Emma, a German retailer that sells mattresses online, is the fastest-growing startup in Europe. Or at least in the countries The Next Web describes as the continent’s six hottest startup ecosystems: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden. Continue reading
Adyen, a major Dutch company that processes payments for companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Spotify and Netflix, confirmed it plans to list its shares publicly in Amsterdam. The company announced it will go public on the Euronext stock market next month. Continue reading
Payments company Square has launched Stand in the United Kingdom. This is a hardware solution to turn an iPad into a point of sale system, so retailers can accept payments and run their business operations from their countertop. The launch of Stand in the UK follows one year after Square itself launched in this European country. Continue reading
Another city in Europe has decided to launch its own online marketplace. This time it’s the city of Lüneberg, a town in the German state of Lower Saxony, that started the ecommerce initiative. Customers can browse through the offer of local retailers and get the goods delivered to their homes for free. Continue reading
There are some strong rumors that Lidl is looking to move into ecommerce, after the discounter created a holding company called Lidl Digital Logistics in the United Kingdom. According to the Daily Mail, this shows that Lidl is entering the grocery delivery market. Continue reading
Klarna has acquired Shop.co, a small German startup that wants to simplify online shopping by offering a universal shopping cart. There’s little known about the deal, but according to Klarna it’s mostly about the acquisition of intellectual property and taking over a mere Shop.co employees. Continue reading
PayPal has signed an agreement to acquire iZettle, a Swedish fintech company that’s aimed at small businesses. PayPal will pay 2.2 billion euros for iZettle, which makes it the biggest acquisition of PayPal ever. Continue reading
Europe’s leading consumer electronics retailers MediaMarktSaturn and Fnac Darty will join forces to set up a European retail alliance. This should help both parties with offering exclusive products and services to customers and achieving efficiency in the partnership with their suppliers. The European Retail Alliance will be open to other retailers. Continue reading
Five online retailers from Belgium have created a new shopping event, called Belgian Friday. According to the organizers, this day is meant as a local answer to Black Friday. Belgian Friday will take place this Friday and the discounts last until the Monday after Pentecost, which is an official holiday in many European countries. Continue reading
Last year, 22 percent of Brits shopped online once a week, but that percentage has increased to 26 percent now. Also, 68 percent of the British population shop online at least once a month, while 3 percent do this every day. Continue reading