Central European ecommerce to grow by 8% in 2026
Online spending in Central Europe is expected to grow by 8% this year, rising from €191.3 billion in 2025 to €206.6 billion in 2026. According to ECDB and Mastercard, the market is entering a more stable phase after the pandemic boom and several years of stagnation. Germany remains by far the largest ecommerce market in the region, while Poland is expected to grow by around 9% and Greece by around 11%. See more on Ecommercenews 

More News

Kaufland keeps expanding – but growth mainly comes from new markets
Kaufland will expand its marketplace to Spain and the Netherlands in late summer, bringing its marketplace network to nine countries. In 2025, GMV across Kaufland’s marketplaces grew by 11.9% across all countries. At the same time, the group figures paint a more sober picture. Lidl and Kaufland generated €1.7 billion in combined European ecommerce revenue – Schwarz Group only reports the figures jointly – which was flat year on year. The growth therefore appears to be driven mainly by expansion. In Germany, Kaufland’s GMV grew by 4%. See the full story on Ecommercenews (expansion), Wortfilter (online GMV) and Rundschau Online (group figures) 

easyGoup launches fulfillment platform in Europe
easyDelivery has launched a delivery and fulfilment platform for consumers and merchants. From day one, the service provides access to more than 350,000 parcel shops, lockers and other pickup and drop-off locations across the UK and Europe. This includes Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, among others. The launch fits into easyGroup’s broader commerce strategy, which also includes plans to build the new Easyshop marketplace together with OnBuy. Read more on ChannelX  

Joybuy opens up to European and Chinese sellers
Joybuy, JD.com’s online department store, is evolving into a marketplace. In the second half of 2026, the platform plans to allow selected third-party sellers from Europe and China, initially through a curated model with trusted brands. Sellers will be able to either store their products in Joybuy warehouses or ship directly to customers themselves. Find out more on Ecommerce News 

B&Q Marketplace grows faster than its ecommerce sales
B&Q continues to expand its marketplace and has now launched the Cameras and Wearable Tech category. B&Q Marketplace GMV recently grew by 29%, while ecommerce sales increased by 16%. Online penetration also rose from 16% to 19%. This means the marketplace is growing significantly faster than the British DIY retailer’s ecommerce business. See more on ChannelX

Amazon adjusts checkout and product titles
Amazon is changing two parts of the customer journey. With the new “Add to Delivery” feature, Prime customers in Europe will be able to add items to existing orders without going through checkout again or paying additional shipping costs. At the same time, Amazon is reducing product titles to a maximum of 75 characters. Additional information can be moved into “Item Highlights” with up to 125 characters. From July 27, titles that are still too long will gradually be replaced by AI-generated recommendations. Read more on Onlinehändler-News (checkout) and ChannelX (product titles)   

Allegro tests cross-border trade with Ukraine
Allegro is working on solutions for cross-border trade with Ukraine and is already testing them with partners. This suggests that the Polish marketplace is preparing a possible entry into the Ukrainian market. After Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, Ukraine would be Allegro’s next expansion market – and its first move outside the EU. See more on Liga.net 

compliance News

Shein launches compliance training for marketplace sellers
Shein is launching a new training series for its marketplace sellers, focusing on product safety, quality and compliance. The courses are being developed with partners including Bureau Veritas, Intertek, SGS and TÜV SÜD. However, Shein does not say whether participation is mandatory or how many sellers will take part. For a platform increasingly under pressure over product safety and seller control, this is exactly where more transparency would be needed. See the full story on Ecotextile 

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Der Beitrag Marketplace Universe News 15.06.2026 – Kaufland expands again, and Amazon adjusts checkout erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.

France 2026: Europe’s Loudest Marketplace Battleground

Last year, France showed the rest of Europe what happens when a country has had enough of ultra-fast fashion. In November 2025, riot police guarded the doors as Shein opened its first-ever permanent store inside the BHV department store in Paris. On the same day, the government moved to suspend Shein’s online marketplace after authorities found childlike sex dolls and illegal weapons listed by third-party sellers. More than 120,000 people signed a petition against the opening; a dozen brands pulled their products from BHV in protest.

That spectacle sits on top of the Loi Violland, France’s anti-fast-fashion law passed by the Senate in June 2025. It threatens per-item eco-taxes, advertising bans and influencer sanctions aimed squarely at Shein and Temu. Brussels has since objected that the law breaches EU single-market rules — leaving France in the unusual position of being too aggressive against the Chinese platforms for the European Commission’s liking. No other European e-commerce market is this loud, this political, or this far ahead in the fight.

Through all of it, the numbers keep climbing. Revenue grew 5.9% to €70.3 billion in 2025, with ECDB forecasting another 6% to €74.4 billion in 2026. Online now accounts for 18.3% of French retail, up from 16.8% a year earlier.

Cross-border buying makes up 18.4% of revenue — and it is overwhelmingly Chinese. A striking 92.2% of French cross-border volume go to Chinese stores, which is why AliExpress, Temu and Shein loom so large in this quadrant. Everyone else — the US, the UK, Germany — barely registers.

What moved since 2025: a reshuffle at the top

The biggest change in this year’s Marketplace Country Quadrant France is at the generalist level. Carrefour and Veepee move up into the generalist tier; eBay and Auchan drop out of it. eBay’s exit comes with an asterisk — it lost the spot to Carrefour by a hair and still pulls volume across nearly every category. Auchan slides to position seven, right behind it, and reappears lower down as a care specialist where its supermarket strength counts most.

Down in the specialist grid, the moves are sharper than usual. Vinted finally enters — a deliberate break from our usual C2C exclusion, because pretending France’s biggest fashion destination doesn’t exist would be absurd. E.Leclerc muscles into electronics, Leroy Merlin claims a home & living slot, and cycling specialist Alltricks earns a place in sports. Shein, meanwhile, spreads into three categories at once — scandal and all.

The generalists in the Marketplace Country Quadrant France: Amazon leads, France argues about second place

Amazon sits on top, as it does everywhere. What’s interesting is the very French cast assembled behind it — and how much of it is built on grocery and legacy retail rather than pure-play e-commerce.

•  Amazon: the unavoidable anchor: reach, Prime, logistics, sellers.

•  Temu: still climbing fast, still pushing prices down across the board, regulators notwithstanding.

•  AliExpress: the established gateway for France’s heavily Chinese cross-border flow.

•  Cdiscount: the home-grown challenger to Amazon, under fire from the internationals but doubling down on a marketplace-first strategy.

