๐ Editorial of the Week
The year ends with a real earthquake for the open-source ecosystem: the acquisition of PrestaShop brutally redraws the map of e-commerce in Europe. Beyond these corporate maneuvers, it is the results of the "Cyber Weekend" that are striking. While sales records are falling, it is above all consumer behavior that is mutating at full speed: an explosion of traffic generated by AI (+805%!), the omnipresence of in-store mobile payments, and a historic breakthrough of second-hand goods in Christmas shopping bags. The market is no longer just growing; it is changing its nature.
๐ข Major Movements & E-commerce Strategies
๐ Shopify Winter Edition '26: The shift to "Agentic Commerce" On December 9, Shopify unveiled its "RenAIssance Edition" with over 150 updates. The platform introduces "Agentic Storefronts" to sell directly within ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, a Sidekick 2.0 assistant that modifies code using natural language, and "SimGym," a simulator to test the impact of changes before publishing. (www.shopify.com)
๐ต๐ฑ Open Source Earthquake: PrestaShop acquired by a Polish consortium Itโs the shock news: PrestaShop was acquired on December 10 by the cyber_Folks group, associated with Sylius and BitBag. This operation creates a unified ecosystem weighing โฌ35 billion in business volume, redrawing the map of open-source e-commerce in Europe and raising questions about the future of the French solution. (www.webhosting.today)
๐ Shein: Sales drop and judicial Sword of Damocles Shein's sales collapsed by 45% in France in November following the suspension of its marketplace after the discovery of illegal products. The French courts will render their final decision on December 19 regarding a possible total three-month suspension of the platform. (www.leprogres.fr)
๐ Amazon France changes leadership Frรฉdรฉric Duval will leave the General Management of Amazon.fr in February 2026 after a decade in the post. Jean-Baptiste Thomas will succeed him, while retaining his current European responsibilities. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ฐ TikTok Shop raises commissions in Europe Buoyed by its success, TikTok Shop is ending its grace period: commissions will rise from 5% to 9% starting January 8, 2026, for all European sellers, marking a new phase of revenue consolidation. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ Amazon attacks the law on book shipping fees The American giant has filed an appeal with the Council of State, estimating that the mandatory โฌ3 shipping fee on books has cost French readers more than โฌ100 million since 2023, without benefiting independent booksellers. (www.siecledigital.fr)
๐ Kiabi unifies its brands under a new "K" The northern French fashion retailer Kiabi is launching a new visual identity with a unified "K" logo for all its brands and services, reinforcing its global coherence. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐จ๐ณ Price war in China: $14 billion in losses The fierce battle for "instant retail" delivery (30-60 min) and food delivery in China has cost Meituan, Alibaba, and JD.com $14 billion in subsidies over two quarters, with Meituan recording its largest historical operating loss. (www.technode.com)
๐ข Walmart moves to Nasdaq and dreams of being a tech company Walmart confirmed its transfer from the NYSE to the Nasdaq, symbolizing its repositioning as a technology company. The retailer also inaugurated a $350 million dairy plant in Georgia. (www.corporate.walmart.com)
๐ Black Friday Figures & Financial Results
๐ณ Stripe: Over $40 billion processed during Black Friday The payment platform Stripe set a new record by processing over $40 billion in global transactions during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2025 weekend. (www.ecommerce-nation.fr)
๐บ๐ธ Historic Cyber Monday in the USA Cyber Monday generated $14.25 billion (+7.1%) in the United States, becoming the largest online shopping day in history, surpassing Black Friday ($11.8 billion).
