Cross-border

Fashionchick.nl, a Dutch ecommerce portal where consumers can search, find and compare clothing, has expanded its services to Belgium. After launching dedicated websites in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Austria, Belgium is the fifth country Fashionchick has expanded to.

Internet platform StyleLounge, which specializes in online price comparisons for fashion and lifestyle products, is expanding into other European countries. The Hamburg-based search engine is now also offering its services in France and the Netherlands.

The European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development is supporting a Dutch project that wants to highlight local products from all over Europe. The pilot project will launch in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and French Guiana. The multilingual web shop is called More for Local and offers typical local products.

Iyzico has raised a Series B funding of 16.5 million Turkish liras, or 5.74 million euros. The Turkish company, which provides a platform to let ecommerce sites and other apps easily accept online payments, has raised more than 8.5 million euros in total since it was founded three years ago.

The European Commission has released its Digital Single Market Strategy to bring down barriers and unlock online opportunities across the continent. One way to achieve this, is by having more efficient and affordable parcel delivery. In order to improve the situation, the Commission wants feedback from consumers, companies and associations. It launched an online public consultation which will close on 29th July.

If you want to grow with your ecommerce business, you should start selling abroad. And if you do, don't focus on one country, but instead focus on several countries at once. That's what Nelly.com's founder Jarno Vanhatapio had to say during the eFashion event in the Netherlands.

On average, 25.7% of a company’s total sales value last year came from online sales. The highest proportion of sales value that comes from online can be found at companies in Northern and Central Europe. Also, for companies that sell online, an average of 85.4% of their online sales came from their own country, whereas 10.3% were from other EU countries.

Nimber, the Norwegian service which enables people to "ship anything with someone going that way anyway", is now also available in the United Kingdom. The Brits now can use the peer-to-peer service and send something from one place to another with the help of other people.

Ecommerce company Stylight is branching out further in the European market and is now available in 14 countries. As of this week, Stylight is there for customers in Belgium and Norway. The fashion discovery website thinks opening up two new ecommerce sites is 'just another logical step of their expansion strategy'.

In Ireland, a statistics goes around that around 75% of the money consumers in Ireland spend online goes to overseas companies. This may well be the case, but the opposite figure is also interesting. On average, 33 percent of revenue from Irish ecommerce sites comes from outside the country.

Ecommerce Europe wants the delivery and ecommerce sector in Europe to come together even more so e-logistics barriers can be tackled. The organization that represents 16 national ecommerce associations across the continent has published its vision on how to come to a better integrated European market for parcel delivery.

Otto, a subsidiary of Otto Group, has set out a multi-store strategy and this seems to pay off. Recently, with the launch of Privileg.de it now has six "sub stores" and together this niche portal generated net sales worth of 70 million euros. No wonder, one of these niches, Schlafwelt.de will now also launch in Austria and Switzerland.

The yearly Global Retail Ecommerce Index shows that in Europe the UK, Germany and France are still the most attractive ecommerce countries to set ground in. However, the score is highly influenced by the online market size. Smaller countries such as Belgium, Denmark and Spain have less impact but do increase fast in score.

Verifone, an American provider of technology that enables electronic payment transactions, has today announced it will open an office in Brussels, Belgium. From here it wants to offer platforms and solutions for secure online payments to customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Fyndiq, the popular bargain marketplace from Sweden, will expand to Germany this year. The online company is currently looking for German-speaking people to fill the dozens of job vacancies they have. It's no secret Fyndiq wants to spread its wings. After a funding round last year the company said it was looking to take its business to new markets, starting in Germany, the UK and Poland.