•  Carrefour: the supermarket that became a genuine multi-category marketplace, and one of France’s most distinctive platform stories.

•  Veepee: the flash-sale model is under pressure globally, but French shoppers still love a curated deal.

Just outside: eBay at the door, Auchan right behind, and Showroomprive worth a nod as a smaller fashion-leaning generalist.

The specialists in the 6 categories

Fashion

• Vinted — France’s single largest fashion destination by volume; too big to leave off, C2C or not.
• Shein — growing fast despite being constantly under fire from the French state, industry and public (more below).
• Zalando — still the brand-driven cross-border counterweight to the fast-fashion crowd.

Electronics

• Boulanger — the service-led French specialist with a fast-growing marketplace.
• Back Market — refurbished tech is now a default, not a niche, and France is its home turf.
• E.Leclerc — another grocery giant turning marketplace muscle into a specialist slot.

Honourable mentions: Fnac still matters here, and Darty owns white goods in France.

Home & Living

• Leroy Merlin — the DIY leader stretching comfortably into home and furnishings.
• Shein — its home decor push is now big enough to register.
• La Redoute — the catalogue veteran reborn as a curated home marketplace.

Still circling: BUT and Conforama remain solid second-tier options.

DIY & Garden

• Leroy Merlin — the undisputed leader of French DIY online.
• Autodoc — the auto-parts platform that launched its B2C marketplace in France first, before rolling it out to Germany and Austria; still growing fast here.
• ManoMano — French-born and France remains its strongest market, yet even here it’s losing ground.

Sports

• Decathlon — the untouchable benchmark, now a real platform and not just a retailer.
• Zalando — holds the branded activewear corner.
• Alltricks — the cycling and outdoor specialist; owned by Decathlon since 2019 but run as a standalone brand, riding France’s deep bike culture.

Beauty & Care

• Shein — its beauty range is booming with younger shoppers.
• Auchan — supermarket strength translating most directly into everyday care and personal-care products rather than premium beauty.
• Nocibé — the French premium beauty specialist (Douglas’ sister brand).

One to watch: Yves Rocher opened its own marketplace in late 2024 and is developing nicely — one slot short for now.

The Shein paradox: under siege, and still winning

Shein has become the lightning rod for France’s entire anti-fast-fashion movement. The 2025 Paris store opening turned into a national flashpoint — protests, riot police, a petition with six-figure signatures, brands walking out of BHV. The marketplace suspension over illegal third-party listings was a genuine shock, and the Loi Violland is built largely with Shein in mind. Yet the marketplace reopened, the commercial trajectory never bent, and Brussels has now stepped in to slow France’s own law. The regulatory risk here is real and worth pricing into any partnership — but writing Shein off in France would be a serious misread.

What’s next: a social-commerce wildcard

TikTok Shop isn’t in the quadrant yet, but it had a strong 2025 in France and is moving quickly — a 2027 entry looks likely, especially given how well social commerce maps onto French beauty and fashion buying. Watch the legacy retailers too: Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc, Leroy Merlin and Decathlon are proof that in France it’s the established store brands, not the pure players, driving the most structurally important marketplaces — and they’re still expanding. And keep an eye on the second tier generally, because in France that’s where the volume nobody else is fighting over actually lives.

Key Learnings

• France grows reliably at around 6% a year — €70.3 billion in 2025, €74.4 billion expected in 2026 — even amid the fiercest anti-Chinese-platform pushback in Europe.
• The Shein clash — store protests, marketplace suspension, the Loi Violland, and Brussels’ pushback against it — makes France the continent’s most politically charged marketplace market.
• French legacy retailers, not pure players, run the country’s most structurally important marketplaces: Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc, Leroy Merlin, Decathlon.
• Volume is spread more evenly than almost anywhere in Europe; the ranking below position three is where French opportunity hides.
• Vinted’s inclusion breaks our C2C rule on purpose: it’s simply France’s biggest fashion platform.
• TikTok Shop is the wildcard for 2027.

Did we miss a platform? Let us know! Interested in other country markets or certain categories? Check out our full collection of country and category quadrants here.

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Amazon moves Prime Day 2026 to June and stretches it to four days
Amazon Prime Day 2026 will run from 23 to 26 June across 26 countries, including most major European markets. The earlier timing and longer event window make this a clear operational heads-up for sellers. Inventory, advertising budgets, pricing and fulfilment planning need to be aligned now, not in July. See more on ChannelX 

More News

Belgian ecommerce grows – but much of the money leaves the country
Belgian consumers spent €18.3 billion online in 2025, up 5.4% year on year, with more than nine in ten Belgians shopping online. The catch: much of that spending went to foreign platforms. This is making Belgium another strong example of how cross-border marketplaces are capturing local ecommerce growth. Read more on Ecommercenews 

eBay tests Managed Shipping in the US
eBay has updated its US User Agreement with new sections covering eBay Live, Managed Shipping and arbitration rules. For now, the Managed Shipping test is limited to selected US sellers and categories, but strategically it points to a broader platform trend. Marketplaces are moving deeper into infrastructure, logistics and seller control. Find out more on ValueAddedResource 

France hits Shein with another €22.4 million in fines
French authorities have imposed two new fines on Shein, totalling €22.4 million, over consumer information, withdrawal rights and environmental information obligations. Shein says the sanctions are disproportionate and plans to appeal. But the case adds to a broader regulatory pressure pattern: French penalties against Shein now reportedly exceed €210 million. See more on Ecommercenews

eBay Germany raises fees for new goods sellers
From 1 July 2026, eBay Germany will remove tiered sales commissions in many categories and introduce fixed, often higher fees for new goods. In IT, for example, the new commission for new goods will be 7%, while used, refurbished and B-stock items will move to 5%. It’s a clear sign that eBay is shifting incentives towards recommerce, live shopping and selected focus categories. Read more on Channelpartner 

Launch News

easyGroup and OnBuy plan new European marketplace
easyGroup is entering ecommerce with easyShop.com, a new marketplace built together with OnBuy and planned for rollout in 21 European countries from late 2026. Seller recruitment has already started, but the market is crowded: brand awareness may help, yet easyShop will still need a clear proposition for merchants and consumers to stand out against Amazon, eBay, Zalando, Temu, Shein and others. See the full story on Retail News 

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Der Beitrag Marketplace Universe News 08.062026 – Prime Day gets longer and earlier, and France fines Shein again erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.

