Offline store

eBay is launching a new shopping and selling experience in Germany called eBay Lokal. Commercial sellers can gain greater visibility through eBay Lokal and offer consumers the opportunity to buy from them locally online.

Inditex, the major clothing retail group from Spain, is now charging a fixed fee for online returns. The owner of brands such as Zara, Pull & Bear and Bershka is implementing this change in 30 countries. It wants to motivate customers to return items in brick-and-mortar stores.

Dutch omnichannel retailer Coolblue will open its first physical store in Germany at the end of this year. The white goods and electronics retailer will also open five more stores in the Netherlands and Belgium this year.

Last year, 6.4 percent of all ecommerce revenue in Germany was generated via click & collect solutions in physical stores. But these revenue was not equally distributed across different product categories. Consumer electronics represent the biggest click & collect segment, with a revenue share of 27 percent.

UTP Group, a UK payment solution company, now offers its ecommerce customers the ability to receive fund settlement within hours instead of days. It claims to be the first to offer same-day funding online and in stores.

Carrefour has launched a new initiative in France that is aimed at supporting small and local producers. At the same time, it's answering to a growing demand among shoppers for goods produced nearby.

Conrad Electronic has made the decision to let the leases of its two branches in Switzerland expire in 2021. This means the consumer electronics retailer will close its physical stores. But Conrad won't be leaving Switzerland completely: it now focuses on ecommerce and b2b.

Worten has closed 17 physical stores in Spain and will instead focus more on its online sales channel, after adding continuous losses since 1998. The Portuguese electronics retailer has entered into dissolution several times and, according to its auditor PwC, hasn't provided all the information required to guarantee a viability plan.

Inditex, which owns eight brands including Zara and Pull&Bear, will close up to 1,200 stores. Instead, the fashion giant has unveiled a digital platform while it wants to further boost its digital transformation.

Zalando has announced the expansion of its Connected Retail program to three new markets in Europe. Retailers based in Poland, Sweden and Spain will be able to connect their inventory to the online Zalando platform.

A new online platform, called #supportyourlocal, has been launched to support local business owners. The non-profit project urges consumers to buy vouchers, so that business owners who need to close their doors, can still generate some turnover.

Google has acquired Pointy, a startup that helps physical retailers with showcasing their products online. Pointy has been a partner of Google for years, for the search engine's "See what's in store" section that is shown on business profiles on Google search.

Bose will close all of its stores in Europe, as well as in North America, Australia and Japan. The audio brand chose for this solution after it saw a 'dramatic shift' to online shopping in certain regions across the globe.

Online white goods retailer Tretti is investing in physical stores across Sweden. In addition to the previously announced flagship store in Stockholm, Tretti will also open physical stores in Helsingborg, Halmstad and Umeå.

Online retailer Otto and shopping center operator ECE have formed joint venture Stocksquare to link offline and online shopping. The goal is to boost offline sales at ECE shopping centers and to expand Otto's online assortment.