Germany

Inditex, the major clothing retail group from Spain, is now charging a fixed fee for online returns. The owner of brands such as Zara, Pull & Bear and Bershka is implementing this change in 30 countries. It wants to motivate customers to return items in brick-and-mortar stores.

Octopia Fulfillment, a logistics service provider from France, has announced that it will open new warehouses in the coming months. The company will launch warehouses in the UK and Germany, as an addition to its warehouses that are currently active in France and Spain. The expansion will further solidify the company's logistics network.

Brenger, the Dutch scaleup for sustainable delivery, launches in West Germany. After a pilot in North Rhine-Westphalia last year, Brenger is now available for all western regions. The delivery network expects to execute 5000 transports in Germany in 2022.

Since the war in Ukraine started, online fashion sales in Germany fell 9 percent. Online interior design purchases, which is known as a stable category, also slowed down. Overall, though, ecommerce sales grew 8 percent in the first quarter.

Popular German online pet supply store Zooplus has increased its total sales to 2.09 billion euros in 2021. This is a 16 percent growth when compared to a year before. The company lost market share to Fressnapf, but expects to increase sales to 2.3 billion euros in this year.

German fashion platform About You is launching a new digital fashion platform called Hypewear. In doing so, the company wants to provide the mainstream with fashion NFTs. Upon registration, new customers will receive a free fashion NFT.

Fulfillment startup Warehousing1 has raised more than 10 million euros in seed capital. The logistics company wants to use the money to double its employees. In addition, the Berlin-based business will further develop their fulfillment service.

German fashion retailer About You has released its preliminary Q4 and full-year results. It was able to grow its revenue between 48.3 and 50.5 percent when compared to a year before. However, the branch is also suffering millions in losses because of growth investments.

H&M has started trials of its new marketplace model in Germany and Sweden. Online shoppers can now find items from third-party brands in the section of the website called 'H&M with Friends'. If successful, the model will be extended to other markets.

Ecommerce fashion giant Zalando has surpassed the 10 billion euro revenue mark. It reports a total revenue of 10.4 billion euros in 2021. This was a 29.7 percent growth when compared to the year before. The company wants to reach more than 30 billion euros in GMV by 2025.

Coolblue, the Dutch electronics retailer, made a revenue of 2,3 billion euros in 2021. That is 18 percent more than the year before. The profits turned out lower in the past year. This is due to investments, according to Coolblue.

Last year, Germany, the UK, France and Italy generated 60 percent of the total European ecommerce revenue. The UK is currently the leader in ecommerce in Europe, even after Brexit. However, Germany is expected to take over that place by 2025.

Ecommerce software provider Shopware has announced that it has raised 87.54 million euros in growth capital. The capital injection will be used to accelerate Shopware's product innovation and to expand into new markets. The investment comes from global investment firm Carlyle and PayPal.

Ecommerce giant Amazon has reached a sales worth of 31.6 billion euros in Germany during the past year. This is a growth of almost 6 billion euros when compared to the year before. The company grew in its other markets as well, but not as strong as in Germany.

AO, the online electrical retailer, is considering leaving the German market. The company from the United Kingdom launched there in 2014 but is struggling due to fierce competition, increasing costs and supply chain issues.