France

B2B-marketplace Ankorstore has secured 250 million euros. After only two years of operations, the French company is Europe’s latest unicorn with a value over 1,75 billion euros. The platform wants to use the money to develop their existing services and open new offices in Italy and Spain.

Carrefour, the French supermarket group, is partnering with online grocery marketplace Everli to deliver in their home country France. The companies previously launched partnerships in Italy and Poland. Both brands are also looking to cover future international markets together.

Open-source ecommerce solution has been acquired by MBE (Mail Boxes Etc.) Worldwide, an Italian platform providing shipping and fulfillment. Through the acquisition, MBE will strengthen its position in Europe and Latin America, where most of Prestashop's customers are located.

In a joint statement, several French ministers call for a boycott on Wish. The biggest search engines and comparison apps in France should remove Wish from their search results. The group of ministers are calling for this boycott due to the amount of counterfeit products on the marketplace.

While Amazon has reached many successes throughout Europe, the company was unable to reach its target in France last year. Covid-19 measures and local regulations caused setbacks for the company on several levels.

The ecommerce sector in France generated 112.2 billion euros in 2020. Compared to 2019, internet sales grew by 8.5 percent. This growth was not homogenous across all products, as the sales of services were hit hard due to the pandemic.

The enterprise marketplace software as a service platform provider Mirakl, announced that it has raised 468 million euros in a Series E funding round. This increases the company's value to more than 2,92 billion euros. The financing will be used to rapidly expand Mirakl further.

Dutch discount retailer Zeeman is expanding its online presence in Europe. The retail chain currently has an online store in the Netherlands and Belgium, but will now also launch an ecommerce website in France and in an yet unknown market.

The Carrefour Group will acquire a minority stake in Cajoo, a French startup that delivers groceries in under 15 minutes. For Carrefour, the investment is a way to speed up quick commerce in France. Cajoo operates in ten cities across France and has over 100,000 users.

Omnichannel beauty retailer Sephora has signed an agreement to buy Feelunique, an UK online retailer of prestige beauty products. The transaction is expected to complete later this year.

Payment by installment has become increasingly popular in France. It seems that 30 percent of French consumers have already resorted to installment payments.

Carrefour has announced that, across France, it will roll out over 400 automatic lockers for picking up parcels. The locker network is the result of a partnership with Pickup, a subsidiary of the La Poste group.

ManoMano, an online do-it-yourself marketplace from France, has raised 300 million euros in a Series F funding round. The DIY platform wants to use this money to continue its expansion in Europe, particularly in Germany and the United Kingdom.

BigCommerce has announced today it will expand to France, Italy, and the Netherlands. The expansion takes place in the form of a fully localized experience, letting merchants use the platform to manage their store in their local language. Local payment methods and currencies are also included.

French postal service company La Poste has launched a new investment fund for startups that have a positive impact. With La Poste Ventures, the French company wants to anticipate changes in important sectors for the Group and explore new business models.