Recently, Montpellier, France, launched an online shopping and payment platform that can be used by 6,000 local merchants with 8 staff being responsible for maintenance to promote the development of e-commerce.
A person in charge of a toy store in Brussels, Belgium told reporters that the end of the year is the peak period for parents to choose gifts for their children. In order not to miss the peak sales season, many local small and medium-sized retailers have tried online sales, which proved to produce good results. In order to benefit more consumers, many European e-commerce platforms have also opened a telephone order service for the elderly, which is currently very popular in Italy and Spain.
Since the beginning of this year, all major e-commerce platforms have achieved good sales performance in Europe. According to statistics, e-commerce giant Amazon’s net profit doubled in the second quarter. And after shifting business from physical stores to online stores in March, German beauty retailer Douglas’s online sales have increased by 70% year-on-year. The number of active e-commerce customers of German lifestyle brand Zalando increased by 20% in the first half of the year. L’Oréal France has increased its use of virtual makeup system by 5 times this year, and the conversion rate from virtual makeup to purchase has increased by 3 times.
The rapid rise of e-commerce has greatly promoted the development of the express delivery industry, and some merchants have even begun to provide home delivery services. Carrefour launched the “Delivery to Home in 90 Minutes within 4km” service at the end of October, which means deliveryman delivers the goods to the customer’s door within 90 minutes with a fee of 5 Euros. Taxi companies have also joined the ranks of delivery. Although without advantage in price, the faster delivery speed has still attracted some customers.
The rapid development of European e-commerce also brings some problems. Due to regulatory omissions, defected products circulating on e-commerce platforms and unclear advertisements result in online consumption disputes significantly higher than offline shopping. The European Commission’s Vice-Chairman of Trade Value and Transparency, Cholowa, said that the EU would enhance the transparency of consumption by strengthening the supervision and accountability mechanism of e-commerce platforms. Relevant countries are also formulating stricter laws and regulations to regulate e-commerce platform sales.