German e-commerce is back on the (cautious) growth track 

After the difficult post-pandemic years, German e-commerce has found its rhythm again. According to the new HDE Online Monitor 2026, online retail sales in Germany grew by 3.9% in 2025, reaching €92.3 billion net. That follows growth of 3.8% in 2024 and marks a further step away from the correction phase of 2022 and 2023.

For 2026, the HDE expects the market to grow by another 4.3%, reaching €96.3 billion. That is not a return to pandemic-style acceleration. But it is a steady recovery – and probably the healthier kind. Since 2020, German online sales have increased by €19.3 billion.

The more interesting question is where this growth comes from. Last year, the headline was simple: marketplaces drove the entire growth. This year, the story is more nuanced. Marketplaces are still ahead, but the gap to other online formats has narrowed.

All categories are growing again

For the second year in a row, all major online retail categories recorded growth. The striking part: growth rates have moved closer together. The weak patches of previous years, especially in categories like fashion, seem to be largely over.

The clear exception is FMCG. Online sales of fast-moving consumer goods grew by 10.4% in 2025 – more than 2.5 times the market average. In 2024, FMCG was already the fastest-growing category with 7.3%. This year, the category pulled even further ahead.

Other categories grew at a much more moderate pace: Health & Wellness by 4.9%, Jewelry & Watches by 3.1%, Consumer Electronics and Leisure & Hobby by 2.9% each, Fashion & Accessories by 2.8%, Office Supplies by 2.4%, DIY & Garden by 2.1%, and Home & Living by 1.8%.

Fashion and Electronics remain Germany’s two largest online categories. Fashion & Accessories reached €21.2 billion, accounting for 22.9% of total online sales. Consumer Electronics followed with €19.7 billion, or 21.3% of the market. Together, the two categories still make up 44.2% of German online retail – but their combined share is slowly declining. In 2024, it stood at 44.7%.

FMCG is the category to watch. Its share of total online sales rose from 13.7% to 14.5%, reaching €13.4 billion. The online penetration is still low, but the direction is clear: groceries, drugstore products and everyday consumer goods are becoming a much more important part of German e-commerce.

Marketplaces still lead – but they no longer own the whole growth story

In 2024, the message was brutal for many retailers: all online growth came from marketplaces, while other online channels declined. In 2025, the picture looks less one-sided.

Sales via marketplaces and platforms grew by 5.4%. That is still above the total online market growth of 3.9%. But other formats also grew: providers with online DNA by 3.9%, stationary retailers by 4.0%, and manufacturers by 3.8%.

So yes, marketplaces remain the strongest growth format. But the simplistic “marketplaces win, everyone else loses” narrative no longer works. Own shops, retailer shops and manufacturer-led models are not dead. They just need a much clearer role: brand experience, customer relationship, loyalty, better margins, exclusive assortments – something beyond simply listing products online.

Amazon gains share again

Germany remains an Amazon market.

According to the HDE Online Monitor 2026, Amazon.de accounted for 63.3% of German online sales in 2025, up from 62.7% in 2024. Amazon’s own retail business remained stable at 17.2%, while the Amazon marketplace grew from 45.5% to 46.1%.

That may sound like a small increase. It is not. When a player already controls more than 60% of the market, even half a percentage point matters.

Other marketplaces also gained slightly. The combined share of marketplaces outside Amazon – including eBay, Zalando/About You, Otto, TikTok Shop and specialist platforms such as ManoMano, Moebel.de or Chrono24- rose from 10.6% to 10.8%. Overall, marketplaces accounted for 56.7% of German online sales in 2025.

The uncomfortable truth remains: Germany is not a highly fragmented marketplace market. It is an Amazon-dominated market with a relevant, but much smaller, platform landscape around it.

Temu and Shein are big – but not as big as you think

Temu and Shein are now structurally relevant in Germany. The HDE estimates their combined German sales at around €4.7 billion in 2025, up from roughly €3.0 billion in 2024. That equals about 5% of total German online retail.

That is impressive. But it is not market takeover.

The two platforms are large enough to put pressure on pricing, assortment expectations and customer acquisition. But they are still far from Amazon’s scale. The industry sometimes talks about Temu and Shein as if they had already rewritten the entire German market. The numbers are more sober: they are a serious force, not the whole market.

Their user base is growing, though. The HDE estimates that 16.0 million people in Germany bought from Temu and/or Shein in 2025, up from 14.4 million in 2024. Average order value rose sharply from €24.95 to €34.15, while order frequency increased slightly to 8.51 orders per year.

The reputation problem remains. Many non-buyers still associate Temu with poor product quality. But among actual buyers, the picture is more positive. That is the real risk for established players: Temu does not need to convince everyone. It only needs a large enough group to keep buying frequently.

TikTok Shop starts small – but not quietly

TikTok Shop is still tiny compared with Amazon, Zalando or even Temu and Shein. But the early numbers are worth watching.

Half a year after launch, 52% of German internet users already knew TikTok Shop, and 9% had already bought there. The top categories were Clothing & Accessories, Cosmetics & Care, Sports & Leisure, Consumer Electronics, and Drinks & Snacks. Average spending per purchase was €59, and PwC data cited by the HDE estimates TikTok Shop’s German 2025 sales at around €220 million.

That does not make TikTok Shop a must-have channel for every brand yet. But ignoring it would be lazy. Especially in categories where impulse, creators, entertainment and low-friction buying meet, TikTok Shop is becoming part of the platform conversation faster than many expected.

Amazon Haul brings the low-price fight into Amazon’s own ecosystem

The low-price battle is no longer just happening on Temu, Shein or AliExpress. Amazon is moving too.

Amazon Haul launched in Germany in June 2025. Four months later, it already had 47% awareness, 13% of respondents had purchased via the concept, and 59% of buyers ordered at least once a month.

This matters because Amazon Haul brings ultra-low-price mechanics into the most powerful commerce ecosystem in Germany. For brands and sellers, that means the pressure from low-price models is no longer somewhere else. It is moving closer to the mainstream.

Cross-border shopping keeps rising

German consumers are also becoming more comfortable buying from abroad. The share of online shoppers who say they consciously order from foreign providers increased from 24% to 26%. China remains by far the most important source country: 49% of those who bought abroad ordered from China.

This is one of the reasons why national market logic is becoming weaker. German brands and retailers are not only competing with German retailers anymore. They are competing with global supply chains, platform-funded reach, aggressive pricing and increasingly frictionless cross-border delivery.

Social media and AI are moving into the shopping journey

The customer journey is becoming less predictable. Social media is not just a place for inspiration anymore. It triggers purchases. On average, 13% of German internet users have bought a product after seeing it in a person’s social media post. Among 30- to 39-year-olds, the share reaches 23%.

