Germany

The ecommerce app Shopkick left Germany at the end of last year, but now former employees are planning a revival of the shopping app. With a new name and an improved concept, German consumers should soon be able to get rewarded again for walking into stores.

German-based company Spreadshirt is moving beyond Europe and focusing on the American market. This step is part of Spreadshirt's ambition to become a billion dollar business. But thanks to Brexit and the rise of protectionism it will be harder to grow internationally, the company thinks.

Klarna today announced it acquired BillPay, a German online payment company that's active in several European countries. With the acquisition, Klarna wants to strengthen its position in Europe and further grow in the region.

More and more German traders achieve millions of euros in sales by selling through online marketplace eBay. Actual figures from eBay Germany show that in 2016, the number of sellers with a million euros turnover via ebay.de has more than doubled in the last five years. There are now over 1,000 traders who achieved sales of at least one million euros.

Momox, a popular German recommerce company, generated revenues of 150 million euros last year. The company has shown significant growth in the last couple of years, achieving double-digit growth for the seventh consecutive year. Its sales in 2016 increased with about 27 percent compared to the results in 2015.

For the first time, German consumers spent more than 100 billion euros online in one year. That's the calculation of a German consulting company, which wants to portray the entire B2C online market in Germany. According to them, the online sales of physical products was worth around 52.5 billion euros last year.

Zalando saw its revenue increase by about 23 percent to 3.6 billion euros last year. And for the first time, the German online fashion platform broke the billion-euro revenue barrier in a single quarter. The company has plans to open a satellite warehouse in Sweden later this year, which will be similar to the warehouses it already operates in France and Italy.

Two months after Lidl announced it will start selling fruits and vegetables online in Germany, the supermarket discounter is now experimenting with Lidl Express, a pick-up point for online orders where consumers can also buy fresh products.

Shopkick will leave Germany as of January 31, next year. The ecommerce app, which rewards consumers for walking into stores, entered the German market in October 2014, but is already leaving again. On the website it explains its parent company has made the strategic decision not to continue the service in Germany.

Berlin-based food delivery company Delivery Hero has acquired Berlin-based food delivery company Foodpanda. And both companies are backed by Rocket Internet. With the deal, the German incubator will increase its Delivery Hero stake to 37.7 percent.

Paydirekt, the online payment method set up by major (saving) banks in Germany, has attracted another top retailer. From now on, customers of online pharmacy DocMorris can pay for their online order with Paydirekt.

Zalando has plans to hire 1,000 engineers throughout the course of next year. If this really happens, it would be a major increase of the German fashion retailer's technology team, that currently counts 1,600 people.

European online furniture store Home24 has acquired Returbo, a German ecommerce company that sells overstock, promotional and second-hand goods and returns. The two companies already worked together since last year, but now Rocket Internet's portfolio company took over Returbo.

Gourmondo, a German online distributor of unusual foods, is expanding in Europe. After launching in Germany and the Netherlands, the ecommerce website is now also available in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Austria. Consumers from these countries can now also buy wines and specialty foods online.

DreamCommerce has launched its white-label ecommerce solution in Germany and Austria. In Europe, the company is already active in the Netherlands, Turkey and Poland. With DreamCommerce's solution, companies can enhance their offer with an ecommerce platform, adjusted to their brand, region or integrated with applications or services they already provide.