Slovakia

Polish online marketplace Allegro has launched in Slovakia, with a dedicated website. The expansion follows the company’s expansion into the Czech Republic last year. The marketplace has already announced plans of future launches in other European countries.

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.

Deutsche Post DHL Group and Austrian Post have agreed to work together in last-mile parcel delivery in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Austrian Post's subsidiary In Time will be Deutsche Posts's parcel delivery partner in Slovakia, while the latter's subsidiary PPL CZ will be Austrian Post's delivery partner in the Czech Republic.

German DIY-store Hornbach has entered the ecommerce market in Slovakia. It launched an online store, which currently consists of 12,000 products that get sold at the same prices as in the physical stores.

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.

H&M will sell online in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland. The Swedish fashion retailer is making a big ecommerce push as it already invested heavily in its online retail site and took several steps to connect its web and mobile assets with its brick-and-mortar stores.

H&M will launch online stores in eight different countries in Europe during 2015. The new online markets will be Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia. H&M’s online stores are already available in eleven European countries.

Global investors are looking with increasing interest to the ecommerce industry in Eastern Europe. The growth and trends in this region attracts the attention of international ecommerce players and investors. For example in Turkey, there's a raised interest of investors, mostly in the clothing sectors.

With an average growth rate of 19% in 2012 the ecommerce industry in Central Europe was growing almost as hard as the European average, which is 19.9%. The region's ecommerce market was worth 75.9 billion euros in 2012, but it's expected to have grown to 93.3 billion euros last year, which comes down to an increase of 23% in 2013.