December 13 – Costco Plans Additional Openings in China
After the success of the August opening of a Costco outlet in Shanghai, the retailer plans another store in China in 2021. More than 240,000 membership have been sold since the August 2019 opening of the Shanghai outlet. From Nikkei Asian Review

December 13 – Amazon Opens New Distribution Center in Poland
Amazon Poland has opened its largest logistics facility in Gliwice, Poland. The facility will be the ecommerce logistics center and will service all of Europe, where ecommerce is rapidly growing. Article in Polish. From Wiadomosci Handlowe

December 12 – Casino France Offers Discount For Group Pickup
Casino France has implemented a new loyalty scheme, Eco-Drive.  This service offers discounts to shoppers who opt for group pickup. A discount of EUR15 is given to customers who drive up and collect orders of other customers.  The customer whose order is collected by the drive up customer also receives a discount of EUR 8. Article in French. From Lineaires

December 12 – Amazon to Open Distribution Center in Northeast Brazil
Amazon plans to open a second distribution center in 2020 to strengthen logistics in the country. The new distribution center will be located in the Northeast state of Pernambuco. From U.S. News and World Reports

December 12 – Auchan Opens Its Largest Hypermarket in Russia
Auchan has opened its largest hypermarket located in Volgograd, in Southwest Russia in a shopping center. The new outlets stocks 80% food and 20% non-food assortment of products. Article in Russian. From Retail.ru

December 12 – Italy’s Esselunga Opens New Format Stores
Designed to address the evolving buying habits of customers by offering an all-encompassing experience within one store, Italian supermarket, Esselunga, has opened a store under the banner La Esse in Milan.  The La Esse store opened on the heals of the opening of Esselunga’s Triumplina Superstore in the Lombardy region. From European Supermarket Magazine

December 11 – Amazon’s Stake in Deliveroo May Require Investigation
Amazon’s investment in the UK-based Deliveroo food delivery service has raised antitrust concerns.  Although Amazon’s exact investment has not been disclosed, reports indicate that the company invested $500 million.  From CNBC

December 11 – Carrefour to Launch Ecommerce Operations in Qatar 
Offering a large selection of more than 12,000 products, customers in Qatar can now shop for their from Carrefour’s webstore. This new venture, powered by Qatar Post, allows customers to place online orders for next day delivery in more than 100 neighborhoods in Qatar. From Gulf Times

December 11 – Aldi Süd Avails In-Store Wi-Fi to Customers
Aldi Süd will equip all German stores with free Wi-Fi for customers to access during store hours. The aim of this service is to allow customers to research information about product origin, ingredients and recipes. The new service is aimed at making shopping easier for customers, and is being advertised at stores’ POS terminals. Article in German. From W&V

December 11 – France’s Galeries Lafayette Considers India for Expansion
With outlets in several countries, including a current expansion into China, high-end retailer, Galeries Lafayette is planning to launch in India. From Inside Retail

December 11 – Spar Australia to Open Additional Outlets

Spar Australia plans to open 20 new Spar Express stores in the next 14 months.  The stores will be operated by Spar Australia’s partner, Doppler. From Spar International

December 11 – The Co-op UK to open New Stores
The Co-op is set to open 30 new stores across the UK before Christmas, accounting for 500 new jobs. The news stores represent a GBP 25 million investment and will bring the retailer’s store count to 2600 stores. From The Grocer

December 11 – India’s Flipkart Myntra Enters the Luxury Segment
With the aim of increasing customer acquisition and purchases from current customers, Flipkart Myntra has entered into a partnership with Purple Style Labs, a luxury fashion retailer.  Purple Style Labs is owned by a retailer called Pernia’s Pop Up Shop. From Economic Times 

December 11 – Germany’s Metro Sees Wholesale Growth
Metro reached is strongest wholesale growth in 10 years, with like-for-like sales increasing 2.4% in the 2018/2019 fiscal year. The positive growth was attributed to contributions from the company’s interests in Eastern Europe, Asia and Western Europe. From Metro AG

December 10 – Tmall Global to Launch Expanded Logistics Services

Tmall Global, Alibaba’s ecommerce site, has launched a new cold chain logistics service to support international transfer of perishables.  This innovative will allow transport of perishable groceries and pharmacy products into China.  From Alizila

December 10 – Casino Monoprix France to Open Non-Foods Warehouse
Casino Monoprix , along with its logistics partner, is building a large warehouse in North-Central France. The warehouse will be dedicated to boosting the retailer’s non-food operations and will focus on the storage and delivery of products to stores in France and for the ecommerce site of Monoprix, doubling the storage capacity for ecommerce. Article in French. From LSA

December 9 – Falabella Linio Offers Click & Collect at Tottus Stores
Linio, Falabella’s Latin American marketplace will avail click & collect service to customers in Peru. Users will be able to pick up their products purchased from Linio at Tottus stores nationwide and in Mallplaza Bellavista in Lima. Article in Spanish. From Peru Retail

December 7 – Alibaba AliExpress Russia Reaches Record Black Friday Sales
AliExpress, Alibaba’s global ecommerce platform, achieved record 2019 Black Friday sales, exceeding one third of all of Russian ecommerce sales. From November 29 November to December 1, AliExpress’ turnover in Russia exceeded RUB 7 billion, 60% more than last year. The products with the highest sales were clothing, electrics, housewares and baby products.  Article in Russian. From Retail.ru

December 5 – Walmart Canada Opens a New Distribution Center
Located in Mississauga, Ontario, Walmart Canada’s new distribution center will focus on fulfilling ecommerce orders throughout Canada.  The new facility is in partnership with logistics provider, SCI. From Cision