👋 Weekly Editorial
Happy Halloween everyone 🎃! This week, e-commerce is looking abroad — and at consumers’ wallets. On one side, Chinese giants like Shein and JD.com are expanding their digital and physical footprint in France, while 82% of French online retailers aim to go international by 2025. On the other, caution prevails: a Shopify study confirms a significant drop in Christmas spending budgets. It’s a week of contrasts, also marked by massive AI adoption in France and serious warnings about product safety. A tense end of October, covering the week of October 25–31, 2025.
📢 E-commerce & Shopping
🛍️ Shein will open its first permanent store at BHV Marais. The ultra-fast-fashion giant is changing strategy and will open its first permanent retail location in France on November 5, on the 6th floor of BHV. This move marks a new step after the success of its pop-up stores and its ambition to conquer physical retail. ➔ The pressure from several brands wasn’t enough; we’ll see whether the public will respond positively this time.
🇨🇳 JD.com launches its Joybuy marketplace in France. The Chinese e-commerce giant is attempting to rival Amazon by launching its marketplace in France. The catalog is already diverse, ranging from electronic devices to Asian food products, signaling a new offensive by Chinese players on the French market. ➔ We’ll be watching this closely — Joybuy might just shake up the American giant.
💰 Christmas budgets down: the French will spend €143 (vs. €182 in 2024). According to Shopify’s Holiday Retail Report 2025, French consumers plan to spend €143 this year compared to €182 in 2024. This drop is leading 51% of shoppers to set strict spending limits — a strong signal for the peak season.
⚠️ Shein and Temu: 7 out of 10 products deemed dangerous by UFC-Que Choisir. The association’s investigation is damning: 69% of the 162 products tested fail to meet European safety standards. 57% pose a real danger (chargers, toys, jewelry), putting growing regulatory pressure on the platforms.
📉 Amazon announces 14,000 job cuts in its first wave. As part of a major restructuring to reallocate resources toward AI, Amazon is launching the largest layoffs in its history. The cuts target support and strategic functions, with rumors suggesting a total of up to 30,000 jobs in the long run.
🎯 Target cuts 1,800 corporate positions as part of restructuring. Echoing Amazon, Target announced the elimination of 1,800 jobs (8% of its corporate staff) to reduce organizational “complexity.” The cuts come as CEO Michael Fiddelke is about to take office.
🌍 82% of French e-retailers aim for international markets in 2025. Faced with stagnant domestic growth, geographic diversification is seen as the main growth driver for the coming year, according to the Delivery Benchmark Report 2025. Expansion abroad has become essential.
🚚 Amazon and Chronodrive partner for under-2-hour delivery. Announced on October 29, this partnership will enable delivery of 2,300 Auchan products and 10,000 Chronodrive references. The service will first be tested in six pilot stores (Nord, Bordeaux, Grenoble), strengthening Amazon’s hold on grocery and ultra-fast delivery.
📦 Mondial Relay prepares to handle 8 million parcels per week. The delivery specialist is anticipating the year-end peak by reinforcing its logistics operations. This includes a 15% increase in agency capacity and 25% in hubs to absorb rising demand.
🔺 Carrefour posts +18% e-commerce growth in Q3 2025. The French retailer confirms its solid digital momentum. This strong increase in e-commerce GMV drives group results, reaching €22.6 billion in revenue for the third quarter.
👓 Atol launches its new e-commerce website. The eyewear brand unveiled a complete overhaul of its platform, focusing on usability, enhanced virtual try-on, and richer product pages to optimize its drive-to-store strategy.
🍏 Apple reports record Q4 results, driven by Services. Apple posted quarterly revenue of $102.5 billion (up 8%). While iPhone sales slightly missed estimates, the Services division hit an all-time high of $28.75 billion, confirming its role as the main growth driver. ➔ Despite pessimism and criticism, Apple continues to impress.
🌏 Chinese giants now control 50% of Southeast Asia’s e-commerce. A Bain & Company report reveals that TikTok Shop, Shein, Temu, and AliExpress account for half of total GMV in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Their aggressive global strategy now targets lower-income markets. ➔ An impressive statistic — we can expect similar trends in Europe and the U.S. in the coming months.
