Ecommerce in Europe: €423.8 billion in 2014
Things are still going well for the ecommerce industry in Europe. In total, B2C ecommerce sales in Europe increased by 14.3%, reaching 423.8 billion euros last year. The growth rate did decrease a little compared to the year before, but it still shows double digits.
The turnover data comes from the new European B2C E-commerce Report 2015, compiled by Ecommerce Europe. This report also shows that the 28 member states of the European Union together achieved a B2C ecommerce turnover of 368.7 billion euros last year, which means the EU accounts for 87% of total European ecommerce sales.
‘In 2015: 12.5% increase to €477 billion’
“It is great to see that B2C European ecommerce is performing so well”, says Wijnand Jongen, who is the chairman of Ecommerce Europe’s Executive Committee. “On a global scale, the European market ranked second last year, only behind Asia-Pacific, which is mainly driven by the unleashed Chinese ecommerce market. Europe is expected to experience another double-digit growth next year.” The organization’s forecast is that online sales in Europe will increase by 12.5% and reach 477 billion euros this year. If this happens, Europe will increase its lead on North America, that’s now ranked third.
The share of ecommerce in Europe grows
So, ecommerce in Europe is still booming, but that’s not something you could say of the overall economy. The European gross domestic product only increased by 1.6% (to 17.3 trillion euros), while the growth rate within the EU28 was even a little lower, at 1.4%. Ecommerce is doing the economy a favor, you might conclude. Whereas the share of ecommerce within the European gross domestic product amounted to 1.27 six year ago, it nearly double to 2.45% last year. And it’s expected to grow even more strongly in the next couple years, with forecasts predicting the European ‘eGDP’ to reach around 6% in 2020.
Ecommerce Europe also tried to find out the number of B2C websites and the amount of parcels sent in 2014. “Both these figures grew considerably compared to the preceding year. Whereas there were around 650,000 B2C websites and 3.7 billion parcels were sent in Europe in 2013, we estimate that these numbers increased to about 715,000 B2C websites and 4.0 billion parcels sent in 2014.”
[Tweet “There were about 715,000 ecommerce sites and 4 billion parcels sent in Europe in 2014.”]2.5 million jobs because of ecommerce
Another way ecommerce in Europe is helping the economy on this continent, is the number of jobs involved with selling goods and services online and shipping them to customers. According to the association the number of jobs created (directly and indirectly) by the B2C ecommerce sector is estimated at nearly 2.5 million in Europe. “This figure will undoubtedly grow with the on-going increase and penetration of the Internet in the European society, and the projected growth of (B2C) ecommerce.”
Ecommerce turnover of the UK, Germany and France
Ecommerce Europe also has new data on European countries alone. And just like in 2013, the United Kingdom was the largest ecommerce market within Europe last year. Its ecommerce turnover increased by 14.7% and reached 127.1 billion euros. The other two major ecommerce countries, Germany and France, expanded at a slower pace. The ecommerce turnover in Germany increased by 12.3% to 71.2 billion euros, while in France it grew by 11.2% to reach 56.8 billion euros.
As the UK and France are part of Western Europe, this region is by far the largest region in Europe in terms of ecommerce sales. With sales worth 208.1 billion euros last year, it represents nearly half of the entire B2C turnover in Europe.The biggest growth however can be found in Central and Eastern Europe, with Russia leading the way. This country’s ecommerce sales increased by 25.4% last year, which resulted in a turnover of 18.8 billion euros. “Combined with the fact that Russia is already the fourth-ranked e-commerce market within Europe, this growth rate makes it clear that the country is an e-commerce force to be reckoned with.”
If you want to have more facts and figures about ecommerce in Europe, you can download the light version and some infographics for free. And if you want all the data, you can order the complete report.
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