🛍️ What's up E-commerce – October 30, 2026

Week of October 23 to 29, 2026

A turbulent week: France's data regulator CNIL fines Fnac Darty €7M over a hidden tracker in its app, BHV Marais declares itself insolvent and Boulanger kicks off its Black Friday as early as October 30. On the small-parcel front, declared VAT plunges 48%. Across the Atlantic, DoorDash buys Instacart for $17B and Shein pays $100M to settle an FTC probe. Here's what mattered this week.

📢 E-commerce & Shopping

📦 Small parcels: declared VAT down 48%, Shein loses 42% of its audience. In France, the Ministry of the Economy presented on October 28 the first assessment of the small-parcel tax: VAT declared on these shipments fell 48% between June and August. In July, Shein's audience dropped 42%, Temu's 36% and AliExpress's 10%, and the value of their sales fell by about 25% in September. "We still have work to do," admits minister David Amiel, while textile federations consider the fees too low. (fr.fashionnetwork.com)

🕵️ Looted goods: 1,737 resale listings removed. In France, minister Serge Papin gave on October 27 the first official figures on the fight against online resale of goods looted on October 17: 1,737 listings removed and 237 accounts banned, notably on Vinted and Leboncoin. Nearly 800 reports have been sent to the courts and about 500 listings are still under investigation. (clubic.com)

🩹 Vandalized stores: up to €10,000 in direct state aid. In France, Serge Papin announced on October 28 direct aid of up to €10,000 for companies with fewer than 50 employees and less than €10M in revenue. Bpifrance's "Solidarité Commerce" loan ranges from €5,000 to €50,000, over 36 months with a 12-month deferral. According to CCI France, more than 2,500 stores were damaged, 1,161 of them looted, ransacked or set on fire. (ecommercemag.fr)

🗓️ Sunday trading until Christmas: the government says "almost yes". In France, the Alliance du Commerce is calling for stores to open every Sunday in November and December, or at least the six Sundays from November 22 to December 27, after revenue losses of up to 90% on Saturdays October 17 and 24. On October 29, the government said it would encourage mayors and prefects to allow these openings on a voluntary basis, with Jean-Pierre Farandou describing "almost an agreement in principle". The FO union calls it a "provocation". (pointsdevente.fr)

⚖️ The "rioters pay" bill passes the Senate. In France, the bill was adopted overnight from October 27 to 28 by 229 votes to 105 and now goes to the National Assembly. An amendment requires platforms to remove content inciting damage within 24 hours, or face blocking or delisting. (lcp.fr)

🏬 BHV Marais declares itself insolvent. In France, the Paris department store applied on October 27 for receivership. It has about 700 employees, down from nearly 1,400 three years ago according to staff representatives, and is in a dispute with its landlord Brookfield. The day before, the mayor of Paris Centre had alerted the public prosecutor to some sixty proceedings by unpaid suppliers. (ecommercemag.fr)

👕 Fashion: e-commerce down 11.4% in September. In France, according to the IFM, clothing and textile spending fell 15% year on year in September, with -17.6% in stores and -11.4% online. Over nine months, the market is down 2.7% but online is up 1.4%. The second-hottest September since 1900 is named as the main culprit. (fr.fashionnetwork.com)

🎁 Christmas 2026: 27% of French shoppers will buy most of their gifts on Black Friday. In France, according to Havas Market and YouGov, this share hits a record, up from 21% in 2025 and 12% in 2021, for a gift budget of €252 (+3%). 74% will buy online, and retailer websites are cited by 47% of online shoppers (+12 points), behind marketplaces (75%). 14% are considering credit, twice as many as in 2025. (journaldunet.com)

🔌 Boulanger launches its Black Friday on October 30, for a full month. In France, the retailer runs its operation from October 30 to November 30, online and in store, with for example an LG OLED 48C6 TV at €999 instead of €1,299 or a Dyson V15 Detect Absolute at €549 instead of €799. (phonandroid.com)

🚚 Amazon launches "Add to delivery" for Prime members. In France, a button in the app and on Amazon.fr mobile lets shoppers add items to a same-day or next-day delivery, as long as it hasn't shipped, at no extra cost. (aboutamazon.fr)

🪑 Maisons du Monde parts ways with its CEO. In France, François-Melchior de Polignac leaves the helm of the retailer a few days after it reported a 21% drop in quarterly revenue. Board chairman John Browett takes over on an interim basis, Marc Ténart is brought in to speed up the turnaround and a successor is being sought. (retaildetail.be)

📦 BGH acquires e-commerce logistics provider Happy Colis. In France, the Lyon-based group takes over this logistics provider with a SaaS platform connected to Shopify, WooCommerce and PrestaShop, serving about 140 online merchants. Clients are now handled from Satolas-et-Bonce, and BGH aims for the French top 3 in e-commerce logistics. The amount was not disclosed. (ecommerce-nation.fr)

