Europe

From 20 to 22 June, the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center in London will be all bout ecommerce. Because that's where and when eTail Europe will take place. The organization expects this to be their best-attended event ever and with developments such as Brexit, there is of course lots to talk about.

March was quite busy in terms of ecommerce events in Europe. But in April, there are also lots of online retail conferences and exhibitions you can visit across the continent. We've made a handy overview for you, so you know when and where an ecommerce event takes place this month in Europe.

H&M is launching a new retail brand, called Arket, which features both Arket's own products and non-H&M brands. The Arket products are priced slightly higher than that of the core H&M brand. Arket stores will be opened in London, Brussels, Copenhagen and Munich, while online stores of the brand will launch in 18 European countries.

Europeans are quite active in the ecommerce market. One in four Europeans with internet access shopped online at least once a week last year, while over 60 percent shopped online once a month. And 6 percent of Europeans shop online every day.

Splitit enables consumers to pay for online purchases with interest-free monthly payments. The fintech startups lets consumers use their existing credit cards and divide the total cost up to 12 payments. Ecommerce News talked to the company, which is now aiming most of the marketing efforts towards Europe.

Just Cargo, a Dutch startup that calls itself the Uber for courier services, wants to expand in Europe. With franchisees in other countries, the company wants to link companies and drivers across Europe to pick up and deliver parcels.

A new study on omnichannel in the European fashion industry shows that social media, online customer loyalty and store localization are the most common omni-channel solutions. The least common features are online order of in-store inventory with in-store pick-up by the customer, same-day delivery and shipping and in-store reservation of inventory for in-store consumer purchases.

Packhelp, an online platform which enables retailers to create custom-branded packaging, has launched in Europe. Now online retailers from all across the continent can design and order their custom cardboard boxes without getting in touch with a graphic designer or printer.

Sellers on Amazon in Europe can choose from five different marketplaces to sell from. The most popular Amazon marketplace in Europe is Amazon UK, where most European sellers have listed their products. An analysis of Amazon in Europe shows other interesting findings.

The PayPal community of customers, which consists of consumers, merchants and charities, has exceeded 200 million active accounts. Also, 50 million PayPal consumers have opted in to use One Touch, the company's quick payment system.

After major investor Kinnevik sold half of its stake in Rocket Internet, shares in the German ecommerce company fell 14 percent on Thursday. The day before, the Swedish investor sold a 6.6 percent stake in Rocket Internet.

Amazon has announced its plans to create 15,000 new full-time jobs in Europe this year. It would mean the European-based workforce of the US retail giant will grow from over 50,000 today to more than 65,000 by the end of the year.

More than 133,000 new merchants began selling on Shopify last year. The ecommerce software of Shopify is now being used by 377,500 merchants across the globe. With the Shopify-plugin for WordPress launched last year, more and more retailers in Europe are using this ecommerce software to sell their products online.

If consumers in Europe have a problem with something they've bought online, they can use the Online Dispute Resolution of the European Commission to try to reach an out-of-court settlement. Most complaints came from Germany, but per capita the United Kingdom is one of the biggest complainers about online purchases.

The holiday season is over, so it's finally time to attend some interesting ecommerce events in Europe! Again we've made a handy overview for you, so you know when and where an ecommerce event takes place this month in Europe.