AI is moving even faster into product research. 35% of consumers already use AI chatbots when researching products, mainly to compare product features, quality and prices.

For brands, this is more than a marketing side note. Product data, reviews, trust signals, price logic and content quality are becoming machine-readable sales assets. If shoppers start asking AI tools what to buy, where to buy it and which shop to trust, visibility will no longer depend only on Amazon search, Google rankings or marketplace filters.

Second-hand is now a €10.5 billion online market

Second-hand is still excluded from the HDE’s main online sales figure because the report focuses on new goods. But as a market, it has become too large to treat as a niche.

Online second-hand sales reached €10.5 billion in 2025, up 5.3% from the previous year. Since 2019, the market has grown from €5.7 billion, with a CAGR of 10.6%.

The strongest segments are Books, Fashion & Accessories and Consumer Electronics. What started as a sustainability story is increasingly also a price story. Consumers buy second-hand not only because it feels responsible, but because it helps reduce spending. That makes the market relevant far beyond vintage fashion or refurbished electronics.

Conclusion: Germany’s online market is stable – but the rules are shifting

The German online market is growing again. Not spectacularly, but steadily. That alone is good news.

But the real story is not the growth rate. It is the changing structure underneath.

Marketplaces remain the backbone of German e-commerce, and Amazon has strengthened its already dominant position. But the market is no longer as one-sided as last year’s figures suggested. Other formats are growing again, FMCG is becoming a stronger online category, second-hand is reaching serious scale, and low-price platforms are forcing everyone to rethink price perception and customer expectations.

At the same time, TikTok Shop, social commerce and AI-driven product research are changing how products are discovered and evaluated. The next phase of German e-commerce will not be won only through more listings, more ad spend or more marketplace presence. It will be won through better execution: sharper channel roles, cleaner data, stronger pricing discipline, operational excellence and a realistic understanding of where customers actually make decisions.

Germany is not in an e-commerce boom. But it is entering a more complex, more platform-driven and more competitive phase of online retail.

Key Learnings

• German e-commerce is growing steadily again: Online sales increased by 3.9% to €92.3 billion in 2025, with 4.3% growth forecast for 2026.
• FMCG is the strongest growth category: With 10.4% growth, FMCG is pulling far ahead of the market average, even though online penetration remains low.
• Marketplaces remain dominant, but the gap is narrowing: Marketplace sales grew by 5.4%, still above market average, but other online formats are growing again too.
• Amazon is still the central force in Germany: Amazon.de increased its share to 63.3% of German online sales, driven mainly by its marketplace business.
• Temu and Shein are serious, not all-powerful: Their estimated combined market share reached around 5%, making them releva- but not dominant.
• TikTok Shop and Amazon Haul show where the pressure is moving: Social commerce and ultra-low-price mechanics are entering the mainstream faster than many brands expected.
• Second-hand has become a structural market: At €10.5 billion, online second-hand is no longer a side topic.
• AI will reshape product discovery: If consumers use AI tools for product research, brands need better data, clearer trust signals and more machine-readable product content.

If you’d like to learn more about TikTok Shop, check out our in-depth guide How to Succeed on TikTok Shop or our podcast Just Being on TikTok Shop Is Not Enough: Philips’ 2-Year Playbook for Europe #LTM153

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Der Beitrag The German Online Market 2026 erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.

EU imposes €200 million fine on Temu
The EU has imposed its first major fine on Temu under the Digital Services Act. The platform is expected to pay €200 million because it allegedly failed to sufficiently control illegal products on its marketplace. For the industry, the case shows that the DSA is becoming a real platform risk. Read more on DW

More News

TikTok Shop continues its European expansion
TikTok Shop is further expanding its presence in Europe: on 15 June, the shopping feature is expected to launch in Poland, the Netherlands and Austria. For sellers, the announced “Sell Across Europe” feature is particularly relevant, as it is designed to allow merchants to reach multiple EU markets through a single registration. In Spain, where TikTok Shop has been active since late 2024, one in five online sellers is already represented on the platform. See more on LinkedIn (Poland), LinkedIn (Netherlands), Die Presse (Austria) and Ecommercenews (Spain)

Otto.de grows significantly
Otto Group significantly increased its profit in the past financial year: EBIT rose from €276 million to €641 million, while revenue declined by 7.4% to €13.8 billion. The main reason for the revenue decline was the sale of About You to Zalando. Otto.de grew by 8% to €4.8 billion and accounts for around one third of the group’s total revenue. At the same time, Otto points to cost savings – including job cuts – as another driver of higher profitability. Find out more on Süddeutsche Zeitung

JD.com eyes the Very Group
JD.com is apparently pushing ahead with its European ambitions. The Chinese group is reportedly looking to acquire the UK’s Very Group for £2 billion. At the same time, the EU is now also reviewing JD.com’s planned investment in Ceconomy. This is no longer just about individual acquisitions, but about how strongly Chinese retail groups will shape European retail in the future. Read more on Retail Gazette (Very) and Yahoo Finance (EU)

Amazon invests $20 billion in the UK
Amazon invested more than £15 billion in the UK in 2025. By the end of 2027, the total investment is expected to reach £40 billion. The money went into new logistics sites, studio and office space, and a drone delivery trial. Amazon also reported more than £30 billion in revenue from its UK activities in 2025. See more on FashionNetwork

Farfetch launches livestream shopping for Private Clients
Farfetch is launching “Farfetch Live”, a new livestream format for selected Private Clients. The focus is on fine watches, fine jewellery and rare accessories, presented in curated digital sessions. Instead of classic live shopping, Farfetch is focusing on advice, expertise and luxury storytelling. Read more on FashionUnited

Zalando partners with Vestiaire Collective
Zalando is opening its platform to Vestiaire Collective and expanding its pre-owned offering in the luxury segment. The partnership shows that luxury resale is moving further into the mainstream.Find out more on FashionNetwork

Nostalgia News

eBay brings back “3, 2, 1 …!”
eBay Germany is launching a new brand campaign around its well-known claim “3, 2, 1 …!”, putting eBay Live at the centre. The live commerce format is now active in seven markets; in Germany, eBay says it has developed into a scalable channel since its launch in November 2025. eBay is combining nostalgia, community and live shopping – bringing the direct exchange between buyers and sellers back into focus. See the full story on eBay

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Der Beitrag Marktplace Universe News 01.06.2026 – EU fines Temu €200m, and TikTok Shop expands in Europe erschien zuerst auf Marketplace Universe.

