All eyes are on Asia today, where e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba revealed its latest ventures after posting quarterly results. US rival Amazon joins forces with Hyundai to experiment with futuristic stores in South Korea and German discounter Aldi might open a store in China in the near future. Enjoy the read and have a great weekend.
All eyes are on Asia today, where e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba revealed its latest ventures after posting quarterly results. US rival Amazon joins forces with Hyundai to experiment with futuristic stores in South Korea and German discounter Aldi might open a store in China in the near future. Enjoy the read and have a great weekend.
Chinese expansion ▪Aldi Süd tightens its collaboration with Alibaba (paywall, in German). The discounter revealed that it will extend its product range on Tmall and also increase the number of its employees in China, fuelling speculation that the retailer soon could open a physical store in Shanghai.
Going public ▪ The chief executive of Portugal's Sonae announced that the company has taken decisive steps towards launching an initial offering for its food retail subsidiary Sonae MC, which operates 173 Continente hypermarkets and has posted sales of EUR 1.9 billion in the first half.
US & Africa
Japanese support ▪Online platform Boxed has announced that it has raised USD 111 million in a new funding round, which was led by Japanese retail giant Aeon. With the financial input, the New York-based company plans to ramp up the automation of its facilities through hardware developed in-house.
Sustainability matters ▪ Joining a number of businesses that are making efforts to curtail or eliminate single-use plastics, supermarket giant Kroger wants to remove plastic shopping bags from its more than 2,800 stores by 2025. The retailer distributes 6 billion single-use bags per year.
High Street king ▪ Last week, Mike Ashley hit the headline with its acquisition of struggling department store chain House of Fraser. UK magazine Retail Gazette takes a closer look at the British tycoon, who ranks number 629 on Forbes 2018 rich list, and reveals where else the entrepreneur has a stake in.
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