We share lots of articles containing hard statistics about ecommerce in Europe, but sometimes these are just numbers. Sometimes it can be more interesting to know more about the consumers driving these statistics. On this page you’ll find article we’ve written about online consumer behavior in Europe.
“The upswing is here”, writes bevh above a report on online retail spending in Germany. According to the industry association, consumers spent 39.84 billion euros on products online in the first half of this year. This marks a 3.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The growth was even stronger in the second quarter.
Smaller online businesses in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are not benefiting from the restored growth in online spending. On the contrary, their revenue is decreasing. “It is becoming increasingly difficult for smaller online stores to maintain their position in the market.”
Compared to other European countries, the Netherlands has the highest share of online shoppers. In the last quarter of 2024, at least 86.7 percent of Dutch consumers bought something online. It means that hundreds of thousands started online shopping last year.
Buying second-hand products online has become common in Germany: 55 percent of consumers bought a used product online last year. Additionally, most Germans are active sellers of used products: 52 percent offered something for sale, mainly fashion, books, and electronics.
Between 2023 and last year, Zalando’s online sales revenue in Switzerland has increased slightly. It remains the biggest online retailer in the country. With its current online growth, it is expected that Galaxus will take over first place during this year.
For the first time in years, Dutch online spending on products is on the rise again. In the first quarter of this year, consumers spent more than 9 billion euros online. This is an increase of 4 percent, which was driven by the increased online spending on products.
In the first two months after its launch, German consumers have not embraced TikTok Shop in large numbers. TikTok Shop is known by one in three consumers, but only one in forty Germans has made a purchase, according to research by media agency OMD.
Temu has now been active in Europe for two years. According to a recent survey by the Chinese marketplace, German customers said that they have average saving of 27 percent on purchases they placed on Temu in 2024. And 41 percent wonder why identical products cost more on other platforms.
A large majority of consumers in the Nordics shop online regularly. In the 30 days leading up to the latest research, 83 percent of them said to have shopped online. Cross-border shopping is becoming more popular in the region.
Online consumer spending in Switzerland increased by 3.5 percent last year, while brick-and-mortar retail saw a slight decline of 0.2 percent. As in many other countries, the share of online sales within total retail continues to rise.
Six months after its debut in the U.S., Amazon Haul has now launched in the United Kingdom. The rollout is in beta, but Amazon has stated that “ultra-low-priced products” will soon be available to all customers in the United Kingdom.
The five largest ecommerce players in Italy account for 46 percent of the sales of the country's top 250 online sellers. Spain also sees a high concentration, with its top five players representing 41 percent of the market. In the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, the market is more evenly distributed. Yet even in those countries, the top 25 sellers are significantly larger than the 225 that follow.
For the past three years, DHL has been charging German online retailers a surcharge for parcel deliveries in November and December. This year, an additional hefty fee will be added during two peak weeks. It could lead German online stores to focus more heavily on Singles Day.
Last year, Belgian consumers spent 17.4 billion euros on online purchases. This was a billion euros more than in 2023, representing an increase of 6.7 percent. In 2024, Belgians did a quarter of all their spending online for the first time.
Last year, Dutch consumers spent 36 billion euros online. This was an increase of 5 percent, compared to 2023. At the same time, the number of orders fell by 1 percent. For the first time, the majority of international purchases were placed with Chinese platforms.