How Walmart became an advertising powerhouse whilst remaining focused on its food, non-food and e-commerce businesses

It is a pity that no Italian company has had the scale, but above all the vision, to take on the world in the way these giants have done. In Italy, everyone thought: e-commerce must be self-sustaining. This was the case for Esselunga at home until it had no rivals, but Amazon and Walmart disprove this view. E-commerce is underpinned by other, more profitable sources of revenue

Quick Take — Lidl saw its turnover rise by 6.1% in 2025, reaching 140.2 billion euros

The German group that owns the Lidl and Kaufland chains closed the financial year ending 28 February 2026 with a total turnover of 185.6 billion euros, up 5.8 per cent on the previous year’s figure of 175.4 billion.

Despite a climate marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, the group has further strengthened its position in the European market, whilst also increasing its workforce. The number of employees rose from 595,000 to 604,000, with 9,000 new jobs created during the year, 5,000 of which were in Germany…

The group also operates marketplaces (e-commerce with Kaufland, which is also present in Italy), manufacturing companies (bread, jams, etc.), tech companies (Schwarz Digits), circular economy companies (PreZero) and transport companies (ships; the company is called Tailwind).

Quick Take — EU-China: the silent war of e-commerce and trade in general

Temu: ‘dangerous articles’, €200 million EU fine. Mainly toys in the crosshairs. Republic 29 May 2026

But the e-commerce war with China also takes place on other grounds:

E-commerce, EU crackdown on parcels under €150: €3 fixed duty arrives

The European Union freezes the purchase of Ceconomy – which controls Mediaworld – by Chinese e-commerce giant Jd.com

Drafted 1 June, updated 3 June 2026

Quick Take — EU freezes purchase of Ceconomy by Chinese e-commerce giant Jd.com

For the first time, in fact, the EU Commission has triggered the shield provided by the regulation against foreign state aid.

Brussels in fact suspects that Jd.com received public subsidies from the Beijing government that enabled it to make a higher bid to take over the German group that controls the Mediaworld, MediaMarkt and Saturn chains. And which, in the future, may enable it to take advantage of the European market and distort competition, for instance by charging lower prices.

The EU Commission’s investigation aims in particular to ascertain whether Jd.com has received privileged loans, tax incentives and public subsidies from the Chinese state. Brussels believes it has already found some clues to this effect, but reserves the right to go deeper in the investigation, which will be concluded by 2 October

In France, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) meanwhile approved the proposedtakeover bid launched in January by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to take control of electronics and cultural products specialist Fnac Darty. This decision will allow him to rise above the 50% shareholding threshold and block the Chinese takeover attempt.

Kretinsky also owns the French supermarket chain Casino.

On this topic read this article

Quick Take — How Walmart is taking over empty pharmacies to speed up deliveries

The US retail giant builds last-mile warehouses in repurposed spaces to counter Amazon’s advance in the food sector.

Walmart has long argued that its 4,600 shops in the US represent a competitive advantage in e-commerce due to their proximity to customers’ homes, enabling delivery in less than three hours to 95% of the country. But picking groceries and merchandise inside a 180,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter is time-consuming, and online order pickers in the aisles can get in the way of regular customers, who are more profitable. Walmart Depots are not open to the public. They are satellite shops of about 20,000 square feet (about 1,860 square metres) accessible only to on-call workers who use the Spark app for deliveries, to pick up orders and deliver them to customers.

The depots only stock popular household items and are supervised by the managers of neighbouring Supercenters. They have no sign outside and, from the description, resemble the dark stores of quick commerce.

Below: a dark store in Milan