Aldi takes over from Bennet in Viale Monza in Milan: what does it mean?

What is happening in retail? It turns out that “In the last year, 20% of households have changed their opinion on the store with the best price/quality ratio… the local competitive scenario counts, as does the quality of the products and departments. Of the latter, fruit and vegetables remains the most important (57% of households) …

Quick Take — US duties: an example on Chinese textiles

.. In this example, Leslie Jordan Inc, a company that sells sportswear for special events, imported a shipment of women’s T-shirts from China in late April. This came after Trump aggressively increased tariffs on Chinese imports, but before officials from both countries agreed to a temporary truce, an example of how companies have struggled to plan their purchases as tariff levels continually change… The cost of cargo almost doubled.

Quick Take — Shein: Price rise up to 377% and IPO stalls in London

Shein is exploring ways to restructure its US business in case the Trump administration sticks to punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, which has jeopardised its plans for a London stock market listing.

The fast fashion company’s US business – which accounts for about a third of its $38 billion in annual revenue – will be put to the test when a tax exemption known as the “de minimis”…

…The US is replacing the ‘de minimis’ exemption – which applied to shipments valued at less than $800 – with a 120% tariff or a flat rate of $200, depending on how the goods are delivered. The changes will apply to shipments from China and Hong Kong…

About Shein read here

Quick Take — Product e-commerce rises by 6 per cent to over EUR 40 billion by 2024

In the ‘product’ cauldron, one finds practically everything: the Food & Grocery and Beauty&Pharma segments show an above-average increase (with growth rates of around 7%), while Clothing, Computers & Consumer Electronics and Furniture & Home Living are in the average range, at around 5%/ 6%.

Overall, according to theNetcomm B2c eCommerce Observatory – School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic, online penetration of total Retail product purchases (online offline) is11.2% of the total and this marks an increase of just half a percentage point compared to 2024.

Quick Take — US retail sales recover in March but uncertainty grows over tariffs

Many consumers anticipated purchases of durable goods such as household appliances and clothing, fearing price increases.

The monitoring shows that ‘core’ sales (excluding restaurants, cars and fuel) rose by 0.4 % month-on-month and 5.07 % year-on-year. The most dynamic sectors in March were digital products ( 27.6% year-on-year), sport, hobby and book shops ( 6.6%) and department stores ( 7.6%). By contrast, sales of household appliances and personal care products declined slightly.

In Q1 2025, total retail sales grew by 4.52% annually, while core sales rose by 4.96%. However, the NRF points out that the economic uncertainty generated by duties could dampen consumer confidence, causing consumers to save more than spend.