Electronics

Two years after opening a French language web shop, Dutch Coolblue is now set to open its first physical store in Belgium's French speaking area. Bilingual Brussels has already been confirmed, but the company is also looking for suitable locations in Liège and Charleroi.

Two big names in Asian e-commerce are working together: Chinese JD.com and Japanese Rakuten have signed an agreement to start using technology developed by JD.com, such as drones and robots, in Rakuten's unmanned delivery solutions in Japan.

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.