Europe’s top 6 ecommerce markets generate 72% online spend

In 2022, the six biggest ecommerce markets in Europe generated 72 percent of the total European ecommerce spend. The European ecommerce markets that are most developed by penetration rate, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, have returned to their pre-pandemic growth trends. Emerging markets, like Italy and Spain, are still growing above trend.

These data come from the E-commerce in the Post-Pandemic Era report by CBRE. The research looked at the state of ecommerce in Europe, before and after the corona pandemic.

The ecommerce markets in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands generate the majority of online spending on the continent (72 percent). There are large differences between these six markets. The United Kingdom and Germany are the largest markets, both having a share of 28 percent on the total European ecommerce spend in 2022. The other four markets account for a quarter of spending.

Developed ecommerce markets grew slightly

When looking at the markets and the impact of the pandemic, it seems that developed markets have seen small increases. In this study, ecommerce penetration was defined as the percentage of total retail sales in a market happening via online channels as opposed to in-store. If the growth trend from 2015 to 2019 had continued, the UK’s ecommerce penetration would now stand at 25 percent at the end of 2022. However, the actual figure is 27 percent.

The ecommerce market in the Netherlands is back to its pre-pandemic trend.

According to the pre-pandemic trend, the German ecommerce market would have a penetration rate of 15 percent by the end of 2022. The actual figure came to 17 percent. On the other hand, the market in the Netherlands is back to its pre-pandemic trend. It saw no additional growth as a result of the pandemic.

Online penetration increased in emerging markets

Meanwhile, countries with emerging ecommerce markets saw the largest relative increases. Spanish ecommerce would have a penetration rate of 9 percent, according to the pre-pandemic trend. The actual figure was 12 percent. For Italy, those figures were 8 and 10 percent.

Ecommerce spending in Italy and Spain makes up 11% of the total European online spend.

This means that the penetration rates are 5.2 and 3.9 years ahead of the pre-pandemic trend in Spain and Italy, respectively, by the end of 2022. Together, these markets make up 11 percent of the total European ecommerce spend.