Austria

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.

Schuhe24, which sells shoes online from over 2,000 connected retailers in Germany, is partnering with Neckermann in Austria. The cooperation should benefit both Neckermann and the retailers connected to the Schuhe24 Group, which also sells clothing, bags, jewelry, and more.

The top 100 retailers in Austria generated sales of 38.7 billion euros in 2018. The ranking of Austria's largest retailers is led by six companies that have exceeded the billion euros mark: Rewe, Spar, Hofer, Lidl, XXXL Group and Media Saturn. Together, they generate 32 percent of all retail sales in Austria.

The German retail platform Shopdaheim is a success. Four weeks after the launch, almost 10.000 dealer addresses from 41 different industries are listed. Every day, clicks in the six-figure range generated through the platform.

CCC Group, a major footwear retail company from Poland, has launched its online shop CCC.eu in Hungary and Austria. In Hungary, the group already operates two ecommerce platforms, while in Austria, this will be the group's first ecommerce platform.

Online optician Mister Spex now offers an online eye test, since the coronavirus has made it impossible in many European countries to visit an optician. It says it's the first optician to offer customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland the possibility of an individual eye test via an online application.