Germany

Things aren't looking good for online retailer Lesara. The insolvent ecommerce player is searching for investors and it almost got one interested to take over. But at the last minute, that investor dropped out. Now, the inventory will soon be on sale and there are several parties interested in acquiring Lesara's logistics center.

Ecommerce in Germany has increased by 11.4 percent last year. At the end of 2018 the online retail industry was worth 65.10 billion euros. And that's mostly because of the strong development of online marketplaces.

Customers in Germany are insufficiently informed about the price of a product when they buy something using an Amazon Dash button. And this is in violation of the law, the Higher Regional Court of Munich revealed.

Online retailer Otto says it's the first ecommerce company in Germany that enables instant payments for its customers. Thanks to a cooperation with Hanseatic Bank, Otto claims it's able to offer a better service, like faster delivery, now customers can transfer money instantly.

Micolet, the second-hand fashion marketplace from Spain, is expanding in Europe again. The company is busy making the sales process available to customers in Germany. Right now, only customers in Spain can sell their fashion items through Micolet.

One in eight online purchases in Germany is sent back to the online retailer. Currently, 12 percent of products ordered online won't stay with the customer. Two years ago, this share was still at 10 percent.

Dutch food delivery group Takeaway.com has acquired the businesses of Delivery Hero in Germany. The acquisition comprises the Lieferheld, Pizza.de and Foodora brands in Germany and is in return for cash and a equity stake in Takeaway.com.

Swedish furniture and hardware store Clas Ohlson is changing its business model. The retailer becomes online only in the United Kingdom and Germany and thus shuts down all its physical stores. Well, not all, as the store in Reading will remain open.

The new startup Panda.black wants to make way for German retailers and manufacturers in China. The president of ecommerce association Bundesverband Onlinehandel is behind this platform that wants to build a digital bridge between German dealers and the Chinese ecommerce market.

Fiverr.com has launched in Germany. The online marketplace for creative and digital services now has a localized website with country-specific functions for Germans. This launch marks the first European branch of the Israeli tech company.

The Bundeskartellamt, whose task it is to protect competition in Germany, will examine how Amazon operates in Germany. The main concern is that Amazon is an online retailer itself, but it also has opened its German marketplace for external vendors. Is Amazon abusing its market position?

Klarna has launched its own financing program for SME retailers in Europe. The new initiative is called Boost and is aimed to further support retailers in accelerating their growth. The company promises the application process will be simple and straightforward.

German startup Lesara has filed for insolvency at its headquarters in Berlin. For many, this comes as a surprise, as the online store grew very fast and just opened a new logistics center. Also, the fashion and lifestyle retailer raised tens of millions of euros in funding over the last five years.

Ten leading global online grocery markets are predicted to generate combined sales of almost 200 billion euros, at an annual rate of 20 percent, by 2023. And four of them are from Europe. The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain are predicted to have the highest online grocery market sizes in Europe.

Galaxus, a major online department store form Switzerland, has launched in Germany. Galaxus Deutschland will start as an electronics retailer, but in the next few months, it will become a wide-range online store. In the medium term, Galaxus even wants to be one of the top 5 ecommerce players in Germany.