To follow is a brief review of retail news from around the world:

November 15 – Australia’s Coles Opens Small Format Stores
Coles has unveiled its answer to competitor, Woolworths’ Metro small-format store, Coles Local.  The first outlet is about half of the size of a full supermarket and will offer gourmet local produce, specialty ranges, an in-store chef,  barista and a “Food Hub”. Coles will invest more than AUD120 million over the next 10 months to open additional outlets of the new format stores. From News.Com.Au

November 12 – Dutch Retailer Blokker Up For Sale
Blokker, with 400 stores in the Netherlands and 100 stores in Belgium, has posed a loss of €344m last year, almost double the loss of the previous year. Total sales for this housewares retailer fell approximately €400m to €1.6bn, due to both divestments and weak sales results. From Dutch News

November 12 – Carrefour Brazil Acquires Digital Content Platform
Carrefour Brazil has acquired e-Midia, a food tech company focused on digital content that operates the websites Cyber Cook, Vila Mulher, and Mais Equilíbrio. From European Supermarket Magazine

November 12 – Alibaba Reaches Record Singles Day Sales
Alibaba reported a 27% increase in the gross merchandise value (GMV) of goods sold during the Singles Day, 11.11, shopping festival. Total GMV of Singles Day sales paid with Alipay reached US$30.7 billion, with more than 40% of consumers buying through international brands. Last year’s event brought in $25.3 billion in GMV. From Inside Retail Thailand

November 11 – British High Streets Suffer Record Drop in Stores
According to PwC, a net 1,123 stores disappeared from Britain’s top 500 high streets in the first half of the year, as only 1,589 shops opened, compared to 2,682 closures. From European Supermarket Magazine

November 9 – Kaufhof-Karstadt Merger Receives Approval
Germany’s antitrust authority approved the of pending merger of department store chains Kaufhof and Karstadt, owned by Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Co. and Austria’s Signa Holding. The deal will create a group with 243 department stores in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and annual sales of €5.4 billion. From European Supermarket Magazine

November 9 – Chinese Tech Company, Xiaomi, Opens First Store in the UK
The Chinese mobile phone manufacturer continues expanding at a rapid pace, as it has already launched its quality Android phones at affordable prices in Spain, Italy and France and will now open a retail outlet in London. From Tech Crunch

November 9 – Spain’s El Corte Inglés to Open Pop Up Store, Partnering with AliExpress
El Corte Inglés is the first retailer to partner with AliExpress in Spain to open a pop up store in a shopping center with AliExpres. The location of this pop up, located in one of the El Corte Inglés department stores in Madrid, will be responsible for hosting this temporary store. *This article written in Spanish. From Andro4All

November 7 – Ahold Delhaize Shows Growth for Q3
Ahold Delhaize has posted a 4.2% increase in comparable sales in its Dutch operations in the third quarter of the year, reporting sales of €3.47 billion. From European Supermarket Magazine

November 6 – Amazon to Open its First Pop Up in Italy
Amazon will open its first pop up shop in Milan, called “Amazon Loft for Xmas”. The shop will remain open from November 16 until Christmas, offering daily themed entertainment and activities. From WWD

November 6 – John Lewis’ Cook Shop Sales Up 9%
Total sales at John Lewis & Partners were up 1.4% in the last week, over the same week last year. The UK department stores reported that overall sales were up .8%. From Housewares Live 

November 6 – Latvia’s Maxima to Open Three Stores in Riga
Maxima Latvia will unveil three stores in the country’s capital, Riga, as a part of an investment program. A large-format, reconstructed Maxima XX will be relaunched and two new, smaller-format Maxima X stores will open in mid-to-end of November. From European Supermarket Magazine

November 6 – Lowes’ Canada Announces Closures of Under-Performing Stores
Consumer insights expert, Robert Levy, commented on the future of brick & mortar retail in Canada as Lowes’ closes its underperforming stores in Canada. From Global News

November 5 – Aldi Launches Major Marketing Campaign in Belgium
The German discount retailer has started its largest marketing campaign yet in Belgium. For the first time, Aldi discounter comes out in strong force to highlight a string of positive results in quality comparisons. From Retail Detail

November 1 – Walmart India to Invest 500 Million to Open Additional Stores
The retailer plans to open 47 additional stores in India by 2022, bringing the store count in India to 70.  In addition, Walmart plans to increase the number of distribution centers throughout India for ease of stocking the stores. From Times Now News

The International Business Council is a special interest group of IHA members, dedicated to helping its membership market and sell their products internationally by sharing information, providing networking opportunities and offering programs to assist, support, and educate. Membership is free to all regular, IHA members – visit the IBC website to learn more.