Executive Summary

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” discusses how Walmart and JD.com are strengthening their partnership, including through the launch of a new shopping festival to be held on August 8.
• Off-price retailers have become a bright spot amid the doom and gloom of widespread closures of brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping’s growing dominance. T.J. Maxx, Ross and others are expanding at a time when legacy department stores are shuttering locations.
• PayPal has continued its strategy of expanding its mobile presence with its announcement of a tie-up with Baidu. The arrangement will enable Baidu’s 100 million mobile wallet users to make payments to PayPal’s 17 million merchants through the Baidu service.
• Brazil is expected to see a 229% increase in the number of entirely digital bank accounts by the end of 2017, recent research suggests. There are currently 1 million online bank accounts in the country and the number is expected to reach 3.3 million by year-end.