๐ The Editorial of the Week While the last packages are piling up in trucks, headquarters are already preparing for the war of 2026. This week marks a structural turning point: the emergence of a European giant capable of competing with Shopify, aggressive consolidation in AdTech, and the concrete arrival of the sovereign wallet Wero among major retailers. But behind these high-flying maneuvers, the reality on the ground is harsher: the toy market is stalling, and regulatory authorities are publishing damning reports on the safety of imported products. Playtime is coming to an end for unregulated cross-border trade.
๐ข E-commerce & Shopping
๐ช๐บ The confirmed birth of the European "Shopify Killer" The analysis of the acquisition of PrestaShop by the Polish group Cyber_Folks (allied with Sylius) reveals the creation of a juggernaut weighing 35 billion euros in cumulative business volume. The ambition is clear: lock down the continental market with a complete technological stack (hosting, CMS, marketing) to finally offer a credible sovereign alternative to American solutions, marking the end of PrestaShop's "isolated" era. (www.blogdigital.fr)
๐งธ 90% of toys on marketplaces deemed non-compliant The DGCCRF dropped a bombshell this Friday: on non-EU platforms (like Shein or Temu), 90% of tested toys are non-compliant and, worse still, 60% are dangerous for children. This alarming finding foreshadows a drastic tightening of customs controls starting in early 2026, forcing importers to radically review their quality processes under threat of massive blockages. (www.economie.gouv.fr)
๐ At the same time, the toy market is heading for a 1% decline Jean-Thierry Winstel, CEO of Bioviva, shared a worrying analysis this Tuesday: weighed down by demographic decline and record consumer wait-and-see attitudes, the French toy market is expected to close the year at -1%. This is a crucial leading indicator for generalist e-merchants, signaling that even "pleasure" categories are no longer immune to household budget trade-offs. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐จ Massive recalls at Kiabi and on costumes Vigilance is at its peak before Christmas: Kiabi urgently recalled children's windbreakers containing too much PFAS (forever chemicals), while Asterix costumes were withdrawn from the market due to burn risks. (rappel.conso.gouv.fr)
๐ฉโ๏ธ Shein escapes suspension in France A major legal victory for Shein this December 18: the court rejected the request for suspension of the platform filed by the French State. The retailer remains online, having succeeded in convincing the judge of the reality of its recent corrective measures. (www.lexpress.fr)
๐ถ The โฌ3 tax on small packages confirmed by the EU The European Union has officially validated the introduction of a flat-rate customs duty of โฌ3 on packages under โฌ150 coming from third countries. This measure, which will apply in July 2026, aims directly to break the business model of parcel splitting used by Asian fast fashion to evade taxes. (www.aircargonews.net)
๐ Super Saturday: mixed signals The NRF predicts a record Saturday before Christmas, but the use of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is exploding, signaling strong financial pressure on American households for this year-end. (www.markets.financialcontent.com)
๐บ๐ธ US Inflation and Walmart domination US inflation slows to 2.7%, but Walmart captures most of the holiday retail growth, now attracting high-income households in search of value.
๐ฆ๐ช AI takes hold in shopping in the Emirates The Mastercard report reveals that 61% of consumers in the Emirates are already using AI for their year-end shopping (comparison, review searching), a trend ahead of Europe. (www.mastercard.com)
๐ฃ Marketing & Ads
๐ Print advertising holds strong for Christmas Despite forced digitalization and the "Oui Pub" (Opt-in Ad) device, the paper catalog remains an indisputable pillar of the media mix. An analysis published Thursday shows that players like JouรฉClub still reach 30% of their adult clientele via this channel, confirming that "all-digital" is marking time this year-end in favor of hybrid pragmatism. (www.influencia.net)
๐บ Century 21 and TF1+ industrialize local ads with AI It is a major technological disruption unveiled this week: the real estate brand broadcasted a campaign on TF1+ featuring 3,000 different versions of spots, generated by AI. Each viewer sees the advertisement for the agency closest to them, proving that TV "Retail Media" can now scale down to the ultra-local level thanks to tech. (www.e-marketing.fr)
๐ฏ Criteo acquires the boss of Retail Media at Fnac Darty The transfer market is going wild in AdTech: Grรฉgory Mialhe, co-founder of the Retailink agency and a key figure in the sector, is leaving Fnac Darty to take over the Retail Media France direction at Criteo. This poaching illustrates Criteo's desire to consolidate its technological domination in the face of the rise of retailer alliances like Unlimitail. (www.neomag.fr)
