Provera Belux, the purchase alliance behind Cora, Match and louis delhaize in Belgium, is delegating its negotiations with 140 important FMCG producers to Carrefour Belgium. This should provide synergies for all parties involved.

Ahold Delhaize and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands agreed on a four year partnership to conduct a robotics and artificial intelligence research program. This also includes a test site, which is to be launched at the start of 2019.

The Blokker family is tired of fighting and is now looking to sell its eponymous Dutch chain. This would spell the end of a retail empire and of 122 years of history.

More and more women prefer to dress elegantly without being too exposed. The 'modest fashion' movement is one of the fastest growing trends in the fashion world. A silent fashion revolution, thanks to #metoo.

It is the end of a long-running saga: chocolate producer Galler is now fully owned by the Qatari royal family Al Thani. Founder and CEO Jean Galler steps aside and is succeeded by Salvatore Iannello, the production remains in Liège.

French luxury brand Hermès has reached a turnover growth of almost 10 % in the third quarter of its fiscal year, mainly thanks to the United States and Asia. China is doing particularly well: the trade war between Washington and Beijing seems not to affect the French at all.

CEO Pablo Isla of Inditex announces the launch of the Zara webshop in no less than 106 new countries. In addition, the company expects by 2020 to go online with all eight fashion labels worldwide.

Sales are slipping at a steady pace at Marks&Spencer. According to chief executive Steve Rowe, it is a situation the British chain simply has to sit out: he does not rule out the possibility of closing more stores.

Despite a rising turnover, online fashion shop Zalando saw its overall loss reach 55.7 million euros for the third quarter. The hot summer and too many returns were quite costly for the German company.

On 11 November China will be celebrating Singles' Day again, the biggest shopping frenzy in the world. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day are dwarfed by the day when Chinese shopping fans celebrate themselves.

Aldi has started its biggest marketing campaign yet in Belgium. For the first time, the German discounter comes out all guns blazing to highlight a string of positive results in quality comparisons.

Alain Chevalier, co-founder of luxury holding LVMH, has died at the age of 87. The Frenchman was at the helm of Moët Hennessy in 1987 when he joined forces with Henry Racamier's Louis Vuitton.

A new employee called Toru is starting in Zalando's warehouse in Erfurt, Germany. You might consider this nothing special, but Toru is an autonomous picking robot that can not only move whole boxes, but even individual objects.

Walmart is adding augmented reality to its iPhone app in a tool that helps customers to compare products. 

The British government has announced plans for a new tax that mainly targets foreign tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook. A similar discussion in the European Union is heading nowhere, so the UK wants to proceed on its own.

Swiss luxury group Richemont is going to offer its products on the booming Chinese market through a joint venture with Alibaba. Subsidiary Yoox Net-a-porter gains access to a billion consumers this way, while Alibaba basks in the luxurious glow of the Swiss.

Can a computer understand fashion? Zalando believes so, and launches a virtual stylist: from now on, an algorithm chooses what would be the ideal outfit for every customer. The online fashion retailer will also integrate physical stores in his platform next year.

“When we heard that Jorg Snoeck, founder of RetailDetail, working with Pauline Neerman, editor at RetailDetail, had published a new book, titled The Future of Shopping, we knew that we had to have Jorg at The Amsterdam Produce summit, which this year is headlined Retail Strategies: Seizing Success in the Omni-Channel Future,” says Jim Prevor.

Starting in November, Apple Pay will be expanding to Belgium as well. It will however be exclusively available to customers of BNP Paribas Fortis, others will have to wait until next year. Will mobile payment get a new impulse?

Restaurant chain Wagamama has a new owner: British catering group The Restaurant Group has bought the Japanese-inspired formula for 630 million euro, substantially less than what the previous owner had hoped for.

Belgian startup Amoobi, specialised in the analysis of shopper behaviour, opens an office in New York. To conquer the American market, the company has called upon the experience of a number of former Delhaize CEOs.

Retailers often make their omnichannel models needlessly complicated and expensive. The problem is they start from the wrong assumptions. In his newest book, retail professor Gino Van Ossel makes a case for pragmatism.

More than 275 brands, retailers, recycling companies, governments and NGOs have committed to the fight against plastic waste and signed the 'New Plastics Economy Global Commitment' of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the United Nations.

Ecover, a Belgian producer of ecological cleaning products, is opening a store in Antwerp where customers will receive cash in return for empty plastic bottles. The company wants to revive the discussion about deposits on such bottles.

Serio Bucher, CEO of Debanhams, believes his company will have to take some drastic steps to support its retail businesses in what he calls a volatile and challenging market.

Amazon shares dropped 8% after projected holiday season sales and profit missed targets. This forecast shows the slowest revenue growth that would in years for the world’s largest online retailer.

Marc Croonen will leave the Management Board of the Ahold Delhaize group on 1 November. He is Chief Sustainability, Transformation and Communications Officer and the last Belgian in the company's Management Board.

The RetailDetail Night is Belgium's annual "retail Hogmanay" and promises an inspiring afternoon programme and a huge retailers' party in the evening.

Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize has unveiled a new store concept with an innovative mix of fresh meal solutions, 'on the go' shopping and city pick-up points for online shopping. The chain hopes to open 200 of such stores in the next three years.

2018's hot summer has boosted sales for brewers around the world. Heineken and Carlsberg are toasting their excellent results, while AB InBev is dealing with a South American hangover.

For André Maeder, KaDeWe is the department store of all department stores, a shop that unites under one roof the very best shopping ideas worldwide and builds on a vibrant history. For department stores that make the right choices, there is more to the future than ever before.