Europe

Ecommerce fashion giant Zalando is now selling products from Apple and Beats. The brands will be sold in five European countries. It is part of Zalando’s strategy to become a lifestyle platform.

H&M is bouncing back from the pandemic: in 2021 the fashion retailer made 1,36 billion euros in pre-tax profits - a sixfold increase compared to the year before. Their online branch remains strong, though, growing 30 percent in the past year.

Ecommerce feed manager Channable has raised 55 million euros. The Dutch scale up will use the funds for product development and further global expansion, eyeing markets in North-America and Europe.

Online high-end fashion retailer Yoox has announced the launch of its first marketplace. The marketplace will intregrate small businesses and brands, which will also enhance Yoox's assortment. The marketplace is launched in Europe and will expand across the US, North Africa, Japan and the Middle East next year.

According to research by the European Commission almost two thirds of online shops and platforms triggered doubts about the reliability of consumer reviews. In 144 out of the 223 websites checked, authorities couldn't confirm that businesses were doing enough to ensure authentic reviews.

Payment methods are an integral component to the success of ecommerce businesses. Knowing which payment methods are preferred by customers can increase conversion for online stores. Genome, a Lithuania-based financial platform, made a list of the current trends and most popular methods in Europe.

Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus, ecommerce has grown significantly. An indicator of that growth is the number of online stores on platforms like Shopify. Between March 2020 and January 2022, the number of stores on Shopify grew with 201.53 percent.

Online payment method PayPal is well-known within Europe, but the usage of PayPal in online stores varies between countries. In Italy, 93 percent of online stores offer PayPal as a payment method. On the other end of the spectrum, PayPal is only offered in 1 percent of Serbian online stores.

SwipBox, the parcel locker company from Denmark, has had a good year. The number of lockers has tripled to 10 thousand. The amount of customers has also doubled in 2021, thanks to the pandemic boom in ecommerce as well as increased sales of their smart lockers, the company says.

A large majority of small and medium-sized ecommerce businesses have seen their sales numbers rise in 2021. Up to 1 in 5 companies had a sales growth of at least 40 percent. However, these companies also faced several challenges.

With the strong growth in ecommerce across Europe, also comes a strong growth in marketplaces. European online marketplaces are estimated to value around 120 to 150 billion euros. But the markets for online marketplaces differ per country.

Amazon Pay, which lets customers use their Amazon information to shop on third-party sites, advises online retailers to set up Alexa Skills for their store. This could make checkout easier for customers by allowing them to use voice commands to complete their order.

The strongest ecommerce markets in Europe have remained on the top. However, consumers in Denmark have spent the most online in the past year. These findings are published in the newest report by Direct Link.

European online retailer VidaXL has rebranded its dropshipping service to dropshippingXL. Since doing so, the company has grown its product range and logistics facilities. DropshippingXL now has plans to expand to more countries within Europe.

Ecommerce Europe and EuroCommerce, the biggest branch organizations for European online retail, call on the European Union to issue a unified VAT registration. Companies that sell cross-border can already register for taxes via one EU-country. However, this does not apply to those stocking goods in multiple countries, the organizations say.