Statistics

The turnover growth of B2C ecommerce in the UK is stabilizing. The online retail industry is expected to grow by 10.5 percent this year to reach 173.7 billion euros. Last year, the British ecommerce industry increased by 11 percent to 157 billion euros.

Croatia was quite late with exiting the economic downturn, but is now showing some great signs of recovery. This is also reflected in the online retail industry. Ecommerce in Croatia is showing great numbers. A recent research project of sMind looks at the latest trends in the online shopping behavior of Croatian consumers.

B2C Ecommerce sales in the Netherlands are expected to reach 18 billion euros in 2016. The ecommerce industry was worth slightly more than 16 billion euros last year, but according to the Ecommerce Foundation the online retail industry is expected to increase by 12.1 percent and thus reach 18.014 billion euros.

Spreadshirt has seen its revenue increase by 18 percent during 2015. According to the German company, the investment in its ecommerce platform is rewarded. Total revenue was worth 85 million euros last year, due to nearly 2 million orders.

Retail and service company Otto Group had a successful 2015/2016 financial year, especially with regards to its online department. Total turnover increased by 4.3 percent, while its online revenues rose by 6.5 percent (or 400 million euros) to reach 6.6 billion euros. In Germany, online revenues even increased by some 10 percent to 4.4 billion euros.

Zooplus, a major European online retailer of pet supplies, had a good year as its sales increased by 31 percent during 2015, reaching a level of 711 million euros. The company generated double-digit growth at all of its 30 markets. Zooplus has now over 4 million active customers and says the positive development was driven mainly by the increase in the sales retention rate, which reached a record level of 94 percent last year.

German fashion retailer Bonprix continues to grow and has now presented a successful track record of the previous fiscal year. The Otto Group subsidiary recorded revenue growth of 11 percent from just under 1.3 billion to (preliminary) more than 1.4 billion euros. More than half of its total turnover was generated at foreign markets.

The number of companies that use the internet as one of their sales channels is growing in Europe, but there are significant differences noticeable between sectors and by company size. Slovenian website SMind made a comparison between the results in Slovenia, Croatia and the average in the European Union.

Ecommerce in the Netherlands was worth 16.07 billion euros in 2015. During that year, ecommerce sales increased by 16.1 percent compared to the year before. Also, Dutch consumers completed more than 142 million purchases online, which is an increase of 17.4 percent compared to 2014.

Consumers in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have purchased goods online worth a total of 17.39 billion euros in 2015. That's an increase of around 15 percent compared to the year before. Four out of ten Nordic residents bought goods online from foreign websites, spending a total of about 4.3 billion euros across the border.

The ecommerce market in France is maturing. And so the priorities of online merchants evolve. A new study has shown that a vast majority of ecommerce players wishes to focus on excellent customer service. Also, many of them want to invest heavily in a good mobile shopping experience.

Swiss online shoppers bought goods online with a total value of 7.2 billion Swiss francs, or 6.6 billion euros, last year. The online retail sector in Switzerland increased by 7.5 percent in 2015 and now also accounts for 7.5 percent of the total retail sector in this Central-European country.

Dutch international retailer Ahold expects its online retail brand Bol.com to be a €1 billion plus consumer sales brand already in 2016. Last year, Ahold generated online revenues being worth 1.8 billion euro. Half of its digital sales came from Bol.com, which thus generated about 900 million euros in sales.

Western Europe is the second largest B2C ecommerce region in the world in terms of sales and is set to retain this position through 2019. But, due to an expanding share of Asia-Pacific, Western Europe is predicted to lose about one percentage point in its share of global B2C ecommerce. Nevertheless, it will still account for one quarter of the world's ecommerce sales.

Zalando saw its revenue increase with 33.6 percent year-on-year, which is more than was expected. The revenue growth was due to a continued focus on customer proposition and reinforced by additional market opportunities. After a strong financial year, Zalando expects its revenue to increase by about 25 percent this year.