US: Instacart announces $600mln in new funding led by D1 Capital Partners
Instacart, the North American leader in online groceries, announced it has raised $600mln as part of a financing round led by D1 Capital Partners. The investment from D1 Capital comes after a year of tremendous growth for Instacart and raises the Company's valuation to $7.6bln. "The U.S. is nearly a $1tln grocery market, and last year we saw almost every major grocer in North America bring their delivery business online in a significant way. We believe we're in the very early stages of a massive shift in the way people buy groceries and we expect that one in five Americans will be shopping for their groceries online in the next five years," said Apoorva Mehta, CEO and Founder of Instacart. "We're excited to partner with D1 Capital on this investment, which is a testament to the growth we've seen and our ambitious plans for the future."
Source: prnewswire.com
US: Albertsons launches an online marketplace for food, wellness and household products
Grocery retailer Albertsons Cos. LLC launched an online marketplace selling about 40,000 food, wellness and household products. By the end of 2018, the site, Albertsons.com/Marketplace, will offer more than 100,000 products, the company says. Albertsons - the third-largest grocer in the United States in terms of market share and No. 178 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000 - announced plans to launch the marketplace earlier this year. The new marketplace will allow vendors to list products for purchase on the platform, with the marketplace handling several front-end e-commerce functions, including search, product descriptions and ordering, in exchange for a commission on each sale. The marketplace website is built on the Mirakl Marketplace Platform.
Source: digitalcommerce360.com
US: Smart & Final reaches milestone with extra banner
Smart & Final Stores Inc. has reached a new milestone, opening the 200th location under its Smart & Final Extra banner, in Long Beach, California. The 30,000-square-foot store offers both household and club sizes of products at warehouse prices, but without any membership fee requirement. Shoppers have access to expanded frozen, deli and meat selections; a full fresh produce section with organic options; and various grocery and household staples offered in a wide range of sizes. Extra stores typically provide an additional 6,000 club-size items compared with the company's namesake stores.
Source: progressivegrocer.com
E-commerce helps boost quarterly revenue at Carrefour Brasil
Brazilian retailer Carrefour Brasil posted a strong boost in third-quarter sales, supported in part by the end of a deflationary cycle for food products and strong growth of the firm’s e-commerce initiatives. In a securities filing, the Brazilian unit of France’s Carrefour SA said revenue rose 8.1% in the third quarter from a year ago to 14bln reais ($3.76bln). Same-store sales, a closely watched metric of sales at stores open for at least 12 months, climbed 5.1%.
Source: reuters.com
Morrisons Daily is now open in Guernsey
The first Morrisons Daily store in Guernsey is now open at St Peter’s. Constable de Laune opened the store on 17 October 2018. The Morrisons Daily at St Peter's offers fresh, frozen and local produce, along with fresh flowers, newspapers and magazines, pet food, household products, etc. The store also offers Morrisons ‘The Best’ range, ‘Free From’ gluten-free products, butchery counter and the 'home' collection, a selection of kitchenware - with the Wine Warehouse located in-store and free parking directly outside.
Source: sandpiperci.com
China: Dada-JD Daojia & Carrefour to collaborate online
Chinese online grocery and delivery company Dada-JD Daojia recently announced a formal collaboration with French hypermarket chain Carrefour SA, with a plan to have approximately 200 Carrefour stores having presences on JD Daojia by the end of this year. There are 158 Carrefour stores in 31 major cities across the nation that have joined JD Daojia by the end of last month. Following deeper collaboration, Carrefour's online sales increased 720% compared with the previous month’s data.
