European e-commerce revenue grew 30% this year, but buyers were not crazy about Black Friday shopping

The European e-commerce market had already seen promising growth before the pandemic, reaching $354.1 billion in 2019. According to a survey by Finaria.it , the revenue of the European e-commerce market will continue to rise overall in 2021 , an increase of 30% from before the pandemic , and is expected to reach $465 billion .

Although "Black Friday" is considered to be the biggest discount season in the European and American retail industry before Christmas, in the Black Friday "war" that just ended, Germany's "Wirtschaftswoche" stated that this year's Black Friday was "Black Friday without crazy shopping."

Economic Weekly analyzed that the days of Black Friday breaking all sales records seem to be over. In addition, online retail sales in European countries are sluggish, and consumers appear to be "cautious" in shopping .

Criteo , a technology services provider , compared the sales of more than 10,000 dealers participating in Black Friday this year. The results showed that German consumers were more cautious in their spending on Black Friday than in 2020, with retailers' sales down 19% from 2020; sales in the UK also fell 18%; the decline in France was relatively small, at about 8%.

As for the reason for the decline, the head of Criteo said that due to concerns about out-of-stock and shipping delays, most consumers did their holiday shopping early this year and did not need to wait until Black Friday. A German TV report on the 28th said that Black Friday sales were lower than expected, which was also related to the rise of China's "Double Eleven" in Europe.

According to the Global Times, the discounts offered by German merchants on Black Friday are relatively high, so consumers are more enthusiastic about participating. In particular, high-priced goods are more popular with consumers, such as mobile phones, home appliances, jewelry and other categories. In addition, payment methods such as PayPal will also have discounts of varying sizes, which further stimulates consumers' desire to buy.

Even though Black Friday sales were not as good as expected, many sellers remain positive about the European e-commerce market. According to statistics, the number of online shoppers in Europe will reach 506 million in 2021, with a user penetration rate of nearly 60%. By 2025, it is expected that the number of online shoppers will reach 570 million, and the e-commerce market value will reach US$570 billion.

As the largest e-commerce market in Europe, the UK is expected to have revenue of US$104 billion in 2021; Germany ranks second with US$95 billion; France and Spain follow closely behind with US$58.9 billion and US$23.8 billion, respectively.

Among them, the fashion category is still the "big head" of online sales , with a market size of US$143.5 billion and US$176.5 billion by 2025; consumer electronics products are also one of the categories favored by consumers, and are expected to generate US$103.5 billion in revenue this year ; home appliances and electrical appliances, food and personal care are US$68 billion and US$63.6 billion respectively.

Various data show that consumers' shopping enthusiasm during the holiday shopping season is still relatively high. However, under the influence of the overall environment, consumers adopt decentralized shopping methods such as advance shopping to avoid the problem of not being able to buy goods. Therefore, corporate sellers do not need to worry too much. The key is to do a good job in store management and logistics and after-sales store services.

Black Friday

Europe