Report: 66% of US shoppers will buy more groceries online in the next 5 years
About 66% of shoppers said they expect to be buying more of their groceries online within the next five years, according to a new report from retail firm Field Agent that surveyed 3,342 primary grocery shoppers. A majority of shoppers who grocery shop online buy from Walmart (82%), while 35% purchase from Amazon and 29% from Target. Seventeen percent of shoppers said they shop through Instacart, regardless of retailer, and 7% use Shipt. Among shoppers who own a smart speaker and purchase groceries for pickup or delivery, 38% reported they would be moderately likely to use a grocery ordering service through the device while 15% are completely likely and 21% are very likely.
Source: grocerydive.com
US: Walmart is using VR to determine who should get promotions
When some Walmart Inc. store workers want to apply for a higher-paying management role, the company fits them with a $250 virtual reality headset to see if they are the right candidate for the job. The country’s largest private employer is using a VR skills assessment as part of the selection process to find new middle managers, watching how workers respond in virtual reality to an angry shopper, a messy aisle or an underperforming worker. “What we’re trying to do is understand the capacity of the individual from a leadership perspective and how they view situations”, said Drew Holler, Walmart’s senior vice president of associate experience. Walmart executives hope the technology will limit bias inherent in many traditional hiring decisions, increase diversity and reduce turnover among its 1.5mln U.S. employees in a tight labor market.
Source: marketwatch.com
Canada: Dollarama takes stake in Latin American value retailer Dollarcity
Canada’s leading dollar store chain, Dollarama, has acquired a 50.1% interest in Latin American value retailer, Dollarcity. This builds on the existing cooperation agreement between the two chains. Dollarama and Dollarcity entered into a commercial agreement in 2013. This focused on sharing business expertise and in Dollarama providing sourcing services to Dollarcity. This agreement included an option for Dollarama to acquire a 50.1% interest in the business at the beginning of the seventh year of the partnership. The countries covered by the agreement are Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Brasil: Carrefour sees major growth in organic products & in-house brands
Carrefour Brasil SA plans to increase the supply of organic products in its stores by 85% in 2019, executives said, as part of wider efforts to capture growing consumer interest in healthier and natural food. The local subsidiary of French retailer Carrefour SA expects sales of organic food to hit 500mln reais ($131mln) by 2022, according to Carrefour Brasil’s head of sustainability, Lucio Vicente Silva. “Our ambition is to lead the food transition, allowing people to eat better at a fair price”, said Vice President of Institutional Relations Stephane Engelhard at an event in Sao Paulo.
Source: reuters.com
Honestbee Taiwan suspends services
Ailing Singaporean grocery-delivery service Honestbee is “temporarily closing” its Taiwan operations as it continues to focus on its core Southeast Asian markets to ensure survival. “Thank you for your support and affirmation for Honestbee during these days”, the company’s Taiwanese team posted on Facebook at the weekend. “Unfortunately, the Taiwan operations team received instructions from Singapore headquarters that will temporarily stop all operations in Taiwan.” The post said services would resume when “the operation problems in Taiwan can improve and be resolved”.
Source: insideretail.asia
Walmart to invest $1.2bln in China to upgrade logistics
Walmart Inc plans to invest 8bln yuan ($1.2bln) in China over the next 10 years to upgrade logistics, the U.S. retail giant said on its social media account. The company will also set up or renovate more than 10 logistics centres in the country. The comments followed a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend in Osaka, Japan that rekindled hope for a U.S.-China trade deal.
Source: in.reuters.com
Metro sells six Makro Spain properties for €73mln
Metro AG has announced that its real estate arm, Metro Properties, has sold a portfolio of six Makro Spain properties to LaSalle Investment Management for €73mln. LaSalle Investment Management acquired the portfolio on behalf of the French public service pension scheme, ERAFP. The decision to offload the six Makro Spain properties was part of a sale-and-leaseback transaction. The transaction, which closed in June of this year, will allow Makro Spain to continue as the sole tenant of all six assets with a 15-year fixed lease term with extension options.
Source: esmmagazine.com
UK: Sainsbury's sales slide despite deep discounts
Deep discounting has failed to stem the slide in sales for Sainsbury's. The supermarket giant says it has cut prices on more than 1,000 everyday food and grocery products since February. Yet in its latest quarterly trading statement, it reports a fall of 1.2% in its total sales, excluding fuel. Chief executive Mike Coupe complained of a "tough trading environment", but said Sainsbury's was making progress. The firm said: "Retail markets remain highly competitive and promotional." The results cover the 16 weeks to 29 June. Like-for-like sales, which ignore the boost that a retailer gets from opening new stores, were even worse, falling by 1.6%.
