France

The online furniture industry in France is hot. Whereas the general ecommerce penetration in this country is still lower than in Germany or the UK, it is the opposite for online furniture. New data shows that 12 percent of sales in the furniture industry are made online, which is significantly more than the 6 or 7 percent achieved elsewhere in Europe.

Strategic investor VDD SAS has acquired Pixmania, the French ecommerce retailer that was previously owned by Mutares. This German company bought Pixmania in 2013 during a repositioning process with the goal to sell the company again when it has shown clear operational improvement. Pixmania is now part of a company that also owns and runs French online store Vente Du Diable.

Ecommerce in France was worth 64.9 billion euros last year and could reach the 70 billion euros milestone this year. Total sales of the online retail industry increased by 14.3 percent last year, compared to sales in 2014, when sales increased by 11 percent compare to the year before.

Ingenico Payment Services' ecommerce division is merging with GlobalCollect, and as a result it will be transforming into Ingenico ePayments. Together, the companies hope to have a wider reach and stronger offering for their customers and partners.

Fitle, a startup from France that aims to simplify the shopping experience, wants to expand its offer to Germany. In September of this year, the virtual fitting room app should be available for consumers in Germany. Originally, the launch there was planned for this month.

Are their differences between shoppers in let's say France or Spain? Yes, of course. The major steps of the customer journey may look similar across all countries, there are certainly a few differences in each country. DPD studied the behavior and expectations of 18-25 year olds in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Poland.

Amazon has placed its Amazon Lockers in a French shopping mall. This is the first time Amazon installs its large metal cabinets on the European mainland. A total of 55 lockers with three different sizes are now located at shopping mall So Oeust in Levallois-Perret, near Paris.

Spanish fashion brand Mango is collaborating with Amazon Europe. It opened a private online store on the popular marketplace. Or actually, it opened several online stores as the assortment is country-specific. In the UK for example, customers can buy all products, while in Germany and France only the men's, kid's and Violeta by Mango lines are offered.

EasySize, a Danish data-driven company that tries to solve the sizing and fitting issue in fashion ecommerce, has entered the Swedish market last month, but is already busy planning other launches. The company has announced it will expand to Europe's three biggest ecommerce markets: the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

La Redoute, one of the largest online fashion retailers in France, has found a new official distributor for its brands in Romania and Bulgaria. Online store Click4Fashion is now the only online store in these two Eastern European countries who can guarantee delivery of La Redoute products that are ordered online in Romania and Bulgaria.

Quotient has announced it acquired Shopmium, a French mobile cash-back app that's similar to ibotta and Checkout51. With the acquisition, Quotient has a new way to reach customers through their mobile devices. And of course, by incorporating Shopmium, Quotient now also has more data in house so it could better personalize and target media and promotions.

Vente-privee.com is known for its online flash sales, but the France-founded retailer is making a name for itself as a company with an excellent customer service. It was awarded "best customer service of the year" in the United Kingdom for the second year in a row. Such awards it previously got in France and Spain as well.

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.

Lots of companies rely on digital marketing, so it's important to understand how customers behave online. A new study shows that although direct traffic is the most popular source of visitors in general, visitors of fashion websites come more often through search engines. This is especially noticeable in the United Kingdom and France.

Auchan, the third largest food retailer in France, has announced it will increase its product lines and range. It does this by launching a new online marketplace. For now, Auchan will focus on two main categories: food, which is the core of its business, and garden articles. The categories 'high-tech',  'baby care', 'furniture' and 'toys' should complement the marketplace by the end of this year.