What Agentic Commerce Actually Is (and Isn’t)

Agentic commerce describes a model in which AI agents act autonomously, or semi-autonomously, on behalf of consumers across the full commerce journey: product discovery, comparison, negotiation, checkout, and post-purchase management. The user sets a goal. The agent executes.

Imagine a shopper who needs new running shoes. They tell their AI assistant: best options under €150, next-day delivery to Germany, size 43. By the time they finish their coffee, the agent has compared inventory across platforms, verified stock and pricing, applied any loyalty discounts, and placed the order — without the shopper ever visiting a brand’s website or marketplace listing.

That scenario is no longer hypothetical. The question now is whether your brand is ready to be found by AI agents when it happens.

The Numbers: How Fast This Is Moving

The commercetools Agentic Commerce Radar, published in May 2026, and supporting data from multiple analyst sources tell a consistent story. Consumer adoption at the discovery layer is already mainstream. The transaction layer is beginning to follow.

Consumer adoption — where we are today:

According to Riskified consumer research, compiled in the commercetools radar:

• 73% of consumers are already using AI in their shopping journey — for product ideas (45%), review summaries (37%), and price comparison (32%)
• 60% of shoppers expect to use AI agents for purchases within the next 12 months (Martech)
• 44% of users who have tried AI-powered search say it has become their primary and preferred source for internet searching (McKinsey)
• But only 13% have actually completed a purchase after being referred by an AI assistant — with 70% saying they are at least somewhat comfortable with an agent making purchases on their behalf (Riskified)

That last gap — between comfort and actual completion — is the defining dynamic of agentic commerce right now. The majority of consumers are using AI for research and discovery. Very few are completing purchases through agents yet. The infrastructure and habits needed for full transaction delegation are forming, but they are not there.

The downstream traffic and conversion impact:

According to Adobe Analytics data reported by Digital Commerce 360, AI-driven traffic to US retail sites surged 805% year-over-year on Black Friday 2025. More recent Adobe data from Q1 2026 shows that AI-referred shoppers now convert 42% better than non-AI traffic — a complete reversal from a year prior, when they converted 38% worse. Traditional search engine volume, meanwhile, is projected to decline 25% by 2026 as consumers shift to GenAI channels, according to Gartner.

Where the market is heading:

A Morgan Stanley forecast estimates that nearly 50% of online shoppers will use AI agents by 2030, accounting for approximately 25% of their spending and adding around $115 billion to the US e-commerce sector alone. For B2B, the trajectory is steeper still — Gartner projects that 90% of B2B buying will be AI agent-intermediated by 2028.

Why Consumers Are Adopting It — and What That Means for Brands

The adoption driver is not technology enthusiasm. It is genuine frustration with the existing shopping experience.

Comparison shopping across multiple platforms is tedious. Review synthesis is time-consuming. Inventory availability changes by the hour. Return policies differ by retailer. For high-frequency or research-heavy purchases, AI agents remove real friction — and consumers know it.

This matters for brands because it means the adoption curve will not reverse. The question is not whether agents will mediate more purchases, but how quickly.

Marketplace Universe Insight: When a consumer delegates their purchase decision to an AI agent, brand marketing — the campaign, the imagery, the emotional narrative — has no surface to land on. The agent does not read copy. It reads data: price, availability, delivery time, return policy, product attributes, ratings. If that data is incomplete, inconsistent, or missing from the sources agents query, the brand simply does not exist in that transaction.

The shift from the traditional sales funnel to an agent-mediated purchase does not eliminate brand relevance entirely — but it relocates where that relevance is built. It moves earlier, to the data layer, and later, to the post-purchase experience. The moment of selection increasingly belongs to the algorithm.

The Hard Limits: What’s Not Working Yet

The numbers above are real. So is the hype around them. And the hype tends to obscure the genuine structural limits that still apply in mid-2026.

Full transaction delegation remains thin. According to Riskified consumer research, 70% of consumers say they are comfortable with an AI agent making purchases on their behalf — but only 13% have actually done it. OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature, launched in September 2025, quietly ran into this wall: users were asking plenty of shopping questions inside ChatGPT but not completing purchases. By early 2026, OpenAI had walked back the native checkout model and pivoted to a discovery-first approach, routing transactions to merchant-controlled checkout environments instead. The lesson: even where the infrastructure exists, habits and trust take time to follow.

Data fragmentation undermines agent reliability. AI agents can only act on information they trust. Inconsistent product data — different titles, attributes, and pricing across channels — creates uncertainty. Research from Rithum, referenced in commercetools’ white paper “Navigating the Agentic Commerce Era On Your Terms,” found that 75% of retail leaders say AI is advancing faster than their organizations can adopt it, and 49% of brand workflows still rely heavily on manual processes. Agents built on fragmented data produce fragmented recommendations.

The post-purchase experience is fully brand-owned — and fully exposed. An agent can surface and order a product. It cannot process a return. That interaction remains owned by the brand or retailer. Brands investing in agentic entry points while neglecting post-purchase experience are building on unstable ground.

Regulatory clarity is still forming. The EU AI Act and related consumer protection frameworks are still being interpreted in their application to autonomous commercial transactions. Consent frameworks for agent-mediated purchases are not yet standardized. European brands need to monitor this actively.

Three Protocol Standards Brands Need to Know

Protocols are the infrastructure that determines whether AI agents can find, evaluate, and transact with your products. Three distinct standards are currently live or emerging — and they are not yet converging.

These three are complementary, not competing. MCP provides the data access layer. ACP routes OpenAI/ChatGPT-adjacent transactions. UCP routes Google-adjacent transactions. In April 2026, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Stripe all joined the UCP Tech Council — signaling that UCP is emerging as the open governance standard that major players are coalescing around.

Marketplace Universe Insight: Brands that want to be present across the full agentic landscape need to be thinking about all three. The good news: the foundation is the same for all of them — clean, structured, real-time product data. A brand that solves its data infrastructure problem is not solving it three times over. It is solving it once and becoming protocol-ready by default.

The Amazon Angle: Control, Then Integrate

Amazon’s relationship to agentic commerce is its own story — and a revealing one.

Amazon’s first move was defensive. The company blocked ChatGPT and other AI crawlers in its robots.txt file, preventing OpenAI’s agents from surfacing Amazon product listings in real time. The stated rationale: protecting against misrepresentation of automated traffic as human. The commercial logic: Amazon’s $4 billion advertising business depends on controlling who can access its product data and on what terms.

