Austria

While other flash delivery companies are downsizing or merging, Wolt is expanding its coverage area. With its launch in Vienna and Reykjavik, the Finnish company is now active in 25 countries, almost all of them in Europe. Wolt delivers orders for both restaurants and retailers.

Fashion platform Zalando is going to launch a fashion assistant powered by ChatGPT on the website and app. It will start with a beta version, which will be available to selected customers in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Austria by Spring.

Furniture and houseware retailer Home24 is expanding its marketplace to more European countries. The platform for third-party sellers launched in Germany this summer. By the end of 2022, it will enter Austria, France and Switzerland.

Austrian fulfillment company Byrd has raised 53.07 million euros in a Series C funding round. The company will use the capital injection to offer next-day delivery within Europe. It is currently active in seven European markets and will expand into three more.

The top 10 of Austria's 250 biggest online stores had a successful year in 2020. Together, the top 10 made up almost half of the top 250's total online sales. Though there are new online retailers in the top 10, Amazon.de remains undefeated.

Galaxus, a major online department store from Switzerland, launches in Austria today. With a range of half a million products, it will start out as a wide-range store immediately. It wants to be one of the top 5 online retailers in Austria. The company is now active in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

Refurbed, an online marketplace for refurbished electronics, has raised 45 million euros in a Series B funding round led by Evli Growth Partners and Almaz Capital. With the money, Refurbed wants to expands to three new markets before the end of the year.

Byrd, which offers ecommerce fulfillment, has raised 16 million euros in a Series B funding round. The Austrian company will use the money to further expand in Europe. It's currently active in five European markets, but is set to expand to five more.

Payment and banking service provider FinXP has launched Real Time Payments by FinXP (RTPF). This is an account-to-account payment method that is targeted at online merchants. The Malta-based electronic money institution says its transaction fees are lower than many other popular alternative payment methods.

Online shopping has become increasingly popular in Austria. The corona pandemic has, of course, intensified this trend. Currently, 85 percent of Austrian consumers shop online at least once a month, while 42 percent buy products online at least once a week.

Dutch department store De Bijenkorf is expanding in Europe again. After launching an ecommerce website in France last year, it's now opening an online store in Austria. This marks the fourth foreign market for the Dutch omnichannel retailer.

Amazon is also jumping on the local train. In an effort to offer a more regional shopping experience, Amazon has launched a separate website section where small and medium-sized businesses from Germany and Austria can present their goods on Amazon.

For the first time, ecommerce in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (also known as the DACH region) reached a consolidated volume of more than 100 billion euros. The German-speaking ecommerce markets are now generating more sales than any other language area in Europe.

Sellpy has launched in both the Netherlands and Austria today. The second-hand platform, which is part of H&M Group, is now active in four countries across Europe. Previously, it launched in Sweden and Germany.

Things are looking well for the biggest online shops in Austria. The top 250 can look forward to double-digit growth. And the ten biggest ecommerce websites from Austria account for almost half of the top 250's total online sales.