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E-Commerce: Dutch Marketplace Picnic Raises €250 million in Investment Round
J&P Comments
It makes sense that Picnic are building a distribution centre due to the explosion in growth they have experienced – this year alone they have received 300,000 new customers based in the Netherlands and Germany.
E-commerce: Europe is home to 1.16 million active Amazon sellers
Research has revealed that a total of 1.16 million Amazon sellers can be found listing products for sale across the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Turkey. The UK is the top spot in Europe for sellers, with 281,257 active sellers based in the United Kingdom. With these six marketplaces combined, Europe has a higher count of active sellers than the US, which has 1.11 million active sellers.
J&P Comments
The high number of active sellers could be attributed to the fact that Amazon has made it easier for European sellers to sell their products across all 5 of Amazon’s EU marketplaces. It is also no surprise that the UK’s number of sellers makes up a large proportion of the 1.16 million total, as it Amazon’s most active marketplace in Europe.
Currys PC World launches new high tech shopping app
Curry’s PC World has launched its new high tech shopping app which will enable shoppers to purchase directly and track live stock levels from the app. The app is part of a multimillion pound investment which will be available across IOs and Android operating systems. Furthermore, the retailer also announced that there will be a future update which will add AR functionality, allowing users to virtually place items in their home before purchasing them.
J&P comments
Currys PC World’s high tech shopping app is a great alternative for purchasing electrical goods on the go instead of having to do it on the company’s website. And, its augmented reality (AR) functionality is also a nice touch too since it helps shoppers visualize what the product will look like n their home before investing in it. Other online retailers including Toys r Us and Ikea have also implemented AR functionality in their shopping apps in order to enhance the customers shopping experience.
E-Commerce: Online Food Shopping has increased by 42% in Italy
A study has revealed that over the past 12 months, online food purchases in Italy have increased by 42%. The report has shown that the growth in this particular E-commerce category is mainly due to the fact more Italians are ordering food to be delivered to their homes. The report also demonstrated that in the last 12 months one third of Italian e-shoppers bought food and beverages online.
J&P Comments
The growth of the food sector in Italian E-commerce could be contributed to the fact it is now a lot easier to order food for delivery in Italy. In 2017, 74% of Italian cities with a population of over 50,000 were covered by home delivery services, and this has now increased to 93%.
E-commerce: French E-commerce will be worth over €100 billion in 2019
A French E-commerce association has predicted that the country’s E-commerce market will exceed a value of €100 billion this year. This is due to the fact that during the first nine months of this year, E-commerce in France reached a total turnover of €74 billion. According to the association, the shopping that will take place across Black Friday and Cyber Monday will add €1.7 billion to this turnover, and French e-commerce sales in the last quarter of 2019 alone will amount to over €20 billion.
J&P Comments
As France is one of Europe’s fastest-growing E-commerce markets with 16% more online shops in 2019 than in 2018, it is no wonder that French E-commerce is expected to reach this value. It is looking likely the market will continue to grow over the coming years also.
E-Commerce: PayPal to Acquire Online Deal-Finding Company Honey
PayPal has announced that it will be acquiring Honey, a browser extension which applies coupons automatically when shopping online and helps E-commerce consumers to discover discounts. This is PayPal’s biggest acquisition to date, with the deal being valued at $4 billion. Honey currently has 17 million active monthly users, and has helped online shoppers to save more than $1 billion in the past year.
J&P Comments
Honey will be a valuable asset to PayPal in the respect that the payments service provider can integrate Honey’s money-saving tools to drive engagement further and make it so that they are present for every step of the customer’s online journey.
