Europe

Online furniture and home goods retailer Wayfair has reported a net revenue of 12.2 billion euros in 2021. In 2020, the platform made a revenue of 12.6 billion euros, illustrating that sales have decreased slightly. However, it expects to grow strongly in the coming years. It wants to surpass the 100 billion euro revenue mark by 2030.

In order to meet expectations of customers, B2B manufacturers are planning to accelerate their digital transformation this year. At least 83 percent of them will increase their budget for investments into digital business strategies. In doing so, they hope to tap into new revenue streams.

Last year, Germany, the UK, France and Italy generated 60 percent of the total European ecommerce revenue. The UK is currently the leader in ecommerce in Europe, even after Brexit. However, Germany is expected to take over that place by 2025.

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.