🎮 Mobile.club turns profitable and rents out consoles ahead of GTA 6. In France, the smartphone rental specialist claims more than €30M in ARR, more than 70,000 subscriptions and a first profitable year in sight. It is launching Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox rentals from €15.90 per month, brought forward for the release of GTA 6 on November 19. (maddyness.com)

↩️ Amazon offers returnless refunds in France and Europe. In Europe, Amazon is launching this week a returnless refund program in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Sellers set a maximum price per item, between €1 and €75, and Amazon decides case by case based on price, category and the customer's return history. The seller doesn't get the item back and isn't compensated. (ecommercenews.eu)

🛵 DoorDash buys Instacart for about $17B. In the US, DoorDash announced on October 29 the acquisition of Instacart at $65 per share, a 26% premium, paid at least 75% in cash, with closing expected in late 2027 or the first half of 2028. A few days earlier, Instacart had announced it was shutting down its Caper smart carts, ending pilots with Morrisons and Carrefour Belgium. (retaildive.com)

📈 Amazon: $201.9B in third-quarter revenue. In the US and worldwide, Amazon reports sales up 12%, including $19.6B in advertising (+11%) and $46B for AWS (+39%), and forecasts $240B to $247B for the fourth quarter. Its Alexa for Shopping assistant was used by more than 400 million customers over a year, and the group is launching an AI agent for advertisers, Amazon Ads Agent. (sec.gov)

🇬🇧 UK: marketplaces will collect VAT from UK sellers from October 2027. In the UK, the October 28 budget confirms that Amazon, eBay and other platforms will collect VAT from business sellers established in the country, with a £90,000 threshold per platform according to law firm Travers Smith. Revenue is now estimated at £165M to £320M a year, far from the billion mentioned before the budget. The customs duty exemption on parcels of £135 or less will end in October 2028. (ecommerceparadise.com)

🔍 The FTC investigates Walmart and Target's personalized pricing. In the US, the FTC sent orders on October 28 to nine companies, including Walmart, Target, airlines and food delivery players, to find out whether their personal data, analyzed notably by AI, is used to set different prices for different customers. They have 45 days to respond, and Target says it does not use personal data to raise its prices. (retaildive.com)

🇪🇺 Temu: Brussels approves its DSA plan, Temu sets up labs in warehouses. In Europe, the Commission accepted on October 26 Temu's action plan, five months after its €200M fine, with an interim assessment due within four months. On October 28, Temu announced testing laboratories audited by Bureau Veritas in its logistics partners' warehouses, and about $200M in compliance investments in 2026. (channelx.world)

💸 Shein pays $100M to settle an FTC probe. In the US, Shein agreed on October 23 to pay $100M to close an investigation into late and failed deliveries, after more than 12,000 complaints. Shein shares have lost 22% since its Hong Kong listing on September 1, weighed down by European small-parcel fees. (claimsjournal.com)

🛒 eBay: GMV up 15%, the Magical Listing tool arrives in France. In the US and worldwide, eBay reports third-quarter revenue of $3.21B (+14%) and GMV of $23.2B (+15%), driven by the Depop acquisition. Excluding Depop and Tise, active buyers grew only 1%. The AI listing tool Magical Listing is extended to all new sellers, including in France. (sec.gov)

🧶 Etsy returns to buyer growth and sets rules for AI. In the US and worldwide, Etsy reports third-quarter revenue of $692.5M (+10.9%) and about 88 million active buyers, up for the first time in two years. The platform bans AI-generated guides, requires at least one real product photo and lets buyers flag listings they suspect are AI-generated. (retaildive.com)

🛃 Counterfeits: a record 196 million items intercepted in the EU. In Europe, according to the Commission and EUIPO report published on October 22, 196 million suspicious items were intercepted, worth €6.3B (+67%). Most customs seizures concern express and postal shipments, "typically linked to e-commerce". (ecommercenews.eu)

📣 Marketing & Ads

📺 Vusion completes the acquisition of In-Store Media. In France and Europe, the French electronic shelf label specialist completes the acquisition of Spain's In-Store Media, which works with about 90 retailers and more than 1,600 brands in 9 countries, financed by a €200M bridge loan. The goal: grow in-store retail media, which captures less than 3% of the sector's spending according to Vusion. (pointsdevente.fr)

☕ MaxiCoffee joins Unlimitail. In France, the coffee specialist website entrusts its retail media to the Carrefour and Publicis ad network, with Product Ads and Display Ads across a catalog of 8,000 products. (cbnews.fr)

⛽ Intersport turns anger over the cost of living into a campaign. In France, the retailer launched on October 28 a campaign "What the pump takes from you, Intersport gives back", with 150 products reduced in store and online, 127 of them by more than 20%. (fashionunited.fr)

