The United Kingdom

Online fashion retailer Boohoo has acquired PrettyLittleThing. The company already owned 66 percent of PrettyLittleThing's shares, but now Boohoo also owns the remaining 34 percent of shares. These shares come from Umar Kamani, the son of Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani, and business partner Paul Papworth.

Lidl has installed lockers in 24 of its stores across the United Kingdom. This enables the supermarket customers to collect and return online orders from other retailers, such as JD Sports and Boohoo. The in-store lockers are the result of a new partnership with InPost.

Asda has launched a new online platform where it sells food boxes. With this initiative the UK supermarket chain wants to reach out to vulnerable shoppers and the elderly so they can have access to food.

The online grocery market in the United Kingdom is predicted to increase by 33 percent this year. It's set to reach an estimated value of 19.2 billion euros, up from 14.5 billion euros last year. It would mean a significant development after four years of slowing growth.

EKM, a large hosted ecommerce provider from the UK, has introduced a new product for helping small business reach their local customers. The solution is called Obodo and offers a free online shop for local brick and mortar businesses.

Online fashion retailer Boohoo saw its revenue increase by 44 percent to over 1.4 billion euros last year. There was strong revenue growth across all regions, with international revenue now accounting for 45 percent of the group's total sales.

More and more consumers in Europe are buying fresh food products online. Although many shoppers still tend to buy a lower volume online than they do-instore. The only exception seems to be the United Kingdom, where 42 percent buys more online than in-store and 32% percent buy less online.

Whistl has launched a local test in the United Kingdom to help online retailers with low volumes. These retailers now get the opportunity to get their parcels to customers with a wider range of delivery options, including 24 and 48 hours services.

Aldi has launched its first online grocery service in the United Kingdom. The German discounter offers a box with 22 essential items to help consumers who are in isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.

Payments platform VibePay has opened up its APIs for bank-to-bank payments and subscription payments, making payments available for retailers, businesses and SMEs. The move comes after the UK-based company secured about 1.4 million euros in funding.

Ecommerce in the United Kingdom is expected to be worth 222.5 billion euros at the end of this year. That would mean an increase of almost 11 percent compared to the situation last year, when the b2c ecommerce turnover was worth just over 200 billion euros.

Online retailers in the United Kingdom have been delivering parcels almost 20 percent faster than usual. And all this at a time when there is an increase in online orders now the coronavirus Covid-19 is dominating the ecommerce industry.

James and James Fulfilment has secured an 11 million pound investment (12.1 million euros) from private equity investor LDC. With the money, the British ecommerce fulfilment company wants to further improve its software services and operating infrastructure.

Loop, a sustainable ecommerce service, will launch in the United Kingdom later this month. The service, which puts products in containers that are designed to be reused, will be made available to 5,000 early adopters from 26 March.

Ecommerce in the United Kingdom is still booming, with last year's sales up 11 percent on 2018. This growth is also driving the delivery business. But what is the current state of the UK ecommerce delivery market?