Ceconomy, the owner of MediaMarkt and Saturn, has had a strong quarter. Its own online sales increased by almost 10 percent. Additionally, MediaMarkt is growing thanks to external online sales partners: the trading volume on its marketplace has more than doubled in a year.

The environmental impact of retail, particularly the online sales of clothing, seems to be consistently underestimated. Between 22 to 44 percent of all returned clothing is never sold to a secondary consumer. These unused returned items have a big impact on the environment.

Vinted has rolled back a proposed update on shipping options after protests from sellers in the United Kingdom. The recommerce marketplace wanted to offer consumers more choices in receiving products, but merchants struggled with this increased freedom.

The Turkish government is implementing drastic tax changes to reduce online consumer orders from foreign online stores. Import duties are set to rise significantly, while the exemption threshold will be lowered. Additionally, an extra tax will be introduced for certain product categories.

As of September 2^nd, TikTok Shop sellers based in the United Kingdom will need to pay higher commission fees. The fees are being raised from 5 to 9 percent. However, if sellers reach a target number of TikTok Live and shoppable videos, they can reduce these fees.

Online fashion platform Zalando increased its revenue with 3.4 percent in the second quarter, compared to that period last year, to 2.6 billion euros. It also improved its profitability again. As a result, the company has confirmed its expectations for the full financial year.

Next reflects on a successful half year. The British retailer has revised its profit expectations upwards. While pure players Asos and Boohoo, also from the United Kingdom, struggle to maintain their online sales, Next continues to grow digitally, especially abroad.

German SMEs on Amazon have seen their international sales grow by 10 percent over the past year. Together, they earned 5.5 billion euros in cross-border sales. "Exporting via Amazon is the easiest growth opportunity for German SMEs”, headlines the American company.

Boohoo is launching an online marketplace, which is reportedly going live this week. Boohoo Brands will feature up to 200 labels in fashion, lifestyle, and beauty. It will be powered by Mirakl’s ecommerce software.

The European Parliament has made some progress in its proposal to simplify VAT rules for ecommerce imports. It wants to remove the threshold of 150 euros for import duties. Negotiations are still ongoing, but it has now been decided that the proposed changes will come into effect by March 2028.

TikTok Shop seemed set to launch in many European countries this summer, but owner ByteDance put the brakes on expansion. The shopping feature is reportedly set to launch in Ireland and Spain in October, with other European countries following next year.

Ikea has opened its hundredth mobile pick-up point at Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. On this occasion, the Swedish furniture retailer announced plans to double this number. Almost 40 percent of Ikea's UK sales now come from the online channel.

Of the 47 biggest online stores in Switzerland, only 17 percent offer free shipping this year. A majority of 64 percent offers free shipping above a threshold value. Another 19 percent always charges for delivering goods. These data are approximately the same as those in 2023.

One in three (34 percent) of online purchases in the first half of this year in Spain were placed on Chinese platforms, such as Alibaba, Temu or Shein. The market share (in terms of order frequency) of these platforms is far higher in Spain than in other European countries. However, Spanish consumers spent a lot less on these platforms than consumers from other countries.

Online marketplace Bol has launched several updates this month. One of the updates is a new advertising option that allows sellers to highlight their brand and assortment in search results. There are also changes to the partner platform and review policy.