Week of October 30 to November 5, 2026
A week of contrasts: Afibel closes its doors for good while Kiabi puts second-hand back at the heart of its stores with Beebs. According to Fevad, Temu tumbles from 4th to 9th place among the most visited sites, and JD.com wins Brussels' green light to buy MediaMarkt. In Europe, Zalando opens its app to products from other sites and Next sees its international online sales jump 32%. Here's the essentials of the week.
📢 E-commerce & Shopping
📉 Q3 traffic: Temu and Shein slump, Vinted climbs. In France, according to the Fevad/Médiamétrie barometer published on November 3, the top 20 e-commerce sites draw 52.9 million unique visitors per month (+4.3%). Amazon (41.4M) leads Leboncoin (32.1M), Booking, E.Leclerc (20.1M) and Vinted (19.9M, +12.7%). Temu falls 37.6% year on year to 15.3M and drops from 4th to 9th place, while Shein plunges 47.8% to 10.1M and slips to 16th place. (fevad.com)
🪦 Afibel, a pioneer of mail-order for seniors, is liquidated. In France, the Lille Métropole commercial court ordered on November 4 the liquidation of the brand founded in 1954, which had been in receivership since March. The company generated €42.8M in revenue in 2025 and still had about 100 employees, compared with nearly 500 in 2010. The website is no longer accessible, and orders, returns and refunds are handled by the liquidator. (laclepublique.fr)
👜 Devernois in liquidation, looking for a buyer. In France, the Roanne commercial court placed the ready-to-wear brand and its store subsidiary in liquidation, with three months of continued trading. The group has 160 employees and around 60 stores, with revenue expected at €19M this year versus €25M two years earlier, 9% of it from e-commerce. (fashionunited.fr)
👔 Balibaris rescued by its shareholder and its CEO. In France, the Paris economic activities court approved on October 30 the takeover of the brand, in receivership since January, by Gorgé and Retail Game, the holding company of its CEO Nathalie Haddad. The takeover covers 52 of its 55 points of sale. (fr.fashionnetwork.com)
🧾 GiFi placed in receivership with €90.8M of debt. In France, the Toulouse commercial court opened on November 3 a six-month observation period for the discount variety chain, which reports about €90.8M of debt against €3.7M of cash. Its sales fell 9.6% in July and 3.9% in August. The network has 513 stores and 6,000 employees, and 32 stores are to be sold to Grand Frais. (fr.finance.yahoo.com)
🏬 BHV Marais: receivership made official and a "Made in France" department store project. In France, the Paris economic activities court placed the department store in receivership on November 2, and it remains open. On November 5, the founders of L'Appartement Français and La carte française proposed turning about a third of it into a Made in France department store, with 900 brands and 250 jobs kept, and are seeking €15M. (fashionunited.fr)
🛒 JD.com gets Brussels' green light to buy MediaMarkt and becomes an indirect shareholder of Fnac Darty. In France and Europe, the European Commission conditionally approved on November 3 the Chinese giant's acquisition of Ceconomy, parent company of MediaMarkt and Saturn. As Ceconomy holds 21.95% of Fnac Darty, JD.com becomes its second-largest indirect shareholder, with no board seat or governance role under conditions set by the French Ministry of Economy. Closing is targeted by November 12. (ecommerce-nation.fr)
🏙️ Apparel: city centers plunge, online doesn't make up for it. In France, according to the Alliance du Commerce, in-store apparel sales fell 0.4% in October, and city centers lost 13 points of growth between October 17 and 31, with -54% in Marseille and -41% in Paris Opéra. Retail parks grew 6.1% and online sales only 0.9%. (alliancecommerce.org)
🗓️ Up to three extra Sunday openings before Christmas. In France, the government has asked prefects to issue departmental orders allowing up to three additional Sundays before Christmas, without consulting social partners, as announced on November 2 by Serge Papin. Beyond that, local consultation will be required, and opening remains optional and based on employees volunteering. (maire-info.com)
♻️ Kiabi relaunches Beebs and mixes new and second-hand in store. In France, Beebs becomes Kiabi's omnichannel second-hand brand: new and pre-owned items are brought together in store, with a single basket and payment. Trade-ins are rolled out in all French stores, and mail-in trade-ins for vouchers start on November 10. 72% of Kiabi shoppers bought second-hand in 2026, up from 64% a year earlier. (fr.fashionnetwork.com)
👙 Aubade launches on Farfetch. In France, the lingerie brand now sells its collections on the luxury platform in more than 60 countries and territories, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. (fashionunited.fr)
