Germany

Two major German department store chains, Kaufhof and Karstadt, will form a joint venture after Hudson's Bay sells half of its European business to Signa Holding. The latter will hold only a little bit more than half of the entity and will manage the operating business.

After twelve years of operating in Germany and other European countries, online marketplace DaWanda will cease all business operations on the 30th of August. The marketplace also came to an agreement with Etsy, so current shop owners can continue selling their handmade products.

What do 93 percent of the largest online retailers in Germany have in common? They all have a digital corporate magazine. In Germany, 28 of the 30 biggest online stores have at least one company magazine. Only Media Markt and Medion don't play along.

Ecommerce giant Amazon is massively destroying returned items and new products. And through Amazon, external vendors also get rid of their unsold goods. All kinds of products are destroyed in German logistics warehouses on a large scale, such as refrigerators, washing machines, cell phones, mattresses and more.

DPD Germany is using eight fully-electric tricycles for parcel delivery in city centers. In Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne the postal company is using so-called TRIPLs which should be able to drive right up to the front door of a customer without any problems.

It may not come as a surprise, but of all online stores German consumers visit, Amazon is the one they spend the most of their time. The top ten of online stores where users spend the most time also consists of Chinese ecommerce giant AliExpress, shopping app Wish and online flea market Shpock.

Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com has introduced a solution for online retailers looking to sell in China. The China Railway Express is 'faster than the sea and cheaper than air', JD.com promises. The first freight full of JD-procured goods from Europe went from Germany to China last week.

Another city in Europe has decided to launch its own online marketplace. This time it's the city of Lüneberg, a town in the German state of Lower Saxony, that started the ecommerce initiative. Customers can browse through the offer of local retailers and get the goods delivered to their homes for free.

Klarna has acquired Shop.co, a small German startup that wants to simplify online shopping by offering a universal shopping cart. There's little known about the deal, but according to Klarna it's mostly about the acquisition of intellectual property and taking over a mere Shop.co employees.

Redcoon has ceased operations in Germany. Anyone who visits the electronic retailer's website, gets the suggestion to visit the website of MediaMarkt. Products that are ordered through redcoon.de, will still be delivered to the customer, and MediaMarktSaturn promises to continue to meet all service requirements.

Mybudapester.com, an online shop for designer shoes, bags and accessories, is focusing more and more on attracting international stationary retailers to its platform. Up to 15 new German retailers will go online on the fashion platform this year, but international dealers will also be connected towards the end of this year.

DHL Parcel offers millions of parcel recipients in Germany the possibility to arrange a preferred delivery time for any DHL shipment in future. This is regardless of the online retailer's shipping offering. For now, the new service costs 1.99 euros per parcel.

Ecommerce shows to be an increasingly important part of the Otto Group's business. The company saw its online revenues worldwide increase grow 10.9 percent to 7.8 billion euros. In Germany, the online business of the Otto Group generated revenues of over 5.4 billion euros, an increase of 10.2 percent. Growth drivers are OTTO and About You.

DPD Germany is 'highly satisfied' with the results of its pilot project to use electrically assisted transport bikes to deliver parcels to consumers. It started with the test in the northern Bavarian city of Nuremberg one year ago and now wants to launch further deliveries by transport bike in Germany.

GLS Germany has announced it will now offer faster parcel shipping via its PaketShops. The delivery time has been reduced to one or two business days for parcels that go to Austria or the Benelux region. Parcels to most other neighboring countries will take about 48 hours.