Retail startups are creating new buying and selling economies through digital platforms

People like me are the reason for the decline of bricks and mortar retail. I don’t like going shopping.

Maybe I’m just scared from my employment as a teenager in Australia — my idea of hell is a shopping centre at Christmas, playing the Beach Boys covering White Christmas — but if I have to choose between online retail with a beverage in hand and dealing with rude shopping assistants, strobe lighting, and fellow shoppers, you’ll find me behind my laptop thanking the Gods of app development every day. 

And while behemoths like Amazon, Etsy, Zalando, and eBay occupy bucketloads of digital space, there’s a whole era of retail startups in Europe picking up the slack and providing compelling alternatives and market disruption. Let’s take a look: 

Faircado (Berlin)

Faircado is a browser extension that automatically finds the best second-hand alternatives to what you are looking for online – making you save time, money, and CO2.

The company has raised $500k in pre-seed funding. 

Printify (Riga)

Printify makes it possible for anyone anywhere to sell customised merchandise without the hassle and risks of holding inventory, negotiating contracts, or fulfilling orders.

So far, more than 4 million people have signed up to build businesses by putting their designs on the 700+ customisable, high-quality products in the Printify catalogue. 

The company has raised $54.1 million in funding.

Kazidomi (Paris)

Kazidomi sells organic health foods online, such as pasta, kombucha, tomato sauces, cold-pressed oils and coconut products. It uses a membership model, which makes prices lower than in health food stores, with members saving on average €300 annually. 

Deliveristo (Milan)

Founded in 201, Deliveristo has developed an online B2B delivery platform app to simplify the food and beverage industry, allowing digital ordering and purchasing directly from suppliers and distributors. 

Drop shipping removes the need for warehouse dynamics and costs, allowing flexible and cost-effective logistics management and the possibility for restaurateurs to find all types of products with a potentially infinite catalogue and a single point of billing.

The company has raised €12.6 million in funding over four rounds. 

Frisch Gefischt (Hamburg)

Frisch Gefischt is a marketplace that promotes sustainable seafood. It connects fishermen and women who use environmentally friendly fishing methods and minimise bycatch with consumers. The fishing folk are paid fairly and attach great importance to seasonality, quality and freshness. 

Using short distances and well-established logistics, Frisch Gefischt avoids long cooling times and reduces CO 2nd emissions, delivering fish directly to the kitchen of select restaurants and Hamburg market hall.