Cross-border

IMRG has announced the launch of the UK Cross-Border Trading Passport, an A-Z guide for prospective online retailers who are looking to enter the British ecommerce market. Together with provider of e-fulfilment logistics services Norbert Dentressangle, the industry association for UK e-retail wants to support online merchants with international expansion plans.

Dutch company B2C Europe has introduced a new Click & Collect service, which they called CollectYourParcel. Retailers using this service can give their customers the opportunity to select where they want to pick up their order. Consumers no longer have to rely on one specific parcel company and its pick-up points.

C&A has expanded its multichannel strategy and integration of online and offline sales channel by launching an online store in Switzerland. Good news for local consumers who want to order something from the Dutch fashion retailer online. A broad campaign has started in Switzerland to promote C&A’s latest expansion. Switzerland is the ninth market where C&A runs an online store.

MetaPack today announced the acquisition of ABOL Software, an American provider of multi-carrier shipping software. With the acquisition MetaPack's global delivery services offering gets expanded and opens up a new market for customers who want to drive cross-border sales and improve their international delivery experience.

Wehkamp will launch a Belgian website later this year. The Dutch company is developing a completely new online store for the Belgian market. The product range will consist of some 150,000 item from about 1200 different brands. It’s for the first time ever Wehkamp has gone cross-border.

Klarna today announced plans to expand its services to the United States in early 2015. To drive this expansion, the Swedish ecommerce company has recruited executives from Apple, PayPal and Alliance Data. In less than ten years Klarna grew to become a well-known and very popular payment solution in Europe. Next stop: the USA.

Ikea Group has plans to have an online store up and running in every country where it has stores. This has got to happen within the next few years, after Ikea had a yearlong pause on the online channel. But Ikea still has to solve a big ecommerce problem as it is particularly successful with generating extra sales in its offline stores.

UK Trade & Investment has launched the UKTI e-Exporting Programme which aims to help businesses thrive abroad in some of the world's largest ecommerce markets. The UK Government department, working with businesses based in the UK to ensure their success in international markets, says the programme is the first of its kind in the world.

Wrangler has some big plans for this fall: it will launch an online store in ten European countries as well as launch a campaign with Finnish racing driver Kimi Raikkönen to boost sales. At the end of this year, Wrangler's online has to available in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland. France and Belgium will follow later.

Cnova, the ecommerce division of Groupe Casino, has announced the expansion of its online store Cdiscount.com to Belgium. The leading ecommerce player in France was already active in Colombia, Thailand and Vietnam. Now it expands its services for the first time in Europe by delivering its goods to Belgian consumers.

PrestaShop and eBay have agreed to expand their partnership and business development activities in Europe. After already establishing a partnership in France, Italy, Spain and the UK, the two companies now will partner up in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Merchants using PrestaShop's ecommerce software now can rapidly integrate their online store with the eBay marketplace.

Dutch marketing agency Shop2market expands its international focus, opening an office in London. By adding a UK-based team the company is actively looking across the border, since it also has offices in The Netherlands and France. In the UK, Shop2market has clients such as Made.com, Dune London, Bottica and Cotsworld Outdoor.

Outfittery is expanding its territory in Europe by opening its service in Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg. The personal shopping service is now active in eight European countries, as it has already been launched in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Online payment solutions provider Klarna recently hired its first employee in America and is hoping to launch in the USA early next year, sources told the New York Times. The ambitious move comes after Klarna became available to British shoppers two months ago. Once started in its home country Sweden, Klarna is slowly moving towards global expansion.

The self-appointed ‘biggest online music store in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg’ is planning to spread throughout more countries in Europe. Earlier this year Bax-shop already launched online stores in France (Bax-shop.fr) and Germany (Bax-shop.de). Sweden, Italy, UK and Spain are on the list for next year.