🤖 AI & Tech
🇫🇷 Nearly 4 in 10 French people use conversational AIs. Médiamétrie reports that 24.5 million French people used ChatGPT, Gemini, or Le Chat in September 2025 — triple the audience from a year earlier. Adoption is massive among 15–24 year-olds (73.4%), signaling a deep shift in search behavior. ➔ Conversational AI is becoming the norm — we help you integrate it into your store with Humind ;)
🅿️ ChatGPT partners with PayPal for in-app direct payments. Following Stripe, OpenAI announced a partnership with PayPal. This integration allows users to complete purchases without leaving the chatbot, positioning ChatGPT as a new shopping destination.
💻 85% of developers use AI to code. The JetBrains State of Developer Ecosystem 2025 report confirms massive AI adoption in tech. 91% of companies have integrated AI, and 62% of developers use a coding assistant daily.
⏱️ AI could save the equivalent of one workday per week. A new study shows that artificial intelligence and automation allow workers to save the equivalent of a full day of work each week by automating low-value tasks. ➔ That’s exactly what we’re doing at Humind — giving you back your time!
🧠 Smart logistics: AI serving the customer experience. With 1.7 billion parcels shipped annually in France, brands are integrating AI into their logistics chains. The goal is to improve delivery reliability and build loyalty among increasingly demanding customers.
🏪 That’s the case for Picnic, optimizing its European supply chain through AI. The Dutch online grocer is investing heavily in a sustainable logistics network combining artificial intelligence and automation. The aim is to optimize delivery routes and inventory across Europe to boost profitability.
💶 The digital euro enters a key preparation phase. The ECB announced the start of a new preparation phase for the digital euro. This stage aims to finalize technical readiness for a potential launch, though no deployment decision has yet been made.
📣 Marketing & Ads
🚀 Whatnot raises $225M and becomes the live shopping leader. The American live shopping platform doubled its valuation (to $11.5 billion) and surpassed $6 billion in GMV this year. This massive fundraising confirms its global dominance over Amazon and TikTok Shop in a booming sector. ➔ Impressive raise — though live shopping still doesn’t feel like a habit here yet.
🛑 Perplexity pauses ad space sales. The AI search engine has confirmed it is suspending new advertising offers. This decision follows monetization challenges and the inability to provide basic metrics (CTR, ROAS) to advertisers, highlighting the challenge of monetizing conversational AI. ➔ Hopefully it won’t go the way of BeReal, which struggled to integrate ads into its platform.
📸 Instagram rolls out “Restyle” AI and Reels history. The platform launched several major updates at the end of October, including “Restyle,” an AI tool that transforms images into Stories via prompts. Instagram also added a Reels viewing history (similar to TikTok) and a “Rings” reward program to retain top creators.
🎨 Canva launches its first French brand campaign with Brut. The design platform rolls out “Le savoir-faire à la Canva.” This campaign showcases French creators to strengthen the brand’s local presence and highlight the power of its tools beyond simple graphic design.
📊 Media Figaro launches GEO medIA to manage visibility in AI search engines. This new platform is designed to help brands control their footprint and visibility in conversational search engines and AI agents — a new challenge for SEO.
💡 Havas Market reveals French Christmas shopping trends for 2025. The agency has released a study analyzing expected consumer behaviors for the holiday season. These insights are essential for brands to fine-tune their marketing strategies and adapt to shoppers’ priorities this Q4.
📡 Free TV sparks anger from France Télévisions and TF1. The launch of Free’s new TV offering has provoked outrage from major networks, who denounce the distribution of their content without prior discussions or monetization agreements.
🗓️ E-commerce Agenda
- November 10–13, 2025: Web Summit (Lisbon) – The world’s largest tech event with over 70,000 participants, 3,000 startups, and 1,200 speakers. A must-attend to discover the latest trends in tech, AI, fintech, and e-commerce.
- November 20, 2025: Retail Summit: Health & Beauty eCommerce Summit (Los Angeles) – A summit dedicated to health and beauty e-commerce.
- November 24–25, 2025: Tech for Retail (Paris) – The European event for tech innovation in physical and online commerce.
- December 3–4, 2025: B2B Online Europe (Berlin) – An e-commerce event for B2B manufacturers and distributors.
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Book a demo: https://shorturl.at/eXzur
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