Statistics

Last year, a lot happened in the world of logistics and ecommerce fulfillment. The coronavirus pandemic has boosted ecommerce in many ways, but also led to many companies having to make significant changes in the short term. What's the state of ecommerce fulfillment per country in 2021?

Ecommerce in Europe has grown exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic last year. The digitization of both consumers and retailers has accelerated by two to three years, in some countries even by five years.

The growing ecommerce has led to a rise in most types of fraud, online fashion retailers claim. One in three have experienced more online payment fraud, while 44 percent have experiences a rise in account takeover and promotion abuse.

Online electrical retailer AO has reported a strong year of growth. In the year to 31 March, the UK company saw its revenue increase by 62 percent to 1.66 billion pounds (1.91 billion euros). AO also attracted over 2 million new customers in the year.

For the first time, ecommerce in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (also known as the DACH region) reached a consolidated volume of more than 100 billion euros. The German-speaking ecommerce markets are now generating more sales than any other language area in Europe.

The online cross-border market in Europe was worth 146 billion euros in 2020. This is an increase of 35 percent compared to the situation one year before. The cross-border share represents 25.5 percent of total online sales in Europe.

29 percent of German ecommerce sales are generated by small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Compared to the situation in the entire German economy, small ecommerce enterprises are much more important for the total turnover in their sector.

Ecommerce in Belgium was worth 10.26 billion euros in 2020. That's a decrease of 10 percent compared to the situation one year before. Of course, the decline has everything to do with the coronavirus outbreak. Belgians bought far fewer services online, but ordered more products.

Ecommerce in the Netherlands was worth 26.6 billion euros in 2020. That's a growth of 7 percent compared to the situation in 2019. Of course, the increase of online purchases by Dutch consumers has everything to do with the coronavirus outbreak.

Berlin Brands Group, which acquires ecommerce brands and Amazon retailers, has had a good year. In 2020, the group's sales increased by 54 percent to 400 million dollars, which corresponds to 335 million euros. Its profit was in the "mid-double-digit million range".

Switzerland is the new number one on the B2C E-commerce Index of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It surpasses the Netherlands, which ended first in the previous two editions.

Bol.com, the biggest online store in the Netherlands, has generated sales worth 4.3 billion euros in 2020. That's way more than was expected by its holding, Ahold Delhaize. Of course, it has everything to do with the closure of physical stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Ecommerce in Germany was worth 83.3 billion euros in 2020. This is an increase of 14.6 percent compared to the situation one year before. The growth is significant, as the average growth over the previous three years was 'just' 11.3 percent.

Ecommerce has become a lifeline for many physical retailers in Europe that had to close their doors during the lockdowns. Now these brick-and-mortar businesses can continue their activities during the lockdown.

2020 was a challenging year for many. At the same time, ecommerce grew like never before. What can we expect from 2021? SearchNode published a new report on the latest ecommerce trends and the impact of Covid-19.