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Last updated: Monday, 12 October 2026
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Żabka Built the Retail System AI Needs Before AI Arrived
Żabka Group has grown from a traditional Polish convenience chain into a network of more than 13,000 stores, digital businesses and AI-powered operating tools. At NRF Europe in Paris, incoming CEO Tomasz Blicharski explained why the transformation started not with generative AI, but with stores, data, people and thousands of small operational decisions. Now, with Alimentation Couche-Tard pursuing control of the business, the capabilities built along the way are taking on even greater strategic significance.
Read moreM&S and Sephora Plan 100 UK Beauty Shop-in-Shops
M&S and Sephora plan to bring Sephora at M&S to 100 UK locations, starting in spring 2027, with a broader range online and in-store beauty advice.
Read moreDebenhams CEO Dan Finley on Rewriting Department Store Economics
Debenhams Group CEO Dan Finley says the retailer will not return to the British high street. Instead, the 248-year-old name is being rebuilt as a digital marketplace where stock risk sits with brands, AI powers decisions behind the scenes and almost unlimited choice replaces the constraints of the physical department store. At NRF Europe in Paris, Finley explained why he believes that model can become the blueprint for the wider Group.
Read moreRetail Expansion: What JOE & THE JUICE and L'Osteria Won't Change
Growth leaders from JOE & THE JUICE, Granado and L'Osteria explained at NRF Europe in Paris why scale and brand consistency matter more than country count.
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Amazon Alexa+ Tablets Run Android, Sell at Target and Best Buy
Amazon is giving up some control of its tablet ecosystem by running Android with Google Play. In return, Alexa+ reaches more screens, including through rival retailers Best Buy and Target. Amazon's announcement makes no shopping claims, so any commerce effect is a question to watch, not a reported result.
Westwing's Next Act: Building a Premium Design Super Brand
Westwing is turning from an online shopping club into a premium design brand. Its own collection now drives about 65% of sales and over 90% of margins, while ten carefully paced stores lift online sales nearby.
Al-Futtaim's One Commerce Backbone Is Built for Agentic Retail
At NRF Europe in Paris, Al-Futtaim's Eric Meulien explained how one shared commerce architecture supports around 30 brand experiences, launches new sites in weeks, has never needed replatforming and is being reshaped for AI agents and 15-minute delivery.
Continente Sees Shopping Missions, Not Online and Offline
At NRF Europe in Paris, Continente's Guilherme Cardoso explained how Portugal's grocery leader serves three shopping missions through one store-based workflow, prices quick commerce for speed, uses picking data to fix stockouts and is preparing to let customers shop through AI agents.
ARKET and Aroma-Zone: Stores Built on Trust, Not Spectacle
At NRF Europe, ARKET's Jesper Magnusson and Aroma-Zone's Laure Kruithof argued that physical retail should stop chasing spectacle and focus on trust, expertise and relationships that bring customers back.
Żabka Built the Retail System AI Needs Before AI Arrived
Żabka spent a decade modernising stores, building data infrastructure and equipping franchisees before generative AI arrived, and incoming CEO Tomasz Blicharski says that sequence is why AI now works across its 13,000-plus stores.
M&S and Sephora Plan 100 UK Beauty Shop-in-Shops
Sephora at M&S is planned for selected UK stores and M&S.com from spring 2027. The partners aim for 100 locations but have not announced the first stores, brands or a completion date.
Debenhams CEO Dan Finley on Rewriting Department Store Economics
Debenhams will not return to the British high street. CEO Dan Finley is rebuilding the 248-year-old brand as a stock-lite digital marketplace of around 30,000 brands and partners, using AI for pricing, product content and discovery, and wants marketplace to become the organising model for the whole Group.
Retail Expansion: What JOE & THE JUICE and L'Osteria Won't Change
At NRF Europe, JOE & THE JUICE, Granado and L'Osteria argued that international expansion succeeds through market density, well-chosen partners and disciplined limits on local adaptation, not by planting flags in as many countries as possible.
Lagardère Travel Retail's Real Growth Problem: Orchestration
Lagardère Travel Retail's Charlotte Delmas told NRF Europe that growth created complexity, so the group set up a dedicated openings team, cleaned up its processes and adopted Asana to manage the dependencies behind every launch.
Groceryshop 2026: Value, GLP-1s and the New Grocery Shopper
At Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas, NielsenIQ, Sam's Club and Chobani described a grocery shopper transformed by stretched budgets and GLP-1 medications, with value now assembled trip by trip rather than found on a shelf tag.
Groceryshop 2026: AI Agents Are Now Building the Grocery Basket
At Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas, Instacart, DoorDash and Kroger showed AI agents that assemble entire grocery baskets, while value-seeking shoppers, GLP-1 medications and in-store retail media are reshaping what goes into the basket and who influences it.
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Department Store
More Department StoreDebenhams CEO Dan Finley on Rewriting Department Store Economics
Debenhams will not return to the British high street. CEO Dan Finley is rebuilding the 248-year-old brand as a stock-lite digital marketplace of around 30,000 brands and partners, using AI for pricing, product content and discovery, and wants marketplace to become the organising model for the whole Group.
John Lewis Is Turning Its Christmas Storytelling Machine Into an Always-On Content Studio
John Lewis has built a permanent content studio inside its Oxford Street flagship to produce social video, reviews and creator collaborations all year round. The Box Studio extends the storytelling behind its famous Christmas adverts into an everyday retail capability, starting with Gift List, a vodcast hosted by Angela Scanlon with Louis Theroux as first guest.
Ingka Centres: "We Are a Meeting Place, Not a Shopping Centre"
At Shoptalk Europe 2026, Ingka Centres' Kajsa Gihan argued the future of physical retail is not shopping - it is meeting places people actively choose to spend time in, backed by 37 locations, 320 million annual visitors and a China rollout that drew 24 million visits.
Why 5 Million People Still Visit SM Supermalls Every Day Despite the Rise of E-commerce
SM Supermalls draws about 5 million shoppers a day across 90 Philippine and 10 Chinese malls. President Steven Tan credits customer-first innovation, community-focused design and inclusivity for double-digit 2025 growth despite e-commerce headwinds.
Peter Ruis: John Lewis Is Betting on AI, Resale and Expert Service
Speaking on the Headliner Stage at Shoptalk Europe 2026 in Barcelona, John Lewis Managing Director Peter Ruis said the biggest threat to the retailer is no longer another department store. Instead it is competing with specialist brands, social platforms, AI search engines, marketplaces and technology giants, and is responding with AI-led discovery paired with human product expertise across stores, web and contact centres.
Frasers Group & Microsoft Tackle AI-Native Retail
Retailers must adapt to AI-native shoppers now, as conversational AI will drive trillions in commerce by 2030, necessitating richer data and strategic partnerships for product visibility.
How Macy’s is Reinventing Private Brands
Under CEO Tony Spring, Macy's is reinventing its 25+ private brands, launching three new lines like 'On 34th' and 'Mode of One' to boost differentiation and capture evolving consumer trends.
Global Expansion Strategies of Valentino and Victoria's Secrets
Valentino and Victoria's Secret drive global expansion by tailoring strategies to regional differences, leveraging diverse business models, and achieving significant digital commerce success, such as Victoria's Secret moving 100,000 bras via livestream in China.
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