Europe

The European Union has called an end to geoblocking for online shoppers. This means that ecommerce websites in the EU can no longer block visitors from other EU countries. The new law has come into force this week.

Shipping costs are one of the most important factors for ecommerce businesses. If you're an online retailer, it's important to know how much sending a package will cost you. But the average cost of shipping is different in every country. The 2018 Shipping Price Index shows you what the most expensive countries are for shipping a package.

Ecommerce Foundation has acquired the British website Scamadviser, which aims to help online shoppers make a well-informed decision before they buy something online. With the technology behind the website, Ecommerce Foundation wants to further strengthen its global ecommerce trustmark solution.

Amazon Marketplace is growing fast worldwide. In one year's time, there are one million new sellers on the Amazon marketplaces across the globe. Many new sellers are Chinese. In Europe for example, 40 percent of new sellers are based in China.

The traditional brand website is losing importance among online shoppers in Europe. Only 11 percent of European e-shoppers say they go to a brand's website first when they are searching for a product. A significant share of online shoppers, 45 percent, turn to Amazon first.

Ecommerce software provider CS-Cart has released a new edition of its marketplace software, called Multi-Vendor Plus. The solution, aimed at lager marketplace businesses, has several new features for both online marketplace owners and vendors.

H&M and Klarna have entered into a global partnership. Among other services, this partnership will power the H&M Club1 payment program, provide an enhanced omnichannel payment offering for customers and a streamlined post-purchase service in the mobile H&M app.

Amazon is a major online marketplace that's also very dominant in Europe. But do you know the most visited online marketplaces by country? Do you know which eBay-owned marketplace is the leader in the Netherlands? And do you know Schibsted?

Ten years ago, Mister Spex disrupted the traditional optics industry by launching an online platform. Now, with over three million customers and, on average, 15,000 orders per day, the company has become the most successful online optician in Europe. Ecommerce News Europe interviewed Carsten Hennig, head of international at Mister Spex.

The online branches of H&M Group are slowly surpassing the offline stores when it comes to geographical presence. Four of the total of nine H&M brands are even bigger online than they are in the physical world.

Summer is officially over. Welcome, fall! Of course, this month again there are several ecommerce events you can visit. As always, we've made a handy overview for you, so you know when and where an ecommerce event takes place this month in Europe.

Micolet is a new online marketplace that sells second-hand clothing for women. What's interesting about Micolet, is that it enables customers from Europe to shop second-hand clothing from other countries.

Cross-border ecommerce in Europe is very popular. But of course, there are some differences per country. Online shopping across borders is more popular in Ireland for example than in Poland, where 62 percent of consumers shop domestically only. This is shown by the PayPal Cross-Border Consumer Research.

Transactions completed on the smartphone continue to rise globally. Especially in Northern Europe and Japan, mobile transaction now represent over half of online transactions. In Europe, Sweden is the absolute leader with 60 percent.

Paypal introduced PayPal Checkout with Smart Payment Buttons in the US three months ago, to give consumers more choice in how they can pay. Now, the international payments company has launched these payment buttons in Europe.