Fashion
After a stunning first quarter, Zalando is raising its outlook for the full year. The fashion platform is also investing heavily in the expansion of its logistics network.
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General
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com gives the starting signal for its European expansion: in the Dutch province of Limburg, the logistics specialist opens a distribution centre of 18,000 square metres. It will also have an office.
British online supermarket Ocado invests 10 million pounds (12 million euros) in Oxbotica, which develops software for autonomous vans and robots.
Food
In Paris, customers of Carrefour can now also have their groceries delivered to their home within half an hour by Deliveroo riders. In Belgium, the collaboration expands to Antwerp and Ghent.
El Corte Inglés is converting one of its department stores in northern Spain into a fulfilment centre for online orders. The department store chain wants to serve the entire Basque Country and is also focusing on food deliveries.
Stores have become an indispensable part of the omnichannel strategy in times of Covid: it is a place where parcels get prepared, sent or collected from. Deloitte believes this trend will continue. But how can it be done more efficiently?
Property
Is it a fulfilment centre or a store? The future will be all about a mixture of the two: hybrid shops. The Covid-19 pandemic has given stores a new purpose, notes real estate player CBRE.
Zalando now charges a "distance fee" to customers in the Benelux for packages coming from further afield. The free shipping trendsetter is retracing its steps, and others will follow.
For the first time, Amazon has bought its own aircraft: 11 used passenger Boeings are converted into cargo aeroplanes. The e-commerce giant is also flying to Europe: in Germany, Amazon Air is now leasing two planes.
Does a digital Christmas also mean that an unseen number of presents will be returned? As the past few weeks have seen massive online purchases, American retailers are already bracing themselves for a tidal wave of returns.
HelloFresh can no longer keep up in Germany. Demand has exploded to such an extent that the mealbox provider is bribing customers to cancel their weekly order: those who cancel will receive ten euros.
Since October, Decathlon has been testing a new technological solution in several Belgian stores in Belgium to optimise the so-called 'last-mile logistics'.
As early as next year, Walmart will be using self-driving lorries for deliveries in two American states. The American hypermarket group strongly believes in the future of autonomous vehicles.
Colruyt Group has recently become Europe's first to test a 44-ton all-electric truck with a hydrogen "range extender". The retailer has been investing in hydrogen solutions for some time now.
Mondial Relay, a company distributing parcels through pick-up points, strengthens its position in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain. The company will also start operating in Portugal.
Walmart is turning four of its hypermarkets into laboratories, which are investigating how to make better use of the retailer's physical stores for e-commerce. The chain is testing different technologies there.
