Retail & Consumer Goods

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.

Austin – October 28, 2026 -- About 84% of outdoor recreation consumers say product price increases would affect their future purchase decisions, up from roughly 74% in 2023, according to Rollick's 2026 Future of Buying Study. The survey drew on 17,764 recent shoppers across 31 RV, marine and powersports brands.

Buying cycles lengthen across RV, marine and powersports

In RV, 45% of shoppers now take four months or longer to complete a purchase, a 12-percentage-point increase since 2023. In marine, 40% take four months or more. In powersports, 51% spend more than one month shopping before buying.

Rollick concludes that brands and dealers need long-term lead nurture strategies to stay engaged through the extended decision period.

PORTLAND, Maine – October 28, 2026 -- mainelove's Perfectly Still Water has won Double Gold in the Non-Carbonated Water category at the inaugural 2026 Water Choice Awards, presented by The Daily Pour, as the Maine-sourced brand expands into Florida and adds hotel placements.

Blind tasting of 49 entries produces five Double Gold winners in still water

The competition evaluated 49 entries across seven categories. Judges tasted the waters blind from coded glasses without visible branding. mainelove was one of five Double Gold recipients in the Non-Carbonated Water category, and the brand says it is among the few U.S. water brands to earn the distinction.

Judges described the water as smooth and crisp, with a subtle sweetness and no bitter notes. One called the taste "so smooth," while others cited a refreshing, cooling quality and a creamy texture.

Global – October 28, 2026 -- The global intelligent vending machine market is projected to grow from $11 billion in 2025 to more than $53 billion by 2034, a compound annual growth rate of 18% from 2026 to 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. Rising use of cashless payments and wider adoption of IoT and connected technologies drive the expansion.

Smart modules replace multi-vendor hardware integration in vending machine design

Smart modules combine high-performance computing with wireless connectivity in a single unit. Traditional modules require extensive development of external hardware and software, and manufacturers must work with multiple vendors to integrate different technologies. Telit Cinterion, which sells smart modules, says the embedded design reduces physical footprint, shortens development cycles and cuts time to market.

United States – – October 27, 2026 -- Brilliant Earth has moved more than 100 showroom operations users off a legacy BI platform and onto Posit dashboards running natively inside Snowflake, cutting software license costs while widening self-serve access to governed data.

The luxury jewelry retailer already reprices its diamond inventory daily through an automated model running in Snowflake. That capability prompted the company to adopt the platform. Weekly data science reports captured only moments in time, so Brilliant Earth set out to give decision-makers direct access to the same data and models.

Posit Team runs as a Snowflake Native App on Snowpark Container Services

Brilliant Earth installed Posit Team inside Snowflake instead of maintaining a separate server with its own security protocols. Snowflake roles, user permissions and table access now govern Posit as well.

United States – October 23, 2026 -- Procter & Gamble's Febreze Unstopables Touch Fabric Spray is the first P&G product to incorporate materials based on the company's space-based research, sponsored by the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory. P&G household products are used every day by more than 4 billion people worldwide, more than half the Earth's population.

Touch-activated scent release is the first commercial output of P&G's ISS work

The latest Febreze formulation features touch-activated scent release technology. It contains microscopic capsules of perfume suspended in a liquid that, according to P&G researcher Matt Lynch, looks and feels like water. The capsules release a small burst of fragrance when a hand is rubbed on a sprayed surface or someone walks over it, countering unpleasant odors.

Stockholm – October 23, 2026 -- Nordic design and lifestyle brand ARKET will open its fifth store in Sweden in late 2026, adding a third location in its home city of Stockholm at Biblioteksgatan 11.

New Biblioteksgatan store joins four existing Swedish locations

The Biblioteksgatan outlet will sit alongside ARKET's current Stockholm stores on Drottninggatan and Götgatan. The brand also operates stores in Malmö and Gothenburg, so the opening brings its Swedish network to five.

Assortment centres on ready-to-wear, accessories and interior objects

The new store will carry a curated selection of ready-to-wear and accessories for women and men, plus interior objects. ARKET's broader format covers collections for women, men, children and the home, as well as an in-store seasonal vegetarian café. The source does not say whether the Biblioteksgatan store will include the café or children's ranges.