What: Indian developers are set to add about 51.1 million sq. ft. of mall space by 2031, lifting total stock to 143.2 million sq. ft., with large-format, experience-led malls making up around 56% of new supply.

Why it is important: Large-format, experience-led malls are set to define India's retail real estate, shifting tenant mix towards entertainment, F&B and services and concentrating premium space in the hands of fewer, larger developers.

Indian real estate developers are expected to add nearly 51.1 million sq. ft. of new shopping mall space over the next five years, lifting total stock to 143.2 million sq. ft. by the end of 2031, according to a JLL report. The expansion is driven by surging consumer demand, a strong influx of international brands and expansion by domestic brands.

India recorded gross leasing volumes of 6.3 million sq. ft. in the first half of 2026. Retail stock stood at 92.1 million sq. ft. across the top seven cities, with a vacancy rate of 11.2% as of June 2026. Nearly 56% of upcoming supply, around 28.7 million sq. ft., will be large-format malls built for experiential shopping, and over half of new supply is expected in Delhi NCR and Hyderabad.

Nearly one-third of upcoming supply is dedicated to entertainment, F&B and services. Large-format developments will allocate 30-35% of their space to these categories, or 9-10 million sq. ft.

The top three listed developers, holding about 14% of operational retail stock in Tier 1 markets in H1 2026, may reach nearly 21% by 2031, while the top ten are projected to hold 44% of total mall stock.

IADS Notes: The pipeline confirms a supply cycle that earlier coverage had flagged as a constraint. India Economic Times reported in March 2026 that demand for luxury was outpacing the availability of premium malls, creating a bottleneck for both domestic and international brands. Hyderabad, one of the two markets set to receive over half of the new supply, illustrates the gap: BoF noted in July 2026 that the city draws global luxury brands despite limited luxury mall infrastructure, leaving high-end retail concentrated in standalone boutiques, hotels and airports. Developers are already moving to capture this demand. India Economic Times reported in August 2026 that Phoenix Mills plans to grow from around 11.5 million to over 18 million sq ft by 2030, adding an F&B floor in Bengaluru and repositioning mature assets with premium and international brands. The experience-led model is also delivering results: India Economic Times noted in June 2026 that mall retailers recorded a 15-20% sales surge as malls evolve into hybrid destinations combining retail, entertainment and digital experiences.

Large malls to dominate India's retail pipeline; 51.1 million sq. ft. expansion likely by 2031

What: La Samaritaine brings accessible-premium brands such as Sézane, Fursac and Jonak into prime spaces once reserved for luxury houses, as part of its post-DFS repositioning.

Why it is important: La Samaritaine is betting that accessible-premium brands in prime positions can convert tourist footfall into sales and win back Parisian shoppers, which the DFS-era luxury model failed to do.

LVMH's La Samaritaine has begun the first phase of a spatial and merchandising overhaul, following the failure of the concept DFS launched in 2021 and ahead of its integration into the Le Bon Marché organisation. After a beauty strategy shared with its Left Bank sister store, the commercial team is now reworking the core fashion offer to turn casual visitors into buyers and loyal customers.

On the ground floor, a large leather-goods pop-up featuring DeMellier, Lemaire, Isabel Marant, A.P.C. and Ganni, alongside a Rimowa installation, occupies space previously held by major luxury houses. In the historic Pont Neuf building, Sézane, already a major success at Le Bon Marché, takes a vast central womenswear corner formerly held by Jacquemus, Acne Studios and JW Anderson, which have moved to adjacent spaces. Footfall at the heart of the building has surged as a result.

Menswear now features a commercial hub with Fursac, Boss, Octobre Éditions and Sandro, plus Herno as an exclusive, while Marni and Maison Margiela move into the Art Nouveau structure. In footwear, Jonak and Bobbies are staged prominently. The challenge for the 20,000-square-metre store is to balance luxury's international pull with the profitability of accessible premium.

IADS Notes: The repositioning follows LVMH's decision to take La Samaritaine out of DFS management and refocus it on individual shoppers rather than Chinese tour groups, after the store struggled to meet its targets following its 2021 reopening (Fashion Network, January 2025). The store was then placed with Le Bon Marché in a single division led by Patrice Wagner, with a mandate to broaden its customer base (WWD, March 2025). Beauty was the first category reworked under this model, with the two stores sharing market intelligence while keeping distinct assortments and exclusives (Fashion Network, June 2026). The governance model preserves each store's identity: Le Bon Marché serves an affluent local Left Bank clientele, while La Samaritaine is more closely tied to the Right Bank and tourism (QDE, July 2026). The move towards accessible premium also has a precedent in the Rivoli building, which introduced a Sneakers Lounge, K-Way and Rains pop-ups and a Levi's corner to attract a younger audience (Fashion United, October 2023). What is new in this phase is that accessible-premium brands now sit in the historic building's prime spaces.

La Samaritaine premium overhaul takes shape

What: The UK government is investing £210m to tackle vacant high street properties, with the largest share going to a Derelict Buildings Fund and the rest split across community rescue funding, rental auctions and a new co-operative development programme.

Why it is important: The package extends UK government policy focus on high street regeneration beyond the £5bn Pride in Place programme, directly targeting the long-term vacancy chains and property underuse that have weighed on town centre footfall and retail viability.

Andy Burnham's government has unveiled a £210m plan to redevelop abandoned high street buildings, turning empty shops and shopping centres into workspaces, cafes and community hubs. The largest share, £125m, comes through a new Derelict Buildings Fund, helping local authorities convert empty buildings into anything from health centres to civic spaces. A further £65m goes to communities across England to rescue and revamp buildings and businesses at risk of closure, such as pubs and sports clubs. That money builds on Pride in Place, the £5bn programme launched by Sir Keir Starmer's government in September 2025, which gives local boards in deprived neighbourhoods funding over a decade to decide how to revive their high streets, parks and community spaces.

The remaining £20m is split equally between High Street Rental Auctions, letting out properties left empty for 12 months or more, and a new Co-operative Development Programme to help mayors set up more co-operatives. The funding comes from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government money already earmarked for high street support. Burnham said too many high streets had been "left to hollow out," while Angela Rayner, housing secretary, said the plan rested on trusting local communities to know their area best.

IADS Notes: The government's £210m package follows a pattern of policy attention to UK high streets, building directly on the £5bn Pride in Place programme announced in 2025, at a time when industry warned that a business rates hike could put over 100,000 retail jobs at risk (Retail Week, October 2025). This intervention lands against a backdrop of renewed but uneven high street activity: younger shoppers have been credited with reviving demand for prime locations and in-person retail experiences (Financial Times, April 2026), even as overall footfall fell sharply, down 10.7% year on year across all formats amid persistent consumer caution (Retail Insight Network, May 2026). The emphasis on unlocking long-vacant properties also echoes a wider consolidation of UK retail real estate, exemplified by Frasers Group's acquisition of two major outlet centres, which gave it control of more than a fifth of the UK outlet market and reinforced its dual role as both landlord and retailer (Drapers, May 2026).

