Benelux

Two Dutch companies have joined forces to explore the use of drones to deliver packages to smart, internet-connected mailboxes. This way, there's no mailman needed and the customer doesn't need to be at home at the time of delivery.

The online Dutch fashion store Winkelstraat.nl has launched an international website, which at the moment delivers to 24 countries across Europe. The English-written website Boutique24.com delivers the high-end fashion items to customers in one to three business days.

Dutch food-order company Takeaway.com has sold its British website to its competitor Just Eat. The news follows just a few weeks after Takeaway.com acquired the Benelux businesses from Just Eat. Both companies couldn't get a grip of the local market: Takeaway.com had trouble conquering the UK, while its presence was too strong in the Netherlands and Belgium for Just Eat to compete there.

During the last two years, 15.9 percent of the households in the Netherlands have bought their groceries online at least once. Almost half of these households bought their foods and drinks online more than once. This segment accounted for 80 percent of the total online revenue generated by supermarkets.

A robotic arm from the Delft University of Technology has won a bot competition organized by Amazon. The Dutch machine beat two teams from Japan and five from the US, countries better known for their robotics search.

It seems like Dutch retailers have embraced Google Shopping as an important advertising channel. Last year, this industry more than tripled the budget spend on Google Shopping. The share of paid search advertising on Google Shopping increased from 6 percent in 2014 to 23 percent last year.

Dutch shoe manufacturer Floris van Bommel was already active in Germany for several years now, but since last February it also has an online store in Germany. To grow further in the German ecommerce market, Floris van Bommel has now partnered with online marketing company Fingerspitzengefühl.

Lidl has opened an online store in the Netherlands. Dutch consumers are now able to order all kinds of non-food products, such as fashion, tools, home accessories and  kitchen tools & gadgets via Lidl-shop.nl.  The German discount supermarket wants to expand its online assortment in stages.

Dutch omnichannel retailer Coolblue is almost ready to enter more European markets. The company is already active in Belgium, where it will open more physical stores, but is working on expanding to other countries. "The last hurdle is multilingualism."

Dutch consumers increasingly buy their products and services online. Last year, 71 percent of the Dutch shopped online, which makes the Netherlands the fifth country in the European Union when it comes to the share of consumers shopping online. But the Dutch rarely shop cross-border.

Bax-shop, an online music store from the Netherlands, has expanded its presence in Europe. The retailer, which will change its name to Bax Music, has opened an online store in Italy, so consumers there can order articles for sound, stage and studio online. The Italian ecommerce website is the seventh online music store from Bax-shop in Europe.

Vente-Exclusive.com has won the BeCommerce Overall Award in Belgium, so it may call itself the best online store of Belgium, at least for one year. The online retailer was one of 21 winners during the BeCommerce Awards event in Tervuren yesterday.

Canadian retail business group The Hudson's Bay Company plans to open 20 new stores in the Netherlands over the next 24 months. The first stores are expected to launch in the summer of 2017 and are part of the company's all-channel retail model, so ecommerce websites will also be launched.

Online payment method iDeal from the Netherlands registered the billionth transaction that happened via its system. The milestone was reached during King's Day in the Netherlands, the national holiday that marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander. The online payment system has a market share of 56 percent and is being used since 2005.

Caliroots, a Swedish online retailer of streetwear and sneakers, has launched a tailored ecommerce website for the Dutch market. According to Caliroots, the Netherlands has been on the company's list of top 10 markets for a while and now they are launching Caliroots.nl, in Dutch and with the popular local payment method iDeal.