Australia's Westfield shopping centre corporation has agreed to be sold to French property group Unibail-Rodamco for $24.7bn. There are 35 Westfield centres in the UK and the US while Unibail-Rodamco has 71 sites in Europe. The takeover will result in the "progressive roll-out of the Westfield brand", according to management. The resulting company will operate 104 shopping centres across 13 countries. The two companies have little overlap, for example with Westfield operating the two large centres in London and Unibail Les Quatre Temps and Forum des Halles in Paris. Shopping centres have been hard hit by the rise of online retail, in particular in the US where Macy's and JC Penney have been closing stores. But Westfield, has been increasing the "experiential" element in its centres organising concerts, for example. Unibail is betting on concentration, differentiation and innovation, and will rebrand its flagship malls as Westfield.

The current deal follows Hammerson's £3.4bn offer for smaller rival Intu; and Toronto-based Brookfield's $15bn attempt to buy GCP, one of the large US operators.

Yet again, stories are appearing about the death of department stores. Since the 1990s, the format has been decribed as moribund, going the way of dinosaurs, unable to compete effectively with hypermarkets, or discounters, or specialist chains or pure players, according to the period in which these other formats occupied headline space. The latest meteorite to hit the department store planet is, of course, Amazon.

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Marks & Spencer is set to ramp up is clothing store closure scheme and take it easy with food store openings after it posted a 5.3 per cent slump in profits in its half-year report.

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Online fashion firm Asos tops Marks & Spencer's market valuation of £4.88bn as shopping stalwarts stumble and internet retailers thrive. The 17-year-old fashion website has been biting at M&S's heels for several months but on 17 November 2017 its shares gained 2%, boosting its market value to £4.89bn, making it a more valuable business than the 133-year-old high street giant, now worth £4.88bn, according to Reuters data revealing the number of shares in issue.

Earlier this year, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Mark Photiades predicted Asos would leapfrog M&S as the website, aimed at fashion hungry twentysomethings, grows in stature just as traditional store groups struggle to grow. Photiades said that 20 years ago, when online shopping was in its infancy and before Asos was established, M&S had a market value of £16.9bn. When Asos floated on the stock market in October 2001, it was valued at £14m, compared with £7.8bn for M&S. The market valuation of a company reflects expected future earnings: M&S remains bigger both in sales and in terms of profit. Asos recorded sales of £1.9bn last year, compared with £10.6bn at M&S. Profits were £80m and £176.4m, respectively.

The shift in retail power is being compared with the automotive industry, where the electric carmaker Tesla sped ahead of the 114-year-old Ford Motor Company in April to become the US's most valuable car manufacturer. Similarly, the online retailer Amazon is now worth nearly twice as much as Walmart.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc will offer department store chain Lord & Taylor dedicated space on its website, as it looks to make deeper inroads into the fast-growing online fashion business. After acquiring small online fashion brands like Shoebuy, Modcloth and Bonobos this past year, the world's largest retailer will start offering higher-end clothing and accessories from Lord & Taylor to its customers in spring 2018. The partnership will allow Lord & Taylor to open a virtual storefront on Walmart.com and boost customer traffic to its website by reaching a wider audience. It will boost Wal-Mart's online assortment with premium products and advance the retailer's effort to access millennial customers who usually do not shop on Walmart's website.

Dolce & Gabbana has spent some £7m to take over all 23 windows of Harrods ahead of Christmas. It has also installed a themes Italian market selling branded paraphernalia. Although other stores have had window partnerships, none have gone as far as Harrods which first introduced its Christmas window takeover last year with Burberry. This year's collaboration is the first to include also a multitude of exclusive products and merchandise created especially for the store.

Bergdorf Goodman and Alicia Yoon, founder and chief executive officer of Korean beauty site Peach & Lily, unwrapped a shop on the beauty floor at the retailer's flagship New York City location. A tightly edited selection of South Korean beauty brands are available in the store and online until the spring 2018. The five brands she singled out for Bergdorf are Jungsaemmool, Atoclassic, Eco Your Skin, Abib and Femmue. "To keep the storytelling rich, we wanted to limit the curation to five brands that each offer something different and interprets luxury in its own way," Yoon said. Additionally, Peach & Lily will offer master classes, makeovers, facials and other in-store experiences. Yoon describes the space like entering a sophisticated, beauty-forward Seoulite's powder room rather than a store. "There will be beauty products to shop — and mementos from Seoul to browse through, to really immerse yourself in the K-beauty experience."

M&S Simply Food has just been voted the UK's favourite retailer. The consumer poll of 13,000 shoppers by OC&C Strategy Consultants saw it taking top spot from last year's winner Amazon. It beat John Lewis into second place with beauty chain Lush in third, Amazon fourth (but scoring particularly well with Millennials), Apple fifth and M&S generally in sixth place. Overall, the position of M&S's food category rather than its general merchandise stores, and Lush's place in the top three, underlined how specialists retailers are proving ever more popular with UK consumers. Those offering a single category such as food, beauty, shoes or clothing were the most improved in terms of having a high quality image this year.

