The United Kingdom

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, has shown to be very enthusiastic about the ecommerce industry in the United Kingdom. The former Google boss thinks the United Kingdom is the world leader in ecommerce.

UK-based technology company Ve Interactive has acquired the Display Retargeting business from eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions, a recently launched independent company. Now Ve has a client base of more than 10,000 online businesses. All employees from the eBay Enterprise Display Retargeting business will be retained.

Are their differences between shoppers in let's say France or Spain? Yes, of course. The major steps of the customer journey may look similar across all countries, there are certainly a few differences in each country. DPD studied the behavior and expectations of 18-25 year olds in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Poland.

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.

Spanish fashion brand Mango is collaborating with Amazon Europe. It opened a private online store on the popular marketplace. Or actually, it opened several online stores as the assortment is country-specific. In the UK for example, customers can buy all products, while in Germany and France only the men's, kid's and Violeta by Mango lines are offered.

EasySize, a Danish data-driven company that tries to solve the sizing and fitting issue in fashion ecommerce, has entered the Swedish market last month, but is already busy planning other launches. The company has announced it will expand to Europe's three biggest ecommerce markets: the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Royal Mail has announced it acquired eCourier, a same day delivery company that operates mainly in the Greater London area, although offering nationwide distribution. Royal Mail already has Royal Mail Sameday, but by combining eCourier and its existing courier business, the British postal service company can become a significant player in the UK same day delivery market.

If your shipments are damaged or lost during transport, who covers the loss? One might think the carrier covers the full value of the shipment, but this is far from the truth. And also, it depends on in which country the shipment takes place, how big your loss as a retailer will be.

Prestashop, an open-source ecommerce solution from France, has announced it agreed to a partnership with Alipay, Alibaba's leading online payment solution from China. The partnership applies to PrestaShop's customers in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands and enables retailers to sell their products more easily in China.

Consumers should have more delivery choice when they are about to pay for products of services they found online. This could reduce the proportion of purchases abandoned before they are completed. Parcel and carrier management company GFS reported a 10% rise in completed orders since it introduced GFS Checkout, which offers shoppers a choice of delivery or collection services.

British postal service company Royal Mail will further extend its Local Collect network, by opening new collection points at more than 1,222 Royal Mail delivery offices. Amazon will be the first retailer to make us of this extended network, the nationwide postal service of Britain announced.

ITinSell, a French company that sells delivery tracking tools designed for online retailers, has launched in the United Kingdom. After opening offices in Paris, Lille, Lyon and Barcelona it now launched its operations in London.

Argos has announced it offers same-day store collection and same-day home delivery for nearly 20,000 products across the United Kingdom. It says it’s the first retailer in the UK to do this. Argos was also the first to launch click & collect 15 years ago and it already had a nationwide home delivery service in 1999.

Lots of companies rely on digital marketing, so it's important to understand how customers behave online. A new study shows that although direct traffic is the most popular source of visitors in general, visitors of fashion websites come more often through search engines. This is especially noticeable in the United Kingdom and France.

Shopping online is getting more and more important, even for occasions where it really comes in handy if you have your presents on time. In the United Kingdom, more than three quarters of consumers recently said they will buy at least half of their Christmas presents online this year.