Zhang Shouchuan, general manager of the North China Region of Metro, told local media that after supplying Olympic catering and hotel providers, the business volume of the store increased by 30% and this is expected to double during the Olympic Games.

Metro opened its first store in Beijing in 2006. Unlike the individual customers of many other foreign retailers such as Carrefour and Wal-Mart, the consumer groups of Metro are professional customers, including small and medium-sized retailers and hotels. Its limitation on its customer source group was once questioned by consumers and experts – however, Metro has established a stable customer base in Beijing in the past two years.

New Media Age originally reported in September that Sky was in talks with etail specialists (New Media Age 4 September) to launch a service. The service, provided by Digital Window, allows visitors to compare over 3.5m products from high street retailers including Comet, Woolworths and Next. Users then go through to the retailers’ sites to buy.

The site will offer targeted product recommendations to visitors as they move through its portal. The move into online shopping comes as Sky launches a Christmas site, sponsored by Marks & Spencer, which includes TV listings the period, games and gift ideas.

Sky recently added new sites to its portfolio including Sky Motoring, Sky Travel and Sky’s entertainment portal. Andy Jonesco, MD of Sky Online Business Unit, said, “Sky Shopping offers a fantastic online retail experience made even richer and more relevant by targeting products by site editorial.

The launch of the Christmas hub also shows our agility in creating bespoke seasonal sites which can harness the rich and diverse editorial from elsewhere on the portal.”

Digital Window also powers shopping offerings for Metro and The Sun.

After rated among the world’s top 250 retailers in 2008, Chinese retailers, including Gome, Bailian Group, Suning, and Dashang, were again entered on the list this year, with their average ratings up 71 places.

Published by one of the world’s largest accounting firms Deloitte and the authoritative U.S. retail magazine Stores, the list provided the 2009 edition of the top 250 retailers in the world. According to the list, the worldwide retail industry was affected by the global financial crisis, with the impact on the United States, Britain, and Japan being the most obvious. But retail markets in Russia, South Korea, and China still had good performances, with two Russian retailers and four Chinese retailers climbing rapidly in the list.

Statistics showed that four Chinese retailers were included in the top 250 retailers in 2008. Apart from the Shanghai-based Bailian Group which sat at the 101 place, the other three, Gome, Suning, and Dalian Dashang Group, were all out of the top 200.

In the 2009 edition, Chinese electronics retailer Gome was up 155 places from 218th to the 63rd; Chinese electronics retailer Suning up 63 places from 216th to 152nd; Shanghai Bailian Group up 10 places to the 91st; and Dalian Dashang Group up 57 places to 167th.

In addition, the U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart still held the first place in the list, followed by French Carrefour, and the in third to the fifth places were Tesco from Britain, Metro from Germany, and Home Depot from the United States.