Marketplaces

Shopee, an online marketplace from Singapore, has left Poland. The company launched there just over a year ago. After also canceling operations in France early last year, Shopee is saying goodbye to Europe as a whole.

Amazon plans to close three distribution centers in the United Kingdom, the company’s biggest market in Europe. After investing heavily during the pandemic ecommerce boom, the retail giant is experiencing a dip in demand.

German online fashion giant Zalando has added a new product category to its platform: toys. The new category is already added to the platform’s homepage in all its markets. With this launch, the platform continues to expand its range of products for children.

The selling of pre-owned items is growing in popularity. In 2021, the European recommerce market was worth 75 billion euros. It is expected to grow 60 percent by 2025, to 120 billion euros.

Dutch ecommerce giant Bol.com is cutting approximately 10 percent of its staff. This comes down to 300 jobs. The company needs to save a total of 225 million euros over the next three years. The growth of the online store has come to a halt.

Ecommerce giant Alibaba has launched a new marketplace in Spain. The platform is called Miravia and connects brands and content creators with consumers. It features fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle products.

Vinted, the marketplace for secondhand fashion, has made 118 million euros in losses in 2021. That is a fivefold increase compared to a year before, when the company was only 24 million euros in the red. At the same time, revenues increased from 148 million to 245 million euros.

ChannelEngine, a Dutch marketplace integration platform, has partnered with TikTok Shop. TikTok’s social commerce feature has faced problems in Europe. Partnering with multiple ecommerce companies, including ChannelEngine, is hoped to help.

Beerwulf, the Heineken-owned online beer retailer, has launched its own marketplace in the Netherlands. Now, third party retailers can sell products on its platform. Beerwulf’s new platform will enter the United Kingdom in 2023, followed by Germany, France and Italy.

German antitrust watchdog, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO), has announced that it is widening its investigation into Amazon’s activities in Germany. The renewed investigation will take into account a reformed German competition law, targeting digital giants. The investigation looks into pricing and instruments applied by Amazon to control marketplace sellers.

International marketplace AliExpress has continued its decrease in turnover in Q3 this year. According to the company, this stems from a decrease in orders after the new EU VAT rules came into effect. Overall, the Alibaba group reports a loss of 2,8 billion euros.

Online fashion giant Zalando has discontinued its pre-owned online store Zircle. Customers can still access the category pre-owned in Zalando’s own platform if they want to buy second hand items. As of this week, Zircle is no longer accessible.

Leading ecommerce platform Shopify has shut down its Exchange Marketplace on November 1^st. Merchants who want to sell their Shopify store will now have to use other marketplaces. The app, data and listings have all been deleted and are no longer accessible to merchants.

Online fashion giant Zalando has exceeded 50 million active customers for the first time. Its active customer base grew with 8 percent when compared to a year ago. Additionally, its loyalty program called Plus almost tripled its membership.

Spanish online beauty product store Perfume’s Club is turning its platform into a marketplace. By the end of this year, it wants to incorporate 200,000 products from suppliers and brands. The marketplace is only available in Spain, but will be expanded to other markets.