What followed suggests a strategic recalibration rather than a clean reversal. In May 2026, a job listing for a Principal Technical Program Manager to lead a dedicated 40-person agentic commerce team surfaced publicly — specifically tasked with building controlled integrations between Amazon’s marketplace and third-party AI platforms including ChatGPT. Reported by PPC.land and TechBriefly, the listing signals that Amazon is now building its own integration layer — on its own timeline, under its own commercial conditions. In April 2026, Amazon also joined the UCP Tech Council alongside Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Stripe, bringing itself inside the governance structure of the open standard it had initially stood apart from.

Amazon’s “Buy for Me” feature — announced in early 2026 — takes this further: it allows Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, to complete purchases from other brands’ websites when Amazon does not carry the product itself. Amazon is positioning itself not just as a marketplace, but as a shopping agent layer that captures purchase intent regardless of where the transaction ultimately happens.

For European brands, the implication is direct: Amazon is not absent from the agentic future. It is engineering the terms on which it participates. Brands with Amazon presence need to monitor this closely — because the data and integration requirements for Rufus-visibility may differ substantially from those for ACP or UCP.

Answer Engine Optimization: The Concrete Action Available Today

The question practitioners eventually arrive at: what can we actually do right now?

The answer may lie in Answer Engine Optimization — AEO. Because AI agents function as search engines that synthesize and act rather than list and rank, content and product data need to be structured in a way that makes them directly accessible to those systems.

As Aditya Sinha from Sanbi AI puts it: “This is the defining challenge for brands in 2026: if your data isn’t machine-readable, you don’t exist in the agentic shopping funnel.”

AEO is distinct from traditional SEO in one critical way: SEO optimizes for human click-through from a ranked list. AEO optimizes for agent comprehension and direct action. An agent does not present options for selection — it synthesizes available information and either recommends or executes. A brand not represented in the structured data sources an agent queries is simply not included.

Marketplace Universe Insight: The brands best positioned for agentic commerce are often not the largest brands, but the most data-disciplined ones. A mid-sized European outdoor brand with complete, structured, intent-rich product data will outperform a global conglomerate with a fragmented catalog in agent-mediated recommendations. That is a genuine competitive opportunity — available right now.

Key Learnings

• The consumer shift is already happening at the discovery layer. 73% of consumers use AI in their shopping journey. Traffic from AI sources to retail sites grew 805% year-over-year. The infrastructure is being built in real time.
• The agent doesn’t read your campaign. It reads your data. When an AI agent is the buyer, brand relevance is determined by the completeness and accuracy of structured product data — not by creative or messaging.
• Three protocols are emerging simultaneously: MCP, ACP, and UCP. They are complementary. A solid data foundation makes a brand protocol-ready across all three without solving the problem three times over.
• OpenAI’s Instant Checkout struggled — and the pivot is instructive. Native AI checkout didn’t convert at scale. The current model routes to merchant-controlled checkout. Post-purchase experience remains fully brand-owned, and it matters more than ever.
• Amazon’s strategy is: control first, integrate on your own terms. It blocked AI crawlers, established its own agent rules, then joined the UCP council and started building integrations. Its “Buy for Me” feature positions Amazon as a shopping agent layer across the entire web — not just its own marketplace.
• AEO is the concrete action available today. Structured, complete, machine-readable, intent-rich product data is what makes a brand reachable by AI agents. This is an ongoing data discipline, not a one-time implementation.
• Data discipline, not brand size, determines agentic visibility. The brands that will capture disproportionate share in agent-mediated commerce are the most data-disciplined ones — regardless of marketing budget.

Enjoyed this article? The Marketplace Universe Weekly is our free newsletter — every Monday, the latest marketplace news, platform updates, our newest posts, and the insights that matter, delivered straight to your inbox. So you never miss a thing. Subscribe here: https://marketplace-universe.com/newsletter/

29.05.2026 – Written by Ricarda Eichler, Journalist and Author for OHN

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When Amazon shows products that are not sold on Amazon

Amazon has been testing new models for external commerce with “Shop Direct” and “Buy for Me” for some time. It is still unclear whether or when Amazon will bring these models to Europe. It also remains open whether this would be so straightforward, or whether European law could put limits on Amazon and thereby better protect brands and sellers. We asked Sandra May, legal expert at the German e-commerce association Händlerbund, for her assessment.

What is this about?

With “Shop Direct”, Amazon integrates external online shops directly into its own product search. Users see products from third-party shops within the Amazon app and are then redirected to the respective shop page to complete the purchase. Amazon earns commissions in the process.

With “Buy for Me”, Amazon goes one step further: here, the customer remains entirely within the Amazon interface while Amazon automatically executes the order in the background at the respective shop.

Both models significantly change the previous separation between the Amazon marketplace and external commerce. Suddenly, products can become part of the Amazon ecosystem even though merchants or brands deliberately do not want to sell there. This is precisely what gives rise to numerous legal questions.

Product images, texts and data: where does the copyright problem begin?

One of the first questions concerns the automated use of product data. As part of such models, Amazon apparently takes product images, texts and prices from external shops – in some cases without the active consent of the merchants.

Sandra May, legal expert at the German e-commerce retailer association Händlerbund, states:

“If Amazon uses product photos and texts from other shops without permission, this legally constitutes reproduction – and that requires a licence.”

Product images in particular are legally sensitive, as they are generally protected by copyright. However, the issue goes beyond individual images. As platforms increasingly retrieve product data from external stores, a new question arises. To what extent will commerce platforms be able to access third-party store infrastructures in the future – both technically and legally?

Brands appear on Amazon without wanting to

The issue becomes particularly sensitive when it comes to trademark law. Many companies deliberately invest in their own distribution channels and try to control their brand presentation outside large platforms. Some brands even explicitly prohibit their distribution partners from selling on certain marketplaces or have deliberately withdrawn from Amazon. If products nevertheless appear within the Amazon app, this could become problematic.

Sandra puts it this way:

“If brands are presented in this way, it could constitute exploitation of reputation, because it creates the impression that a business relationship exists. For consumers, that is exactly the impression that will arise.”

From a consumer perspective in particular, it is often unlikely to be clear whether a brand is actually working with Amazon or not. This creates not only trademark-related questions. It also raises reputational risks for companies that deliberately want to keep their distance from the platform.

New questions around contracts and bots

The situation becomes even more complex with “Buy for Me”. Here, according to the current understanding, Amazon merely acts as an intermediary and purchases on external shop pages on behalf of the customer. Legally, the contract therefore continues to be formed between the shop and the customer.