Source: bbc.com
IGD: online grocery in Asia to grow 198% to US$295bln by 2023
Online grocery in Asia is developing at a rapid pace, with the market set to grow from its current value of US$99bln to US$295bln by 2023, according to the latest forecasts from international researcher IGD Asia. Highlights from the research include: By 2023, IGD expects online grocery sales across Asia’s top 12 grocery markets to grow to US$295bln, a 198% increase; This represents a CAGR of 24.4%, compared to 6.2% for the overall grocery retail market over the same period - making online the fastest-growing format in the region; IGD forecasts that online will account for 7.6% of total grocery retail sales in Asia by 2023, more than doubling its current market share. Shirley Zhu, Programme Director at IGD Asia, says: "The penetration, size and growth of online grocery varies greatly by country. South Korea, China and Japan will be the most established online grocery markets in terms of both market share and scale, while Singapore and Taiwan will also have well-developed online grocery channels by 2023, benefiting from existing infrastructure and retailer investment. Markets in Southeast Asia will see some of the fastest growth, but the market share of online grocery here will remain small. Markets such as India and Indonesia will also become increasingly important due to their scale."
Source: igd.com
Groupe Casino completes sale of eight stores for €39mln
French retailer Groupe Casino has completed the sale of a total of eight stores, including three hypermarkets, four Casino supermarkets and one Leader Price outlet. Hypermarkets in Cholet, Roubaix and Rennes were offloaded to Leclerc members, while the four supermarkets and Leader Price store were sold to Lidl, Casino said. Casino received a total of €39mln from the transactions. The amount received from loss-making store disposals to date has amounted to €134mln, which has resulted in an improvement of trading profit of €24mln, the group said. Casino added that other disposals are 'continuing according to plan'.
Source: esmmagazine.com
Spain: El Corte Inglés reports positive FY2018 sales
Spain-based department chain El Corte Inglés has said its revenue rose 1.1% to €15.78bln, a rise of 1.1% on 2017. It said its net profit increased by 27.7% to €258.2mln, while its EBITDA was up by 2.2% to €1.08bln. El Corte Inglés invested €396mln in 2018, which it said it spent on upgrading its eponymous department store chain and develop its digital business. The money is aimed at helping El Corte Inglés to build out its omnichannel strategy. At its Supercor banner, El Corte Inglés said the strategy had seen it build synergies between these banners and its department store chain to enable shoppers to pick up online orders from El Corte Inglés at its food-focused banners. Elsewhere investment was made in Supercor’s offer to create a more shopper-centric range that saw a greater tailoring of the range to local markets and tastes. This saw it grow its range of fresh and differentiated products, which were invariably enabled by direct purchasing, and the opening of new La Biosfera spaces, which puts more of a focus on organic products.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Carrefour to expand home delivery in France
Trade publication LSA reports that Carrefour is preparing to extend the coverage for its home delivery in its home market to all urban areas with more than 10,000 inhabitants by 2020. According to the report Carrefour will offer a two-hour delivery service or for orders to be ready for collection in-store in the same timeframe, for shoppers making grocery orders. Non-grocery orders will be able to be collected in-store in two hours, due to the lower cost impact for Carrefour. The retailer has also said the initiative has been trialled in Spain and has helped bring back lapsed shoppers to its stores. To meet this initiative, Carrefour will invest strongly in its supply chain to enable it meet shoppers’ demands for fast paced fulfilment and for delivery to multiple locations. To meet its 2020 target, Carrefour will offer home delivery in 45 cities, before extending it to all cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants for 2020. To enable non-food orders to be added to 189 stores initially, Carrefour will provide a more transparent view on its in-store stock levels, while from the beginning of July it will align prices between its online store and those charged in-store. The retailer is hoping the new service will lead to the number of click and collect orders to reach more than 800,000 by the end of 2019, up from nearly 30,000 in 2018. By 2020 it is targeting 1.35m orders.
Source: retailanalysis.igd.com
Union Coop will allow UAE citizens to buy shares
Union Cooperative announced that all UAE citizens will soon be able to buy their shares and invest in the company starting September 1, 2019. Majid Hamad Rahma Al Shamsi, Chairman of Union Coop, said: “This decision is a result of continuous efforts made by the Board of Directors over the past years to empower consumer cooperatives, promote expansion to other emirates and to allow all UAE citizens to get financial returns by investing their money in a distinct national economic institution with a strong and growing financial performance such as Union Coop.”
Source: gulfnews.com
Amazon to create 1,800 jobs in France, Conforama to cut jobs
U.S. online retail giant Amazon said it will create 1,800 permanent contract positions this year in France, its largest European market after Britain and Germany, although furniture retailer Conforama went the other way in cutting jobs. The increase will bring Amazon’s total number of permanent staff to 9,300 by end 2019 and reflects the group’s commitment to the French market where it has invested over 2bln euros ($2.26bln) since 2010, the statement said. Amazon’s plan comes as Conforama, the French unit of South African retailer Steinhoff which is in the midst of a financial restructuring, plans to cut 1,900 jobs in France.
Source: reuters.com