Amazon-Whole Foods deal puts spotlight on Carrefour's online, hypermart efforts

Paris

CARREFOUR SA, which pioneered the big-box supermarket combining food and general merchandise in the 1960s, has been stepping up efforts to fuse e-commerce and in-store shopping. Amazon.com Inc's US$13.7 billion deal for Whole Foods Market Inc raises the ante for the French retailer.

Carrefour this month named a new chief executive officer, turning to 44-year-old Alexandre Bompard, who has been leading electronics retailer Fnac Darty SA since 2011. His mission, which is taking on additional urgency in the wake of the Amazon deal, is to expand his new employer's online presence while revamping its tired "hypermarkets".