Benelux

Welkoop was named ‘DHL Best Online Store of the Year 2023’ at the annual Dutch Shopping Awards. The shop, which sells garden and pet products, also took first place in the ‘Pet’ category. Online seller of sleeping products, Cloudpillo, was the winner of the PayPal Best Starting Shop Award.

Last year, Dutch consumers spent 33.3 billion euros online. This is a 9 percent growth compared to 2021. The number of purchases actually decreased by 5 percent, but the average amount per purchase increased by 15 percent.

German bicycle e-tailer Bike24 is launching in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The company already had localized online shops for Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Spain. Bike24 says the company now reaches 70 percent of the European market.

Dutch electronics store Coolblue made a profit loss of 6,2 million euros in 2022. This is a stark contrast with profits of over 39 million euros the year before. The company generated 2,35 billion euros of revenue. a small year-on-year growth of 0,6 percent.

Online fashion marketplace Secret Sales has reached a 70 percent year-on-year growth in sales in 2022. This was largely driven by the company’s international expansion last year. It expects to maintain a growth of 85 percent this year.

Dutch marketplace Bol.com’s sales have slightly lowered in 2022. In the last quarter, online sales decreased nearly 3 percent compared to an 7,8 percent increase the year before. In all of 2022, gross trading volume lowered nearly 2 percent.

Belgian ecommerce associations BeCommerce and SafeShops.be have announced a merger today. The new organization focuses on boosting Belgian ecommerce. Greet Dekocker, who assumes day-to-day management of the new association, informed Ecommerce News by phone that the new name and branding are still being developed.

The Benelux-based Maxeda DIY Group, a group of DIY retailers, is launching its own marketplace. It is the first DIY marketplace within the Benelux. At the launch, the marketplace already offers 10,000 new products on top of the current product assortment.

Online revenue in the Netherlands has decreased 7.6 percent in 2022 when compared to a year earlier. Pure online stores generated revenues of 5.8 percent lower. Multichannel sellers saw their turnover decrease by 9.6 percent.

Dutch startup VonWood, a trade platform for wood, has raised 2.7 million euros. The company aims to connect wood buyers and lumbers more directly online, while offering more product transparency. With the funds, VonWood wants to accelerate growth.

The Dutch government wants online liquor stores to stop offering ‘buy now, pay later’ as a payment method. If they do not find alternative payment methods, the government will come up with legal measures. The payment method lowers the threshold to buy alcohol.

Dutch ecommerce giant Bol.com is cutting approximately 10 percent of its staff. This comes down to 300 jobs. The company needs to save a total of 225 million euros over the next three years. The growth of the online store has come to a halt.

German supermarket Lidl has opened its European distribution center in Roosendaal, in the Netherlands. Eventually, all of Lidl’s online orders in Europe will be fulfilled through this center. In order to do this, it will gradually expand its work force and inventory.

As lockdowns were lifted earlier this year, the amount of online sales has dropped in the Netherlands. The total decline in online revenue is expected to reach 3 percent in 2022. However, online turnover growth will reach between 5 and 10 percent next year as a result of inflation.

ChannelEngine, a Dutch marketplace integration platform, has partnered with TikTok Shop. TikTok’s social commerce feature has faced problems in Europe. Partnering with multiple ecommerce companies, including ChannelEngine, is hoped to help.