At the same time, this model potentially conflicts with existing shop terms and conditions, as many merchants expressly prohibit automated orders or bot access. Whether such orders can be rejected, however, depends heavily on how the respective shop structures the conclusion of contracts.

Sandra explains:

“In the case of binding offers, the contract is concluded directly. Cancelling an existing purchase contract is not easy.”

In addition, another question arises: do consumers recognise with sufficient transparency who their actual contractual partner is? If not, this could become problematic from the perspective of EU consumer protection law.

A risk factor for Amazon: the DMA

Alongside copyright, trademark law and consumer protection, another aspect comes into focus: the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Through “Shop Direct”, Amazon would potentially gain access to data that previously existed outside its own platform:

• Prices
• Assortment
• Demand
• Product availability

As Amazon is considered a gatekeeper under the DMA, the company is subject to particularly strict rules when handling business data. However, the model currently appears to sit in a regulatory grey area.

Sandra says:

“The DMA tends to assume data that Amazon has because merchants trade on the platform. With Shop Direct, the constellation is different.”

Whether and how the DMA will apply here in the future is therefore likely to depend heavily on the specific design of such models.

Why this development is strategically significant

The real significance of “Shop Direct” and “Buy for Me” may lie less in individual legal questions than in the direction indicated behind them. Amazon is increasingly expanding its role in e-commerce from a traditional marketplace to a central commerce interface. Even if the actual purchase takes place outside Amazon, Amazon potentially remains the central entry point for product search, product selection and the purchase decision.

Marketplace Universe Insight: The key question in e-commerce may increasingly be less “Where is the purchase made?” and more “Who controls the entry point into the customer journey?”

For brands that have invested heavily in their own shops, communities and CRM structures, this could become relevant in the long term. Platform dependency would then no longer arise only through the transaction itself, but already through visibility, product search and customer access.

Key Learnings

• “Shop Direct” and “Buy for Me” raise numerous open legal questions in Europe.
• Potential conflicts around copyright, trademark law, consumer protection and the DMA are particularly relevant.
• The automated use of product images and brand presentations could be especially critical.
• “Buy for Me” also raises new questions around automated orders and contract law.
• Strategically, a larger development is emerging at the same time: Amazon is increasingly expanding its role from marketplace to central commerce interface.

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Why the Nordic market is underestimated

The Nordics tend to end up in the appendices of most expansion strategies – somewhere behind Germany, UK, France, Poland and other, bigger markets. That’s a mistake.

According to ECDB, annual e-commerce revenue across the region will reach 39.7 billion euros in 2026, growing to 52.6 billion euros by 2030. Internet penetration stands at 98.9 percent, with near-universal coverage expected by 2030. According to the PostNord study, 86 percent of Nordic consumers made an online purchase in the last 30 days, and more than seven in ten made a cross-border purchase in the past year. These are not emerging market numbers – this is a mature, high-spending market with highly digitalised consumers.

Marketplace Universe Insight: The Nordics are not an add-on to a DACH strategy. They are a distinct, fragmented market – with different marketplace preferences in each country that sellers and brands need to understand and address separately.

The top 3 international marketplaces by country

Three platforms define the Nordic cross-border marketplace space: Temu, Zalando and Amazon. Their relative weight differs significantly by country – and the shifts compared to 2025 are significant enough to warrant a strategic rethink.

Country	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
Sweden	Amazon 33% (34%)	Temu 27% (23%)	Zalando 25% (27%)
Denmark	Zalando 36% (35%)	Temu 30% (26%)	Amazon 20% (23%)
Finland	Temu 30% (25%)	Zalando 30% (29%)	Amazon 11% (16%)
Norway	Temu 36% (41%)	Zalando 34% (34%)	Amazon 12% (16%)

Source: PostNord, “E-commerce in the Nordics 2026 Spring”. Figures in brackets: 2025 comparison values.

Sweden

Sweden is the most mature e-commerce market in the Nordics: 88 percent of consumers made an online purchase in the last 30 days, while cross-border affinity at 57 percent is the lowest in the region. Amazon holds the top spot but is losing ground slightly. The real winner of the year is Temu, which climbs from 23 to 27 percent and pushes Zalando off second place. Price beats brand loyalty – even in the affluent Swedish market.

Denmark

Denmark is the strongest cross-border market in the Nordics: 80 percent of consumers made a purchase from abroad in the past year. Zalando leads comfortably, driven by the top purchase category of fashion and footwear. For DACH brands, the most strategically relevant number is a different one: Germany has maintained its position as the most popular country of origin for cross-border purchases, jumping from 35 to 42 percent – well ahead of China at 31 percent. This means that brands already active in the German market can often serve Danish demand without starting from scratch.

Finland

Finland is showing the most significant structural shifts. Temu has overtaken Zalando in first place, driven by persistent price sensitivity in an economically sluggish market. Even more striking: Amazon loses five percentage points, falling from 16 to 11 percent. That is not statistical noise – it is a structural signal.

Marketplace Universe Insight: Finland is the market where price-driven platforms are advancing most strongly. Not just Temu – second-hand platforms such as Vinted and the Finnish platform Tori are also gaining ground according to the study. This is reshaping the price landscape for every seller active in the market.

Norway

Norway is the only Nordic country showing a notable Temu decline in 2026: down five percentage points to 36 percent. At the same time, the cross-border geography is shifting – Sweden has replaced China as the most popular country of origin, and Denmark has entered the top three for the first time. The study attributes this to a growing preference for closer markets: faster delivery, easier returns, higher consumer trust. For brands already active in Sweden or Denmark, this represents an underestimated entry point into the Norwegian market.

What the shifts mean for brands and sellers

Temu is not a temporary phenomenon. In three out of four Nordic countries, Temu has gained ground or holds the top spot – even if Norway is showing an early countermovement. Brands that view the Nordics as a premium market and dismiss Temu as irrelevant are misreading the data.

Amazon is losing ground consistently across all four countries – most sharply in Finland and Norway. The scale of the declines varies, but the direction is the same everywhere. Brands that have built their Nordic strategy primarily around Amazon should take a hard look at where things are heading.

Zalando remains the structurally strongest fashion partner. It sits in the top two in all four countries and holds market leadership in Denmark. For fashion brands without a Nordic marketplace presence, Zalando remains the logical first step – and that remains true in 2026.

What has changed, however, is the need for a country-specific approach. Zalando-first works very differently in Denmark than it does in Finland. Amazon investments that make sense in Sweden follow a different return logic in Norway. A single Nordic strategy is not a strategy.

