New organisation founded to work towards ‘truly European ecommerce market’

A new organisation has been launched to promote the development of “a truly European ecommerce market.”

Ecommerce Europe represents ecommerce organisations and industry members from seven European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Its board of directors is chaired by François Momboisse, president of FEVAD, the French E-commerce and Home Shopping Federation and its stated aims are to enable a wider standardisation in terms of payment transactions, logistics and legislation, while becoming an efficient and trustworthy partner of the European Commission.

“Europe is a still a patchwork in terms of legislation and payment,” said Momboisse. “This can be extremely discouraging for businesses looking to take on the European market and speak to European e-shoppers.

“We want to help companies by promoting their best interests and consequently contribute towards the creation of a truly European ecommerce market.”

The 11-member board also includes directors of the Norwegian and Swedish mail order associations, of the Associations for Danish Internet Trade and Dutch organisation Thuiswinkel.org. Pixmania executive director Ulric Jerome and Xavier Court, co-founder of private members site vente-privee.com are also among its members.

“Given the continuing growth of online retailing in Europe, it is critical that all the e-commerce players join together to discuss the new challenges that sector is facing and make their voice heard in Europe,” said Court. “We are aware that on a European level, those involved in e-commerce need to speak with one unified voice in order to make the digital commerce revolution happen.

“Only one in 10 Europeans have made an online purchase from the website of another European country. The Ecommerce Europe association will promote a single European online market to allow e-shoppers to access the full range of possibilities offered by all the players in European online sales.”