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.

Despite the rapid rise of Chinese platforms, Amazon remains immensely popular in the United Kingdom. The company has managed to maintain the number of monthly active users since the beginning of this year. Shein is growing, but Temu saw a decline in the number of users.

Despite a drop in revenue, Zalando remains the largest online retailer in Switzerland. The local online department store Galaxus, now the new number 2, saw its revenue increase significantly last year. Temu is the only newcomer in the top 10.

Within four months after its launch in France, Temu has managed to achieve a larger market share in terms of value than its competitor Shein. It has not yet surpassed AliExpress. Additionally, 96 percent of Temu customers in the last 90 days were repeat customers.