More on this: An increasing number of grocery delivery services are pivoting away from the 15-minute standard, citing high operating costs in US urban areas, issues finding adequate space for dark stores (urban warehouses where delivery services store items), and large competitors like Instacart.

The retailer saw notable sales growth as consumers returned to stores post-vaccine, and recent partnerships might continue the trend—if delta doesn’t get in the way.

Some retailers have already taken steps to do so, such as Target’s local stores, convenience store and delivery service Foxtrot, which operates in urban neighborhoods in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, DC, and Virginia, as well as Ulta Beauty’s locally focused stores. The big takeaway: Retailers need to recognize and adapt to evolving shopping behaviors.

Food and Beverage: A Digital Sales Spike Puts a Dent in In-Store Sales. The grocery segment was one of the few sectors to fare well through the pandemic. Physical stores were allowed to remain open through each UK lockdown, while well-advanced click-and-collect and delivery ecosystems meant that sales could remain buoyant.

The battle with established mobile app stores is brewing on a global level, as Japan, South Korea, and the EU crack down on monopolistic app store controls. Read more. 3. Meta has brick-and-mortar stores in store.

For example, Chinese retail giant JD.com launched its first “unmanned convenience store” in 2017, and has since rolled out line-free technology in its stores in China and Indonesia.

In context, the Open App Markets Act, which targets how companies operate app stores with more than 50 million users, aims to ban app stores from forcing developers to use the stores’ payment systems. The battle with established mobile app stores is brewing on a global level, with Japan, South Korea, and the EU cracking down on monopolistic app store controls.

Telehealth wasn’t the only healthcare service to benefit from pandemic-induced lockdowns and restrictions in 2020. Retail health clinics—health centers located in retail stores—have grown in popularity as a convenient way to access simple health services.