The United Kingdom

PayPal is offering passkeys outside of its US home market for the first time. The user-friendly login feature becomes available in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Amazon has launched a flexible financing solution for small and medium-sized businesses in the United Kingdom. Amazon sellers in the country can apply for a cash advance, which will be repaid based on their sales. Loans can range up to two million euros.

German fulfillment company for DTC ecommerce brands, Alaiko, is launching in the United Kingdom. With its solution, the company wants to help British brands scale domestically and across Europe. In order to do so, they are partnering with a local state-of-the-art fulfillment center.

British fashion platform Asos has successfully raised 75 million pounds (86.7 million euros) from institutional investors. Additionally, it has launched an equity raise of 5 million pounds (5.8 million euros) from retail investors. With the capital injection, the company wants to improve stock control and reduce costs.

Online fashion marketplace Secret Sales has secured 10 million dollars in a Series B funding round. The capital injection will be used to accelerate expansion into Europe, with 12 new markets. By 2025, the platform wants to be the go-to destination for non-full price retail in all main European markets.

Fashion platform Zalando is going to launch a fashion assistant powered by ChatGPT on the website and app. It will start with a beta version, which will be available to selected customers in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Austria by Spring.

Ecommerce platform Floodlight has raised 6.4 million dollars in a seed funding round. The company offers a smart business account where ecommerce business owners can manage and optimize their finances. “This seed round is an exciting validation of our platform and its potential to meet the needs of unserved SMEs”, says Noam Bernstein, CEO and co-founder.

Ecommerce software provider Shopline is expanding into Europe. The Singapore-based company is launching a European headquarters in London. It raised 182 million dollars last year in order to accelerate its global expansion.

Google Shopping advertising specialist Producthero is now hosting Google CSS advertisers which were formerly customers of competitor Aisle 3. This enables the company to strengthen its position as Google CSS-partner in Europe.

United Kingdom-based ecommerce pricing platform BlackCurve has raised 750,000 British pounds (856,127 euros) in a funding round. With the capital injection, the company wants to expand in its core online markets. It will also drive down its cost of sale.

Patchworks has raised 4 million pounds (4.4 million euros) in growth capital. The ecommerce integration platform wants to use the funds to enhance its product offering. The company also hired Jim Herbert from BigCommerce as their new CEO.

Online fashion marketplace Secret Sales has reached a 70 percent year-on-year growth in sales in 2022. This was largely driven by the company’s international expansion last year. It expects to maintain a growth of 85 percent this year.

Non-food online sales in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are expected to grow up to 4 percent. This is mostly driven by rising prices due to inflation. At the same time, sales volumes are set to fall up to 5 percent.

London-based startup Kuai Commerce has raised 2.4 million dollars (2.22 million euros) in a funding round. The capital injection will be used to launch an ecommerce solution that helps European merchants to sell their wares in the East.

Amazon plans to close three distribution centers in the United Kingdom, the company’s biggest market in Europe. After investing heavily during the pandemic ecommerce boom, the retail giant is experiencing a dip in demand.