Source: usa.chinadaily.com.cn
France: Groupe Casino bulks up solar energy division
Groupe Casino has announced that it has signed an agreement with Tikehau Capital and Bpifrance that will see the two groups commit a capital investment of €150mln into GreenYellow, Casino's subsidiary dedicated to solar energy and energy efficiency solutions. This investment is valued at a 24% stake in GreenYellow. This capital increase will enable GreenYellow 'to accelerate its development in all of its markets in France and abroad, and to benefit from the expertise of Tikehau Capital and Bpifrance in the fast growing renewable energies and energy efficiency sectors', Groupe Casino said in a statement. The agreement is expected to be completed by December 2018, subject to competition laws and other considerations.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Singapore: honestbee introduces new multi-sensory grocery and dining concept
Singapore-based on-demand grocery delivery marketplace honestbee has introduced a new multi-sensory grocery and dining concept, habitat by honestbee. Spread across 60,000ft2 of space, habitat by honestbee features a supermarket, fresh grocery store, online fulfilment centre, retail innovation hub and experiential dining destination. Powered by honestbee, the new store also features a cashless checkout experience, AutoCheckout and robotic collection point, RoboCollect.
Source: retail-insight-network.com
India: BigBasket acquires RainCan, begins microdelivery vertical under BBdaily brand
BigBasket has finally kicked-off micro-delivery (aka milk-tech) vertical by the name BBdaily. The company has been preparing for the morning delivery service for the past couple of months and was in talks to take over RainCan. Now, the Pune-based microdelivery startup has confirmed its acquisition by the Alibaba-backed company. Entrackr had exclusively reported about the potential acquisition of RainCan as well as Bengaluru-based Morning Cart by BigBasket.
Source: entrackr.com
Italy: Coop launches virtual shopping chatbot
Coop Italia’s Supermarket of the Future in Bicocca, Milan has launched ShoppY, a digital assistant. ShoppY uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to process data from receipts to help customers with their shopping. The chatbot, developed by Accenture and Avanade, identifies instore product locations, promotional offers and store hours. ShoppY can also help create and modify shopping lists by analysing shoppers’ buying histories to suggest products. Shoppers connect to the Coop store’s Facebook page to communicate with ShoppY.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Eglė Šimė appointed as the new CEO of Franmax, the company owned by Maxima Grupė
Effective 19 October, Eglė Šimė, currently working as a head of IT center, was appointed as the new CEO of Franmax, the company owned by Maxima Grupė. To this date, Franmax was led by Dalius Misiūnas, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Maxima Grupė. Established in 2011, Franmax provides franchise and agency services to companies of Maxima Grupė in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria and Poland. The company is responsible for sourcing suppliers and purchasing, development of corporate and private brands, improving efficiency of supply chains, development of stores, maintenance and development of IT systems and programs. “At this stage of Maxima Grupė’s international expansion it is very important to meet fast and high-quality business needs. Therefore, the development of Franmax activities is one of our strategic priorities. Due to this reason, we have appointed a CEO who will put the main focus on the further development of Franmax and its efficiency,” says D. Misiūnas, the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Maxima Grupė.
Source: globenewswire.com
France: Carrefour 2018 3rd quarter sales
Carrefour reported an acceleration in sales growth to +2.1% like-for-like in the third quarter (vs +0.7% in H1), notably in France (+1.6%) and in Brazil (+5.1%), reflecting a better momentum in France, driven by an improved commercial performance in all formats and better market trends. Strongly accelerating growth in Brazil, supported by an improved commercial performance and a return to slight food inflation; total growth was also driven by the rapid expansion of Atacadão. Food e-commerce sales are growing above 30%.
Source: carrefour.com
Holland: Ahold Delhaize announces joint online initiatives for key brands 
Netherlands-based grocery retail group Ahold Delhaize has announced the next step in its digital transformation by creating several joint online initiatives across its brands. Its supermarket chain Albert Heijn’s online site and its electricals, toys and books store Bol.com now have a single sign-on service, meaning customers can log into each of those websites using their Bol.com account. It ensures shoppers only need one account for their food and non-food purchases. In addition, Ahold Delhaize said it has created a combined subscription model, with new and renewal subscribers to Albert Heijn's 12-month home-delivery service now able to access a subscription to Bol.com's 12-month fast and free-of-charge delivery offering.
Source: essentialretail.com