Germany

German fashion and lifestyle retailer Breuninger is expanding again. Customers in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain and Italy can now orders goods and have them delivered by post. The retailer is now active in nine markets in total.

Popular German drugstore Drogerie Markt (DM) has announced that it is installing automatic pick-up lockers in its stores. Customers can easily collect online orders at the pick-up stations. It will install the lockers in at least 700 stores.

Just months after expanding to Germany and Ireland, Canadian ecommerce investor Clearco is cutting 25 percent of its staff. This comes down to 125 employees. The company points to ‘the current macroeconomic environment’.

Ecommerce fashion giant Zalando is planning to launch in the US next year. To do so, it will invest at least one hundred million euros. However, current disappointing financial results have put the plan on hold.

Secondhand fashion marketplace Vinted wants to acquire competitor Rebelle. The company offered 30,2 million euros for the acquisition. The deal received a positive response from commission members and shareholders of Rebelle.

JohnBeerens.com, the online beauty retailer from the Netherlands, is launching in France and Germany. The company is also working on its own product label and customer loyalty program.

Over 40 percent of online stores close customer care after 5 pm, according to surveys in Germany and the Netherlands. Almost half of German shops are not reachable at night. However, the evenings are a peak time for online shoppers.

Ecommerce fulfillment company Huboo is planning to launch in Germany. The expansion follows a launch in the Netherlands last year. The company was founded in the UK and is also active in Spain.

Berlin Brands Group, which became a unicorn last year, has to let go ten percent of its staff. In total, the German aggregator will fire about a hundred employees. Where ecommerce has grown exponentially during the pandemic, the growth now is slowing down. Instead of aggressive growth, Berlin Brands Group will focus on profitability.

Amazon Fashion Luxury Stores is launching in 5 countries in Europe. The ecommerce giant will offer 8 brands at launch, planning to add more in the future. But the competition for luxury fashion retail in Europe is fierce.

Clearco, an ecommerce investor from Canada, has launched in Germany. The firm pledges 500 million euros to German online businesses. Just three months ago, Clearco set foot in Ireland, where it recently had staff layoffs.

Wonnda, a Berlin-based startup, has launched its online product sourcing platform. Sellers can now use the beta-version. The service offers over a thousand products from European manufacturers in 6 categories.

Trendyol, the ecommerce platform from Turkey, is launching in Germany. It marks the first market outside of Turkey as well as Trendyol’s entry into Europe. The platform also has plans to launch in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and London by next year.

Fashion platform About You has increased revenue to 1.7 billion euros in 2021. At the same time, losses have more than doubled compared to the year before. The company says this is because of growth investments.

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.