Dutch online sales grew 9% in first half 2022

During the first half of 2022, consumers in the Netherlands spent 16.1 billion euros online. This is a 9 percent growth when compared to the same period a year earlier. The growth mostly stems from a rise in online sales of services.

In total, Dutch consumers placed 168 million purchases online in the first 6 months of 2022. This is a finding from the newest Thuiswinkel Market Monitor, which shows consumer spending in ecommerce in the Netherlands.

Online sales of products worth €5.3 billion

The online sales of products came to a total of 5.3 billion euros, which is more than what consumers used to spend on online products before the outbreak of the coronavirus (3.3 billion euros in 2019). Nevertheless, the number of online purchases of products in the first two quarters decreased by 14 percent, compared to last year.

‘Consumers have become accustomed to buying online.’

“Consumers have become accustomed to buying online. People are opting more often for a combination of online and offline shopping”, explains Marlene ten Ham, director at Thuiswinkel.org. “The most important exception to the decline can be seen in the Food/Nearfood category. Online grocery shopping remains popular.”

Service categories grew strongly

In particular, the online sales of services grew strongly in the first half of this year. Sales of Package Holidays grew by 129 percent, sales in the Tickets for Attractions & Events category grew by 104 percent when compared to Q2 2021.

‘In total, consumers spent €2.5 billion online on services.’

Consumers also spent more in these categories, on average. The service industry in Q2 this year has a higher sales level than before corona, with a total of 2.5 billion euros. In 2019, the industry reached a turnover of 2.3 billion euros in Q2.

Higher use of smartphones

The research also found out that one in three online purchases was completed on a smartphone. Most of these purchases on smartphones were done in the categories Food/Nearfood, Tickets for Attractions & Events and Clothing. The most popular device is still a laptop (51 percent), although it was used less than a year earlier (a decrease of 4 percent).

iDEAL still most popular

Most online orders were paid for with iDEAL (70 percent). The second most common online payment method is the creditcard (8 percent). Additionally, when looking at online orders on smartphones, more of them were paid for with iDEAL (72 percent) than a year before (68 percent). This is caused by the rise of usage of iDEAL in the Food/Nearfood category.