Europe’s consumer tech retail space never rests. Takeovers, rebrands, product launches, marketing stunts, AI and store openings are just some of the things contributing to an ever evolving market. While we can’t cover everything, we’ll be looking at some market news, channel trends and general updates showing up on ChannelSummit’s radar.
MediaMarkt Moves
News of ceconomy’s upcoming takeover by JD.com has been a hot topic for the channel but away from the headlines there’s been plenty of other interesting developments. Mediamarkt stores in Portugal have now been rebranded as Darty following the takeover in 2023. FNAC Darty has also announced plans to increase the store count in Portugal to 30 by 2030. MediaMarkt marketplace continues to expand its country coverage with recent launches in Hungary and Switzerland. Marketplaces are also up and running in 8 countries including Belgium, Germany, Turkey and Poland.
AI is never far away from the headlines and MediaMarktSaturn Germany recently launched their ‘SmartManual’ platform, an AI-powered chatbot to answer questions to customers who purchased one of their own brand products (IMTRON, ok. PEAQ and KOENIC). The system has been trained with data sheets, product manuals and knowledge databases from customer service hotlines. You can take a look at the IMTRON chatbot service here >
Store Openings, New Partnerships and Reshuffles
UK music and audio retailer HMV has announced further store openings in the UK and Ireland, signalling a successful re-launch of the brand. Outside of the UK, HMV has announced plans to open its first store in The Netherlands early next year. Meanwhile Romanian retailer Altex has started to integrate the Brico Depot chain of 32 stores into its portfolio following the buyout from Kingfisher group earlier this year. Joybuy, an ecommerce platform owned by JD.com, recently went live in the UK and has now launched in France. Pegged as a rival to amazon, the online retailer sells everything from washing machines to coffee beans and is also present in Netherlands and Germany with plans to launch in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Earlier this month, Back Market announced a strategic partnership with Bouygues Telecom to bring refurbished smartphones to their network of stores across France. Anticipated to go live by the end of the year, the online marketplace for refurbished devices has also launched its first physical store in New York’s SoHo district. As well as selling refurbished tech such as smartphones, laptops and headphones, the store has some interesting customer engagement stations including a retro tech display and a ‘FutureDial’ desk so customers can see device diagnostics up close and better understand the testing and grading process.
Siri, What’s a popular gadget for teenagers?
The way consumers are looking for gifts is changing with survey findings from Zeta Global revealing that 83% of US based respondents plan to use AI to recommend gifts for loved ones. A recent study by Adobe Express also found that one in five consumers use generative AI at least weekly to discover new products. Not surprisingly, businesses are catching on to this with close to a quarter of respondents spending more than 10% of their marketing budgets on AI visibility.
TikTok made me buy it
Social commerce is something we’re tracking in the MMMR Report so we’re keeping an eye out for any standout trends from the social selling industry. With global shipments of AR/VR headsets together with smart glasses expected to grow by 39.2% in 2025 (14.3 million units), augmented reality could well become a more regular tool for brand activations and customer engagement. Just this week, Xbox collaborated with Snapchat to promote the launch of Outer Worlds 2 with fans encouraged to try out a new AI powered Snapchat lens which scans the moon and transforms it into one of the game’s characters.
A more traditional but nonetheless attention grabbing activation announced by Apple UK is an open design competition to design a Christmas tree. Designs can be drawn and submitted via iPad (in-store or at home) with the winning designs projected onto the iconic Battersea Power Stations chimneys.