Launch

The German grocery discounter Aldi is planning to launch an online store in the United Kingdom. If all goes as planned, it would be the first time Aldi is active on the ecommerce front in Europe. Aldi has been offering alcoholic drinks online in Australia since 2013, but the UK launch would be the first real online attempt in Europe.

Crowdfunding platform Symbid today announced the launch of the Funding Network. This is a platform that connects small- and medium-sized enterprises to all types of funding, whether they are traditional or alternative like crowdfunding.

Entrepreneur Peter Jones, who is a panelist on Dragons' Den and American Inventor, has combined several of his companies into one big international ecommerce venture. Brandpath is the new holding company for his firms Data Select, Expansys, DSNS and PJ Media. It's an end-to-end solution which handles every step of the customer journey.

H&M will sell online in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland. The Swedish fashion retailer is making a big ecommerce push as it already invested heavily in its online retail site and took several steps to connect its web and mobile assets with its brick-and-mortar stores.

DHL has launched DHL Parcel in Belgium. With this service, the parcel company wants to mature its B2C network in Belgium. The goal is to have a network of about 1,600 pick up points in stores all over the country and to compete with Bpost, Belgiums biggest parcel company.

Gap and Zalando have today announced a pan-European partnership, which means Gap's clothing and accessories will be available within Europe's largest online fashion website beginning next summer. The partnership will be Gap's first foray into multi-brand retailing in Europe.

H&M will launch online stores in eight different countries in Europe during 2015. The new online markets will be Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia. H&M’s online stores are already available in eleven European countries.

Amazon has launched its Dutch ecommerce site. Starting tomorrow morning 8 AM, customers can order ebooks and Amazon's Kindle ereaders online on Amazon.nl. The site offers more than 20,000 Dutch ebooks, as well as 3 million ebooks in other languages. As a result of the launch of Amazon in the Netherlands, the apps and ereaders from the American retailer are now also available in the Dutch language.

When you think about products that are made in Italy, at first you will probably think of brands like Gucci, Ferrari, Versace and Prada. But there's much, much more. That's why a new ecommerce site has launched. Storytalia wants to promote quality goods from selected brands, so its visitors get to know "the unexpected made in Italy".

Amazon is getting very serious about entering the Dutch market with its online store. More and more publishers state the American ecommerce giant has contacted them to negotiate about selling e-books. But it won't be easy for Jeff Bezos's brainchild as Dutch publishers aren't so eager to join forces with Amazon.

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.

CDON has announced the local version of Nelly.com in Belgium. The online fashion store was already active in the Northern European country, but that was only through an EU-site in English. Now Belgian consumers are served through a dual language site which is adapted for the local market.