UK government announces £210m plan to redevelop derelict high street buildings 

What: Walmart's CEO pledged not to use shoppers' personal data to set prices, as scrutiny of AI-driven pricing intensifies in Washington.

Why it is important: As the largest US retailer, Walmart's public stance sets a benchmark other retailers may be measured against as AI-driven pricing comes under mounting regulatory scrutiny.

In an open letter to customers, Walmart chief executive John Furner said the retailer would not use shoppers' income, shopping history or moment of need to charge them more, whether in stores or through Sparky, its AI shopping assistant. He also pledged that Sparky would not hide cheaper options from customers.

"We price the product, not the person," Furner wrote, adding that Walmart does not set different prices based on who a customer is or the time of day. He said the digital shelf labels rolled out across Walmart stores exist to keep shelf and checkout prices aligned and to save staff time, not to enable dynamic or personalised pricing.

The letter was published on the day public comments closed on a proposed Federal Trade Commission enforcement policy warning that businesses failing to disclose how personal data is used to set prices may be breaking the law. Furner said Walmart's Every Day Low Prices model, in place for more than 50 years, would not change.

IADS Notes: Walmart's public commitment against personalised pricing arrives against a backdrop of intensifying regulatory and reputational pressure on AI-driven pricing across the sector. New York's ban on setting prices from personal data, passed in June 2026, established a first-of-its-kind transparency requirement that other jurisdictions, including the FTC at federal level, are now following. The backlash Walmart is seeking to pre-empt was already visible in coverage from the Financial Times in May 2026 and Forbes in January 2026, both describing surveillance pricing as a growing source of consumer distrust and legal exposure. On the communication side, MBS's analysis in July 2026 argued that dynamic pricing succeeds or fails on how clearly retailers explain it, a lesson Furner's letter appears to apply directly by pairing the pricing pledge with an explanation of what the digital shelf labels are actually for. That explanation echoes NRF's March 2026 coverage of electronic shelf labels, which similarly stressed that the technology enables accurate, centralised price updates rather than surge pricing or personal data collection.

Walmart rules out personalised pricing as AI reshapes retail

What: A second bankruptcy auction for Odesa's Central Department Store building is set for 15 October, with the National Bank of Ukraine as mortgagee and the property's management and lease agreements lapsed since 2024.

Why it is important: When a department store building is sold through insolvency, the creditor holding the collateral and the unresolved tenancy arrangements shape the outcome more than the retail business operating inside it.

The non-residential complex at 72 Italiiska Street in central Odesa, which houses the city's Central Department Store, returns to auction on 15 October as part of the bankruptcy of Ukrbudspetstekh LLC. The starting price remains 399,441,000 hryvnias excluding VAT, roughly 32,000 hryvnias per square meter for 12,477.8 square meters, after the first auction on 20 August drew no participants. The three-round English auction requires a bid bond of 10% of the starting price.

The sale is run by the bankruptcy administrator, not the city. The National Bank of Ukraine, which commissioned the November 2025 appraisal, is the mortgagee: the property secures a 2009 refinancing loan to Imexbank, the bank formerly owned by ex-MP Leonid Klimov, who is also the ultimate beneficiary of Ukrbudspetstekh.

Only the 1959 main building, used as retail and warehouse space, still exists; the other structures listed in the title documents do not. The auction file also flags a tenancy anomaly: the ten-year management agreement with Nova-Khvylia LLC expired in December 2024 without extension, taking with it the linked lease to Business Management Group LLC, yet the management agreement remains registered with the tax authorities until 2034, for record-keeping purposes only.

IADS Notes: The relisting follows a first auction that was cancelled on 20 August when no bidder came forward at the same starting price of 399.4 million hryvnias (Intent Press, August 2026), and the lot now returns with no price reduction. Other property transactions have also turned on the split between a department store building and the business operating inside it: in Paris, Banque des Territoires withdrew from negotiations to acquire the BHV Marais real estate, while SGM, which runs the store, maintained that the property project would proceed with other partners (Fashion Network, October 2025). In distressed cases, creditor priority has repeatedly determined the outcome. Harvey Nichols' unsecured creditors are expected to recover between less than 1% and 20% of their claims after a sale of just over £43 million, with secured creditors paid first (Fashion Network, September 2026). At Saks Global, an ad hoc group of lenders led by distressed debt funds is positioned to take control after a lender-led reorganisation that closed most Saks Off 5th stores and about half of the Saks Fifth Avenue chain (WWD, April 2026). The Odesa case follows the same pattern: the National Bank of Ukraine holds the mortgage, and a bankruptcy administrator conducts the sale, not a retailer.

Odesa's Central Department Store building relisted for auction at 399 million hryvnias

What: Prada is deepening its investment in very important clients, from private Fashion Week programmes to a members-only floor in its renovated Milan Galleria complex, as sales concentrate among the wealthiest luxury shoppers.

Why it is important: Prada's €7 return on every euro spent entertaining top clients puts a benchmark on VIC hospitality at a time when department stores such as Selfridges are building members' clubs to capture the same customers.

Prada is intensifying its focus on its biggest spenders as middle-class luxury demand weakens. For its latest Milan womenswear show, the brand flew more than 100 top clients to the city, offering private access to Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper", privatised restaurant dinners and the chance to buy runway crocodile handbags for a little over $20,000.

The strategy centres on Prada's renovated eight-floor complex in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which combines a public store, exhibition spaces and a private floor offering re-editions, tailoring and fine jewellery. Prada is replicating the concept in 25 luxury capitals. Top clients can commission archive skirts costing up to $100,000, and a small group spent almost a week in French Polynesia in February.

CEO Andrea Guerra says top customers spend about €7 for every euro spent entertaining them, against up to 10 to one claimed by rivals. According to Bain, just over 2% of luxury shoppers generated 45% of purchases in 2024, while luxury's customer base shrank by about 50 million from its 2022 peak. Bernstein analyst Luca Solca warns the upmarket push risks making Prada too expensive, even as it keeps entry points such as a lower-priced recycled capsule.

IADS Notes: Prada's catch-up on top-client hospitality follows a pattern already visible across luxury retail. BoF in May 2026 traced the loss of 50 million luxury customers since 2022 to aggressive price increases and declining perceived quality, noting that the top 2% of spenders now account for 45% of purchases while accessible brands such as Coach capture the aspirational shoppers leaving the category. Multibrand platforms are courting the same clients with similar tools: Bloomberg reported in September 2026 that Mytheresa's owner grew fourth-quarter net sales 7.6% excluding currency by concentrating on ultra-wealthy shoppers, whose top 100,000 customers shop every 28 days and are invited to exclusive brand events in Lake Como and Porto Cervo, a playbook close to Prada's Milan and French Polynesia trips. Department stores are building comparable infrastructure within their flagships, as shown by BoF in April 2026 with Selfridges' 40 Duke members club, which combines private shopping suites, a restaurant and wellness treatments for clients spending at least £20,000 a year, and by The Retail Bulletin in July 2026, which described Selfridges, John Lewis, Liberty and Harrods adding hospitality, beauty workshops and cinemas to compete for dwell time. The commercial case for serving the upper branch of the K-shaped market is also showing in results, as Reuters reported in June 2026 when Macy's raised its outlook on double-digit comparable growth at Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, driven by affluent shoppers who kept spending while lower-income households pulled back.

