Statistics

During September and October, average return values reached almost 127 euros (106 British pounds) in the United Kingdom. This was a 7 percent increase from the same period last year. It seems that consumers are returning more high-value products.

AliExpress and Shein are among the ten largest online sellers in the Netherlands. And behind market leader bol comes, not Albert Heijn or Coolblue, but Amazon as the number two. That is according to a new ranking by German ECDB, a well-known publisher of ecommerce statistics. What is the ranking based on? And what else stands out?

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.

The Netherlands has more than 100,000 online stores. This figure comes from the latest quarterly report from Statistics Netherlands. At least this number of companies have online sales as their main activity, but the number is increasing. The amount of online stores with a broad product range increased 14 percent last year.

A majority of 73 percent of online retailers and service providers in Italy are satisfied by services provided by technology partners and agencies. At least 71 percent are also satisfied by their payment systems. However, most of the companies are dissatisfied with innovative technologies, like AI.

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.

Last year, fashion platform Shein generated 7.68 billion euros in sales in Europe. This was an increase of 68 percent, compared to a year earlier. Its profitability has also increased significantly.

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.

Parcel volumes in Austria are growing significantly. However, the majority of packages, around 80 percent of the total, come from abroad. Amazon accounts for a large share of this parcel surge, and the influence of Chinese platforms is increasing. Local online retailers are losing out.

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.

In the financial year 2023/2024, the whole European online cross-border market achieved sales of 326 billion euros. A large majority, 69 percent, or 225 billion euros came from online marketplaces.

Spending at major British online retailers was 3.2 percent higher in September than in the same month last year. This marks the first growth since April 2021. After nearly 3.5 years, a turning point has been reached, just as in other European countries.

In Germany, small and medium-sized online stores often run on Shopify’s ecommerce software. The company has a market share of almost 40 percent in the country. German software providers Shopware and JTL complete the top three.

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.