NEWS
News
- Amazon’s free EEA tool covers 10 European stores – but not VAT or EPRAmazon’s European Expansion Accelerator lists a seller’s products in up to ten European Amazon stores, free of charge and, according to Amazon, in under three business days. The tool launched in April 2023. VAT, EPR registrations and product compliance remain the seller’s job.
- Shopify Payments processed $78.1bn in Q2 2026, 68% of all salesFrom April to June 2026, $78.1bn ran through Shopify Payments, 68% of all sales on Shopify. In Europe, the share rose by more than 3.5 percentage points in a year.
- DHL to buy Baltic carrier Venipak and its 800 parcel lockersDHL eCommerce has agreed to buy Venipak, a parcel carrier with about 800 lockers in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The deal still needs regulatory approval. According to its CEO, volumes at DHL eCommerce’s own lockers and parcel shops grow by about 50% a year.
- Channable: 77% of merchants score low on Google AI shopping readinessChannable scored the product feeds of 9,689 companies on its platform against the data Google’s AI shopping features use. Of those, 77% stayed below 60 out of 100, and fewer than 1% reached the 80 points Channable treats as fully optimised.
- CBRE survey: 65% of major retailers plan to grow their store networksCBRE’s European Retail Occupier Survey 2026 finds that 65% of 76 large retailers plan to open more stores. More than half already use AI, mostly for product recommendations and customer-service chatbots.
- RithumLIVE 2026: Rithum previews two layers for agentic commerceAt RithumLIVE in London on 30 September 2026, Rithum previewed Rithum Commerce for faster channel launches and RithumIQ for sales recommendations. Its advice to brands: give AI shopping agents product data they can verify.
- Survey of 550: margin per marketplace is now sellers’ No. 1 metricIn ChannelEngine’s 2026 Marketplace Seller Trends Report, 33% of 550 e-commerce decision-makers rank profit margin per marketplace among their top success metrics, more than any other metric. Net sales, the leader in 2025, fell to third place.
- World Cup 2026 + mobile commerce: 6 billion viewers, one buying moment6 billion people will watch the FIFA World Cup 2026 – and 56% of fans use their phone as a second screen during matches. US mobile commerce is on track to reach $856 billion by 2027. What this means for sellers: being visible with fast, mobile-optimised product listings during the biggest sporting event in history means reaching buyers in real time.
- Amazon sets new sales record in GermanyAmazon has set another sales record in Germany – up 12.3% last year, while the whole German e-commerce market is heading toward €96.3 billion in 2026. Marketplaces already account for 56.7% of all online sales in the country, and that share keeps growing – making a presence on Amazon.de more important than ever.
- easyGroup launches easyShop.com marketplace in 21 countrieseasyGroup is launching the easyShop.com marketplace – right away in 21 European countries, with seller sign-ups starting now. For sellers: register your interest on easyShop.com today – onboarding starts before the marketplace opens to buyers, i.e. before Q4 2026, and early sellers get visibility from day one.
- EU Directive 2023/2673: "cancellation button" from 19 June 2026Directive (EU) 2023/2673 requires all online sellers in the EU to add a clearly visible cancellation button directly in the checkout process – effective from 19 June 2026. For sellers: check your returns flow now and add a digital order-cancellation button by 19 June 2026 – especially if you sell in Germany or the Netherlands.
- AR try-on: top innovation of 2026 for German consumers75.9% of consumers in Germany name virtual AR try-on as the most anticipated innovation of 2026. For fashion and home goods sellers in the EU, this gives a practical tool to cut returns and boost conversion rates.
- Global trade 2026: fastest growth since 2017Global trade is growing faster in 2026 than at any point since 2017. The level of globalization has hit a record – for the first time, a quarter of all goods worldwide are sold outside their country of production. What this means for us: buyers in Europe are increasingly looking for products from foreign sellers. By 2029, the market is expected to grow another 2.6% per year – steady and predictable. In short: entering the EU market has never looked better in the last 10 years.
- Amazon Prime Day 2026: June 23–26Amazon Prime Day 2026 will run from June 23 to 26 – four days of discounts of up to 50% on electronics, groceries, beauty and entertainment, exclusively for Prime members. For sellers: start your Prime Day campaigns now – Amazon’s early deals have already kicked off, and shoppers are already in buying mode.
- PPWR takes effect 12 August 2026: sellers become "manufacturers"From 12 August 2026, the PPWR regulation applies – anyone selling goods in their own branded packaging becomes a "manufacturer" with a full set of obligations: labelling, a unique identifier and an EU declaration of conformity. For sellers across the EU, there’s another requirement: a separate authorised representative in each country of delivery – without it, cross-border trade between member states becomes illegal.
- TikTok Shop breaks into Germany’s top 15 online retailersAfter just one year in Germany, TikTok Shop has reached #15 among online retailers with an annual turnover of over €700 million – overtaking Douglas and other established players. 15% of online shoppers have already made at least one purchase via the platform, up from 10.5% just six months ago. A clear sign that TikTok Shop is reshaping how traffic and money flow in European e-commerce.
- Amazon.de: 384.3M visits in April 2026Amazon.de remains Germany’s #1 marketplace and the #3 website overall in the country. For sellers, offering PayPal and pay-by-invoice (Kauf auf Rechnung) is essential – without these two payment methods, German shoppers often won’t complete their order.