Liberty has joined fellow luxury department stores Selfridges and Harrods in posting positive results in its last financial year in the face of a tough retail market. The West End department store raked in total sales of £74.5 million in the year to January 28 – an uptick of five per cent. Meanwhile, gross profit was up five per cent for the year to £38.9 million, and operating profit was up by two per cent to £6.4 million. Liberty added that footfall increased 1.7 per cent year-on-year compared to the 2.3 per cent drop recorded in the West End generally. A new ecommerce platform was also launched mid way through the year to "enhance user experience" and increase international exposure.

Santa Claus may be coming to town, but you'll need a reservation to see him. At Macy's flagship store on 34th Street in New York, a chance to sit on Saint Nick's lap is by appointment only this year, for the first time ever. Macy's says the new arrangement is intended to cut down on wait times and make it easier to see the man in the red suit. Families can go online to sign up for a time slot from 30 minutes to five days in advance. No walk-ins are allowed. Admission is free to Santaland Herald Square and runs from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve. Santaland is a 13,000-square-foot North Police village complete with live elves and a train display, plus the world-famous Santa, immortalized in the film "Miracle on 34th Street."

Macy's is partnering with Samsung on an experiential in-store shop concept. They announced the launch of a Samsung "experience" at the retailer's flagship location at Herald Square in New York City. Opened Nov. 1, the 1,000-sq.-ft. shop allows customers to test and purchase the full range of Samsung products and accessories, including an assortment of the brand's innovative technologies in virtual reality, tablets, mobile, wearables, along with the refrigerator, QLED television, home audio and smart home categories. It also offers one-on-one "concierge-like" customer assistance. The Samsung shop is on the main floor of Macy's Herald Square and includes a 4-D virtual reality roller coaster experience for customers powered by Samsung's Oculus.

see press release

The 2017 issue of the Neiman Marcus Christmas book has appeared with ideas of Christmas gifts for the rich and decadent. It includes a trip to champagne vineyards with sampling and the creation of a personalised cuvée as well as a helicopter flyover and a special dinner, all for $150 000. His and hers limited edition Rolls Royce cars can be ordered for some $440 000 depending on the colour. Neiman Marcus are careful to remind browsers that a portion of every Fantasy Gift is donated to a foundation which funds art programmes.

Forever 21, which operates 815 stores in 57 countries has said that there had been unauthorised access to data from payment cards at certain of its stores. The company has not named the stores. Investigations are being acrried out on transactions made between March and October this year. Only certain points of sale devices in certain stores were affected when the encryption on those devices was not operating.

IADS is launching an Innovation Lab on Cybersecurity and Risk Management next March

Innovation Lab on Cybersecurity

Debenhams is bringing gifts and experience to its stores this Holiday season. Britain's leading in-store gift experience business, Activity Superstore, is using virtually reality (VR) for the first time to bring gifts to life in 21 Debenhams stores. Activity Superstore sells a wide variety of experience gifts from sedate afternoon teas to racecourse visits, supercar drives, spa days, river cruises, theatre trips and more. The new initiative sees four of its experiences available in-store with VR being used to get potential purchasers' adrenalin pumping when they immerse themselves in an activity such as a helicopter ride. It's a new way of making the in-store experience more exciting than just tapping the 'click to buy' button at home. Richard Vanoli, head of merchandising at Debenhams, said: "We know that customers buying gift experiences are keen to get an understanding of what the activity will look like before they purchase. Incorporating virtual reality into the sales process enables us to give shoppers an immersive snapshot of what's on offer."

Launched by Le Bon Marché in 1978 next to the department store in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, La Grande Epicerie has opened an outpost on the right bank of Paris in the chic 16th arrondissement. Replacing Franck & Fils fashion store belonging to Bon Marché, the new 2.800 sqm store is spread over four levels and offers an impressive range of French and international products to delight gourmets in the kitchen. Six thousand grocery products are available, including 150 oils, 350 jams, 350 chocolates bars, and the 150 worldwide water brands that are a signature of the original La Grande Epicerie.

The basement offers forty linear metres of wine, along with Iberian ham and cheese stands. The ground floor sells fruits and vegetables, located between the bakery, the fish market and butcher's shop. The first floor is dedicated to groceries, teas, coffees and chocolates among other things. And on the top floor, just under the cupola, a restaurant run by Mexican chief Beatriz Gonzalez is open three nights a week.

The interior decoration includes mosaics which are a feature of the Grande Epicerie brand.