📦 Mondial Relay hires more than 1,200 extra staff for the year-end peak. In France and Belgium, the carrier is hiring 450 temporary workers and 800 drivers from October to December, as volumes double between late October and mid-January to more than 8 million parcels per week. It has 20,000 points in France, including 12,500 lockers, and aims for 13,500 lockers by the end of 2026. (boursorama.com)
🏷️ Black Friday: 74% of French shoppers plan to buy, but only 46% believe in the discounts. In France, according to a BCG study, the average budget is €283, about 20% below the global average of €358. Amazon is the preferred channel for 42% of buyers, and 50% use or plan to use generative AI to prepare their purchases. (fr.fashionnetwork.com)
🇪🇺 Imported parcels: €2 handling fee per item category since November 1. In France and the EU, this new customs fee applies with no value threshold to each item category in a parcel imported from outside the EU, i.e. €6 for three categories. It is owed by platforms and distance sellers, may be passed on to customers, and comes on top of the €3 flat duty in force since July 1 on parcels worth €150 or less. (service-public.gouv.fr)
🛍️ Shopify: revenue up 32%, AI-referred orders up 3.3x. In the United States and Canada, Shopify reports Q3 revenue of $3.742B (+32%) and gross merchandise volume of $119.1B (+29%). Orders coming from AI assistants are up 3.3x year on year. In Europe, revenue rises from $592M to $766M. (sec.gov)
👟 Zalando: 63.2 million active customers and B2B up 28%. In Germany and Europe, Zalando reports Q3 revenue of €3.17B (+5.1%) and GMV of €4.54B (+7.5%). B2B jumps 27.9% to €354M and third-party sellers account for 33.6% of B2C GMV, but restructuring costs, including the closure of the Erfurt logistics center, lead to a net loss of €18M. (fashionunited.uk)
🛋️ Wayfair posts its best growth quarter since the pandemic. In the United States, the online furniture specialist reports revenue of $3.42B (+9.7%), driven by the US (+11.4%), while international declines 2.3%. It has 22.2 million active customers and posts net income of $62M, compared with a $99M loss a year earlier. (sec.gov)
🇬🇧 Next: international online sales jump 32%. In the United Kingdom, the retailer's full-price sales rose 8.1% over the 13 weeks to October 31, including +4.4% online in the UK and +32.2% online internationally, versus 20.5% forecast. Next maintains its expected annual profit of £1.26B and puts the net cost of EU customs duties at around £5M this year. (fashionunited.uk)
💎 The RealReal raises its guidance thanks to Gen Z. In the United States, the luxury resale platform reports Q3 GMV of $642M (+23%) and revenue up 19%, and raises its full-year guidance. (sec.gov)
🏭 Shein invests another €500M in its Polish logistics hub. In Poland and Europe, Shein is expanding its Wrocław hub with Logicor to about 1 million m², with more than 6,500 autonomous robots, bringing its investment in the country to €1B since 2022. Storing stock in the EU lets it avoid the new fees on imported parcels and promise 48-hour delivery in several markets. (fashionunited.uk)
🚁 Zipline raises $1.5B and Walmart adds 300 drone delivery sites. In the United States, the drone delivery specialist is valued at $21.5B, with Fidelity, Uber and J.P. Morgan among the investors. A new multi-year agreement with Walmart provides for 300 additional delivery sites, compared with 21 active today. (techcrunch.com)
🤖 Walmart commits another $6B to Symbotic's robots. In the United States, Walmart plans to invest an additional $6B to automate 25 regional distribution centers, including micro-fulfillment solutions for e-commerce orders, and $125M in R&D on new racking, according to a filing made on October 29 with the SEC. (digitalcommerce360.com)
🪪 Digital product passport: an Amazon-commissioned study warns of the bill for SMEs. In Europe, according to consultancy Oxera, the digital passport required by the ecodesign regulation would cost a detergent manufacturer €50,000 to €500,000 a year, 90% of it for data preparation. The study estimates that each euro spent yields €1.60 in benefits and recommends proportionate requirements and a timeline adapted to company size. (aboutamazon.eu)
📣 Marketing & Ads
📺 Intersport opens its stores to retail media with Médiaperformances. In France, the retailer is installing three screens per store, near the running, football and cycling departments or the fitting rooms, across a network of nearly 1,000 stores. (cbnews.fr)
📉 Criteo's profit drops but it signs Notino. In France and worldwide, Criteo reports Q3 revenue of $416M, contribution ex-TAC down 17% to $240M and net income of $6M, compared with $40M a year earlier, and lowers its 2026 guidance. Its advertising partnership with OpenAI expands from 7 to 89 countries. European online beauty specialist Notino, present in 27 markets including France, hands it its retail media. (cbnews.fr)