💊 E.Leclerc relaunches its campaign to sell over-the-counter medicines. In France, the retailer has been running since October 25 a campaign for its 300 parapharmacies, citing the Competition Authority, which estimated in 2019 a 10 to 15% price drop where such sales were opened up. The pharmacists' union USPO hit back on October 27. (lexpress-franchise.com)

🏛️ Budget 2027: MPs reject a hike in the digital services tax. In France, MPs rejected on October 27 two amendments raising the digital services tax from 3% to 15%. They did, however, narrowly adopt, by 74 votes to 72, a tax on multinationals with more than €100M in global revenue, pro rata to their activity in France. (cbnews.fr)

🔎 Google: ad growth slows, AI Mode ads expand. In the US and worldwide, Alphabet reports third-quarter revenue of $127.6B, but Search growth slows to +12%, versus +17% in the previous quarter. AI Mode ads arrive in ten new markets, including Canada, and the UK will follow in the fourth quarter; France is not yet included. (ppc.land)

⏸️ Meta postpones its new advertising terms indefinitely. Worldwide, Meta suspends the entry into force of its contested commercial terms, planned for October 30 and then November 20, amid concerns from advertisers and publishers who feared an unlimited right to use their content for AI. (fr.fashionnetwork.com)

📌 Pinterest: record users, but European revenue stalls. In the US and Europe, Pinterest reports third-quarter revenue of $1.174B (+12%) and 661 million monthly users (+10%). In Europe, revenue stalls at $193M while users grow 7%. (sec.gov)

🤖 AI & Tech

🍪 CNIL fines Fnac Darty €7M over a tracker in its app. In France, the CNIL sanctions Fnac Darty Participations et Services (€6M) and Fnac Direct (€1M) over a tracker in the mobile app that collected browsing history without consent. This data was used to recommend products and to train the recommendation algorithm. (cnil.fr)

🤖 49% of AI users have already bought on its advice. In France, according to the Gen-IA barometer by iligo and Media Figaro, 49% of generative AI users have already bought a product on its recommendation, up from 42% six months earlier, and 63% among 25-34 year-olds. 80% of 18-69 year-olds now use generative AI, versus 52% in November 2025. (fr.themedialeader.com)

🧭 Product search: 48% of French shoppers start on a marketplace, 4% on an AI. In France, according to Ipsos for Eskimoz, marketplaces remain the main starting point for product search, far ahead of AI. Yet 52% of French people use an AI at least once a week, and the use of AI to compare products is up 12 points. (siecledigital.fr)

🔗 AI Overviews: 57% of sources cited in France are merchant sites. In France, according to Converteo and Qwairy, who analyzed 12,019 citations across 736 queries, 57.2% of the sources cited by Google's AI Overviews are commercial sites, versus 49.7% in the US, and only 9.9% are media. Sources change from one session to another on 92.7% of queries. (fr.themedialeader.com)

📊 e-LOGIK launches "elo.", an AI logistics management platform. In France, the network of more than 30 independent warehouses in France and Switzerland, serving about 500 clients, launches a platform with dashboards, alerts on stockouts and delays, and natural-language queries. (ecommercemag.fr)

🛍️ Amazon expands Shop Direct to 250 million offers to counter AI agents. In the US, Shop Direct, which lists products from brands sold outside Amazon, grows from 100 million products in March to 250 million offers, with better visibility. According to The Information, the goal is to stop customers from going through third-party AI shopping agents. (pymnts.com)

📈 Orders placed by AI agents jump 229% with Meta Muse. In the US, according to Forter, orders placed by AI agents grew 229% in the week after the launch of Meta's Muse assistant, which placed 43% of them in the week of October 12. The average basket reaches $226, and the share of agents that browse by reading the screen rose from 1% to 70%. (forter.com)

🛡️ Magento: a hacking campaign hit 953 stores. Worldwide, Sansec documents a Magecart-type malicious script injected into the CMS blocks of 953 Magento stores since July 2025, via the PolyShell and SessionReaper vulnerabilities. Removing the script is not enough: patches APSB26-73 and APSB25-88 must be applied and passwords changed. (sansec.io)

📅 Agenda

✊ Nationwide strike on November 5. In France, the CFDT, CGT, FO, Unsa and FSU unions are calling for a day of strikes on November 5, joined by rail workers. The Medef employers' federation estimates the indirect cost at several hundred million euros and retailers fear another drop in footfall. (economiematin.fr)

🛋️ Vente-unique.com reports its results on November 12. In France, the online furniture specialist will publish on November 12 its revenue for the 2025-2026 financial year, billed as a "record", ahead of its first Investor Day on November 18. (abcbourse.com)

🗓️ Walmart stretches its Black Friday over 14 days. In the US, Walmart will hold three events: November 12 to 15, November 23 to 29, then Cyber Monday from November 30 to December 2, for a total of 14 days versus 10 in 2025, with early access for Walmart+ members. (retaildive.com)

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