Cross-border

You would expect online consumers in the United Kingdom could buy anything they want at local online stores, but still 48% of have made an online purchase with a retailer based outside the country. And it's not only because of availability, the price also plays its part.

Allyouneed.com is expanding its services in Europe. The German online grocery retailer already delivered foods and drinks in Austria, but is now ready for the next step. Allyouneed.com will deliver to customers in France, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Boohoo has launched its website in Germany, making this the fourth European country where it has an online store. The German website follows the launch of Boohoo in Spain back in May and the launch of Boohoo in France nine months ago. The launch of Boohoo in Germany will be accompanied by a marketing campaign.

About 240 million consumers in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Norway and Finland bought goods online to a value of almost 170 billion euros last year. More than half of ecommerce consumers have ordered online from abroad at some time during 2013.

Hema is expanding its online presence in Europe by selling items via marketplaces Amazon and La Redoute. This is Hema's way to test the water in countries like Spain and the United Kingdom. By selling via popular marketplaces Hema can get foreign shoppers acquainted with the Dutch company.

Etsy, the website where you can buy and sell handmade or vintage products, has made its biggest acquisition, by buying the Paris-based website A Little Market, an online marketplace where also handmade goods can be bought and sold. Etsy is more and more expanding internationally and its strategy is to go deeper into local markets.

The number of overseas deliveries that are being dispatched from the United Kingdom could double within three years, a new study shows. And the total numbers of orders dispatched by retailers in the UK may reaches the 1 billion milestone mark next year.

MonDéfilé.com, which means 'my fashion catwalk' in English, has launched its international website. Now consumers from all around the world can order exclusive clothes and accessories from young designers they voted on. The international launch has involved the introduction of international shipping, a bilingual website and an exclusive English-written blog.

Klarna has taken another step toward expanding its presence in Europe by launching its services in the United Kingdom. The Swedish ecommerce company will invest 125 million euros in product development and roll-out, Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski confirmed at the London Technology Week. Klarna will have London as its base in the UK.

Kiala, which sends parcels to over 11,700 convenient collection points throughout Western Europe, has enabled merchants to get their goods delivered to other countries where Kiala is active. From now one, an online merchant sending parcels using Kiala can also send these parcels to the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Spain.

Big European merchants that sell online across borders in three or more European nations are growing almost twice as fast as the 500 biggest European online stores as a whole. The combined sales of these 27 online merchants that go cross-border totaled 45.74 billion euros, up 29% from 35.42 billion euros in 2012. This outpaces the 17% growth for the Europe 500 as a whole.

Swiss underwear brand Calida is continuing its expansion strategy by opening an online store in Italy. Later this year, its offering will also be extended to France. The Swiss lingerie manufacturer already has online stores in Switzerland, Germany and Liechtenstein.

About 14% of orders that were placed on online stores in the Netherlands during the first three months of 2014 came from foreign customers. This percentage has almost doubled compared to the first quarter of last year, when it was less than 8%. So, the share of foreign orders on Dutch online stores is rising, however it's still low compared to other European countries.

Ecommerce Europe wants an one-stop-shop for better policy coordination for online sales issues. The association for online retailers would love to see an integrated perspective on key business factors in the European ecommerce industry. The topics this new institution should cover the most are consumer trust, security, privacy, online payments, e-logistics and sustainability.

PierreRiu.com launched only two weeks ago and the luxury fashion online store has already launched in Poland, Italy and Germany. And it's not like inhabitants from other European countries have to suffer as PierreRiu.com operates in all European Union countries. The buy & sell platform enables users to buy and sell luxury clothes and accessories online.