Europe

Visa will invest in Klarna, one of Europe's fastest growing online payments companies. Today, the two companies announced they have the intention to develop a strategic partnership in the future. Visa and Klarna want to accelerate ecommerce and mcommerce for the benefit of consumers and retailers in Europe.

Ecommerce in Europe is growing exponentially, especially in the southern countries. The online retail industry in Europe is expected to be worth around 602 billion euros at the end of this year, which would mean ecommerce in Europe will grow 14 percent compared to the situation in 2016.

This month, Swedish fashion retailer Chiquelle won the Global E-commerce Award at this year's Global E-commerce Summit. The company's pitch won 52 percent of the audience vote, thereby beating Indian online grocery store Big Basket and Swedish furniture manufacturer Ikea. We interviewed CEO and co-founder Pouya Boland about the award and the latest developments, including expanding to more countries.

Zalando has successfully launched Zalando Fulfillment Solutions, which gives fashion brands access to the company's logistics infrastructure and know-how. Zalando can take over the order fulfillment for partners, from inbound to return.

Klarna has been granted a full banking license by the Swedish financial supervisory authority Finansinspektionen. This means Klarna can operate as a bank, something it wanted for a long time. With a banking license, Klarna kan now broaden its product portfolio for customers and merchants.

In Europe, about 40 percent of the top 10,000 Amazon marketplace sellers makes use of Amazon's fulfillment service, Fulfillment by Amazon. Since January, the share of sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon has grown in all countries where Amazon offers this service.

Amazon has plans to enter the European car dealership industry and is now recruiting staff. That has been confirmed by Christoph Möller, head of Amazon's European auto division. In Italy, a pilot project is running and now the American company is looking to expand to the United Kingdom.

The European Commission wants to set up a website to display the cross-border delivery rates offered by logistics companies. With this new initiative, the EU wants to make cross-border parcel delivery services more transparent and better monitored.

The European Commission has opened an investigation into the distribution agreements and practices of the major American clothing brand and retailer Guess. It wants to find out if the retail company restricted retailers from selling online to customers in other European countries.

Some online stores tend to adjust their prices, so consumers won't go ordering something at a competitor's website. For Ecommerce News Europe, price tracking software provider Prisync looked at how many ecommerce websites in Europe change their prices daily and how high the stock-out ratio is in these countries.

The organization behind the Global E-Commerce Summit has announced the nominees for its annual awards. In two categories, brands and retailers from across Europe compete for the jury's favor. Finalists then need to present their elevator pitch, after which the GES audience will vote to decide which finalists will take home the awards.

Parcel service provider GLS has further expanded its international FlexDeliveryService. By adding new countries, FlexDeliveryService is now available in twelve connected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. With the service, online shippers will be informed of scheduled deliveries and can decide when and where they want to take delivery of the parcels.

Magento Commerce has launched its own multicarrier solution, called Magento Shipping, which automates shipping and fulfillment for online retailers and brands. With the solution, Magento users get access to regional and international carriers to automate their fulfillment.

European logistics service provider Hermes has announced a new international shipping solution, aimed at UK-based sole traders and small and medium-sized enterprises. Online retailers with a Hermes Business Account can now send their products to cross-border shoppers in 23 European countries.

Tommy Hilfiger has launched its first European shopping app. The mobile application is targeted towards seventeen European countries and supports four different languages. One of the things users of the Tommy Hilfiger app can do, is shopping looks directly from the brand's Instagram feed.