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E-commerce in the European Union – statistics & facts

Recent forecasts are positive that the European e-commerce market will continue its fast and dynamic climb with revenues exceeding 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars by 2025. This comes as no surprise as online shopping has become increasingly popular among European consumers, with the e-commerce user penetration rate exceeding 60 percent in the most mature e-commerce markets across the European Union.

The ever-growing business of selling online

EU companies generate roughly one-fifth of their revenues from online sales channels, with Ireland being in the lead across the continent. In 2021, companies based in Ireland generated nearly forty percent of their revenues from e-commerce. Changing consumer behavior, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic, has seen consumption habits slowly flocking to the digital sphere. Across the European continent, e-commerce platforms benefitted from increased revenues along with an expanding user base. For instance, e-commerce revenue in Germany grew by more than twenty billion euros between 2019 and 2021. Likewise, the annual spending per capita for online shopping also increased significantly across the continent, reaching over 2,000 euros in several countries in Europe including Denmark, Norway, the UK, France and Germany.

An e-commerce common market

As European countries share a common trade market, it is quite normal that EU consumers buy from e-commerce companies not located in their country. On average, one-fourth of the EU’s e-commerce revenue is due to cross-border activities. In Austria for instance, eight in ten online shoppers have made a cross-border purchase in 2021, versus around five in ten Swedish e-shoppers. In the Netherlands, cross-border e-commerce spending has almost doubled in less than two years, going from 564 million euros in the third quarter of 2020 to more than 900 million euros in the first quarter of 2022. However, it was neighboring Belgium that did the most cross-border e-commerce shopping: In 2022, nearly a third of e-commerce revenues in Belgium were generated through cross-border online spending. The Belgian flair for cross-border shopping is further confirmed in a survey conducted among e-shoppers in Belgium: nearly 70 percent reported purchasing goods online from cross-border sellers (EU or non-EU) in 2021.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Lynn Beyrouthy, Nov 24, 2022

Key insights

E-commerce revenue in Europe
731.7bn USD
EU country with biggest number of online shoppers
Germany
European country with highest online spending per capita
Denmark
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Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Retail e-commerce revenue in Europe from 2017 to 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Key Figures of E-Commerce

E-commerce revenue in Europe 2017-2025

E-commerce revenue share of companies in Europe in 2021, by country

B2C E-Commerce

Online commerce revenue share of companies in Europe 2021, by country

Value of cross-border B2C e-commerce revenue in Western Europe and Scandinavian countries in selected years from 2019 to 2022 (in billion euros)

Key Figures of E-Commerce

Cross-border B2C e-commerce revenue in EU-16 2019-2022

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