Consumer behavior

More than eight in ten Dutch people bought online in the first half of this year, a record. Especially for personal care products, medicines and vitamin pills, more consumers went online.

With 16.3 million monthly users, Temu is more popular in Germany than anywhere else in the European Union. The more well-known Shein attracts more attention in France, Spain, and Italy, but generates the most revenue in Europe in Germany.

According to Eurostat figures, 58.1 percent of all consumers in the European Union made a recent online purchase last year. Ecommerce is most established in the Netherlands and least in Bulgaria. In many parts of Southeast Europe, adoption remains below 35 percent.

The number of sellers on TikTok Shop in the United Kingdom has doubled within a year. According to the platform, there are currently over 200,000 businesses active on TikTok Shop, “as brands take advantage of the revenue potential of live shopping and shoppable videos”.

Of the thousand largest online sellers in Europe, 49 percent have their headquarters on the continent. A majority are based elsewhere, primarily in the United States or China. The share of online traffic for these non-European companies is even higher.

At least 83 percent of Nordic consumers shop online monthly, according to a new report. Cross-border shopping is becoming more common in these countries. In the last twelve months, 76 percent of consumers in the Nordics purchased products abroad.

Customers in Poland expect real pro-ecological actions and social commitment from online stores, according to the Chamber of Digital Economy in a new report. According to the government agency, Poland offers a lot of potential for foreign ecommerce companies but is an "extremely demanding" market.

Click and collect is becoming a standard option for online shoppers. A majority (54 percent) of the top thousand European online retailers offer a pick-up option, enhancing their appeal to shoppers.

The rise of shopping platforms from China is making a strong impact in Switzerland. In a top 10 list of popular online shopping destinations, three names from China are included. While AliExpress was the only Chinese player in the Swiss top list three years ago, it has now been surpassed by Shein and Temu.

Last year, B2C ecommerce in Europe generated a nominal turnover of 887 billion euros. This was a slight increase of 3 percent compared to a year earlier, when the turnover reached 864 billion euros. However, there are large regional differences.

Unlike most European countries, local players generate the most online revenue in the Netherlands. The top 3 in online spending for 2023 is led by online department store bol. Supermarket chain Albert Heijn, a sister company of bol, takes second place, and electronics retailer Coolblue is in third. Amazon rises in the new ranking and claims fourth place.

The days of declining online sales in Germany appear to be over. Last year the net sales of the top thousand webshops fell by 0.2 percent, not adjusted for inflation, compared to a 2.8 percent decline in 2022. A nominal growth is expected for this year.

More and more Germans are becoming familiar with live shopping. Six out of ten consumers know what the term means, which is twice as many as three years ago. However, live shopping is still used by only a small portion of German consumers.

More than seven out of ten Belgian consumers never (or almost never) return items that they have ordered online. This is because they only order items that they want to keep. Belgians are ordering online more often, with 40 percent of all purchases happening online.

Online fashion platform Asos has announced that it is introducing a return fee in the United Kingdom. However, the fee only applies to customers who, according to the platform, have a high return rate. Several customers of the online only store have voiced their anger on social media.