🎥 The French creator economy is worth €9B. In France, according to the Creator Economy Report by CMI, BNP Paribas and Influential unveiled at Paris Creator Week, the market reaches $10.1B, or about €9B, in 2026, up from $8.1B in 2025 (+23.7%). (mind.eu.com)
📡 Coopérative U renews Heroiks for its media budget. In France, after a tender, the agency keeps the group's multimedia consulting and buying, with its AI tool NORTH AI, to support the CAP 15 plan, which targets a 15% market share in 2030. (fr.themedialeader.com)
🏛️ 2027 budget: the National Assembly rejects the revenue section, the digital tax stays at 3%. In France, MPs rejected on November 4 the revenue section of the finance bill by 458 votes to 0. The digital services tax stays at 3% and the "per-gigabyte tax" voted on October 30 falls. The Senate will examine the government's initial text from November 20. (nosparlementaires.fr)
🤝 Adobe plugs its marketing agent into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot. In the United States and worldwide, Adobe makes its CX Enterprise Coworker agent available in the main enterprise AI assistants, with MCP connectors to Amazon Ads and Meta's advertising server, to analyze data, forecast audiences and optimize customer journeys. (pymnts.com)
▶️ Amazon joins YouTube Shopping affiliate program in the UK. In the United Kingdom, eligible creators will be able to tag Amazon products in their Shorts, long-form videos and livestreams and earn a commission. M&S, Currys and Boots are already partners in the program. (retailtechinnovationhub.com)
🤖 AI & Tech
🎬 The CNIL regulates "session replay". In France, the CNIL published on November 5 its recommendation on session replay tools, widely used in e-commerce: they benefit from no exemption and require prior consent, with dedicated information from the first layer of the cookie banner. It asks companies to mask authentication fields, chatbot conversations and irrelevant data, and to limit the number of sessions recorded. (cnil.fr)
🧭 French shoppers return to stores and are wary of AI. In France, according to VML's The Future Shopper 2026, online accounts for 48% of French spending, compared with 51% in 2025 and 51% worldwide. 70% used AI in 2026, versus 82% worldwide, but only 27% fully trust the answers of a conversational AI. (ecommercemag.fr)
🦾 ID Logistics prepares a test of humanoid robots in a warehouse. In France and Germany, the logistics provider is teaming up with Terra Robotics after twelve months of lab tests on Unitree G1 robots, to sort boxes and pouches. A pilot is planned in a German warehouse within six months. (ecommercemag.fr)
🧊 Fridge cyberattacks: a second wave hits European supermarkets. In Europe, on the night of November 1 to 2, at least 100 stores in a dozen countries had their refrigerated units pushed to 50°C, including about fifteen Carrefour stores in Belgium and seven Intermarché stores in Portugal, because default passwords had not been changed. The first wave, on October 12, had hit around 700 stores in France. (pointsdevente.fr)
🔗 Zalando opens its app to products from other sites, ahead of an AI agent that will order there. In Germany and Europe, Zalando launches Zalando Extended, which lists other online retailers' products in its app, starting with Westwing furniture. Customers are currently redirected to the merchant's site, but from 2027 a Zalando AI agent will place the order for them. Zalando earns money through commissions and retail media. (ecommercenews.eu)
🔍 Microsoft Clarity shows what AI agents do on a retail site. In the United States and worldwide, Microsoft launches Agentic Analytics, which analyzes AI agents' behavior on a site and simulates whether they manage to find a promotion or complete a purchase. An "Ask Clarity" assistant, in closed beta for retailers, answers questions about site usage in natural language. (pymnts.com)
👻 One in five major British brands is invisible when people ask an AI what to buy. In the United Kingdom, according to Human Forward, which tested six AI assistants on 75 retailers and brands, 15 are never mentioned. 35 of the 50 sites checked are not ready for AI agent purchases, and when one assistant recommends a brand, the others omit it 39% of the time. (retailtechinnovationhub.com)
📅 Agenda
📊 Plesio (formerly Casino) publishes its third quarter on November 9. In France, the parent company of Cdiscount and Monoprix has postponed its quarterly results from November 6 to Monday, November 9, before market open, without giving a reason, while the agreement on its debt restructuring is still pending. (boursorama.com)
💳 Buy now, pay later becomes consumer credit on November 20. In France and Europe, the revised consumer credit directive brings split payments into its scope from November 20, right in the middle of Black Friday. Meanwhile, Oney is testing in three retailers the use of data from the Valiuz alliance to speed up credit approvals. (mind.eu.com)
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