The United Kingdom

There are some strong rumors that Lidl is looking to move into ecommerce, after the discounter created a holding company called Lidl Digital Logistics in the United Kingdom. According to the Daily Mail, this shows that Lidl is entering the grocery delivery market.

Last year, 22 percent of Brits shopped online once a week, but that percentage has increased to 26 percent now. Also, 68 percent of the British population shop online at least once a month, while 3 percent do this every day.

International consumers are increasingly interested in UK-based fashion brands. The number of online mobile searches for UK brands from non-EU countries increased by 13 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year. Within the European Union, Italian consumers are most interested in UK-based fashion brands.

The business-to-consumer ecommerce turnover in the United Kingdom has increased to 13.7 billion pounds, 15.6 billion euros, last year. This is a 13.65 percent increase and for next year, a growth rate of 14.3 percent is predicted, which means ecommerce in the UK could be worth 17.8 billion euros.

UK supermarket chains Sainsbury's and Asda have agreed to merge. The competition regulators still have to agree to the acquisition, but if it gets the green light, the merged identity will become the biggest grocer in the United Kingdom.

Online fashion retailer Boohoo has almost doubled its sales last year. The company's revenue increased by 97 percent, climbing from 337 million euros to 664 million euros. Boohoo's profit before tax increased by 40 percent during the same period.

Deutsche Post DHL Group has opened a new fulfillment center in the United Kingdom. In the English town of Radlett, an area of about 6,500 square meters offers same-day processing for the Greater London area. DHL already operates a similar fulfillment center in Germany and is now working to open such centers in the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.

Made.com has raised 40 million pounds, a little more than 45 million euros, of equity in its latest round of funding. The furniture retailer wants to use this money to boost its growth and to further expand its online and offline business across Europe.

Online retailers could sell more to consumers who shop from their smartphones, if they would offer a better shopping experience via the mobile app. Especially in the United Kingdom, the mobile shopping apps could really use an upgrade.

Sales of the 20 biggest online-only retailers in the United Kingdom have increased by 23 percent last year. Their revenues went from about 7.6 billion euros in 2015/2016 to over 9.4 billion euros one year later. The increase is mostly because of the rise of mobile commerce.

Mobile commerce sales in the three biggest ecommerce markets of Europe – the United Kingdom, France and Germany – will reach over 85 billion euros this year. Almost 57 percent of this amount will come from the UK, while Germany will have bigger mcommerce sales than France.

ManoMano, a European online marketplace specialized in DIY & gardening, closed last year with a global turnover of 250 million euros, which is an increase of 180 percent compared to 2016, when the French company generated a turnover of 90 million euros. Its UK turnover doubled year-over-year.

Chinese online retailer JD.com is ready to take on Amazon in Europe. The company will first launchs its ecommerce platform and delivery services in France next year. After that, the United Kingdom and Germany are next.

UK parcel carrier Yodel has launched a new service, called Xpect Returns. This is a collection service which helps consumers with getting their purchased items back to online retailers. Customers can now have their returns picked-up from their location within a two-hour collection window.

On average, 1 in every 20 online orders is not delivered on the first attempt. This costs retailers a lot of money, but it also damages the retailer's reputation. Existing customers go away and it's hard to acquire new ones. But what's the main reasons online orders don't arrive on time?