Prada is wooing the ultrarich with snorkeling trips and $100,000 skirts

What: Lotte Department Store became the first department store to exhibit at the Korea Social Value Festa, where it presented its REJOICE social contribution campaign and its RE:EARTH eco-friendly campaign through an interactive booth.

Why it is important: By turning ESG into products, experiences and loyalty-linked actions, department stores are making social value part of the customer relationship rather than a side commitment.

Lotte Department Store took part in the third Korea Social Value Festa, held at COEX in Seoul's Gangnam district on 21–22 September, and was the first department store to do so. Hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the event is the country's largest gathering on solving social problems and sustainable development, and it brings together government, business and academia.

Under the slogan "Better Me, Better Earth, Better Society," Lotte combined its two flagship campaigns in a participatory booth, the Lotte Department Store Hall. REJOICE, running since 2017, supports people's self-esteem, dreams and personal challenges. Its exhibition zone screened testimonies from counsellors and beneficiaries and handed visitors one-day psychological prescription kits.

A second space, tied to the RE:EARTH eco-friendly campaign running since 2021, sold five upcycled items made from materials such as waste banners, including tote bags, card holders, pouches and cooler bags. All proceeds go to a project creating carbon-neutral "school forests." The first 2,000 visitors to pass an environmental quiz could make their own upcycled key rings.

Other interactive features included a message wall that displayed visitors' notes on screen and "Reimpact Planet," an Earth model whose LED lights changed according to participation data.

IADS Notes: Lotte Department Store's presence at the Festa builds on an ESG agenda already visible in its operations. It runs a nationwide cold-storage bag collection rewarded with L.POINT points, upcycles or donates the bags it collects, and has paid 350 billion won early to its partners (ChosunBiz, October 2025). Other department stores are also using their visibility to rally customers and employees around sustainability, as El Corte Inglés did by joining WWF's Earth Hour (Digital Leon, March 2026). Circularity programmes aimed at customers are increasingly tied to engagement and loyalty. Selfridges rewards customers who return hard-to-recycle beauty packaging (Fashion Network, January 2026), and El Corte Inglés collected more than 630 tonnes of textiles through in-store programmes with Moda re- (Control Publicidad, August 2026). Beyond collection, M&S and its partners are investing in industrial-scale textile sorting and recycling through The Circuit (WWD, September 2026). Upcycled merchandise such as Lotte's tote bags made from waste banners is therefore the customer-facing end of a much larger circular value chain.

Lotte Department Store showcases its social value campaigns at Korea Social Value Festa

What: Brazilian luxury conglomerate JHSF has opened CJ Fashion, a three-level, 4,000-square-metre department store carrying about 150 brands inside its Shopping Cidade Jardim mall in São Paulo.

Why it is important:  It inverts the usual reinvention path: rather than shrinking a legacy store, JHSF scaled a private shopper service into a physical format, using clienteling data to decide what to stock.

JHSF, the São Paulo group whose luxury ecosystem includes malls, hotels, homes and a private airport, has opened CJ Fashion, its first department store, inside Shopping Cidade Jardim. The store covers more than 4,000 square metres across three levels and carries about 150 brands spanning fashion, jewellery, beauty, accessories, gastronomy, furniture and books.

CJ Fashion began as the mall's e-commerce platform, which JHSF later discontinued and converted into a private shopper service. Within six months, that service matched the former e-commerce sales at a fraction of the cost, and 80% of purchases ended with clients messaging shoppers for advice. JHSF opted for its own store after concluding it would appeal more to clients than importing international department stores.

The retailer does not own the inventory: brands hold the stock, except for collaborations and first-to-market brands, while CJ Fashion curates the assortment and runs service. Specialists assist across categories, and a unified checkout handles all purchases. The line-up mixes Balmain, Brunello Cucinelli, Zimmermann and Latin America's first Tom Ford Beauty shop with Brazilian labels and a residency programme for local creators. CEO Augusto Martins said the model was designed to be replicated in other JHSF developments and other countries.

IADS Notes: CJ Fashion enters a market where the department store model never took hold: Brazil built fashion chains such as Lojas Renner and Riachuelo and mall operators such as Iguatemi instead, even as Latin America's five largest department store groups grew combined revenue 10% and profit nearly 48% in 2025 on integrated ecosystems spanning banking, credit and property (The Robin Report, September 2026). JHSF's move extends the mall-operator logic seen at Iguatemi, which anchors its luxury shopping centres in gastronomy, culture and service, supported by a loyalty programme of over a million active members (WWD, February 2026). CJ Fashion's stock-free model, in which brands hold the inventory, echoes the structure Saks Global adopted on exiting bankruptcy through over 350 concession and consignment agreements, a set-up that lowers inventory risk while reducing margin potential and fragmenting customer service (WWD, June 2026); CJ Fashion's unified checkout and cross-category specialists address that last weakness directly. Its compact, curation-first format also sits alongside other recent experiments in smaller, selective formats, from Boyner Group's Communité in Istanbul, where buyers act as curators and about 60% of brands are new to Turkey (WWD, September 2026), to Falabella's 1,800-square-metre specialised store in Angol, which extends its assortment through Click & Collect in an underserved city (Falabella press release, July 2026).

Retail rarity: a department store rises in Brazil

What: Seibu Shibuya, the Tokyo department store that launched designers such as Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake and Takeo Kikuchi, closes its main buildings at the end of September 2026 after 58 years.

Why it is important: Seibu Shibuya proved that buyer-led curation and support for unknown talent could build a store's identity and a whole district, a capability most department stores have since traded for proven brands.

Opened in 1968 near Shibuya Station, Seibu Shibuya built its reputation on discovering new designers rather than stocking what sold elsewhere. Its signature space, Capsule, an avant-garde area on the mezzanine of Building A designed by Shiro Kuramata, displayed clothing by then unknown designers such as Takeo Kikuchi and Kansai Yamamoto. Kenzo Takada and Issey Miyake held shows there in the 1970s, and the store also showcased Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo. The designers it discovered became central figures in the DC brand boom of the 1980s.

Seiichi Mizuno, store manager in the 1980s, recalls relying on the discerning eye of employees to stock unique items. Fashion consultant Nobuyuki Ota calls Capsule a pioneer of the select shop concept and credits the store with turning designers who lacked financial resources into widely loved brands.

Alongside Shibuya Parco and Loft, the store helped make Shibuya a district of youth fashion. As online shopping and social media let consumers discover trends without visiting a store, fashion historian Takuya Kikuta of Showa Women's University sees the closure as the end of the era in which department stores shaped fashion and culture. The Loft Building and Movida Hall, home to Muji, remain open.

