General

The owner of Dutch retail chain Action, British investment company 3i, announced in its half-yearly figures that the discounter is now worth more than 10 billion euros. Last year, the value of the retailer was estimated at 'just' 6.5 billion.

Singles’ Day has once again been a great success for Alibaba: in total, consumers bought 268 billion yuan (35 billion euros) worth of goods, setting a new record. However, criticism from environmentalists of such ‘sales splurges’ is growing.

Carrefour has reached an agreement with 3Suisses owner Shopinvest about the sale of e-commerce company Rue du Commerce. No financial details about the deal have been released.

In the past quarter, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba once again saw a strong increase in turnover and profit. Flourishing cloud activities are at the basis of the growth, which was bigger than expected.

The French health app Yuka is quickly becoming popular in Belgium, with many consumers often following its advice. Consequently, large companies are starting to adjust the composition of their products in order to achieve a better 'Yuka score'.

In ten years' time, we may well no longer know 11 November as an Armistice, but rather as a shopping holiday? If that were to be the case, it would be due to Alibaba, who this year even managed to entice Taylor Swift. Even Carrefour has come over to the idea.

Amazon wants to turn its Dutch website into a fully functional web shop in 2020. Until now, only e-books have been for sale on that Amazon.nl; for other products, Dutch customers are referred to Amazon.de.