๐ฆ France: 260% explosion in parcels Cyber Monday caused a 260% increase in the volume of parcels shipped in France. The downside: next-day deliveries (J+1) dropped by 23.5% due to logistics network saturation. (www.ecommerce-nation.fr)
๐ซ๐ท Mixed results for the French Black Friday While turnover increased by +6% with an average basket at โฌ236 (+โฌ3), the number of purchasing acts declined by -3%. However, 77% of French people participated in the event. (www.lefigaro.fr)
๐ค AI generated 805% more traffic Traffic from artificial intelligence services (ChatGPT, Gemini) to e-commerce sites jumped by +805% during the American Black Friday, confirming the massive impact of conversational assistants on the purchasing journey. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ฃ๏ธ Amazon Rufus converts massively During Black Friday, 40% of sessions on the Amazon app used Rufus, the AI chatbot, leading to an impressive conversion spike of +91 points on D-Day. (www.ecommerce-nation.fr)
๐ Costco beats expectations in Q4 Warehouse club giant Costco reported revenue of $67.31 billion (+8.3%) for its fourth quarter, exceeding forecasts thanks to a 6.4% increase in same-store sales. (www.finance.yahoo.com)
๐จ Adobe announces record revenue Adobe unveiled a record quarterly revenue of $6.19 billion (+10%), driven by continued demand for its creative tools essential to the digital ecosystem. (www.adobe.com)
๐พ Broadcom benefits from the AI chip boom Broadcom saw its sales of AI-dedicated chips explode by 74% in the last quarter, reaching $8.2 billion, with a full order book for the next 18 months.
๐ฃ Marketing, Ads & Retail Media
๐ Google Shopping benefits from the decline of Chinese marketplaces Google Shopping recorded an 18% increase in clicks and 19% in spending in the second quarter, directly benefiting from the withdrawal of certain features by Amazon and Temu. (www.positionzero.net)
๐ฅ Meta redesigns Facebook for young people Meta unveiled a redesign of Facebook focusing on Marketplace, dating, and local content to win back Gen Z, while integrating more e-commerce features. (www.techcrunch.com)
๐ช๐บ Meta yields to Europe on ads Following a โฌ200 million fine, Meta will offer European users a choice starting in January 2026 between personalized ads or a less intrusive model using less personal data. (www.blogdumoderateur.com)
๐ Valiuz and Boulanger launch programmatic in-store audio A European first: Valiuz now allows targeted audio advertisements to be broadcast via The Trade Desk directly in 95% of Boulanger stores, reaching 70 million annual visitors. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ค JCDecaux and Carrefour join forces in Retail Media The two groups signed a partnership to deploy DOOH screens in 161 Carrefour shopping malls in France and Spain, connecting retail data to physical advertising displays. (www.optionfinance.fr)
๐ค Carrefour creates its ad 100% by AI In collaboration with Publicis, Carrefour launched an advertising campaign for its express delivery entirely conceived and generated by artificial intelligence, from visual creation to format adaptation. (www.larevuedudigital.com)
๐ช Le Bon Marchรฉ adopts conversational AI The Parisian department store now uses Alcmeon's solution to manage its customer interactions on Instagram and Google Reviews with personalized responses generated by AI. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ฅ Live Shopping explodes in Europe The platform Whatnot saw its sales jump by +406% in the UK and +288% in France during Black Friday. The global livestream shopping market is expected to reach $1.14 trillion in 2026. (www.fashionnetwork.com)
๐คณ The French Creator Economy weighs 8 billion The French creator economy market reached $8.14 billion in 2025, up 19%, confirming the power of influencers in sales strategies. (www.siecledigital.fr)
๐ค Tech, Fintech & Startups
๐ฆ BBVA partners with OpenAI Spanish bank BBVA signed a strategic partnership with OpenAI to integrate generative AI into its services, aiming to reinvent banking advice and risk analysis. (www.bbva.com)
๐ฆ Brevo becomes a unicorn with โฌ500M The French CRM platform Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) raised โฌ500 million, reaching unicorn status. It is investing massively in AI to automate customer marketing. (www.maddyness.com)
๐ Klarna arrives on Apple Pay in France Buy Now, Pay Later giant Klarna has integrated its services with Apple Pay in France and Italy, allowing payment in installments directly via the Apple wallet. (www.macrumors.com)
๐ค Mollie buys GoCardless for โฌ600M Fintech Mollie has acquired GoCardless, creating a European payments giant capable of managing both card transactions and direct debits for 350,000 merchants. (www.mishcon.com)