There is also a regulatory factor the study explicitly flags: the planned removal of the €150 customs duty exemption for goods shipped from third countries would structurally reduce the price advantage of Chinese platforms – and in doing so, reopen the competitive field for established sellers.

Key Learnings

• A single Nordic strategy is not a strategy. Country-specific marketplace prioritisation is non-negotiable.
• The Nordic e-commerce market is growing to 52.6 billion euros by 2030, with internet penetration at 98.9 percent. This is not a niche market.
• Temu is gaining in three out of four Nordic countries: in Finland it takes market leadership from Zalando, in Sweden it moves past Zalando into second place.
• Amazon is losing share in all four countries – most sharply in Finland with minus 5 percentage points and in Norway with minus 4 percentage points.
• Germany is the most popular cross-border country of origin in Denmark at 42 percent – ahead of China at 31 percent. A direct expansion signal for DACH brands.
• Finland shows the strongest price sensitivity in the Nordics and the most pronounced structural shifts in favour of price-driven platforms.
• Norway is the first Nordic country with a noticeable Temu decline – and a growing preference for Nordic neighbouring markets over China.

Would you like to learn more about the Nordic countries? Then check out this in-depth article: How to Successfully Sell to the Nordics

Enjoyed this article? The Marketplace Universe Weekly is our free newsletter — every Monday, the latest marketplace news, platform updates, our newest posts, and the insights that matter, delivered straight to your inbox. So you never miss a thing.
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Amazon turns Alexa into a shopping agent
Amazon is moving another step closer to agentic shopping: The platform is combining Rufus and Alexa+ into Alexa for Shopping, bringing an AI shopping assistant to the Amazon Shopping App, the website and Echo Show devices. The assistant is designed to search for and compare products, track prices, manage shopping baskets and, in future, trigger purchases at a desired target price. At the same time, Amazon is currently putting together a team of specialists tasked with developing an API for AI agents – to enable controlled access for external bots. Read more on ChannelX (Alexa+) and LinkedIn (API)

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JD.com grows despite headwinds in China
JD.com beat expectations in the first quarter and reported revenue of $46.47 billion. Net profit came in above analyst expectations, but declined significantly year-on-year. At the same time, JD.com is increasing its appeal to premium and beauty brands. Chanel opened an official beauty flagship store for fragrances, make-up and skincare on the platform on 11 May. Find out more on RetailNewsAsia figures) and Retail Gazette (Chanel)

Ceconomy grows ahead of planned JD.com takeover
Ceconomy, the parent company of MediaMarktSaturn, increased revenue to €13.1 billion in the first half of 2025/26. Adjusted EBIT rose to €347 million, while the online share reached 28.5 %. The marketplace also continues to grow dynamically, now with more than 2,600 sellers and around 4 million products. And all this in the very phase in which JD.com is pushing ahead with its takeover of Ceconomy. See more on Ceconomy 

Allegro raises international targets and partners with OpenAI
After a strong start to the year, Allegro is raising its targets for the international business. GMV on its international marketplaces rose by 46.3 % to zł804 million in the first quarter, and for 2026 Allegro now expects 40 to 45 % GMV growth outside Poland. At the same time, the Polish marketplace is starting a partnership with OpenAI. The aim is to develop new AI applications for commerce, marketing and seller support. Read more on FashionNetwork (forecast) and Ecommercenews (OpenAI)

Douglas loses more than expected
Douglas reported a higher adjusted net loss than expected in the second quarter. The loss came in at €10 million, while analysts had expected only €5 million. Revenue rose slightly by 1.1 % to €949.7 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined by 5.1 %. Douglas now plans to invest more selectively in omnichannel services, assortment and technology. More on FashionNetwork 

Blackstone acquires majority stake in Skroutz
Blackstone is acquiring a majority stake in Greek e-commerce market leader Skroutz from CVC Capital Partners. The founders will remain involved in the business. The deal shows that local marketplace champions remain strategically interesting for international investors. Read more on Ecommercenews 

Hertz sells used cars through eBay shop
Hertz Car Sales is expanding its online presence and opening its own shop on eBay. It gives buyers access to more than 8,000 Hertz-certified vehicles. The inventory mainly consists of vehicles from its own rental fleet. Following the launch on Amazon Autos in 2025 and its own online sales platform, Hertz is further expanding its digital sales offensive. See the full story on Digital Commerce 360

Unsurprising News

eBay rejects GameStop offer
eBay has rejected GameStop’s surprising $55.5 billion takeover offer, as expected, calling it “neither credible nor attractive”. GameStop had offered $125 per share and argued that eBay could become a stronger Amazon competitor under Ryan Cohen. See more on Retail Gazette 

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Amazon opens up its supply chain
Amazon is launching Amazon Supply Chain Services, further expanding its role as an infrastructure provider. The offer for sellers includes freight, distribution, fulfilment and parcel delivery – also across channels outside the Amazon platform. Major brands such as Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands’ End and American Eagle Outfitters are already using the services. Read more at ChannelX 

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Amazon invests 15 billion euros in France
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Zalando grows with ABOUT YOU
In the first quarter of 2026, Zalando’s GMV rose by 21.7% to 4.3 billion euros, while revenue increased by 23.8% to 3 billion euros. The partner business grew faster than Zalando’s own retail business. The integration of ABOUT YOU also provided tailwind, already contributing 10 million euros in synergies to the result. Find out more on Zalando  

Shein under investigation by Irish data protection authority
The Irish Data Protection Commission is investigating Shein over possible GDPR violations related to the transfer of personal data to China. Ireland is responsible because Shein’s European headquarters are located in Dublin. Following investigations into product safety, regulatory pressure from the EU on Shein continues to grow. Read more at The Journal 

Rakuten France faces possible closure
After losing significant ground in France to competitors such as Cdiscount, Vinted and Leboncoin, Rakuten is reportedly actively looking for a buyer. If no investor is found, closure could follow from the third quarter of 2026, with around 180 employees affected. See more on Journal du Geek 

Live Commerce News

Catawiki launches livestream auctions
Collectibles marketplace Catawiki is bringing livestreaming to selected auctions with Catawiki Live. During the final 90 minutes, sellers can present their objects live, answer questions and interact directly with buyers. The format is launching in the Pokémon category, with fashion and toys set to follow. For Catawiki, this is a step towards community commerce: initial streams already reached hundreds of viewers, and one in four objects sold in live auctions was won directly in the stream. Directly via email

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