Cross-channel

Bricks-and-mortar retailers are increasingly being challenged by online retailers. But they won't win the battle if they just join the ecommerce industry. In order to increase market share again, retailers need to combine online and offline sales channels effectively. Here's how.

The ecommerce industry in France could grow by 10 percent this year. Thanks to a growing number of online offers, the arrival of new shoppers and a rise in transactions online retail sales in France could reach 62.4 billion euros at the end of 2015. This prediction was done by the French Ecommerce Federation, FEVAD, on Tuesday.

Payment company Adyen processed over 21 billion euros ($25 billion) in payments transactions in 2014, which is almost an increase of 80% over 2013. At the same time the Dutch company grew by 100% in terms of revenue and by 40% in new customers.

Dutch ecommerce software solution SEOshop today has announced a global partnership with Powa Technologies. As a result of this, online retailers who use the SEOshop software get access to omnichannel sales channels.

Deutsche Post now offers its customers vacation packages. Under the brand name Post Reisen, consumers can find several holiday travel and city tour packages as well as adventure trips and cruises. For this new service, Deutsche Post is working together with Eurotours, an international tourism company.

John Lewis has revealed that its click & Collect service broke records over the Christmas period. In the five weeks to December 27, which included Black Friday and Cyber Monday, over half of John Lewis' sales were picked up via click and collect. But there was also a downside to this period, John Lewis confesses…

Dutch company Adyen, that processes payments for businesses including Google, Facebook and Airbnb, has raised 200 million euros. With the fresh funding, led by General Atlantic and with additional participation from Temasek, Index Ventures and Felicis Ventures, Adyen wants to accelerate the growth of its global payments platform.

Only a minority of 24% of Europeans plan to do their Christmas shopping predominantly at the traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Slightly more than four in ten shoppers however are planning to shop their Christmas presents by using digital channels like web or mobile web. A third of Europeans plan to apply a mix of all.

It’s still two months, but 2015 is near. And this may be a year of other trends than we saw in 2014. Three CEOs of leading ecommerce companies in Europe told us their predictions of what might happen in online shopping next year. They believe the next trends will have the strongest impact on the online retail industry.

One in two Spaniards first look online for products before buying them in a physical store. And for 47% of all Spaniards the price is the most important factor for buying things online, as they think products are cheaper online than in-store.

Pop-up stores are very popular in the United Kingdom, as about 23,400 people  work in nearly 10,000 pop-up shops across the country. Together, this group of retailers contribute 2,6 billion euros to the British economy each year, which is equivalent to 0,6% of total UK retail turnover. And the industry could grow even faster, if there weren’t that much barriers.

Staples has drastically improved the ecommerce experience on their key websites in Europe, including Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. This got combined with a refreshed look and feel of the online storefronts. With the update, omni-channel shopping must be easier for Staples' customers.

Click and collect is getting more and more popular in the United Kingdom. As a matter of fact, there are more customers who pick up their orders in-store in the United Kingdom than there are in the United States.

There’s still a massive lack of multichannel integration in the United Kingdom, as 50% of retailers with stores, still don't allow unwanted goods bought online to be returned to a store. This number hasn't really changed in the last seven years, a new study shows.

The number of cross-channel consumers will increase in the future. By 2018, about 44% of in-store sales will have been influenced by the internet. In the next few years, more people will research products at home or in the store using a sales assistant’s tablet or their own mobile device before they decide to buy something in store.