Online news

The latest release from the British Retail Consortium Retail Sales Monitor, for December, shows that UK sales rose 1.4% in the month, underpinned by like-for-like growth of 0.6%.  However, this conceals a significant variation in performance between food & grocery retailers and those in non-food categories.  Only clothing retailers achieved any significant positive growth in non-food, while food ...

We highlight the latest online and digital developments from Belgium-based Colruyt as it acquires an online pharmacy and trials the Apporto app. Colruyt Group becomes largest shareholder in Newpharma online pharmacy chain… The Colruyt Group and the Colruyt family investment firm Korys is to acquire a stake in Newpharma, an online pharmacy chain. The chain offers over 30,000 products and 7...

As DIA expands onto the forecourt and looks to grow the coverage of its association with Amazon’s Prime service, we look at how the retailer is innovating its offer. DIA launches ‘Shop’ banner on BP forecourts DIA has begun trialling a convenience format on BP forecourts in Madrid. The stores, which operate under the ‘Shop’ name, are being trialled at a handful of stores initially, but with...

Amazon's Vice President for Prime Now, Stephanie Landry, has taken over additional responsibility for Amazon Fresh and Amazon Restaurants. Separate delivery services Amazon Prime Now is Amazon's two-hour delivery service that comes free with Prime membership (in the UK the order needs to be above £40). Amazon Fresh is available to Prime members for a monthly fee (in the UK £6.99) and give...

JD.com has launched its offline supermarket, 7Fresh, utilising smart logistics technology similar to Alibaba's Hema Fresh New Retail concept stores. The new 7Fresh store, located at the Dazu Plaza Shopping Center in Beijing, operates 4,000 square meters retail space and is near JD.com's headquarters in Yizhuang District. Fresh produce available across different categories JD.com's 7Fre...

Eurostat, the official statistical body for the European Union, has just published some interesting new data, looking at prevalence of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) commercial transactions in the EU in 2017, for accommodation and transport (eg: AirBnB- and Uber-type operations). Individuals arranging services online from another private individual, any app or website, 2017 Accommodation ...

Amazon has reported its biggest festive trading season yet, with more than one billion items sold from small businesses and entrepreneurs alone. Over 1400 products were ordered per second via mobile device. There was a significant increase of almost 70% in purchases made via the Amazon app over the festive period, with Amazon's peak day for customer fulfilment falling on December 19th. Surg...

We round up the latest news from the Netherlands as Albert Heijn continues its private label innovation drive, trials lower online order thresholds and opens a new hospital store. Elsewhere PLUS and Coop Netherlands have reported their results, while SPAR is restructuring for the future. Albert Heijn continues private label innovation drive… In an interview with Levensmiddelenkrant , comme...

Netherlands-based Jumbo has released its 2017 results, with turnover increasing by 5% to €7.01bn. The retailer attributed performance to existing Jumbo stores, which grew by 4.2%. As of the end of 2017, Jumbo operated 585 stores, while it plans to increase its store count to 600 by the end of 2018. Here, we outline the retailer's 2017 highlights and priorities for 2018, which focus on convenience...

Kroger has now extended its ClickList service to 1,000 locations and has been refreshing its discount format, Ruler Foods. ClickList hits 1,000 locations Since its launch in 2014, ClickList has been rapidly rolled out to more markets and has had a favourable reaction from customers. Rollout has been accelerated in the last year, going from 500 locations in November 2016 to 1,000 by Decem...