Cross-border

Abercrombie & Fitch has entered into a wholesale agreement with Zalando, Europe's largest online fashion retailer. Starting this week, Zalando will offer Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Abercrombie Kids products through its online stores in the 15 European countries it serves.

The online Dutch fashion store Winkelstraat.nl has launched an international website, which at the moment delivers to 24 countries across Europe. The English-written website Boutique24.com delivers the high-end fashion items to customers in one to three business days.

It looks like digital payments company Square is coming to Europe after all. The US company, founded by Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey, has posted three new job openings in Europe, one of which is based in Dublin and the other two in London.

UK retailer Waitrose is the first supermarket to sell its own-label products through the British Corner Shop. This online shop sells all kinds of British foods and drinks to customers around the world. Due to the partnership with Waitrose, the British Corner Shop expands its range with over 2,000 Waitrose product lines.

Viadurini is an Italian ecommerce company that sells designer & trendy furniture from Milan online. It has announced it will open an online store in the United States. The company is already available in many European countries. We interviewed Gianni Gozzi about the online furniture store.

The Brits have voted for Brexit, which means the United Kingdom will withdraw from the European Union. The whole process of withdrawal will probably take two years, but it's certain Brexit will affect the European ecommerce industry. Here's how.

Dutch shoe manufacturer Floris van Bommel was already active in Germany for several years now, but since last February it also has an online store in Germany. To grow further in the German ecommerce market, Floris van Bommel has now partnered with online marketing company Fingerspitzengefühl.

Dutch omnichannel retailer Coolblue is almost ready to enter more European markets. The company is already active in Belgium, where it will open more physical stores, but is working on expanding to other countries. "The last hurdle is multilingualism."

Dutch consumers increasingly buy their products and services online. Last year, 71 percent of the Dutch shopped online, which makes the Netherlands the fifth country in the European Union when it comes to the share of consumers shopping online. But the Dutch rarely shop cross-border.

Allegro has opened its doors in Germany. The Polish ecommerce leader made a quite entrance in its neighboring country. The ecommerce service should help Polish sellers with marketing their products in Germany, Europe's third largest ecommerce country.

Bax-shop, an online music store from the Netherlands, has expanded its presence in Europe. The retailer, which will change its name to Bax Music, has opened an online store in Italy, so consumers there can order articles for sound, stage and studio online. The Italian ecommerce website is the seventh online music store from Bax-shop in Europe.

In April, performance-marketing agency Artics Internet Solutions gave a presentation during the forum RIF+KIB 2016. It was about marketing in the cross-border segment. CEO Alexander Simanovsky talked about the specific nature of the Russian market, as well as the things that are most important to consider when launching a product on the Russian market.

Online merchants in Europe still face barriers when they are selling abroad. Legal fragmentation, taxation systems, logistics and distribution are among the most difficult barriers to overcome for online merchants who are trying to expand their business cross-border in Europe.

Clerk.io, a Danish SaaS startup that helps online shops increase sales and retention, is expanding rapidly throughout Europe. The software company has already established itself in Europe, primarily in the UK, the Netherlands and Italy, but wants to expand to Germany and France as well.

Global-e, an Israeli ecommerce startup that enables retailers to go cross-border, has secured a 20 million dollar (€17.5 million) investment led by Red Dot Capital Partners. The cross-border company wants to use this capital to support and accelerate its growth and expansion in Europe.