๐ Meta acquires Limitless for its AI glasses Meta has acquired the startup Limitless (formerly Rewind), specializing in AI wearables, to strengthen its Reality Labs division and accelerate the development of its smart connected glasses. (www.techcrunch.com)
โป๏ธ SuperCircle raises $24M for textile recycling Startup SuperCircle raised $24 million for its platform that uses AI to create digital twins of textile waste and optimize its recycling or resale. (www.ouispeakfashion.com)
๐ GetMint raises โฌ4M for AI-era SEO French startup GetMint raised โฌ4 million to help brands with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), i.e., optimizing their visibility in responses from ChatGPT and Gemini. (www.maddyness.com)
๐ธ โฌ418M raised by French Tech in November Despite a tense context, French startups raised โฌ418 million in November across 41 operations, with notable rounds for Upway (โฌ55M) and NextProtein (โฌ18M). (www.eldorado.co)
๐ Trends, Consumer Behavior & Security
๐ Christmas Budget down by 7.5% The average budget of French people for Christmas 2025 is set at โฌ470, down by 7.5%. 55% will prioritize e-commerce and 30% will turn to independent merchants. (www.comarketing-news.fr)
โป๏ธ Second hand takes over under the tree One-third of French people plan to give a second-hand gift this year. 52% even find that a second-hand item has "more charm" than a new one, lifting a major psychological barrier. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ค 1 in 3 French people use AI for Christmas 33% of French people (and 44% of young people) use AI to prepare their year-end purchases. More surprisingly, 22% say they are ready to entrust the final purchase directly to artificial intelligence. (www.actu-marketing.fr)
๐๏ธ E-commerce captures 28% of spending The share of e-commerce now reaches 28% of overall French spending (+1 point), with purchase frequency growing twice as fast online as in-store. (www.ecommerce-nation.fr)
๐ฑ Mobile payment explodes in-store The use of wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay) in-store jumped by +41% in one year in France, now representing nearly a quarter of total physical sales volume. (www.adyen.com)
๐ณ BNPL reaches new heights Split payment (Buy Now Pay Later) generated $10.1 billion in spending in the USA in November alone (+9%), becoming an essential payment method for the holidays. (www.independent.co.uk)
๐ฐ Social Commerce targets 100 billion In the USA, sales via social networks (Social Commerce) are expected to reach $87 billion in 2025 and cross the $100 billion mark by 2026. (www.emarketer.com)
๐ธ E-commerce fraud weighs 1 billion Online fraud now represents a cost of one billion euros for French e-commerce, an alarming figure pushing merchants to equip themselves. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐ก๏ธ 67% of companies cyber-attacked The CESIN 2025 Barometer reveals that 67% of French companies suffered at least one cyberattack in 2024, a worrying increase of 14 points compared to the previous year. (www.bisatelphone.com)
๐ Vinted Scandal: Arcom seized The government seized Arcom after the discovery of ads on Vinted redirecting to pornographic content, forcing the platform to reaffirm its "zero tolerance" policy. (www.mesinfos.fr)
๐ฑ ChatGPT, most downloaded app in France ChatGPT has become the most downloaded application of the year in France on the App Store, ahead of Temu and Google Chrome, while Shein drops out of the top 20. (www.blogdumoderateur.com)
๐ก Inflation: โฌ880 saved thanks to the web A study reveals that e-commerce allowed European households to save an average of โฌ880 per year thanks to competitive online prices in the face of inflation. (www.ecommerce-nation.fr)
๐ก๏ธ NIS 2 Directive: Reinforced Cybersecurity The European NIS 2 directive now imposes strict cybersecurity obligations on many e-merchants, now classified as "important entities" in the eyes of the law. (www.journaldunet.com)
๐ฆ Logistics & Transport
๐ DHL forecasts a historic Christmas DHL Express France anticipates processing 5.7 million parcels in December, a 6% increase compared to 2024. 68% of its fleet is now electric to absorb this peak. (www.neomag.fr)
๐ฌ๐ง Evri and SF International join forces British logistics provider Evri signed an agreement with Chinese giant SF International to strengthen cross-border flows between China, the UK, and Europe. (www.parcelandpostaltechnologyinternational.com)
๐ "Reverse Logistics" under pressure Product returns are expected to reach 17% of online sales after Christmas. Retailers are turning massively to AI and robots to process these returns and reduce logistics costs by 30%. (www.logisticsmgmt.com)
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