What: Falabella.com will begin selling IKEA products at the end of August, making it the only marketplace in the Americas and Europe authorized to carry the Swedish brand.

Why it is important: The deal shows IKEA loosening its historically tight grip on external sales channels for a marketplace that is already scaling fast — Falabella's own seller base grew sales 36% year-on-year, making this a strong bet on marketplace momentum rather than a one-off concession.

Starting at the end of August, IKEA products are available for purchase on Falabella's website and app in Chile, making Falabella.com the only marketplace in the Americas and Europe that IKEA has authorized to sell its products — a status shared only with Shopee in Indonesia and Tmall and JD.com in China.

The partnership strengthens Falabella.com's home offering with one of the world's best-known furnishing brands, giving customers of a platform that draws over 70 million monthly visits and 5.5 million active app users an easier way to compare home products and access IKEA's pricing, design and functionality. The first phase covers storage, decoration, dining, bedroom, desk and living-room categories.

IKEA will continue to handle order preparation, shipping, logistics and after-sales service to preserve its own service standards, while Falabella acts as the sales channel. Customers can also collect online purchases in-store through Click & Collect across Falabella's Chilean network. The model, developed locally in Chile, will be extended to Colombia based on results from this first stage.

IADS Notes:  The IKEA deal lands on a marketplace that was already scaling quickly: at Falabella's Seller Day in May 2026, more than 500 brands and 20,000 active sellers were already trading on falabella.com, with seller-driven sales up 36% year-on-year (Press Release, May 2026). That growth showed up in the same month's results, when Falabella Group reported a 22% rise in quarterly profit to US$253 million and credited digital channels and third-party sellers for a 21% increase in GMV (the group's Q1 2026 results). Falabella is not alone in leaning on marketplace partners for growth: Debenhams' renewed partnership with Mirakl gave more than 15,000 brands new advertising and fulfilment tools and helped lift its own marketplace GMV by 34% (Fashion Network, November 2025). The announcement also comes just as Francisco Irarrázaval, quoted above as Corporate General Manager of Falabella Retail, prepares to step down at the end of September, handing the region-wide role to Tomás Platovsky (La Tercera, September 2026).

IKEA arrives at Falabella.com in Chile

What: Falabella has opened its new Linares store, offering apparel, footwear and a range of other categories alongside Click & Collect access to the full falabella.com catalogue.

Why it is important: The opening confirms Falabella's continued rollout of small-format, digitally-connected stores into secondary Chilean cities, following the same model used in Angol and Viña del Mar.

Falabella has officially opened its store in Linares, with regional and municipal authorities, trade associations, local institutions and media in attendance, consolidating the company's presence in one of the Maule Region's main cities. Located at Independencia 596, two blocks from the Plaza de Armas, the store spans over 4,300 square metres of retail and operational space and is expected to create 95 jobs. General Manager Tomás Platovsky described the opening as a long-term investment aimed at bringing Falabella's physical and digital offerings closer to Linares families, while Mayor Mario Meza welcomed the investment for the jobs and economic dynamism it brings to the city.
The store focuses on clothing and footwear for women, men and children, alongside technology, audio, personal care, appliances, perfumery, accessories, underwear, housewares and textiles. Customers also have full access to the falabella.com catalogue through Click & Collect, connecting the store to Falabella's digital offer.
The opening includes a new educational partnership: Pedro Aguirre Cerda School joins Falabella's 57-year-old Haciendo Escuela programme, welcomed by principal Richard Harrison. Linares is the second of three planned southern Chile openings this year, following Angol and preceding Coyhaique, as Falabella continues expanding its physical footprint and omnichannel strategy across the country.

IADS Notes: The Linares opening extends a rollout Falabella had already set in motion: the store is explicitly framed as the second of three southern Chile openings, following the Angol location that opened in July 2026 with a similar small-format assortment paired with Click & Collect access to the full falabella.com catalogue (Press Release, July 2026). That pattern of pairing physical expansion with digital fulfilment and local job creation was also evident in the Viña del Mar flagship, which opened with 254 direct employees, most of them local women, and its own Haciendo Escuela school partnership (Fashion Network, November 2025). Both openings sit within a broader capital allocation cycle: Falabella's $650 million investment plan for 2025 earmarked $450 million specifically for store openings and shopping-centre transformations across Chile, Peru and Mexico, positioning this kind of regional store rollout as a sustained strategic priority rather than an isolated initiative (Perú Retail, December 2024).

Falabella opens a new store in Linares, Chile

What:  John Lewis Partnership is recruiting 10,400 seasonal staff across John Lewis, Waitrose and its distribution network for the 2026 Christmas period.

Why it is important: The scaled-back hiring total — down from last year's record 13,700 seasonal recruits — signals a more cautious approach to peak trading, even as the retailer doubles down on youth and inclusion commitments.

John Lewis Partnership is recruiting 10,400 seasonal employees across John Lewis and Waitrose stores, distribution centres and supply chain operations in Britain ahead of the "golden quarter." John Lewis's 36 stores will add 2,600 roles, while Waitrose's 320 branches account for 6,000 positions; a further 1,800 roles sit in distribution and supply chain. The Partnership said it welcomes candidates of all ages, though seasonal roles have proven especially popular with under-25s, who have accounted for almost 75% of past Christmas cohorts.

Care-experienced young people are expected to take 100 of the roles, part of John Lewis's stated aim to reach those facing the highest barriers to work; ONS data showed youth NEET figures exceeding 1 million between January and March 2026, since easing to 981,000 for the quarter to 30 June. Seasonal pay starts at £13 an hour (£14.55 in London), rising to £13.25 (£14.80 in London) after 30 days, alongside training and flexible working options.

Chief people officer Helen Webb said the roles offer young people a stepping stone into long-term careers, and that guaranteed interviews for care-experienced candidates help break down barriers to employment.

IADS Notes: This year's 10,400 Christmas vacancies mark a step down from the record 13,700 seasonal roles John Lewis Partnership recruited for last year's golden quarter, a hiring drive that coincided with the appointment of Helen Webb as chief people officer (Drapers, October 2025), and it follows a first half in which the retailer had already committed to hiring 13,000 staff for peak trading while reinstating staff bonuses despite a widened operating loss (Drapers, September 2025). The emphasis on under-25s and guaranteed roles for care-experienced young people extends the Partnership's Building Happier Futures programme, under which it pledged a further 1,000 roles for care-experienced young people by 2030 across John Lewis and Waitrose shops, offices and warehouses (Drapers, June 2026). The £13-£13.25 hourly starting rates sit within a broader wave of shop-floor pay increases across UK retail, following comparable rises at John Lewis, M&S, Tesco and Asda that accompanied Selfridges' own 6% pay rise earlier this year (Drapers, April 2026). The 1,800 roles earmarked for distribution centres and supply chain also come against a backdrop of consolidation in John Lewis's logistics network, after the retailer closed its long-serving Blakelands distribution centre in favour of automation-led fulfilment at Magna Park, redeploying the majority of affected staff (Drapers, May 2026).

John Lewis to hire 10,400 Christmas employees, less than last year