After the opening of a first flagship store in Istanbul and a BHV flagship in Dubai, Galeries Lafayette is expanding its footprint in Middle East with the opening of two stores scheduled in 2019. A second 6000sqm flagship will open on the left bank of Istanbul, in shopping mall Vadistanbul, and the first 7500sqm Koweit City flagship will be located in shopping mall Assima Mall. This will up to 8 the number of Galeries Lafayette Group's stores in the area.

Read the press release and see a video of the first Galeries Lafayette flagship opened in Istanbul earlier this year.

Press release

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Political relations between US and North Korea have claimed collateral damage, in particular a retail victim: South Korea's Lotte business in China. The US missile-defence system (THAAD) was been installed in South Korea earlier this year on land belonging to the Lotte conglomerate (who had little choice in the matter). The Chinese government objected and tried to pressure South Korea through a boycott of goods. Chinese officials then closed 99 Lotte Mart stores on various pretexts. Lotte itself then shut another 13 stores when customers stayed away. It will now leave China. Car sales in South Korea have also been affected, and Amore Pacific, a cosmetics firm, reported a 58% dip in second quarter profits. Group tours from China to South Korea have been banned since March.

Ikea has opened its 10th store in Japan, in Aichi, a district of Nagoya. Forty-five years ago, Ikea had an outlet in the Meitetsu department store in the same area. It was popular among young women who saw it as a visionary store offering a new lifestyle. Ikea also opened a shop in the Tokyu department store in Shibuya, Tokyo, around the same time. The problem in those days was that the furniture needed to be assembled by the customer who expected articles to be delivered as complete products. It was also not a good fit for department stores since items took up too much display floor space.

In spite of tensions between China and South Korea and their impact on retail (see article "Lotte exits China"), the Lotte conglomerate of Korea has still been given approval to build commercial complexes at its 66 000 m² Chengdu land project. Nevertheless, construction at Lotte's Shenyang project remains suspended. This was to include apartments and a theme park as well as a department store and cinema which are already open.

Galeries Lafayette inaugurated its 57th store in France, located in shopping center Carré Sénart (in the south of Paris). Galeries Lafayette unveiled 6000sqm of selling space showcasing the identity of the retailer. The idea was to create unity in the store; therefore, all the furniture were made by and for Galeries Lafayette; the brands now just blend in. Same uniformity, same graphic codes, you first enter Galeries Lafayette, then you dive into the 400 brands, 50 of which are exclusive to the new store. For the store's architecture, Galeries Lafayette took inspiration from the neighbouring Sénart forest, providing transparency and natural light especially thanks to a 9m-high glazed façade at the entrance. Inside you will find tree trunks and refine furniture, and a wood hut as a display for the shoes. Among the many services, a space is dedicated to e-reservation: you first save an article on the website then try it and buy it instore. There is also a Click-and-Collect service, and a digital showroom in the luggage area, to give you access to a wide offer within a limited space. This new flagship should be the first of a new round of concepts to be developed in France over the next five years.

Press release

Video - construction of the space

Holt Renfrew will spend some C$100m on renovating its Montreal flagship, Ogilvy. It will also be renamed Holt Renfrew Ogilvy. It expects the upgrade and expansion to be finished by 2020. Originally planned for earlier completion, the progress of the project was slowed because of the entry of Nordstrom and Saks into the Canadian market. It will include the exclusive shopping area The Apartment; Holt's Café; valet parking;and concierge service. The final store will occupy over 250 000 sq ft since it will expand into the adjacent site of the former Hotel de la Montagne which was demolished. It has been designed by Jeffrey Hutchison & Associates. Ogilvy, founded in 1866, was acquired by Holt Renfrew in 2011.

Alibaba has sold over $25 billion in gross merchandise volume from its annual online shopping festival held on 11 November, Singles Day. It increased last year's figure by 39%. Sales came from 140 000 participating merchants including 60 000 international brands. At its peak, Alibaba processed 256 000 transactions per second, and almost $12 billion in the first two hours. Around 90% was transacted on mobile (compared to 82% last year).

The Galeries Lafayette of France has been conducting tests of WeChatPay in partnership with Verifone and BNPParibas bank which allow Chinese customers to pay for goods using a QR code generated automatically on their smartphones. It is the first in France and in Europe to deploy the system operated by Tencent, which is the most popular in China with 600 million active users a month. The Galeries Lafayette has around 15 million foreign visitors every year.

press release

In an effort to improve shopper experience, Target has made what it calls a host of technology enhancements to its stores nationwide. "We're using cutting-edge technology to make it easier, faster and more convenient for guests to shop Target stores," said Mike McNamara, Target's chief information and digital officer. "Technology is increasingly vital to make sure Target can deliver like nobody else—both in our stores and online. We're excited to have these store upgrades ready for guests as we head into the busy holiday season."

Read the article attached to learn more about the latest technology initiatives at Target:

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