Europe

Mcommerce is still rapidly growing. Consumers expect to buy online seamlessly while using their smartphone or tablet. But what can we expect in the near future and what challenges lie ahead for online retailers and brands? Worldwide Business Reach held a survey with senior retail, travel and retail banking executives from the top brands in Europe.

Starship, the startup company that got lots of press coverage when it revealed it wants to deliver packages with little robot buggies, is ready to challenge today's distribution giants. It has been running experiments for over six months in Estonia and it thinks it could take over the parcel business.

Magento 2.0 has finally arrived. The long-awaited digital commerce platform is now generally available for download. It's the welcome update to Magento 1 and has been announced four years ago, when the first commit was made to the new ecommerce software solution.

Zalando wants to become an open fashion platform and eventually even the number one tech company in Europe. That's what co-founder Robert Gentz said this week, answering questions about the future of Europe's biggest online fashion retailer.

While most consumers in the US will spend a lot of money on Cyber Monday (30 November), in Europe the absolute peak in online holiday shopping will take place on 7 December. Expectations are consumers in Europe will spend as much on holiday gifts in November and December as they did last year.

Europe is a continent with many differences. Not just in terms of politics, culture and language, but also with regards to ecommerce. While the online retail industry in the UK has matured, it's still upcoming in countries in the Eastern part of the continent. Also, in terms of online spending there are many differences. A new infographic shows which country's consumers spend most online on average.

The good old delivery to a consumer's home or workplace may still be the most important delivery option for most online shoppers in Europe, there are more and more alternative delivery options becoming popular as well. Click-and-collect services, delivery to a local shop or delivery to designated lockers are among the most demanded delivery methods.

Next year, all retailers in the European Union need to prominently state that customers can exercise new dispute resolution rights, provide a link to the EU website explaining these rights, and state whether the store opts in or opts out of the EU scheme. Here's what you should know about this alternative dispute resolution.

Cross-border purchasing is an increasingly significant driver of ecommerce growth in Europe. More than half of the 240 million online consumers across the continent have purchased online from other countries. It's no surprise about four in ten global merchants, acquirers, PSPs and consultants believe that merchants should focus on Europe when considering cross-border ecommerce.

Ecommerce Europe, a pan-European association for online retailers, does not totally agree with the European Commission with regards to the Single Market Strategy it presented today. It welcomes the policy proposals the Commission has made, but the ecommerce association recommends not to create parallel legal frameworks. Ecommerce Europe wants the same rules for online and offline sales.

The most widely used packaging among online shops are cardboard boxes and shipping bags. These are handy and cheap solutions, but are they really? It’s sometimes better to spend some extra money on your packaging, so trucks or ships can be filled more efficiently, while a correctly adjusted packaging can also save you money in the long run. We give you 7 tips to pack your shipments.

An increasing amount of consumers are researching products before they decide to buy them. An important information channel during this process is the internet. In Central and Eastern Europe, comparison shopping engines have gained a key role in the buying decision process during the last couple of years.

Mobile commerce is becoming increasingly important in Europe. The continent even has the highest mobile penetration rate in the world. And online spending on mobile devices in Europe has doubled between 2014 and 2015 and now reaches a share of 25 percent. Let's have a look at the latest trends on mobile in Europe.

Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba is about to open offices in Europe, in an attempt to attract more sellers to the platform. The ecommerce player wants to be the ‘gateway to China' for merchants from Europe and wants to achieve this by opening offices in Italy, France and Germany.

Ecommerce in Europe will grow so strong in the next five years, there are probably 200,000 extra jobs needed in order to process all orders in distribution centers across the continent. Hot spots will be the United Kingdom, Germany and France, but strong growth is also expected in Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.