Europe

Today, the European Parliament has approved rules that put an end to geoblocking on ecommerce websites in Europe. As a result, online shoppers in Europe will have wider cross-border access to products, hotel bookings, car rentals or concert tickets. Consumers may no longer be blocked or re-routed to a local website. But geoblocking in Europe still won't be fully implemented, critics emphasize.

Almost three in four online shoppers in Europe have made a purchase from a retailer within Europe. And over half of European shoppers ordered something from an online retailer that's located outside the continent. Cross-border shoppers purchase at foreign stores, mostly because of better prices and because they are searching for a specific brand or product that isn't available in their home country.

Chinese online retailer JD.com is ready to take on Amazon in Europe. The company will first launchs its ecommerce platform and delivery services in France next year. After that, the United Kingdom and Germany are next.

It's time to visit some ecommerce events again! February is not a very busy month in terms of conferences, seminars and events about online retail, but it still offers some interesting ones! In case you want to, we've made a handy overview for you, so you know when and where an ecommerce event takes place this month in Europe.

Shop Apotheke Europe saw its consolidated revenue increase by 60 percent to 284 million euros at the end of last year. This is partly because of a major increase in the number of active customers, but also because of the acquisition of Europa Apotheek in September.

Startupbootcamp Commerce, an accelerator program which focuses on ecommerce, has selected ten international startups to participate in the international accelerator. Among these companies are eight startups from Europe that will go through the three-month program.

About one in six European companies that employ at least ten persons sold products and/or services via a website or apps last year. Among those companies, almost all of them sold to their own country, while less than half sold to customers located in other EU member states. Over a quarter of online-selling companies sold to non-EU customers.

The finance ministers of the European Union have agreed on simplified tax rules for online retailers. So, instead of registering for VAT in each EU country, online retailers in the future will be able to file a single tax return for the entire European Union. This should reduce costs for ecommerce companies and increase the tax revenues of EU countries.

So far this year, 363.439 new sellers joined Amazon marketplaces in Europe. Among new sellers on all marketplaces that Amazon has worldwide, 36.3 percent registered on Amazon in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France or Spain.

The European Union will make an end to unjustified geoblocking for consumers who want to buy products or services online within the EU. According to the union, these new rules will boost ecommerce for the benefit of consumers and businesses.

Around 14 percent of all online shoppers in Europe purchase fresh food and beverages online. And over half of European e-shoppers shopped online at foreign websites this year. This is shown in the latest E-shopper Barometer report from DPDgroup.

The pan-European ecommerce association EMOTA has welcomed another member. The Italian ecommerce association AICEL, which is short for Associazione Italiana Commercio Elettronico, is the latest to join the club.

42 percent of consumers from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden have used click & collect in the past twelve months. And one in four Europeans who used click & collect bought another product in-store while they were picking up their online order.

The Netherlands and Italy will be the fastest-growing ecommerce markets in Europe during the next five years. In both countries, the online retail industry will increase by 14 percent every year until 2021. Turkey is another fast-growing ecommerce industry in Europe, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 13 percent.

Photoslurp, a Spanish visual commerce platform, just received an investment of 750,000 euros. The funding round was led by Spanish VC firm Inveready Technology Investment Group and joined by Bankinter VC, Caixa Capital Risc and ICF. Photoslurp wants to use this money to further expand in Europe.