Ireland

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.

International Internet Day is celebrated every year on October 29, but Ireland has its own Internet Day. On October 27 this event took place in the Mansion House in Dublin and was hosted by the .ie Domain Registry. This day shows that things don't look so bright for ecommerce in Ireland; too many consumers shop online at foreign stores.

The Irish ecommerce association eCAI has joined EMOTA, the European association for multi-channel and online retailers. According to Maurits Bruggink, secretary general of EMOTA, the eCAI membership comes at a pivotal time for Irish businesses. "Especially in light of the UK referendum result and pending Brexit negotiations."

Online consumer spending in the United Kingdom increased by 8.4 percent in April compared to the same month last year. This annual increase was the fastest seen in the UK ecommerce industry since December 2014. In Ireland, consumers even spent 18.7 percent more in April than they did one year ago.

H&M has opened several new online stores in Europe. It now has dedicated websites in Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Ireland. The fashion retailer offers the same range as it does in the physical stores, with complete collections for men, women and children, including accessories.

Visa will make its online payment service Visa Checkout available to merchants and consumers in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Poland and Spain this year. With Visa Checkout, users have the security and convenience of the Visa card, but then in the digital world.

Ecommerce in Ireland saw its revenue grow 45 percent last year. Traffic to ecommerce websites grew by 27 percent and this was largely driven by mobile traffic, which increased by 39 percent. In the last quarter of 2015, the mobile even overtook the desktop as the most popular device for ecommerce traffic.

Lesara, a Berlin-based online fashion and lifestyle retailer, has announced it will now also supply customers in the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, The Republic of Ireland, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

eShopWorld, which offers modules for cross-border retailers, has been ranked number one in the local Deloitte Technology Fast 50. This list ranks the fastest growing technology companies in Ireland based on average percentage revenue growth over four years. eShopWorld achieved growth of more than 9,900 percent during this period.

An Post, the state-owned postal services provider of Ireland, is joining the world of delivery boxes. Last month, An Post announced it has started its Delivery Box service. "No more missed deliveries, stress-free online shopping and your parcels delivered safely even when you are out", the company promises.

A survey among several European countries shows that it's especially the Dutch and Irish consumers who are interested in fashion deals. Italians on the other hand, aren't that keen on such deals. Of all 17 discount categories, coupon codes for women's clothing didn't make into the top 5 of most used discount codes for this country.

HMV, an entertainment retailer that operates in the United Kingdom and Ireland, is about to launch an official ecommerce website. This will allow consumers to buy online from the company ever since it financially collapsed two years ago.

In Ireland, a statistics goes around that around 75% of the money consumers in Ireland spend online goes to overseas companies. This may well be the case, but the opposite figure is also interesting. On average, 33 percent of revenue from Irish ecommerce sites comes from outside the country.

Zalando has opened the new Zalando Fashion Insights Centre in Dublin. With this first technology hub outside of Germany, the online fashion retailer is about to create 200 jobs during the next three years. The new base will focus on understanding the habits and patterns of online shoppers to create a personalized platform.

Payment gateway Realex Payments has been sold to Global Payments. Realex Payments processes over 29 billion in payments for thousands of online and mobile businesses worldwide and will continue to do this as part of Global Payments, a provider of payment technology services. The transaction is valued at 115 million euros.