C&A, a leading fashion retailer in Europe, it boosting its focus on the ecommerce business. The company has launched a new EU shop, which has led to the fact this retailer now also delivers to customers in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.

Online optician Mister Spex continues to expand its multichannel approach across Europe and now offers its partner optician program also in Sweden. The Scandinavian country is the fifth market in Europe where customers have access to services as free eye tests and eyewear adjustments through partnering opticians.

Made.com has raised 40 million pounds, a little more than 45 million euros, of equity in its latest round of funding. The furniture retailer wants to use this money to boost its growth and to further expand its online and offline business across Europe.

Picnic, a Dutch supermarket that only operates online, will expands it business to Germany. The company launched a pilot project in the Dusseldorf region several months ago and it with great success. Now, Picnic has decided that starting next month, it will deliver groceries to all consumers in this pilot area.

Fashion retailer Zara has announced plans to roll out an augmented reality experience across 120 stores worldwide. The app can also be used by online shoppers, who will be able to hover their smartphone over a package delivered from the Zara website.

Swiss Post has acquired the Swiss startup Notime, which provides bicycle courier services. The acquisition should help Swiss Post with gaining more ground in the fast-growing market of same-day deliveries and fast, flexible deliveries in urban areas.

Members of the European Parliament have adopted a proposal to make the cross-border parcel delivery market in Europe more transparent and competitive. The European Union will implement new rules, which should lead to lower delivery costs for online consumers.

Issues with stock levels are a major factor that affects the consumer's decision to shop online. In the United Kingdom, more than half of consumers immediately turn to a competitor if the item they want is out of stock.

When it comes to paying, German consumers are rather conservative when they are shopping online. Four in ten Germans prefer to pay on account. The second most popular payment method is PayPal, favored by almost one in three online shoppers in Germany.

The ecommerce industry in the Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) was worth 209,6 billion Swedish kronor, which corresponds to over 20.6 billion euros, last year. Almost forty percent of the total Nordic ecommerce revenue was generated in Sweden.

Online retailers could sell more to consumers who shop from their smartphones, if they would offer a better shopping experience via the mobile app. Especially in the United Kingdom, the mobile shopping apps could really use an upgrade.

The ecommerce in the Netherlands was worth 22.5 billion euros in 2017. This is an increasement of 13 percent when compared to the situation one year before. The Dutch made a total of 201 million online purchases last year, which is 17 percent more than in 2016.

Coolblue, a major omnichannel retailer from the Netherlands, saw its total revenues grow to 1.2 billion euros last year. That's an increase of 38 percent compared to the year before. The company's net profit increased slightly, from 8.9 million euros to 9.1 million euros.

Amazon has confirmed it has plans to launch an online grocery service in France. Since the launch of Amazon Fresh in the US in 2016, the American company is focusing more and more on selling food online.

Last Monday, it was time for the Shop-Award 2018, an award show organized by Internet World Business. This event praises the best online stores in Germany and other German-speaking countries. This year's edition saw ecommerce companies such as About You and Mymuesli go home with the coveted trophies.