Lithuania

The operator behind Pigu and Hobby Hall Group (PHH Group), well-known marketplaces in the Baltics, has partnered with SME Finance. Together, they are launching collateral-free revenue-based financing (RBF) to marketplace sellers. Merchants can get access to financing within the same-day of their request.

Zalando has launched its online store and platform in Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia today. The German fashion giant has also announced it will further expand to Croatia, Estonia, and Latvia this year, and to Hungary and Romania next year.

Omniva will expand its network of parcel machines in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, also known as the Baltic states. The Estonian postal company already owns 43 percent of the parcel machines in Estonia and accounts for 57 percent for that country's total parcel volume.

Ziticity, a urban logistics platform from Lithuania, has raised 2.2 million euros. The seed equity investment round was led by NordicNinja VC. With the money, the same-day delivery platform wants to expand in Europe.

Food Union, a dairy production and distribution company from Latvia, has launched an ecommerce distribution service in four markets across Europe. The Riga-based company now delivers ice cream, dairy products, pastry and frozen food to customers in Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Denmark.

H&M Group has announced the online expansion of five of its brands. This month, COS, Weekday, Monki, & Other Stories and Arket will have their collections available online in nine new markets across Europe.

Vinted, a marketplace from Lithuania, has raised 128 million euros in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. With the money, the site where consumers can sell and buy second-hand fashion wants to accelerate its rapid growth across Europe.

Ziticity, a startup from Lithuania, wants to deliver packages in Europe from pick-up points to customers within one hour. The logistics company just raised a €315,000 seed round led by Estonia-based early stage fund Superangel, with participation from Practica Capital, Startup Wise Guys, and angel investor Mikko Silventola.

When it comes to online shopping, consumers from Latvia and Lithuania emphasize the superior pricing policies compared to prices in physical stores. The number one issue for online shoppers in both Eastern European countries seems to be a long delivery time.

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.

DHL has joined forces with the Finnish postal operator Posti and Bring, a subsidiary of Norwegian postal operator Posten Norge. Together they offer a B2C infrastructure for parcel deliveries across Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states. With 6,500 parcel shops and parcel stations across seven countries it will be the largest parcel network in northern Europe.

The total ecommerce industry in Northern Europe is expected to reach sales of 36.8 billion euros in 2014. One year ago, the online economy of goods and services in this region was worth 33.2 billion euros, so this year there’s probably gonna be a growth of 10.8%.