IADS Notes: The closure of Seibu Shibuya was decided after Sogo & Seibu failed to reach a redevelopment agreement for the site following persistent losses, leaving the group with a single Tokyo store while the adjacent Loft and Muji operations continue (Japan Times, March 2026). The store's exit has been read as a turning point for Japanese department stores, whose sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels on the strength of duty-free spending while remaining well below their 1990s peak, as younger consumers shift to digital platforms and experiential retail (Bloomberg, April 2026). In Shibuya itself, the closures of Seibu and Tokyu belong to a wider redevelopment wave favouring mixed-use complexes that combine retail, hospitality and residential functions, with nationwide department store sales now at 60% of their 1991 peak (Japan Forward, May 2026). The erosion of the department store's role as a discovery channel extends well beyond Japan: at the World Retail Congress, nearly half of Gen Z shoppers were reported to begin product searches through AI tools, prompting department stores to reposition their physical spaces as cultural and social destinations (WWD, April 2026).

Tokyo's Seibu Shibuya department store to close after 58 years, ending tenure as former hub of youth fashion trends

What: Tourist taxes are spreading worldwide as authorities seek revenue and crowd control, although so far they have proved better at raising money than at curbing visitor numbers.

Why it is important: Overnight levies fall hardest on multi-night, high-spending visitors, the tourist profile department stores rely on most, while sparing day trippers who contribute less to local economies.

Tourist taxes are rising worldwide. France and Italy each raise more than €1bn a year from such duties, Greece's receipts rose by almost two-thirds last year, and England is giving mayors powers to set potentially unlimited levies. Kyoto raised its maximum accommodation tax almost tenfold in March, Japan tripled its departure tax to ¥3,000 in July, and Amsterdam plans a 20% levy by 2030. Barcelona charges up to €12 per person per night.

The levies are proving more effective at raising revenue than at controlling crowds. Venice's day-tripper fee has not stopped record visitor numbers, and Balearic tax revenue has not quelled protests over housing costs and strained public services. Leuven tourism professor Jan van der Borg warns that overnight levies penalise the most lucrative visitors, those staying several nights and spending locally, while sparing day trippers.

Hotels typically absorb part of new levies, and occupancy usually holds. Where cities let hotels exclude the tax from headline prices, demand is largely unaffected, whereas UK rules requiring all-in pricing make it more visible. Almost a fifth of travellers surveyed by the WTTC said existing taxes had made them choose another destination, and second-tier cities may struggle to compete.

IADS Notes: Visitor taxation already shapes where international shoppers spend, although through a different mechanism than the accommodation levies now spreading across Europe and Asia. The UK's withdrawal of VAT-free shopping cost retail more than £1bn in lost spending in a single year, with the West End losing ground to Paris and Oslo (Retail Week, February 2026), and London's luxury department stores continue to cite the absence of tax-free shopping as a structural headwind even as Harrods returned to profit (Fashion Network, August 2026). Higher visitor volumes do not guarantee higher retail spend: Paris luxury boutique footfall fell 11.3% in the first half of 2026 despite overall tourism growth, as the high-spending visitor groups that traditionally drove sales weakened (Le Monde, July 2026). Tourist flows also redirect quickly when conditions change, as Chinese spending moved from Japan to Korea, lifting Korean department store revenues while Japanese tax-free sales fell (ChosunBiz, March 2026). Japanese department stores have responded by diversifying assortments and refocusing on domestic customers to reduce reliance on inbound tourism (Inside Retail, June 2026), a hedge that gains relevance now that Japan has tripled its departure tax and Kyoto has raised its maximum accommodation tax almost tenfold.

Tourist taxes on the march

What: Asos has launched its first adaptive collection for disabled customers, spanning womenswear, menswear and curve, developed with disabled customers and consultancy Tilting the Lens.

Why it is important: The collection treats style, not just function, as the starting point for adaptive fashion, closing a gap the retailer's own research found was underserved, particularly in occasionwear.

The 51-piece range, co-created with disabled customers and Tilting the Lens, puts style at the centre of accessible fashion, with details such as magnetic fastenings, discreet access points and cuts designed for seated wearers.

Research by Asos and Tilting the Lens found that 86% of participants cited comfort and fit as leading purchase motivators, with style-led occasionwear identified as a particular market gap. Available globally, the collection includes maxi dresses, graphic and abstract prints, jersey dresses and sleek tailoring, weighted toward womenswear for occasion pieces while tailoring spans both womenswear and menswear. Everyday items such as smart shirts, knitted polos and accessories round out the offer.

Wider necklines, discreet tube access, stretch fabrics and contoured waistbands recur throughout. Asos vice-president of brand and creative Vanessa Spence said the retailer wanted to extend its fashion-led approach to a category where disabled customers have had fewer choices. Tilting the Lens chief executive Sinéad Burke said true inclusion starts with codesign, arguing the collection shows what happens when functionality and fashion are developed together from the outset.

IADS Notes: Asos's move into adaptive occasionwear extends a pattern already established elsewhere on the high street. Primark launched its first adaptive clothing range in January 2025, targeting the same underserved segment, and followed this in July 2025 with a wheelchair-user mannequin codesigned with disability advocate Sophie Morgan, signalling that authentic representation, not just product, has become part of the commercial proposition. That same month, UK government research identified retail as the sector where disabled customers face the most barriers, and specifically recommended co-design with disabled customers as a corrective (Forbes, July 2025), the same methodology Asos and Tilting the Lens applied from the outset. Harvard Business Review argued in February 2026 that embedding accessibility constraints early in product development can produce "design amplification," turning niche solutions into mainstream commercial successes, a trajectory the Asos collection's scale (51 options across three ranges, sold globally) appears to extend.

Asos launches adaptive collection for disabled customers

What: Fashion retailer Mango has named Katarzyna Niemirowicz-Majtas, its international retail director for Northern Europe, as its new chief retail officer

Why it is important: The appointment continues a pattern seen across department stores and fashion retailers of promoting from within to steer large, multi-market store networks through their next growth phase.

Mango has appointed Katarzyna Niemirowicz-Majtas as chief retail officer, succeeding César de Vicente, who is leaving the company to pursue an external opportunity. Niemirowicz-Majtas joined Mango last year as international retail director for Northern Europe, and will now lead the retailer's global retail and commercial operations, driving its strategic plan, strengthening its business model, expanding its store estate, and optimising performance across more than 2,960 points of sale worldwide.

She brings over 20 years of experience in global executive roles across fashion. At H&M, she led commercial strategy for around 20 countries and oversaw 18,000 employees, and she also led sales and expansion strategies across multiple markets at & Other Stories. In her new role, she will report directly to Mango chairman and chief executive Toni Ruiz. She said the move represents an opportunity to sharpen operational performance and strengthen the customer experience across Mango's commercial network.

IADS Notes: Executive turnover in retail's chief-operations-facing roles has been a recurring theme across department-store and fashion-retail groups over the past year. Harrods similarly elevated an internal figure, promoting its retail director to chief retail officer to oversee service standards across physical channels amid a challenging trading environment (Drapers, November 2025). David Jones took a comparable route in appointing a new chief executive from within its commercial leadership, pairing the move with fresh financing and a multi-year modernization plan to stabilize the business (WWD, June 2026). Both cases echo Mango's own pattern of promoting from within its international leadership bench to steer a large, multi-market store network through its next phase of growth.

