How to choose a European site? These six markets account for 72% of online consumption in Europe!

Sellers who have plans to enter the European market may know that in Europe, only a few countries have the habit of online shopping, and the online shopping penetration rate in most other countries is still at a low level.

Data shows that the six largest e-commerce markets in Europe contributed 72% of online consumption in Europe in 2022. Among them, online consumption in the two countries with the highest e-commerce penetration rates - the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - has basically returned to pre-epidemic levels.

On the other hand, countries where e-commerce developed later, such as Italy and Spain, are now striving to catch up, and their online sales have maintained a high level of growth.

The data comes from CBRE's "E-commerce in the Post-pandemic Era" report, which examines some of the changes that have occurred in European e-commerce before and after the pandemic.

The report states that major e-commerce markets such as the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands contribute the majority of online spending in the continent (72%).

However, there are also big differences between these six markets. Among them, the UK and Germany are the largest e-commerce markets, each accounting for 28% of the total e-commerce spending in Europe in 2022, while the other four markets account for about a quarter of the total spending in Europe.

When looking at the impact of the pandemic on the e-commerce industry, researchers found only small increases in the UK and Germany.

In this study, e-commerce penetration is defined as the percentage of total retail sales in a market that is made through online channels. If the growth trend from 2015 to 2019 had continued, e-commerce penetration in the UK would have reached 25% by the end of 2022. However, the actual figure is now 27%.

Based on pre-pandemic trends, the penetration rate of the German e-commerce market would reach 15% by the end of 2022, but the actual figure is now 17%.

At the same time, the epidemic has had a significant impact on the relatively emerging e-commerce market. Affected by the epidemic, the e-commerce penetration rates in Spain and Italy have achieved rapid growth to varying degrees.

For cross-border sellers, they can give priority to markets where the e-commerce penetration rate is not too high but the growth rate is strong, so that there will be more room for subsequent development.

Europe

E-commerce