Germany

Zalando has quietly tested brand advertising at its own platform during the past few months. With a group of several brands, it ran 30 advertising campaigns from external brands on dedicated parts of its own online store and via third party sites.

Outfittery has expanded its service throughout Europe by offering a free pick-up service. This will make it even easier for customers to return items they don't like: Outfittery will pick up the items at the customer's home without asking any fee for it.

Personal shopping service Modomoto from Germany has acquired The Cloakroom, a similar service from the Netherlands. With the acquisition and an additional investment from the former CEO of Booking.com, Modomoto is now forming the Curated Shopping Group, ready to conquer the European market. The company didn't disclose how much they paid for The Cloakroom.

For internet users in Germany, Amazon is the most popular, and at the same time, the most unpopular online store. Even if other retailers have lower prices, Amazon is for most people the most preferred online store. But it's also the most popular choice when people are asked where they don't like to shop but do nonetheless.

The awards for best online stores in Germany have been handed out this week. The organization awarded the best retail websites from a consumer's perspective in seven different categories. For the fifth consecutive year, Thomann won the Deutscher Online-Handels-Award in the category 'sports & leisure'.

The 'Freien Demokraten' from the city counsil of the German city Wuppertal asked for the Wuppertaler Stadtwerke, the city's municipal utility, to stop its online store in which it sells household appliances and energy-saving lamps. The ecommerce site is said to hurt the local retail industry.

About one in four online shoppers in Germany have ordered foods or drinks online. This percentage is the same as it was last year, when 28% of online consumers shopped groceries online. A new study shows that about nine in ten shoppers are satisfied with shopping groceries online, only 7 percent is somewhat dissatisfied with the experience.

Deutsche Post DHL Group announced its plans to invest in a minority stake in Relais Colis, a package delivery company from France. With this investment, the German logistics company wants to enhance the access for its DHL divisions and their customers to the French ecommerce market.

Fitle, a startup from France that aims to simplify the shopping experience, wants to expand its offer to Germany. In September of this year, the virtual fitting room app should be available for consumers in Germany. Originally, the launch there was planned for this month.

Boris Radke, head of corporate communications at Zalando, has published an interesting story about his first five years at the German online fashion retailer. One of the things he elaborates on is how he and a few other guys with little experience 'just' started planning a logistics facility and that the key learning of it all is to "think big and act fast".

Online shop software provider ePages has launched an app & theme store for its online retailers. The app section offers applications from third party providers that deliver extra functionalities to a merchant, while the themes section offers premium shop templates so merchants can redesign their online stores.

The ecommerce market in Germany is one of many opportunities. The second largest ecommerce industry of Europe is expected to achieve 15 percent year-on-year growth in 2015, reaching a value of 47 billion euros. A new guidebook helps companies who want to sell online in Germany.

Are their differences between shoppers in let's say France or Spain? Yes, of course. The major steps of the customer journey may look similar across all countries, there are certainly a few differences in each country. DPD studied the behavior and expectations of 18-25 year olds in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Poland.

Deutsche Post has launched an additional service called Ländernachweis, which is aimed at retailers that ship articles from Germany to other countries. With this service, both sender and recipient are still able to view the shipping status of the item when it has crossed the border.

Spanish fashion brand Mango is collaborating with Amazon Europe. It opened a private online store on the popular marketplace. Or actually, it opened several online stores as the assortment is country-specific. In the UK for example, customers can buy all products, while in Germany and France only the men's, kid's and Violeta by Mango lines are offered.