German online marketplace Crowdfox announced yesterday the figures of its growth in the business-to-business industry. Sales of its B2B platform have doubled in the last quarter. This confirms the company's high ambitions at the beginning of this year as well as the strategic decision to further expand its B2B business.

European retail organization ERA Europe has joined EMOTA, the European Ecommerce and Omni-channel Trade Association. Normally, national ecommerce associations join EMOTA, the addition of ERA Europe should be seen more as a widening of EMOTA's voice in Brussels.

Penny, a German discount supermarket chain, has launched its first online store. The discount grocery store enables consumers to order select non-food items online, as well as 30 different types of wine, sparkling wine and other spirits.

During the Deliver #2 event last week, the online platform Deliver in Europe has been officially launched. This platform on cross-border parcel delivery services is a new EU-funded initiative that will help small online retailers by informing them about the range of parcel delivery service providers they could use to ship cross border.

Ecommerce in Hungary was worth 427 billion Hungarian forints, or 1.38 billion euros in 2016. The online retail industry in this Eastern European country now accounts for over 5 percent of total domestic retail sales. In Hungary, more people are shopping online while the average basket value also increases.

Card fraud losses in Europe hit approximately 1.8 billion euros in 2016. The United Kingdom saw the highest losses. The value lost to fraud was worth 646 million euros in 2015, but increased by 9 percent to about 703 million euros last year. Together with France, the UK accounts for almost three-quarters of card fraud across Europe.

German online fashion platform Zalando and Danish fashion retailer Bestseller United have entered into a joint venture agreement for co-owning FashionTrade.com, a B2B online fashion wholesale marketplace. Bestseller was the sole owner, but Zalando now enters into the joint venture with a capital increase at FashionTrade.

Strelsson, Switzerland's biggest menswear manufacturer, opened an online shop where consumers won't need to pay money to get a fashion item. In order to be the owner of a trench coat or pair of jeans, consumers need to collect a certain amount of Facebook likes on a shared post.

Visa will invest in Klarna, one of Europe's fastest growing online payments companies. Today, the two companies announced they have the intention to develop a strategic partnership in the future. Visa and Klarna want to accelerate ecommerce and mcommerce for the benefit of consumers and retailers in Europe.

Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, has launched its own one-hour delivery service, called Tesco Now. This app-based delivery service is meant to compete directly with Amazon, which delivers products within one hour using its Amazon Prime Now service.

Ecommerce in Europe is growing exponentially, especially in the southern countries. The online retail industry in Europe is expected to be worth around 602 billion euros at the end of this year, which would mean ecommerce in Europe will grow 14 percent compared to the situation in 2016.

This month, Swedish fashion retailer Chiquelle won the Global E-commerce Award at this year's Global E-commerce Summit. The company's pitch won 52 percent of the audience vote, thereby beating Indian online grocery store Big Basket and Swedish furniture manufacturer Ikea. We interviewed CEO and co-founder Pouya Boland about the award and the latest developments, including expanding to more countries.

Zur Rose Group, one of the leading pure play online pharmacies in Europe, has launched its initial public offering. The company wants to use the funds raised primarily to accelerate its growth strategy and to further expand its position as pure play ecommerce pharmacy in Europe.

The American online payment platform Stripe has expanded its services in Europe by launching in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. With Stripe, companies can easily accept online payments on their websites or via a mobile application.

Zalando has successfully launched Zalando Fulfillment Solutions, which gives fashion brands access to the company's logistics infrastructure and know-how. Zalando can take over the order fulfillment for partners, from inbound to return.