The social unrest in France has caused Fnac Darty to have a disappointing fourth quarter. It also became known in the margins that the company is looking for a partner for its Dutch subsidiary BCC.

Bose is going to close half of its stores worldwide: a complete retreat from Europe, North America, Japan and Australia leaves only stores in four Asian countries. The specialist in audio equipment says too many people have switched to buying its products online.

Clothing chain e5 mode, which was recently taken over by Phoenix, has announced its complete withdrawal from Wallonia. Eventually, the twelve Walloon shops will all close their doors.

In the first quarter of its financial year, Primark has again achieved growth. In some areas there was a like-for-like decrease, but that was compensated for by new stores.

Amazon has launched a special page on its website, filled with videos of various products and brands that can be purchased immediately. The new feature is called Amazon Live.

Too Good to Go, a Danish app that fights food waste, can now call itself a "Certified B Corporation". The Danish company is also expanding to the United States, taking its first steps outside Europe.

British e-tailer Asos is experimenting with a new tool, See My Fit, which uses augmented reality to simulate pieces of clothing in different sizes fitted on different body types.

Dutch retailer Jumbo is expanding the scope of its meal delivery service. After a successful test in Groningen, customers from Amsterdam and Utrecht can also get their meals delivered at home or at work; those in Eindhoven use the pick-up service at the train station.

A shocking fact: retail sales in the United Kingdom have fallen for the first time in recorded history. In 2019, 5 % fewer visitors in shopping streets meant retail sales went down 0.1 %. In the Benelux, the number of store visitors is also declining: is there a threat of a retail drama here too?

Storesquare, an e-commerce platform for small businesses, will not survive next February. Belgian owner Roularta says ambitions were not met, nor was the break-even point.

Dutch retailers, brace yourselves: Amazon is serious about its expansion to the Netherlands. The previously announced Dutch webshop is opening its doors later this year and will offer "millions of products" straight away. Will Belgium follow in the slipstream?

German wholesaler Metro has exceeded expectations in its latest quarter. Western-European growth was 0.5 %, total turnover increased 2.2 %.

Amazon has let go several employees with immediate effect, because of their unauthorised sharing of customer data with a third party.

Film producer Warner Bros. has announced it will open an official Wizarding World store, the very first in the world, in New York. The opening of the store that is focused on the universe of Harry Potter and its spin-offs, is expected to happen this summer - hoping to make the most of the high season.

Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize has opened a seventh store of its convenience formula Fresh Atelier, the fourth in Brussels. Soon, the third Antwerp store will also open its doors, at a prime location. The goal remains to have at least thirty stores by the end of the year.

French supermarket chain Casino wants to offload its discount chain Leader Price and is now supposedly close to a deal with Aldi.

After months of fighting for British meal delivery company Just Eat, its Dutch competitor Takeaway.com has won the struggle with investor Prosus. The deal is worth almost seven billion euros.

Six major food retailers have started 2020 with important discounts, including several who offer at least a 66 % discount to their Belgian customers. Albert Heijn is not the only one to offer "buy one, get two free" stunts, even though the Dutch chain received the most publicity for it.

The ailing French baby and children’s retail chain Orchestra-Prémaman saw its turnover increase slightly in the first nine months of the financial year. However, the way this was achieved is by no means a reason for celebration.

Marks & Spencer has had a disappointing quarter as growth in food sales was overturned by a bigger decrease in non-food sales. Especially menswear and gifts stayed under the expected turnover.

Wildberries, the largest e-commerce player in Russia, now wants to conquer the European Union with the launch of an English website and the opening of its first pick-up point in the EU, in Warsaw.

Coca-Cola has stopped its deliveries to French chains Intermarché and Netto. The retailer accuses the drinks producer of forcing it to buy more unhealthy products, but the latter denies that. The question beckons however, what about the other members of Intermarché's purchasing alliance Agecore (Colruyt, Edeka)?

What will 2020 bring for the retail sector? Growing tensions between retailers and their suppliers, fears EuroCommerce director-general Christian Verschueren. He hopes that the new European Commission will put a strong stop to increasing protectionism.

Retail giants Amazon and Walmart wage war on each other almost everywhere on the planet, including the country with the world's second largest population, India. Amazon has just signed a deal with India's second biggest retailer, after Walmart acquired online market leader Flipkart.

International growth rate does not slow down at Lidl: this year, the discounter will enter two new countries. The retailer is becoming more and more successful in keeping costs under control and is focusing more on e-commerce and sustainability, as we can conclude from an in-depth analysis of recently published financial results.

The Finnish start-up Solar Foods is developing a revolutionary new nutrient, which almost literally out of thin air. The protein, which is based on hydrogen and soil bacteria, will be in a position to compete with soy by as early as 2025 and will be ten times more efficient. 

Credit rating agency Moody's is very concerned because Hema has postponed a repayment to parent company AMEH XXVI. The Dutch chain's total debt, some 750 million euros, and the dismissal of CFO Ivo Vliegen, are also a cause for concern for Moody’s.

Alibaba is trying to lure European sellers away from its American arch rival Amazon: the Chinese giant has scrapped its monthly fees and is now charging lower commissions than its main competitor.

The position of AB InBev's CFO Felipe Dutra is being questioned. A departure would herald the end of an era at the largest brewery group in the world, where Dutra has been CFO for fifteen years, and also raises questions about the future of CEO Carlos Brito.

The "buy one, get two free" promotion Albert Heijn has issued in Belgium, has caused the FPS Economy to start an inquiry into the Dutch retailer. Selling at a loss is illegal in Belgium.

British DIY group Kingfisher has appointed Jean-Jacques Van Oosten as its new Chief Customer & Digital Officer. The Belgian had already been Group IT Director at Kingfisher between 2005 and 2008, before finding his way to several other big names in retail.

Barely a year after our experts described "The Future of Shopping: Where everyone is a retailer", Alibaba is aiming to make exactly that happen - literally. The e-tailer is now encouraging all its (one billion!) Chinese users to open their own web shop on the platform.