The Netherlands has 5 million cross-border shoppers

There were 5 million Dutch consumers who shopped online cross-border last year. That’s a significant increase of 32 percent compared to the situation one year before, when there were 3.8 million cross-border shoppers in the Netherlands. Together, these 5 million people spent about 880 million euros at foreign ecommerce websites.

The 5 million cross-border shoppers represent 37 percent of the total Dutch population. This is shown in the latest edition of the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor. This study also shows that the money that was spent online at foreign shops increased from 765 million to 880 million euros, which means an increase of 15 percent.

3.7% of money spent online went to foreign shops
The 880 million euros the Dutch spent abroad last year corresponds to 3.7 percent of all the money that was spent online laast year. Wijnand Jongen, director of Dutch ecommerce association Thuiswinkel.org says although every year more money is spent at foreign online stores, it’s still just a small share.

‘Share of cross-border ecommerce is much higher in other countries’
“In other countries, the share of cross-border ecomerce is much higher, in some markets we’re talking about double-digit percentages”, he explains. “Dutch consumers still highly prefer shopping online at domestic ecommerce website. And that’s no surprise, because in the Netherlands we have a very strong and healthy ecommerce industry that offers a wide assortment and, in general, a good and fast service to consumers.”

So, last year there were about 5 million cross-border shoppers in the Netherlands, while there were only 3.8 million of them one year before. The share of cross-border shoppers (as a total of all online shoppers) has increased the most in product categories such as ‘clothing, shoes and personal lifestyle’, ‘IT’ and ‘toys’.

China is still the most popular cross-border destination
Just like last year, China is again the most popular destination for cross-border shoppers in the Netherlands. Almost a third (31 percent) of all cross-border spend went to a Chinese online store, followed by shops in Germany (17 percent) and the United Kingdom (15 percent).