Mango appoints new chief retail officer

What: Shinsegae has opened Hyper Ground, a three-month, 2,000-square-foot K-beauty pop-up at The Shops at Hudson Yards in New York, featuring more than 30 Korean brands, most of them not yet sold at U.S. retail.

Why it is important:  As Olive Young, Sephora, Ulta and Target compete for the best-known K-beauty brands, Shinsegae is competing on early discovery and curation instead of scale.

Shinsegae, which generated roughly 7.4 trillion won ($5.3 billion) in revenue in 2025, opened its Hyper Ground pop-up at The Shops at Hudson Yards on September 25. Open seven days a week through December, the 2,000-square-foot space features more than 30 K-beauty brands, including Skit, a skin care line from model Irene Kim, MiHak, Bbia, Ongredients and Kundal. It is organised into themed zones: "Seoul Senses" for home and fragrance, "Night Reset" for hair care and night-time self-care, and "Seoul Morning & City Glow" for facial skin care and devices.

The format follows an inaugural Hyper Ground at Printemps Paris a year earlier. According to JinKyung Park of Shinsegae's merchandising division, the key lesson was that international consumers no longer buy Korean brands simply for their origin; brand identity, visual storytelling, founder stories and links to contemporary Korean lifestyle drive engagement and purchase.

The timing reflects fast-growing U.S. demand. NielsenIQ data shows 29% of U.S. households now buy K-beauty each year, up from 23% a year ago and 19.7% two years ago. Shinsegae aims to identify emerging brands early and offer them a first step into the market.

IADS Notes: Shinsegae's New York pop-up builds on a format the group has been refining across markets. The first Hyperground pop-up at Printemps Paris came with a VIP benefits agreement between the two department stores and a stated plan to roll the concept out worldwide (The Chosun Daily, June 2025). A few months later, a short activation with Metro at Singapore's Paragon introduced six Korean fashion and lifestyle brands through a local co-design partnership (Inside Retail, September 2025). The U.S. move places Shinsegae in a market where Korea's beauty specialist has set the pace. Olive Young announced its American entry as a direct challenge to Sephora and Ulta Beauty, both of which were already expanding their K-beauty ranges (BoF, November 2025). It then secured a deal to bring a curated selection of its brands into Sephora's global network (BoF, January 2026), before opening in Pasadena with dedicated local logistics (Bloomberg, May 2026). Olive Young has built scale and distribution, so Shinsegae is competing on early discovery and editorial curation. It is betting that a department store's point of view can still launch brands that the category leaders have not yet signed.

Shinsegae wants to be a U.S. beauty player, too

What: The NRF's chief economist contends that services costs, which rose up to 33% over five years, are squeezing retail budgets even as goods prices rise more slowly.

Why it is important: It reframes the affordability debate around share of wallet, as retailers now compete for what remains of household budgets after housing, insurance and transport, a pressure already visible in weakening US discretionary spending and Ikea's housing-driven price cuts.

In a 16 September 2026 commentary, NRF chief economist Mark Mathews argues that rising prices for essential services are squeezing household spending on retail goods, even when goods prices rise more slowly. Services account for roughly two-thirds of US personal consumption expenditure, reflecting both changing spending patterns and higher prices.

Over three years, prices for financial services and insurance rose 21.1%, housing and utilities 13.3% and transport services 12.4%. Over five years, housing and utilities climbed 30% and financial services and insurance 33%. By contrast, the NRF estimates a basket of goods costing $1 in the 1990s would cost about $1.28 today, while durable goods such as furniture, electronics and appliances costing $100 in 1996 would cost about $71.

Mathews says competition and easy price comparison limit retailers' ability to raise prices, with the NRF citing an average net margin of about 1.3% for publicly traded US grocers, against 18.5% for pharmaceutical companies and 29.9% for software companies. As the retail industry's trade body, the NRF presents one perspective on the affordability debate.

In the UK, August 2026 ONS figures show annual CPI inflation of 3.4% for services and 2.7% for goods, with housing and household services up 4.9%.

IADS Notes: The NRF's argument that household budgets are being squeezed from outside retail is reflected in recent spending data. In the US, rising gasoline and energy costs pushed Visa's spending momentum index below expansion territory in July, with discretionary categories such as fashion, department stores and luxury falling to their lowest level since February 2025 (Visa, August 2026), although retail sales rebounded 1.2% in August as import prices rose 7.0% year on year, the sharpest annual increase since 2022 (Reuters, September 2026). Housing, one of the services categories singled out by the NRF, is already reshaping goods demand in Europe, where Ikea committed €1.2 billion to price cuts after surging housing costs curbed spending on furniture and homeware (Reuters, September 2026). In the UK, the British Retail Consortium's shop price index rose to 1.5% in August, its highest reading since February 2024, as energy, input and memory-chip costs fed through to food and electronics prices (Reuters, September 2026). The question of who is blamed for prices also carries a regulatory dimension, as retailers' use of AI-driven personalised pricing has drawn legislative scrutiny in New York and an NRF lawsuit against the state's disclosure law (Forbes, January 2026).

Are retailers being unfairly blamed for higher prices?

What: Myer posted a $276.5 million statutory net loss for fiscal 2026, its worst result since 2018, as cost-of-living pressures weighed on consumer spending.

Why it is important: Myer's bet on younger customers, owned brands and gifting is being tested at the worst point in the cycle, with trading still deteriorating heading into Christmas. 

Myer's fiscal 2026 statutory net loss of $276.5 million is its worst result since fiscal 2018, widening from $204.4 million a year earlier. The group blamed higher fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict, three interest rate rises in 2026, slower household income growth and a weaker housing market.

Sales including concessions reached $4 billion, Myer's best result, though only marginally up on a comparable basis. Concession brands such as Country Road led growth, followed by the online marketplace, while beauty declined. In the specialty portfolio acquired from Premier Investments, Just Jeans grew 6% to account for about 40% of apparel brand sales, Portmans struggled and the other banners were broadly stable. Extracting synergies remains a fiscal 2027 priority, and Solomon Lew, who holds about 30% of Myer, joins the board.

Executive chair Olivia Wirth defended the strategy, pointing to a loyalty base where half of members are under 35, and outlined plans built on technology, AI and cost reduction. Trading in the first eight weeks of fiscal 2027 was as challenging as, or worse than, the second half. Myer is counting on its gifting credentials to lift Christmas trading across its 56 stores.

IADS Notes: Myer's FY2026 loss confirms the warning issued in its preliminary trading update, when the group attributed a sharp slowdown in June and July to higher fuel prices, three interest rate rises and a weaker housing market, and reported lower sales in Beauty and Portmans despite increased promotional activity (Reuters, July 2026). The beauty decline follows Mecca's exit after 17 years, which removed a major traffic driver and led Myer to rebuild the category through exclusive partnerships, new brands and a redeveloped Sydney Beauty Hall (nine.com, July 2026). The synergies Myer still seeks from the Apparel Brands acquisition were central to the value-creation programme launched by Olivia Wirth, built on direct sourcing, simplified distribution and store efficiency (Inside Retail, September 2025). The pressure extends beyond Myer, with David Jones reporting a $74.4 million loss, late supplier payments and store closures as both Australian department stores shrink their footprints (The New Daily, April 2026). Myer's reliance on concessions for its best-ever sales result echoes Saks Global's post-bankruptcy model of more than 350 concession and consignment agreements, which reduces inventory risk at the cost of margin (WWD, June 2026).

