Over 90% of purchases abroad made on Temu, Shein or AliExpress

Nine out of ten euros of online spending that left the European Union in 2025 went to Temu, Shein and AliExpress. In that year, 49.7 billion euros were spent on those platforms. In total, Europeans spent 55.1 billion euros abroad on physical goods. This comes down to 13.1 percent of the total online spending by consumers in EU-countries.

This is according to a new report from ECDB. The company looks into ecommerce in Europe often. Last month, another report from ECDB indicated that Temu has broken into the top 10 online retailers in almost every European country.

86.9 percent of online spending stayed in EU

The current report looks into cross-border ecommerce. European consumers spent 421 billion euros online on physical goods. And 86.9 percent of that spending stayed in stores based in the European Union. From the 13.1 percent that went out of the EU, the majority went to China.

90.2% of online spending that left the EU went to Chinese online stores like Shein, Temu and AliExpress

Chinese online stores (Shein, Temu and AliExpress) received 90.2 percent of the online spending that left the EU. The United States received a much smaller portion (4.8 percent), followed by the United Kingdom (4.6 percent).

Half of sales to non-EU went to Switzerland

Online stores from the EU sold 3.9 billion euros to non-EU consumers. Half of those consumers (51 percent) were based in Switzerland. A smaller portion came from the United States (18 percent), and from the United Kingdom (10 percent).

Strong growth of cross-border ecommerce in Europe

According to ECDB, the cross-border ecommerce market has grown significantly. In 2020, only 2.3 percent of online spending from EU-consumers went to non-EU stores. Compared to 2025, with a share of 13.1 percent, that is a big difference. The company forecasts that this year, 15.2 percent of online spending will leave the EU.