E-commerce: Graas AI raises $9 million to accelerate deployment of AI agents Asia On August 11, Graas AI, a Singapore-based start-up specialising in AI agents for e-commerce operations, raised $9 million in a pre-Series B round led by Tin Men Capital.…
Customer service: With AI, Saks reduces calls requiring humans by 20% Americas On August 8, Saks officially launched Sophie, an AI-powered voice and text assistant designed with the U.S.…
Conversational agents: Contentsquare acquires Loris AI to strengthen platform Europe On July 30, French unicorn Contentsquare, a specialist in online user experience, announced a ninth acquisition with the purchase of Loris AI (amount undisclosed).…
USA: With AI, Google Chrome summarises customer reviews directly on e-commerce sites Americas On July 28, Google announced a new feature in the desktop version of the Chrome browser in the US : summaries of online customer reviews generated automatically by artificial intelligence.…
Algorithmic pricing: NRF strongly opposed to price transparency law Americas While a New York State law requires retailers to disclose use of pricing algorithms, the National Retail Federation is attempting to block this. The world’s largest retail federation claims the law demonstrates a lack of understanding of price personalisation practices and constitutes an infringement of freedom of enterprise.
Hugues Chanoine, Hygie31: “In a year, our retail media revenue jumped 25% to €1 million” Expansion of a physical network, e-commerce upgrades, developing retail media, overhaul of digital tools... With little media exposure, the Hygie31 group—which operates 1,519 pharmacies and 5 websites in 7 countries—is undergoing a major transformation of an omnichannel ecosystem. With e-commerce accounting for 3.3% of business in 2024, the M.D. of the group's digital subsidiary, Hugues Chanoine, tells mind Retail about the new projects and future ambitions.
In China, KFC equips managers with an AI voice assistant Asia In China, on June 20, 2025, Yum China (2024 revenue: US$10.65 billion, 2.5% after a rise of 14.1% in 2023) announced the launch of an AI-integrated voice assistant in several KFC restaurants.…
Daniel Gebler, Picnic: “Like in the Netherlands, we want to launch a reverse logistics service in France and Germany” Europe As e-commerce retailer Picnic accelerates its logistics robotization with the opening of a third—and largest—automated processing center in Germany, it is also embracing new models. In the Netherlands, delivery drivers now handle e-commerce returns for Asos and Zalando, capitalizing on their routes to improve the profitability of their flows. Founder and CTO Daniel Gebler spoke to mind Retail about his priorities for transformation during Vivatech.
Pressured Debenhams signs with Romanian unicorn UiPath to optimise prices Europe Debt renegotiation, declining sales, margins under pressure: to regain control of a pricing policy, Debenhams is turning to the Romanian automation unicorn and embarking on a shift towards smarter price management.
Exclusive [mind Retail Exclusive] MediaMarkt aims to boost after-sales service performance with AI-enhanced advisors Europe Behind the scenes of Shoptalk, mind Retail spoke with Henny Steiniger, VP of Customer Experience at MediaMarkt. She revealed her ambitions for the new after-sales chatbot enhanced with generative AI, launched in early May 2025 and designed for in-store advisors.
