Statistics

With the strong growth in ecommerce across Europe, also comes a strong growth in marketplaces. European online marketplaces are estimated to value around 120 to 150 billion euros. But the markets for online marketplaces differ per country.

'Buy now, pay later' (BNPL) is becoming increasingly popular. One in five UK consumers are planning to use these services during Christmas, to spread out the costs. But the increasing popularity has also caused an increase in outstanding debt amongst UK shoppers.

The strongest ecommerce markets in Europe have remained on the top. However, consumers in Denmark have spent the most online in the past year. These findings are published in the newest report by Direct Link.

About You, the German fashion retailer, has released its second quarter results. The company shows a year-on-year growth of over 50 percent. This is mainly thanks to their B2B services, as their fashion branch suffers millions in loss.

Marketplaces are now a starting point in 44 percent of all product searches. This is more than twice the number of searches in search engines. Brand loyalty seems to be less important to consumers, as marketplaces are almost 5 times more likely to be a starting point to research products than a brand's own website.

Global online sales have grown with 11 percent in Q3 2021. This is a higher growth than in the previous quarter, when online sales grew 2 percent. However, compared to the same time last year, it's visible that ecommerce is slowing down. The European amount of sales seems to be returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Though Dutch consumers are still placing more cross-border orders within the EU, in Q2 2021 there was a growth of 17 percent when compared to last year. In total, they spent more than 800 million euros in online stores within the EU. This is a slower growth than in previous quarters.

In Germany, ecommerce is becoming more and more defined by marketplaces. Amazon, specifically, is the top player in German ecommerce. Its revenue is at least three times higher than Otto, who is the second largest player in the country.

Due to the fast growth of ecommerce within the UK, many ecommerce companies have seen their data needs increase. Now, 57 percent of retail and ecommerce companies are scraping external public web data. External data can help their marketing and implement effective pricing strategies.

World-famous furniture retailer Ikea managed to grow its online presence last year. Its online channels welcomed more than 5 billion visitors and online sales increased with 73 percent. Even though most offline stores have opened, online sales now account for 26 percent of Ikea's total sales.

The six biggest online stores in the Netherlands in 2020 were the same six as the year before. Bol.com remains the biggest player, followed by Coolblue and Albert Heijn. However, Albert Heijn is closing the gap between itself and its predecessor quickly. Garden centers and hardware stores grew the fastest, and meal delivery companies also climbed higher on the list.

The ecommerce sector in France generated 112.2 billion euros in 2020. Compared to 2019, internet sales grew by 8.5 percent. This growth was not homogenous across all products, as the sales of services were hit hard due to the pandemic.

The biggest online store in the Netherlands and Belgium, Bol.com, saw a growth of 15 million visitors per month on the Dutch website compared to Q3 last year. The Belgian website had 2 million extra visitors. With a steady growth of selling partners on the platform, the product range grew with 42 percent in one year.

Generally speaking, the third quarter is the quarter with the slowest growth in ecommerce. However, Germany has reached a significant growth of 14.8 percent, with total sales of 22.2 billion euros. This is the strongest growth in this third quarter in five years.

Within Germany, the online sales of automotive parts and accessories were worth 3 billion euros in 2020. This was 13 percent of the overall market value which was worth 22.7 billion euros. Let's have a look at this branch in other countries within Europe.