Czech Republic

Receiving packages from outside the European Union will become a little easier for customers and retailers in the Czech Republic. Czech Post (Česká pošta) has announced that it will cooperate with online marketplace Wish.

The Czech company Nulisec has launched an online business-to-business marketplace for retailers. The platform started out as project to digitize the local wholesale business center in Prague, but turned into an online wholesale marketplace with thousands of businesses.

Czech online optician Lentiamo is expanding in Europe again. The ecommerce company has now launched its online store in Ireland. From now on, Irish shoppers can order contacts, spectacles and sunglasses in the online Lentiamo shop.

Rohlík, an online supermarket from the Czech Republic, has announced plans to launch in Germany. The expansion was originally planned for 2025. But due to the current high demand for online grocery shopping, the start is brought forward. Rohlík is expected to launch in Munich by the end of this year.

Stripe has expanded its payment services in Europe. The American tech company is now generally available in the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta. The payments company can now support businesses in 29 countries across Europe.

Maternia has launched the online sales of prescription eyeglasses. This was originally planned for the second half of 2020, but due to the current situation caused by the coronavirus the eye care specialist accelerated these expansion plans.

MonkeyData has launched online platform Ecomcovid19.com, which shows the impact coronavirus Covid-19 has on ecommerce in Central and Eastern Europe. The study involves over 1,200 online stores.

Zalando has launched Zalando Lounge in the Czech Republic. The online shopping club for fashion and lifestyle products has arrived just in time for the holidays, starting with Black Friday this week. The Czech Republic is the 14^th market in Europe where Zalando Lounge is active.

Glami, a search engine for fashion, has expanded its presence abroad. The Czech ecommerce company is now also offering its services in Spain. In this Southern European country, Glami partners with local fashion companies, such as Desigual, Merkal and Vero Moda.

More and more ecommerce customers in the Czech Republic are complaining about Czech Post. According to them, the state-owned company doesn't deliver goods at consumers' homes.

Deutsche Post DHL Group and Austrian Post have agreed to work together in last-mile parcel delivery in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Austrian Post's subsidiary In Time will be Deutsche Posts's parcel delivery partner in Slovakia, while the latter's subsidiary PPL CZ will be Austrian Post's delivery partner in the Czech Republic.

Eyewear retailer Lentiamo has expanded to a new market in Europe. The eyecare specialist has opened its online shop in the Netherlands, making this the 16th country where Lentiamo is present. Foreign markets currently account for 85 percent of the company's revenues.

Most growth of a European country's ecommerce market can be expected in the Czech Republic, where it's predicted the online retail industry will grow 16 percent between now and 2021. That's more than in other European markets.

Ecommerce in the Czech Republic was worth 135 billion Czech koruny (or 5.25 billion euros) in 2018. That's twice as much as in 2014. Last year, 90 percent of Czech consumers shopped online at least once.

Lentiamo, the largest online contact lens retailer in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy, wants to become the European market leader for eye care. The online store generated a turnover of 27.3 million euros in 2018 and wants to grow further, among other things with their own solution Solunate and by selling their own line of contact lenses.