Myer posts its worst annual loss since 2018 but backs its strategy

What: India's retail sector logged 10% year-on-year growth in August, marking a fourth consecutive month of acceleration since April's slowdown.

Why it is important: The steady rebound signals that retailers can approach the festive season with confidence in underlying demand, supporting the inventory and expansion investments already visible in recent fundraising activity.

India's retail sector maintained its steady recovery in August, recording 10% year-on-year pan-India growth, according to a survey by the Retail Association of India (RAI). This builds on July's strong performance and extends a rebound that began after growth dipped to a low of 5% in May, before climbing to 6% in June, 8% in July, and 10% in August.

Regional growth was broadly consistent at 10%, with West India leading at 11% and South India matching the national average. East India and North India posted more modest gains of 8% and 9% respectively.

Essential and routine categories drove the expansion, with quick service restaurants peaking at 15% growth and food & grocery reaching 12%. Lifestyle segments such as apparel (10%) and footwear (8%) also expanded steadily, while consumer durables and electronics stabilised around 7% following an earlier peak in April.

Kumar Rajagopalan, RAI's Executive Director and CEO, described August's performance as a promising prelude to the festive season, while noting that RAI is maintaining a measured, cautious approach given broader global macroeconomic conditions.

IADS Notes: India's August performance extends a growth streak that the Notion collection has been tracking all year: retail sales were already up 10% year-on-year in March, according to a survey reported by India Economic Times in April 2026, with quick service restaurants and beauty already outperforming other categories at the time. That momentum has translated into capital investment, as the country's largest chains — More Retail, Trent, Avenue Supermarts and Reliance Retail among them — moved to raise over ₹4,000 crore this financial year to fund the fastest pace of store expansion in four years, per India Economic Times in July 2026. Underpinning this physical push is a parallel digital surge: India's e-commerce market has reached $250 billion, intensifying competition between domestic and international players and prompting calls for regulatory safeguards, as covered by India Economic Times in April 2026. Read together, August's 10% growth figure confirms that both the offline expansion drive and the online boom are being sustained by genuine, broad-based consumer demand rather than one-off factors.

Indian retail sector logs 10% growth in August on stable consumer demand: RAI survey

What: M&S, New Look and Sainsbury's have joined Oxfam and Circle-8 to launch The Circuit, a UK initiative to sort and recycle post-consumer textile waste into new raw materials.

Why it is important: The initiative shifts retailer circularity efforts from collection and resale towards industrial-scale sorting and recycling, the missing link needed to turn post-consumer waste into usable raw materials.

Marks & Spencer, New Look and Sainsbury's are setting aside their high street rivalry to co-found The Circuit with Oxfam and Circle-8, a UK-based company building infrastructure for automated textile sorting and chemical recycling. According to Circle-8, around 1.4 million tons of post-consumer textiles were generated in the UK in 2024, nearly half of which is estimated to be non-reusable.

The Circuit brings together retailers, textile recovery partners, recyclers and manufacturers to develop both the infrastructure and the commercial model needed to turn end-of-use textiles into new raw materials. Its first phase launches in January 2027 at Oxfam's site in Batley, Yorkshire, where partners will test automated sorting, traceability and routes into fibre-to-fibre recycling. The partnership aims to develop mechanical and chemical recycling processes that can supply regional and global textile manufacturing with materials recovered from UK post-consumer textiles.

Circle-8 notes that demand for recycled textile materials is growing while the systems to produce them remain immature, and argues that retailers who help build these value chains now will be best placed to influence and benefit from them. Development and recycling partners include Biffa, Ekman Group, Usha Yarns, Kipas, Reju and Worn Again Technologies.

IADS Notes: The Circuit tackles a bottleneck that has long held back textile circularity. The fashion industry discards 120 million metric tons of textile waste each year, with less than 1% recycled into new fibres, and the high cost of recycled materials and inadequate infrastructure remain the main barriers, a gap that calls for industry-wide collaboration (BCG, September 2025). M&S had already moved on the materials side, partnering with Circulose to scale circular materials made from textile waste and reduce its reliance on virgin fibres (Fashion Network, November 2025). The Circuit's focus on automated sorting and traceability matches the operational challenge in secondhand, where every item is unique and scale depends on industrialising identification, assessment and logistics rather than on sustainability claims alone (Journal du Net, June 2026). Department stores are building the collection end of the chain too: El Corte Inglés gathered more than 630 tonnes of textiles for reuse, recycling and energy recovery through its partnership with Moda re-, within Extended Producer Responsibility schemes that now cover textiles (Control Publicidad, August 2026).

Marks & Spencer, New Look and Sainsbury's unite to fight textile waste in the UK clothing industry

What: Harrods has unveiled a redesigned men's Designer Collections room at its Knightsbridge flagship, centred on weekend dressing, outerwear and lifestyle brands such as Herno, Purdey and Barbour.

Why it is important: Harrods is organising menswear around the full wardrobe rather than individual brands, the same curation-led logic now reshaping multibrand luxury retail.

Harrods has opened a redesigned men's Designer Collections room on the second floor of its Knightsbridge flagship, positioned as a one-stop destination for contemporary dressing. The space reflects how male customers now shop across categories and occasions rather than for one-off pieces, with a focus on the weekend wardrobe and elevated everyday style.

The line-up includes Herno, Purdey, Barbour, Sease, Orlebar Brown, Paul & Shark and Vilebrequin. At its centre, a multibrand area encourages browsing across the category rather than brand-by-brand shopping, while a new dedicated pop-up space will host exclusive launches, seasonal stories, capsules and collaborations throughout the year. Six newly designed shopfits reflect each brand's identity and craftsmanship within a cohesive visual identity.

According to menswear buying manager Yasmin Mehmet, the room marks a significant expansion of the lifestyle category, driven by growing demand for versatile pieces such as outerwear, knitwear and gilets that transition across occasions.

The opening follows the gradual unveiling of the womenswear International Designer Rooms on the first floor from June, as part of a multimillion-pound refurbishment programme. Harrods had previously redeveloped its Designer Collections rooms, combining large shop-in-shops for Hermès, Brunello Cucinelli, Ralph Lauren and Yves Salomon with niche specialist labels.

IADS Notes: Harrods' new menswear Designer Collections room is the latest phase of a Knightsbridge refurbishment that previously redeveloped the Designer Collections rooms, where large shop-in-shops for Hermès, Brunello Cucinelli and Ralph Lauren sit alongside a curated space for niche labels (WWD, November 2024). It continued with the womenswear International Designer Rooms, built around exclusive launches and a tightly edited brand mix (WWD, June 2026). Also in Knightsbridge, Harvey Nichols has taken a similar route with "125", a phased ground-floor redevelopment that combines curated lifestyle brands with a pop-up window for exclusive brand activations (Drapers, October 2025). The focus on versatile menswear echoes M&S, whose Autograph Performance line is designed for work, travel and leisure, and whose Autograph Menswear now accounts for nearly a quarter of total menswear sales (Fashion Network, October 2025). More broadly, the restructuring of Matches, Ssense and Saks shows multibrand luxury retail moving away from discounting towards curation, strong identity and high-touch service (BoF, December 2025). Harrods' cross-brand discovery hub rests on the same logic.

