Electronics

Despite difficult circumstances, Fnac Darty has finished 2018 with a small turnover growth and a 20 % profit increase. Sales improved in the Benelux as well, even after seven BCC stores were closed in the Netherlands.

Ceconomy, parent company of MediaMarkt and Saturn, is putting its alliance with Fnac Darty on hold for now. The company wants to find a solution for its ongoing poor performance and financial troubles first.

Voice commerce, shopping through a smart speaker like Amazon Echo, struggles to gain popularity. eMarketer had hoped that almost a third of users would be shopping through smart speakers by 2019, but it turns out less than one percent has adopted the practice.

Bernard Darty, co-founder of French electronics chain Darty, has died at age 84. The group was founded in 1957 by Bernard Darty and his brothers Natan and Marcel, but became an international electronics group.

An international group of companies is set to test drones at the DronePort campus in Brustem, Belgium. Internet giant Amazon is among its members.

Ceconomy CEO Pieter Haas leaves the holding company of German electronics chains Media Markt and Saturn with immediate effect, after another series of disappointing results.

Dutch electronics retailer Coolblue has launched its website and app in English as a third language (after Dutch and French), aiming to increase their service for English-speaking customers in the Benelux. However, the retailer does not (yet) speak of a step towards foreign markets.