenmaal” (12 to 25 seats). It is a creative project to focus on loneliness...

13 February 2019

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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

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

Most viewed articles of the month on mind Retail

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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

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

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

Facing Temu and Shein’s offensive, Amazon cuts merchant fees

Asian marketplaces Shein, Temu and AliExpress, weakened in the U.S.A., are accelerating in Europe with very low, even zero, initial commissions. Amazon, as the global largest e-commerce player...

9 December 2025