The United Kingdom

As of this week, buying and selling second hand clothes is free of fees on eBay in the United Kingdom. By doing so, it wants to encourage more consumers to engage in recommerce, enabling a circular economy for fashion. It is also launching new features to make it easier to find pre-owned items.

Alibaba is making targeted efforts to attract European SMEs. According to the company itself, it has been successful: the number of SME buyers from Germany has increased by 14 percent in the past six months. Additionally, more and more British SMEs are using Alibaba.com as their procurement platform.

Amazon Business promotes business procurement from SMEs with the introduction of a new feature in the United Kingdom. This feature enables procurement professionals to make targeted purchases from sellers with fewer than 250 employees and less than 50 million euros in revenue.

Amazon has infringed on British trademark rights by promoting identical branded products from another party to British shoppers on its US website. The ruling could have implications for other trademark holders and licensees in the United Kingdom and Europe.

At least 79 percent of fashion retailers are currently charging for returns in the United Kingdom. While paid returns are now common in the fashion industry, within the total ecommerce market a majority is still offering free returns (52 percent).

The British government has issued an urgent plea to Amazon to unfreeze seller funds. Kevin Hollinrake, the enterprise minister, expressed deep concern after a flood of complaints. “I would urge you to look into this issue further as a matter of urgency", he wrote to Amazon.

Many British Amazon merchants are at a loss after the platform froze payments, leading to numerous questions and complaints from traders. Some of them claim to be in financial straits due to the situation.

For the allocation of the Buy Box, Amazon in the United Kingdom promises not to differentiate between online sellers who use or do not use Prime-related fulfillment services. “Eligibility for Prime and the Prime badge will not be a criterion when determining the Featured Offer.”

Online retailers are grappling with 'the biggest-ever wave of January returns', according to returns provider ZigZag. The percentages are much higher than a year ago, even though shoppers have to pay for returns more often.

Luxury online fashion retailer Matches Fashion has been acquired by Frasers Group. The deal was worth around 60 million euros. With this acquisition, the Group wants to strengthen its luxury offering.

Wholesale marketplace Qogita has raised 80 million euros in a funding round. The platform wants to use the capital injection for product development and category expansion. The company has now raised a total of 119 million euros.

Ecommerce fulfillment company Huboo has raised 33.7 million euros (29 million British pounds) in a new funding round. This brings the company’s total amount raised to 141.8 million euros (122 million British pounds).

Demand from European customers has propelled second-hand shopping on Amazon into a billion euros business. The trend is likely to persist as shoppers seek to save money and make more sustainable choices.

Chinese online fashion store Shein has recently strengthened its portfolio by acquiring the British fashion brand Missguided. The exact financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed. The label will be added to Shein's own online platform.

Amazon announced plans to use drones while delivering packages to customers in the United Kingdom and Italy starting next year, with services set to commence at undisclosed locations before the end of 2024. Selected customers will be able to have items weighing up to approximately 2 kilograms delivered to their gardens by a drone.