๐ TikTok restructures its data and product teams After a record Black Friday, TikTok reshuffles its global teams to better integrate AI and centralize performance measurement under the leadership of Zhang Heng. (www.businessinsider.com)
๐ MediaMarkt: +90% GMV on its marketplace The retailer posts insolent growth for its marketplace (โฌ277M in sales) and targets โฌ750M. Expansion continues into Belgium and Poland with new categories like Fitness. (www.ecommercenews.eu)
๐๏ธ eBay reintroduces Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) calculation eBay (finally) relaunches the feature allowing US sellers to enter their purchase cost to calculate their real net profit directly in the Seller Hub, after several failed technical attempts. (www.valueaddedresource.net)
๐ค AI & Tech
๐ณ Wero starts strong at Decathlon and Lidl The European wallet Wero is now operational for e-commerce, and deployment began this week at retail heavyweights. For merchants, it is the strategic promise of reducing dependence on American card network fees (Visa/Mastercard) by offering an instant account-to-account payment journey. (www.ecommercemag.fr)
๐๏ธ OpenAI transforms ChatGPT into a shopping mall OpenAI opened its "App Directory" this week, allowing third-party apps like Instacart or Booking to be natively integrated into ChatGPT. Concretely, the AI no longer just advises, it becomes a transactional interface capable of initiating orders, opening the era of agentic commerce. (www.techcrunch.com)
๐ณ Stripe and BigCommerce launch Agentic Commerce Stripe unveiled its technology suite allowing AI agents to place orders, immediately integrated by BigCommerce. Visa and Akamai are collaborating in parallel to secure these non-human transactions. (www.venturebeat.com)
๐ River Island migrates to Shopify The British fashion retailer is abandoning its legacy systems to migrate its international e-commerce to Shopify, accompanied by the agency Tryzens Global to gain agility. (www.retailtechinnovationhub.com)
๐ธ Etsy tightens its payment policy Etsy becomes the global collection agent for all its sellers and launches instant transfers in the USA (with fees). The platform grants itself more legal rights over the holding of funds. (www.valueaddedresource.net)
๐ฐ Finance, M&A and Strategic Moves
๐ Takeover of Casino by Carrefour validated with conditions The Competition Authority has given its final green light to the takeover of 25 Casino stores by Carrefour. The only condition: the resale of two points of sale (Argenteuil and Paris 2nd) to avoid excessive local dominant position. (www.decideurs-magazine.com)
โ Social tensions and bonuses at CMA CGM Despite the announcement of a 3-week salary bonus, tensions remain high at the shipping company. Unions judge this value sharing insufficient given the โฌ1.7 billion in profits and public aid received. (www.lemarin.ouest-france.fr)
๐ค Pattern Group acquires TikTok agency NextWave The e-commerce accelerator Pattern (Nasdaq) has acquired NextWave, an agency specializing in "creator-commerce". This merger aims to connect social demand generation with marketplace performance on Amazon and TikTok Shop. (www.marketwatch.com)
๐ฆ Club Employรฉs raises โฌ15M to disrupt CSEs The French scale-up closes a โฌ15 million funding round with Verto. The goal is to reach โฌ100M in revenue and launch a proprietary Mastercard to centralize employee benefits. (www.journaldunet.com)
๐น๏ธ Leadership change at Innelec Multimedia In the midst of the critical holiday period, the specialized distributor in video games and multimedia is reorganizing its governance. Julien Peyrafitte was appointed Chairman of the Management Board on December 15. A strategic move for this historic B2B retail player navigating between content dematerialization and physical logistics. (www.itrnews.com)
๐ค PDD Holdings (Temu) appoints a co-president Jiazhen Zhao, co-CEO of PDD Holdings, has been appointed co-chairman of the board of directors. A consolidation of power at the top for the group owning Temu, whose stock reacted positively (+6%).
๐ฐ๏ธ Sopra Steria targets space and cyber The IT services giant has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Starion and Nexova. The ambition is to become the European sovereign leader in critical space data and cybersecurity. (www.larevuedudigital.com)
๐บ Must-Watch Videos & Podcasts Casino, the end of an era. Video breakdown of the validated takeover of stores by competitors Auchan and Carrefour. (www.tf1info.fr) Generative AI in retail. Understanding how Walmart and Amazon are using AI for this Christmas 2025. (www.bfmtv.com)
๐ Resources
DGCCRF Safety Report 2025: The complete study on marketplace product non-compliance. (www.economie.gouv.fr)
Mastercard Shopper Snapshot: Analysis of purchasing behaviors and AI adoption in the Emirates and globally. (www.mastercard.com)
๐๏ธ The E-commerce Agenda
Jan 07-10, 2026: CES Las Vegas - Global tech innovation. (Las Vegas)
Jan 14-16, 2026: NRF Retail's Big Show - The world's largest retail trade show. (New York)
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