UK: Ocado tops eDigitalResearch Digital eRetail benchmarkBritain’s largest online supermarket Ocado have topped Voice of the Customer specialist eDigitalResearch’s eRetail Digital Benchmark for the first time thanks to their good end-to-end digital customer experience. (edigitalresearch.com)
US: AmazonFresh rolls out mandatory $299/year ‘Prime Fresh’ grocery membershipAmazon has followed through on its plan to require a special $299/year membership to use the AmazonFresh grocery delivery service in Seattle and other cities — upping the ante and causing some frequent customers to say they’ll take their business elsewhere. (geekwire.com)
UK's Sainsbury's outperforms rivals
British supermarket Sainsbury's outperformed its so called "big four" rivals over the last three months, industry data showed on Tuesday, as a grocery price war continued to stall overall market growth. Sainsbury's, in common with its major peers - market leader Tesco, Walmart's Asda and Morrisons - is battling to reverse the flow of shoppers to German discounters Aldi and Lidl through price cuts, as well as product quality and service improvements. Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Sainsbury's sales grew 0.9% in the 12 weeks to Sept. 13, while sales at Tesco, Asda and Morrisons fell 1.0%, 2.9% and 1.4% respectively. Sainsbury's maintained its market share at 16.2% while it edged down for the other three. (Reuters)
Source: Kantar Worldpanel
Russian retail giants’ sales volumes continue to decline
Russian retailers continue to lose customers as a result of the economic crisis, reports turkrus.com. The country’s 3 biggest retailers have revealed their trading figures for the first 9 months of this year. Accordingly, customer spending has deceased 0.69% for Magnit, 4.3% for Dixi, but X5 Retail Group showed an increase of 2.2% in the same period. X5 Retail Group was the retail chain with the highest increase in revenue in the period, amounting to 27.6%. Russian buyers are opting for discount stores because of their decreased buying power. 
AU: Woolworths kicks off new marketing campaignWoolworths has kicked off a new price-based marketing campaign – its fourth in as many years – to reinforce its $500m investment into lower grocery prices. (smh.com.au)
Aldi to open stores across Southern California
Aldi plans to open 45 grocery stores in Southern California by July 2016, and several of those stores will be in Riverside County. The stores will create more than 1,100 jobs, including warehouse positions at the company’s regional headquarters in Moreno Valley. The Aldi expansion is part of a five-year plan to open 650 new stores nationwide by the end of 2018, according to Aldi representatives. “Right now, I can tell you that Aldi is evaluating a number of locations in the eight southernmost counties of California (San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, Kern and Ventura) (myvalleynews.com)AU: Aldi trials new store format
Discount supermarket chain Aldi is accelerating a trial of a more modern prototype store as it fine-tunes its format and store interiors for the first time in the 14 years since the German retailer arrived in Australia. After testing four stores in the marketplace for the past six months, as part of a modernisation of the brand, Aldi is about to roll out another four stores with the new format. But Aldi executives say it will be some time before final decisions are made about whether to bring the new formats right through the wider Aldi network. (smh.com.au)
UK: Asda halts expansion plans
Supermarket Asda is to accelerate investment in its larger stores and put expansion on hold elsewhere to save money as it seeks to reverse a sharp fall in recent sales. Without providing new investment figures Asda said on Monday it would speed up existing plans to reconfigure 95 of its larger stores. But it will also slow down planned expansions in London, such as small format stores, as well as a programme to develop small outlets at petrol stations. Asda will put a brake on existing plans to develop remote click and collect sites, while non-core areas such as its business to business sales operation will permanently close in the next few months. "We need to simplify what we do by prioritising the first line of our strategy - improving our core business - and pausing activity in other areas so that we are not spread too thinly," said CEO Andy Clarke. (Reuters)Manuel Supermarket to showcase at Dubai food shows
Manuel Supermarket, a Jeddah-based supermarket chain, is set to leverage this months trio of niche food shows at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) before rolling out a three-year expansion plan across the UAE from next year. Speaking ahead of the 2015 editions of Sweets and Snacks Middle East, The Speciality Food Festival and Seafex - which return to DWTC from October 27 to 29 October, Khalid Al Darwish, co-founder and CEO of Manuel Supermarket, believed the three events provide the perfect springboard to increase the chain’s visibility in the ultra-competitive UAE supermarket sector. (tradearabia.com)Economy squeezes South Africa's Shoprite Q3 turnover
Shoprite reported slowing third quarter sales, hit by weaker economic growth and lacklustre demand from its core customers. It said turnover for the three months to September rose 6.7% compared to a 12.3% increase in the same period last year. "The core customer base of its flagship Shoprite chain in particular remained under pressure from mining job cuts, rising electricity costs, labour instability and lack of job creation," the company said in a statement. Shoprite said its core South African supermarkets grew sales 4.9% in the most recent quarter after internal inflation fell from 6% in the previous corresponding quarter to 3.4%. Non-South African supermarkets grew turnover 12.8%, despite lower commodity prices and currency devaluation in the group’s biggest African markets. (cnbcafrica.com)Shoprite plans more store openings to revive flagging sales
Shoprite plans to accelerate a store-opening plan to help regain market share after high unemployment and rising electricity costs stunted sales growth in the first quarter. The company will open 77 new supermarkets in the nine months through June, compared with 61 in the same period last year, Chairman Christo Wiese said at the retailer’s annual meeting in Cape Town on Monday. Shoprite lost market share to competitors in July and August, yet has been encouraged by trading in October, he said. (Bloomberg)
Aldi will expand online in 2016, UK CEO says
Aldi UK CEO Matthew Barnes has told Retail Week that he sees the discounter's forthcoming online sales portal as “a path to profitability”, describing the sale of wine by the case, which will be introduced in Q1 of next year, as “a toe in the water”. Aldi also plans to begin selling its non-food product ranges online such as DIY tools and cycling gear in the second quarter. (esmmagazine.com)UK: Budgens and Londis to contribute £3m to Booker full year profits
UK wholesaler Booker has announced in its interim results that it expects the Budgens and Londis businesses that it recently acquired from Musgrave Group to give a £3m boost to its full year figures. In the statement, covering the 24 weeks to 11 September, Booker also added that it anticipates the retailers to make a £5m contribution to profits the following year. ‘Through Booker, Londis and Budgens joining forces, we will help independent retailers and consumers throughout Great Britain,’ Booker said in the statement. (esmmagazine.com)Walmart unveils supply chain priorities
At its investors meeting last week, Walmart provided an update on its strategic priorities, focusing specifically on the plans for improving its US supply chain and driving investment in e-commerce. Please, click here to read the article. 
International analysis – Casino closes in on domestic comebackPlease, click here to read the article.