Harrods expands menswear offering with revamped Designer Collections room

What: A coalition of banks said AI shopping bots are advancing faster than consumer protections and called for disclosure, transparency and safeguards around agentic commerce. 

Why it is important: It highlights a widening trust gap consumers face with AI shopping tools — echoed in past coverage of shopper hesitancy — that retailers adopting AI agents will need to actively address to protect conversion and loyalty.

Banks including NatWest, Bank of America, ING, ASB Bank, Capital One and Commonwealth Bank of Australia warned on September 22 that using AI agents for online shopping could increase the risk of scams, fraud and data-privacy breaches, as they set out principles for developing the technology responsibly.

Technology companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta are increasingly promoting AI chatbots as shopping tools, while retailers race to influence how these bots make recommendations. British retailer John Lewis said AI-agent-originated searches had risen to 2.5% of traffic from 0.3% a year earlier, with the trend accelerating.

The banks' report found that while customers are enthusiastic about agentic commerce, they remain unsure whether AI will act in their interest, fearing agents could buy the wrong items, overspend, or expose them to scams with no clear recourse. Specific risks flagged include AI agents entering card details directly into websites or steering shoppers toward payment methods with weaker protections.

The banks plan to raise proposals with policymakers, including mandatory disclosure when AI is involved in a transaction, greater decision-making transparency, data safeguards, and interoperability between competing AI-commerce systems.

IADS Notes: Concerns over trust and accountability in AI-driven shopping have been a recurring theme in recent coverage. John Lewis's own experience with rising AI-agent traffic was detailed by Reuters in September 2026, which described the retailer's efforts to adapt to this shift. The question of governance sits at the centre of the debate: RH-ISAC, writing in August 2026, argued that AI agents require clear ownership structures rather than technical guardrails alone, echoing the banks' call for greater transparency over how these systems make decisions. Consumer hesitancy has also been well documented: Journal du Net, in a June 2026 piece, explored shoppers' reluctance to fully hand over purchasing decisions to AI, a sentiment that aligns with the banks' finding that customers remain unsure whether AI agents act in their interest. On the fraud side, RH-ISAC's June 2026 benchmarking report quantified the scale of account fraud facing retailers, underscoring the stakes behind the banks' warnings about AI agents entering payment details or steering shoppers toward weaker-protection methods. Building trust through clearer processes was also addressed by Customer Experience Dive in July 2026, which noted that a clear path to a live agent improves confidence in AI-driven customer service.

Banks warn AI shopping bots raise scam, fraud and data-privacy risks

What: Lotte and Hanwha Galleria are closing underperforming department stores in Korea while redirecting capital into large scale flagship renovations.

Why it is important: It signals department stores treating their store networks as a portfolio to actively manage rather than a fixed footprint to defend branch by branch.

Department store operators in Korea are intensifying a "selection and concentration" strategy, closing underperforming branches while channeling capital into their strongest locations. Lotte Department Store is exiting sites well ahead of lease expiry: it will not renew its Konkuk University Star City branch, ranked 28th of 31 stores, ahead of an October 2028 deadline, is seeking a buyer for its 27th ranked Mia branch, and closed its Bundang branch in March after terminating a lease originally running to 2030.

In parallel, Lotte is investing 80 billion won to renovate the food hall of its top performing Jamsil branch and progressing Lotte Town Myeongdong, integrating its main building, Avenue L and Young Plaza, targeted for completion by the end of 2027. Hanwha Galleria is selling its Daejeon Time World branch, its second highest grossing store, to avoid competing directly with a nearby Shinsegae Art & Science location and to fund a full rebuild of its Apgujeong Luxury Hall, expanding it to 68,892 square meters under a design by architect Thomas Heatherwick.

Among the five major operators' 65 stores, the top 10 already account for 49.8% of total sales.

IADS Notes: Korea's leading department stores have pursued diverging paths since mid 2025: Lotte recorded the country's only H1 profit growth among the big three through cost efficiency, while Shinsegae and Hyundai absorbed a temporary earnings hit to fund store renovations and AI investment (Korea JoongAng Daily, August 2025). Lotte's Myeongdong main branch later extended that flagship logic into experiential retail, embedding large scale art installations by Korean artists along the store's key visitor routes (The Asia Business Daily, February 2026). Galleria pursued a parallel premium repositioning at its Seoul Luxury Hall, growing watches and jewelry from 8% to 15% of sales over five years through exclusive brand boutiques (Maeil Business Newspaper, July 2025), the same high end ambition now driving its Apgujeong rebuild. BCG's updated Win the Town framework has meanwhile reframed the underlying logic of these moves, arguing that AI now allows retailers to manage stores by network role, resilience and ecosystem value rather than by isolated four wall P&L (BCG, August 2026). A comparable rationalization is under way outside Korea: Frasers Group's restructuring of Harvey Nichols, eliminating departments and cutting staff weeks after completing its acquisition, illustrates how quickly new owners of distressed department store assets are willing to act on portfolio review (Drapers, September 2026). 

Lotte and Hanwha Galleria close underperforming stores to fund flagship renovations

What: Latin America's five largest department store groups grew combined revenue 10% and profit 48% in 2025, even as the format shrinks across much of the developed world.

Why it is important: It shows department stores can thrive by becoming indispensable rather than exceptional — embedding into banking, credit, real estate and logistics rather than chasing luxury or experience-led reinvention.

For much of the developed world, department stores are shrinking. Latin America is the exception: in 2025, the five largest groups — Cencosud, Falabella, Liverpool, Ripley and El Palacio de Hierro — grew combined revenue 10% to $51.3 billion and profit nearly 48% to $3.18 billion, even as 2026 growth cools.

The model driving this is integration. Chile alone produced three of the five giants. Falabella spans department stores, Sodimac, Tottus, Mallplaza and its own bank, letting customers finance a purchase, shop groceries and visit a mall within one ecosystem; its profit roughly tripled in 2025. Cencosud lifted profit over 70% on flat sales through similar diversification, while Ripley's profits doubled after losses as recently as 2023.

Mexico took a narrower path: Liverpool's profits fell despite rising revenue, while the luxury-focused El Palacio de Hierro grew sales over 8%. Brazil skipped the department-store model entirely, building fashion chains like Lojas Renner and Riachuelo and mall operators like Iguatemi instead.

The common thread is consolidation of the entire customer relationship — merchandise, financing, credit and property — under one roof, rather than reinvention through luxury or spectacle.

