June 15 – Aldi UK Extends Home Delivery Trial
In partnership with Deliveroom, Aldi UK has extended is home delivery to London through a store located in Camden. An online offering of more than 200 items will be deliverable to customers within two miles of the store with newly added delivery as soon as 30 minutes following delivery. Aldi confirmed that if the trial proves successful, delivery services could be added to additional stores. From European Supermarket Magazine
June 15 – Germany’s Schwarz Group’s Plans Takeover of 101 Real Stores
Schwarz Group’s hypermarket chain, Kaufland, has registered with Germany’s competition regulatory authority to the takeover of up to 101 locations from the Real portfolio. Article written in German. From Business Insider
June 13 – India’s Future Retail Plans to Sell Stake
With Premji Invest already owning nearly 6% stake in Future Retail and Amazon owning 3.2%, Future Retail is in talks with investors to sell a significant stake in the India-based retail chain. Future Retail is facing a liquidity crisis and has mounting debt. From ET Retail
June 12 – JD.com Plans an Increase to Agricultural Merchants
By providing customized supply chain solutions for more than 500 specialty product and logistical infrastructure to support first-mile transportation, JD.com couriers will transport agricultural products from farm-to-table. Further integration of JD.com’s technology will support agricultural products sales, allowing merchants to increase earnings by 50% in three years. From JD.com Corporate
June 11 – India’s Flipcart Adds Voice Feature
Walmart-owned Flipcart has launched a voice assistant on its platform, allowing users to find and purchase products through voice commands which the technology auto-detects as Hindi or English. This feature was first introduced in Supermart, Flipcart’s grocery store format. From Retail Dive
June 11 – Amazon Australia to Open New Distribution Center
Amazon Australia plans to open a new Distribution Center in Brisbane in 2020. The new fulfillment center will house more than half of a million items. The Brisbane fulfillment center, along with the existing fulfillment centers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, will allow Amazon to better manage customer demand and speed up delivery to across Australia. From Amazon Australia Fulfilment Centre.
June 10 – French Competition Authority Asked to Examine Aldi Acquisition of Leader Price
Aldi’s takeover of Leader Price, one of Groupe Casino’s banners, will be reviewed by the French competition authority, under direction of The European Commission. Article written in French. From Capital
June 10 – Dutch-Owned Casa Applies for Credit Against Creditors
Belgian interior chain, Casa, active in Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal and Spain has applied for protection against creditors as the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out its turnover. No current store closures or staff redundancy reductions have been planned. From Retail Detail
June 9 – Australia’s Westfarmers Sees Online Sales Surge
With COVID-19 restrictions in place, Westfarmers reported an 89% increase in online sales during 2020. The retailer reported that Bunnings and Officeworks, two of the retailers under its umbrella, also contributed to net increase in online sales, with second-half online sales outpacing the first-half. From Reuters
June 9 – Carrefour Poland Continues to Expand
Since the beginning of the year, Carrefour Poland has opened 27 stores in the convenience format, of which 7 were opened in May. The expansion is in line with the plans of the franchise to open 100 stores by the end of 2020 in various locations. Article Written in Polish. From Wiadomości Handlowe
June 8 – UK Retail Sees Improved Footfall in May
Down from an 80% decrease in footfall, UK’s retail footfall has seen a slight increase, as additional essential businesses open and weather across the UK has been favorable. Footfall decrease in May was recorded at 73.3%. From EuroWeekly News
June 8 – Aeon Hong Kong Debuts New Concept Stores
Aeon has unveiled two concept stores in two Hong Kong suburbs, offering its traditional grocery and household items on one floor and pet food and supplies brands, outdoor products and beauty supply products on another floor. From Inside Retail
June 8 – Walmart’s Flipcart to Focus on Pure Play Ecommerce
Walmart-owned Flipkart will continue to focus on pure play ecommerce in India, instead of buying ecosystems with bundled services. The retailer will dedicate the majority of investments and resources to winning business from value consumers and those at the lower end of the market, which is a fast-growing segment in online commerce in India. From ET Retail
June 8 – Brazil’s Mercado Extra to Open Additional Stores
Brazil’s retail Grupo PDA plans to add 50 stores to its current 100 stores under the Mercado Extra banner in 2020. Mercado Extra was rolled out as to convert all Extra supermarkets to Mercado Extra. From European Supermarket Magazine
June 8 – Sweden’s ICA Sees Increased Sales
For the month of May, Sweden’s ICA has posted increased sales of 7.9%. The largest increase was seen at the retailer’s large-scale store banner, Maxi ICA Stormarknad, at which like-for-like sales were up 10.6% for May. From European Supermarket Magazine
June 7 – FaceBook To Help French SMEs Access Online Resources
FaceBook has planned to launch a series of 100 training courses to French SMEs to stimulate recovery for SMEs. The courses will be offered without charge until the end of 2020 and have been developed in partnership with Prestashop and Shopify Article Written in French. From La Tribune
June 5 – Alibaba’s Tmall Sees Strong Pre-Sales for Monthlong Festival
Alibaba’s month long, mid-year 6.18 Shopping Festival is aimed to stimulate post-pandemic recovery. In the pre-sales, which offered consumer coupons totaling over RMB 14 billion in value, the online giant saw a 50% increase in total gross merchandise volume over last year’s sales. From Alizila
June 4 – Argentina’s MercadoLibre Sees Sales Growth in Mexico
During a recent promotion, Hot Sale, Argentina’s MercadoLibre saw record breaking sales on their ecommerce platform in Mexico. The first day of the promotion saw sales soar more than 350% over the same day in 2019. The home, furniture and garden category saw sales increases of more than 330%. Article written in Spanish. From América Retail
