Benelux

Dutch omnichannel retailer has generated revenues worth 1.35 billion euros last year. That's an increase of 160 million compared to the situation in 2017. According to Coolblue, this growth is partly due to the introduction of an English and French website and app.

Swedish furniture store chain Ikea has launched its offical online store for the Luxembourgian market. The launch in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg follows one year after Ikea opened an online store in Belgium.

iDeal, the most popular payment method in the Netherlands, is being used more and more on mobile devices. Currently, seven out of ten iDeal payments are done from a smartphone or tablet. Mobile person-to-person payments are particularly popular.

Dutch online retailer Bol.com reported net consumer online sales worth 2.1 billion euros in 2018. That's an increase of 31.25 percent compared to the situation in 2017, when Bol.com generated net consumer sales worth 1.6 billion euros.

Couriers from PostNL who deliver parcels to customers' homes, will now also accept parcels that need to be returned to an online retailer. By offering this new service, PostNL hopes to the reduce the amount of trips to the supermarket or store, where most customers hand over their returns.

Alipay, the fintech company owned by Alibaba, has obtained an electronic money license in Luxembourg. With this license, Alipay can serve the European market. The Asian payments company is already present with a licensed entity in London, but it can now serve customers across Europe.

Dutch online retailer Bol.com is expanding its network of pick-up points in Belgium. The Ahold Delhaize-owned company will open locations in the supermarkets of Delhaize in Flanders. Consumers in Belgium already had the option to pick up their Bol.com orders at the supermarkets of Albert Heijn.

Dutch food delivery group Takeaway.com has acquired the businesses of Delivery Hero in Germany. The acquisition comprises the Lieferheld, Pizza.de and Foodora brands in Germany and is in return for cash and a equity stake in Takeaway.com.

Bpost and Zalando have experimented with in-home delivery and in-home pickup in Belgium. The two companies wanted to know whether consumers are ready to let parcel couriers in their homes while they are away. The test was successful, but there are still many hurdles to overcome.

The Netherlands are the new number one on the annual B2C E-commerce Index from UN conference UNCTAD. The Dutch have surpassed Luxembourg, which now finds itself on a 19^th position. The top three is completed by Singapore and Switzerland.

Klarna has launched its own financing program for SME retailers in Europe. The new initiative is called Boost and is aimed to further support retailers in accelerating their growth. The company promises the application process will be simple and straightforward.

Bol.com, the major Dutch online retailer, is transforming into a marketplace for third party sellers. Nowadays, there are over 20,000 sellers active on the Bol.com platform and they account for about 40 percent of the company's sales.

Although 92 percent of independent traders in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium are visible online, few of them also sell their products online. Recent research shows that 46 percent of retailers not only sell offline, but also online. Retailers that don't sell online mostly say it's because of a lack of time or knowledge.

Payments companies Klarna and Mollie will work together more intensively in Europe. As of today, the payment solutions from Klarna will be available as standard for the more than 55,000 customers Mollie has in Europe.

Bol.com, the biggest online retailer in the Netherlands, has finally entered the food and drink industry. The ecommerce giant now sells wine, craft beer, champagne, whisk(e)y and other liquors through its website.