IADS Notes: The 48% profit surge and 10% revenue growth that Latin America's top five department-store groups posted in 2025 were tracked in detail as the year unfolded (Modaes, March 2026), with Falabella and Ripley driving the gains. That momentum has since cooled: combined revenue growth for the same five groups slowed to 2.2% in the first quarter of 2026 (Modaes, May 2026) and to 2.3% for the first half, even as combined net income edged past the prior year's level (Modaes, September 2026). The deceleration has not been uniform: Cencosud swung to a quarterly loss as transformation costs, weaker margins and competitive pressure weighed on results (Bloomberg, August 2026), while Ripley's growth increasingly leaned on its Peruvian retail business rather than its home Chilean market, with profit up 59.8% in the second quarter on a 13.5% rise in Peru (Modaes, August 2026).

Why department stores are indispensable in Latin America

What: New World Development has moved forward with plans to spin off its Shanghai K11 assets into a REIT listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Why it is important: The transaction exemplifies an asset-light model gaining traction among retail real estate operators, letting NWD keep operating and branding the malls while shedding balance-sheet exposure.

New World Development (NWD) has received notice of acceptance from the Shanghai Stock Exchange for the proposed spin-off and separate listing of NWD C-REIT. The REIT will hold Shanghai K11 Art Mall and Shanghai K11 Atelier NWT, two assets wholly owned by the Hong Kong-listed developer. NWD will retain at least a 20 per cent interest in the REIT, with the remaining units subscribed for by strategic, institutional, and retail investors.

Despite the spin-off, NWD will continue to operate and manage the properties, providing operations, property management, and related services, with the assets continuing to trade under the K11 brand. Echo Huang, executive director and CEO of NWD, said the proposed REIT would be the first among Hong Kong enterprises, demonstrating the strong brand equity of NWD and K11 in the Chinese mainland market.

The transaction is part of NWD's broader strategy to recycle capital, improve liquidity, and reduce leverage, while accessing new sources of capital through an asset-light model. The group also owns mainland China assets including Hangzhou K11 Art Mall and the K11 Elysea project in Shanghai.

IADS Notes: New World Development's move to spin off its Shanghai K11 assets follows a period of financial restructuring that has already reshaped the group's balance sheet, including debt-management efforts and the negotiated sale of K11 Art Mall, as reported by Inside Retail in September 2025. Even as capital has been recycled out of some assets, the K11 brand itself has continued to perform strongly, with K11 Musea's first-half revenue rising 40% year-on-year, according to Inside Retail's September 2026 coverage, and with tenant-mix upgrades such as a Balenciaga duplex flagship reinforcing the mall's positioning, per Inside Retail in April 2026. The Shanghai Stock Exchange listing also reflects Hong Kong-based groups' growing reliance on mainland capital markets, a trend consistent with Hong Kong's emergence as the world's leading cross-border wealth hub, driven substantially by mainland Chinese capital inflows, as covered by Luxury Tribune in June 2026.

New World Development moves to spin off Shanghai K11 assets

What: The Hyundai has launched The Hyundai Hi, an e-commerce app that reframes online department-store shopping as a curated, gamified discovery experience.

Why it is important: The Hyundai Hi shows department stores can differentiate in fast, price-driven e-commerce markets by competing on curation and discovery rather than speed or price.

The Hyundai Hi, developed with Base Design, rethinks online retail around personal taste rather than search and price rankings. The platform brings together roughly 3,000 brands across fashion, beauty, home and food in shop-in-shop formats, replacing the retailer's previous e-commerce properties. Its central mechanic, "gems," lets users collect and share virtual jewels tied to products and content, functioning as a game-like alternative to likes or wishlists. "Icons" — external tastemakers across disciplines — curate original content and shape ongoing cultural conversations, while a community hub called The Me Space lets customers assemble and share their own lifestyle inspiration.

Positioned as "The Hyundai in your pocket," the app deliberately avoids competing with Korea's hyper-fast native e-commerce players on delivery speed or price. Instead, it leans into context, editorial storytelling and discovery. Since launch, the platform has generated $40.5 million in GMV, up 43.5% year-over-year, with audience growth of 326% to 9.6 million users and more than 470,000 new members, an increase of almost 560%.

IADS Notes: The Hyundai Hi's launch was first reported by WWD in July 2026, which recorded the same growth figures now being highlighted more broadly — 43.5% GMV growth and steep gains in registered users, visitors and traffic since the app's April soft launch. The retailer has paired this digital push with parallel investment in human-led service, launching a foreign-only Global CX Advisor group, as covered by Maeil Business Newspaper in August 2026. The underlying strategy — building non-transactional engagement to extend dwell time and loyalty — has precedent in Hyundai's physical stores: Korea JoongAng Daily reported in October 2025 on the sector-wide expansion of cultural centres and academy-style programming for that purpose, while The Chosun Daily noted in February 2026 that Hyundai, Shinsegae and Lotte have all been reorganizing store layouts around lifestyle and discovery rather than product category. The Hyundai Hi extends this same discovery-first logic into the digital channel.

Korean retailer The Hyundai launches immersive digital platform

What: JD Sports is entering Mexico through a long-term franchise partnership with Grupo Axo, which will operate more than 140 JD stores and the brand's Mexican ecommerce business from 2027.

Why it is important: Grupo Axo's platform of over 1,000 direct-to-consumer stores and 7,500 wholesale concessions gains another international fascia, tightening its position as the intermediary between global brands and Mexican shoppers.

Grupo Axo will operate more than 140 JD stores across Mexico from 2027, converting its existing sneaker estate to establish the fascia, with selected sites expanded over time into JD's larger "bigger and better" flagship format. The agreement also covers JD's Mexican ecommerce business, which Axo will run using JD's brand and intellectual property alongside its own-label and exclusive ranges in footwear, apparel and accessories.

This is JD's first entry into Mexico and extends a North American presence in the US and Canada that accounted for 38 per cent of group sales in the year to 31 January 2026. The group points to a population above 130m, roughly 40 per cent of it under 25, and an activewear market worth around £4.8bn that IMARC forecasts will approach £8bn by 2034. Chief executive Régis Schultz framed the deal as part of the "JD Brand First" strategy.

Grupo Axo operates in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Uruguay for brands including Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and The North Face. JD and Courir already run 75 franchise stores across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

IADS Notes: Mexico is becoming the market where foreign fascias arrive through local operators rather than on their own balance sheets. El Puerto de Liverpool agreed weeks earlier to run Primark in the country under a franchise model built on its Glam brand-licensing entity, with Primark's only prior franchised stores operated by Alshaya in the Middle East (WWD, September 2026), while Sfera is taking its renovated format into Mexico through the mix of owned and franchised operations El Corte Inglés uses abroad (Modaes, November 2025). The capital-light logic is the same one Marks & Spencer applied when it relaunched in the Philippines with MAP instead of withdrawing (Press Release, June 2026). For department stores the competitive question is where sports fashion sits: Gymshark chose Engelhorn and Breuninger to reach German shoppers (Fashion United, February 2026), whereas JD arrives with a 140-store monobrand network in a category whose growth is slowing to 3 to 5 per cent a year through 2029 (BCG, September 2025).

JD Sports enters Mexico with 140-store Grupo Axo franchise