January 20 – Walmart’s Flipkart Puts Fresh Foods Platform on Hold
India-based Flipkart has put its plans on hold to establish a fresh food platform to sell directly to consumers. Walmart-owned Flipkart has said that it will be difficult to drive traffic and find synergies with its current ecommerce marketplace. From ET Retail

January 19 – Alibaba/Tmall Announces Support for New Sellers to China
During Tmall’s Global New Seller Virtual Summit, the online retailer announced a suite of new offerings to help suppliers new to selling in China assistance for grow within the Tmall network. The online retailer focused on their new self-service portal on which suppliers have the ability to open a storefront on Tmall’s platform in as little as a month. From Alibaba Group

January 19 – Tokyo’s High End Mall, Ginza Six Sees More Store Closures 
Previously home to around 240 high-end retail stores and a tourist destination, Tokyo’s Ginza Six has seen additional store closures as the pandemic forces the continuation of travel bans. From Reuter’s

January 18 – Amazon to Open New Facilities in Italy
Amazon has planned to invest in its fulfillment center network in Italy to answer consumer demand and decrease shipping costs by handling more of its own beginning-to-end deliveries. Amazon has announced that it will invest EUR 230 million to open two new logistics centers in Italy. From Industry Leaders

January 17 – Aldi Announces Return of Its Grow Program in Ireland
Aldi has announced the return of its ‘Grow with Aldi’ supplier development program for 2021.  Irish suppliers will receive support from Aldi to develop and become a part of the retailer’s core product range in all of Aldi’s 145 stores across Ireland. From Echo Live

January 17 – LATAM’s Cencosud Announces Three Year Plan
In a plan announced by Cencosud, the multinational, multichain retailer has set out to increase market share in their supermarkets, home improvement stores and ecommerce. From Cencosud

January 15 – Russia’s Wildberries Launches in Germany
Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, has launched operations in Germany.  Wildberries began expanding in Europe in 2019, with Germany representing the tenth market for the retailer which sells a wide range of products such as clothing, toys, sports equipment and cosmetics. From Retail Detail

January 14 – Spain-based DIA Group Announces Increase in Sales in Q4
DIA Group, with operations in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina has announced a 7% increase in sales in Q4 of 2020. The overall increase takes into account the decrease in sales in Brazil, with a decrease of 6% in net sales due to the decrease of 11% in stores in the country. From Dia Corporate

January 12 – Switzerland’s Coop.ch Increases Online Sales
Switzerland’s online supermarket, Coop.ch, increased sales in 2020 by 42.6%, topping 2019 when sales grew by 5.4% and 2018 when sales grew by 6.7%. Article Written in German. From Neuhandeln

January 7 – France’s Carrefour to Open Discount Stores 
Carrefour will open nearly 50 discount stores in 2021 in France under the Supeco brand. Supeco started selling non-food products online in France in the click & collect model and has stated that it will implement the same format in Romania and Spain in the near future. From Horizons by Carrefour

January 6 – UK’s Sainsbury’s announces Strong Sales Results
Sainsbury’s announced strong Q3 and Christmas sales. Christmas like-for-like sales are up by 9.3% and Q3 like-for-like sales are up 8.6% (excluding fuel), with total retail sales up 6.8% per cent (excluding fuel). The retailer saw a growth in grocery by 7.4% with online grocery up 128%.  General merchandise sales grew 6% and Argos, under the Sainsbury’s banner saw an 8.4% increase in sales. From Sainsbury’s

January 6 – Poland’s Dino Polska Opens More than 250 stores in 2020
Poland’s Dino Polska, a grocery chain, added 255 more stores to its count of 1241 outlets in 2020.  An additional 23 stores for which the investment process is complete are scheduled to open but have been delayed due to the pandemic. Article written in Polish.  From Wiadomości Handlowe

January 6 – Falabella Peru Trials Product Collection Machine
As a part of its omnichannel strategy, Falabella Peru installed its first automatic product collection tool, allowing customers to pick up product ordered online or through the Falabella app.  Additional machines are anticipated to be added to Falabella stores in Lima. Article written in Spanish From Peru Retail

January 5 – Otto See Increase in Holiday Sales Across Three Main Categories 
Germany’s Otto Versand saw an increase in demand for products in the electrics, home and living and garden and DIY categories for 2020 holiday sales.  Electrics saw an increase of 51%, home and living product sales increased 55% and garden and DIY product sales increased 66%. Article written in German. From Neuhandeln

January 5  – France’s E. Leclerc Grows Online Sales More than 40% 
France’s E. Leclerc announced growth of online sales of 42%, representing EUR 4.65 billion for 2020.  The retailer credits the ease of online sales for the consumer during the pandemic. Article written in French. From E. Leclerc

January 5 – Germany’s Kaufland Announces Additional Store Conversions of Real Stores
Kaufland announced that an additional 13 Real stores will be converted to the Kaufland format. This means that a total of 26 Real stores will operate under the Kaufland label. By Germany’s federal ruling, the takeover of up to 92 Real locations by Kaufland has been approved. From The News ABC