Retail & Consumer Goods

San Francisco – October 29, 2026 -- The RealReal (Nasdaq: REAL) has appointed Alexis Hoopes, who led eBay's $10 billion global fashion business, as Chief Merchandising Officer, handing her control of the luxury resale marketplace's merchandising strategy.

Hoopes to focus on luxury assortment, personalized discovery and supply growth

Hoopes will lead merchandising strategy with three stated priorities: strengthening the luxury assortment, improving personalized product discovery, and opening new growth opportunities through technology, data and global marketplace expertise. She said she intends to expand the assortment and unlock new sources of supply.

CEO Rati Sahi Levesque cited Hoopes' "rare combination of luxury merchandising expertise, global marketplace experience and operational discipline."

Klausen-Leopoldsdorf – October 29, 2026 -- Jürgen Bruckner, managing director of Austria's Bruckner Holding GmbH, says most of his organization's more than 22,000 customers buy products repeatedly without joining the sales structure. He names this as the key test separating legitimate direct selling from pyramid schemes.

Bruckner ties legitimacy to the source of revenue

Bruckner, active in the industry for more than twelve years, argues that a business funded mainly by entry fees and recruitment lacks economic substance. Such a structure survives only while new participants keep paying in. He says compensation linked to actual product sales, rather than to position in the hierarchy, undercuts the claim that only the first entrants earn money.

Dublin – October 29, 2026 -- Temu plans to invest about $200 million in compliance and quality assurance worldwide in 2026, twice its 2025 spending, as it adds in-house product testing laboratories inside its logistics partners' warehouses.

Bureau Veritas confirms the labs can run defined European-standard tests

Bureau Veritas audited the labs' testing equipment, premises, technical staff, workflows and quality assurance systems. It confirmed the labs meet the technical requirements for the intended tests under selected European standards.

The audit is not a product certification. Temu said the warehouse labs complement independent third-party testing and do not replace sellers' legal responsibility for product compliance.

HOUSTON – October 29, 2026 -- Group 1 Automotive (NYSE: GPI) posted third-quarter diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $8.59, up from $1.02 a year earlier. Adjusted diluted EPS, a non-GAAP measure, fell to $9.36 from $10.45 as the retailer closed a $1.7 billion-revenue Atlanta acquisition and pushed ahead with disposals to cut leverage.

Net income rises to $102.9 million while adjusted profit declines

Net income from continuing operations reached $102.9 million, compared with $13.1 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted net income from continuing operations fell to $112.1 million from $135.1 million. Total revenues were $5.4 billion, down from $5.8 billion.

MILTON KEYNES – October 29, 2026 -- CookieYes, a consent management platform used by more than 2 million websites, has won Shopify's Built for Shopify badge for its cookie consent app, with daily installs up 59% since a 23 September update.

Shopify awarded the badge on 9 October 2026. It goes to apps that meet the platform's highest standards for performance, design and integration, including storefront speed and ease of use. More than 8,600 Shopify stores have installed the app to date.

CookieYes offers all essential Shopify features free within fair usage limits

The free tier includes advanced features, according to the company. Merchants install the app from the Shopify App Store, select target regions, customise the consent banner and activate it through Shopify's theme editor. No coding or separate dashboard is required.

DUBLIN – October 29, 2026 -- Temu plans to invest approximately US$200 million globally in compliance and quality assurance in 2026, twice its 2025 level, as laboratories inside its fulfilment partners' warehouses pass an independent Bureau Veritas assessment.

Bureau Veritas audits equipment, staff and quality systems at Temu's warehouse labs

Bureau Veritas evaluated the laboratories' testing equipment, facilities and environmental conditions, technical personnel, operating procedures and quality control systems. It confirmed the labs meet the technical requirements to run specified tests against selected European standards.

The assessment covers technical capability only. It does not constitute product certification, and the labs do not replace sellers' responsibility to meet applicable regulatory requirements.

Amsterdam – October 29, 2026 -- OLX Group has launched two AI tools, Agentic Selling and DealFinder, taking its live agentic solutions to 14 across 16 marketplaces, as its own surveys show that only 5% of home seekers would trust an AI valuation over a human agent's estimate.

The classifieds operator, which carries nearly 60 million daily listings across 11 brands in seven markets, presented both tools at its CLAIM Online 2026 summit on 27 October. It also runs 86 live machine learning use cases and 28 live generative AI use cases.

Agentic Selling reaches 20% of private sellers on Otodom

Agentic Selling is live for 20% of private sellers on Otodom in Poland. It guides property owners from valuation through to posting. OLX says the tool provides data-backed pricing guidance and listing drafts, while final pricing and disclosure decisions stay with the seller.

TAIPEI – October 29, 2026 -- CoCo Bubble Tea, a chain with more than 5,000 stores worldwide, has opened its first stores in Hungary and Armenia and plans to open a Kyiv location in late December, extending its franchise push into Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus.

The three-market rollout comes ahead of the brand's 30th anniversary in 2027. CoCo plans at least three stores in each of the three markets over time.

Budapest and Yerevan stores opened on May 20 and July 15

The Budapest store at Dohány u. 28 opened May 20 with CoCo's European menu. It is available for delivery through Wolt. The launch used Hungarian-language content on Facebook and Instagram, plus limited merchandise for early customers.

HYDERABAD – October 29, 2026 -- The global essential oils market will grow from $20.08 billion in 2026 to $29.52 billion by 2031, a CAGR of 8.10%, according to Mordor Intelligence. Wider use of aromatherapy and pharmaceutical interest in the oils' potential antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and respiratory properties are driving the expansion.

Aromatherapy moves from spas into hospitals and workplaces

Growing awareness of mental health is taking aromatherapy beyond traditional spa settings into hospitals and workplaces. This opens additional wellness applications for essential oil suppliers. Product consistency, reliable sourcing and suitability for specific uses remain key purchasing considerations as use cases diversify.

St. Petersburg – October 28, 2026 -- MillerKnoll, which generated net sales of $3.8 billion in fiscal 2026, has deployed 3D product configurators on Knoll.com. The rollout is built on a single library of 3D product content that the company reuses across its design brands, 3D Cloud announced.

Knoll.com and Design Within Reach now draw on one 3D asset foundation

Customers can configure the Womb Chair and Ottoman, the Saarinen Dining Table and the Barcelona Chair, among other Knoll designs, on both Knoll.com and the Design Within Reach website. Both sites pull from the same 3D assets.

For the Womb Chair, materials, finishes and configuration options are managed centrally in one place. That keeps customer experiences aligned and current across product offerings and digital touchpoints, according to Lorna Jean Marcuzzo, Senior Technology Manager, 3D Visualization + Content at MillerKnoll.