Quick Take — Amazon: e-commerce deliveries of perishable fresh produce set to rise by 50 per cent in 2026

“We have adapted a number of our existing Same-Day facilities with specialised temperature zones – ambient, chilled and frozen – and we plan to adapt many more over time. If your order includes frozen pizza, yoghurt and English muffins, three different team members prepare your order simultaneously, one in each zone, which also makes it easier to unpack when it arrives. Orders for perishable groceries are also fulfilled by existing fulfilment centres that were designed from the ground up to handle perishable groceries…”

Six (6) fresh items feature in the top twenty on the site, which serves 150 million people and is now the second-largest food retailer in the US behind Walmart.

The term ‘groceries’, which usually refers to everyday consumer goods, also includes fresh produce for Amazon.

Quick Take — OVS is stepping up its international expansion and is opening the group’s largest flagship store at the Dubai Mall

OVS is stepping up its international expansion and has opened the group’s largest flagship store at the Dubai Mall.

The new store, which opened on 3 September, covers 2,500 square metres, employs 47 people and is managed directly by the company. It is a strategic showcase in the heart of one of the world’s leading retail hubs, visited by over 100 million people every year…

The opening reinforces the group’s international expansion following recent openings in New Delhi and Mumbai, strengthening the link between India and the Middle East. “The new flagship store provides a prime showcase for all our brands,” said CEO Stefano Beraldo.

This expansion follows a particularly successful 2025, which the group closed with sales of 1.746 billion euros and an EBITDA in excess of 218 million euros. With a network of over 2,600 shops…

The brand’s overseas expansion is likely aimed at e-commerce.

Quick Take — Large-scale retail in France: trends from 2016 to 2026

Growth in the 2016–2026 period for LCC ‘self-service’ fresh produce (pre-packaged, labelled and displayed in refrigerated cabinets) stood at 31 per cent. E-commerce at 140 per cent, discount stores at 64 per cent, neighbourhood shops at 50 per cent, supermarkets at 23 per cent and hypermarkets at 12 per cent.

Supermarkets and hypermarkets are losing market share.

Food e-commerce accounts for 8.3 per cent of the retail sector, whilst discount stores account for 14.1 per cent.

Sources: Circana via Editions Dauvers

Quick Take — China: instant retail – ‘quick commerce’ – is set to reach $178 billion by the end of the year

according to the government.

Its competitors are Meituan, JD.com and Alibaba, which spent billions of dollars on vouchers, free deliveries and incentives for retailers last year.

Now, so-called ‘instant commerce’ has established itself as the new battleground for online shopping. Whilst the companies’ spending spree has channelled billions in drinks towards budget-conscious consumers, analysts have stated that the most significant challenge lies in changing purchasing habits, particularly in major cities where consumers increasingly expect a range of goods, such as groceries and cosmetics, to arrive within 60 minutes. Home delivery of drinks and meals may generate frequent visits to the app, but the real opportunity lies in converting these visits into purchases of higher-margin non-food items…

N.B.: The challenges facing quick commerce in Italy also stem from an unclear situation regarding delivery services.

Drafted on 6 September, updated on 7 September 2026

Quick Take — The 3-euro EU tax has caused a slump in Chinese parcel deliveries: Temu, Shein and AliExpress have seen sales fall by up to 40 per cent

A month and a half after the measurewas introduced, the first measurable effect was already evident: imports of small parcels from China to the European Union had fallen by between 30 per cent and 40 per cent. This was announced by theFrench Ministry of the Economy…(Italy has no data and had tried to ‘go its own way’).

It is a measure designed to target the very business modelthat has madeTemuandSheinmass phenomena: individual shipments with a low unit value, sent directly from China to the end consumer, which until June benefited from a total customs exemption for all parcels under 150 euros…

The measure is intended to be temporary. It will remain in force until awider reform of the European customs system is completed, which is expected within two years…Source

Shein has an advantage over its Chinese competitors because it has a warehouse in Poland (which is, in fact, what Amazon has done, with e-commerce warehouses across Europe).

Read more about it here.

Quick Take — USA: Amazon increases its drone delivery capacity sixfold

Amazon already delivers by drone in seven US states, and a further 500 cities are set to be added by 2026.

Amazon has stated that almost all items weighing 5 kilos or less that fit into a large shoebox can be delivered by a drone, meaning that over 60 per cent of the items customers buy most frequently from Amazon are eligible for delivery within 30 minutes.

This includes millions of groceries, electronics, cosmetics, medicines and household products.

Quick Take — Walmart has missed its quarterly like-for-like sales estimates for the first time in at least five years

On Thursday, highlighting the strain that rising fuel costs are placing on consumer spending, its shares fell by 8 per cent in early trading.

The world’s largest retailer has slightly raised its annual sales and profit targets, but said it expects fuel prices to remain stable, leading to $2 billion in additional fuel-related costs on top of the original forecasts.

E-commerce sales in the US rose by 24 per cent, whilst Walmart Connect recorded a 43 per cent increase in turnover.

Average spend per transaction rose by 1.1 per cent, slowing sharply compared with the previous year .