B2C e-commerce in Europe grew by 12% to €547 billion in 2018 and could accelerate by 14% to €621 billion this year, according to a joint report from the Ecommerce Europe association and EuroCommerce.
In terms of the three biggest markets, British B2C e-commerce is predicted to grow by 14.6% to €200 billion this year, France by 12.5% to €104 billion and Germany by 9.1% to €58.5 billion, the European B2C Ecommerce Report 2019 showed.
Among other major economies, B2C e-commerce is booming in Italy (+30%), Poland (+25%) and Spain (+20%), and growing by a strong 13% in Belgium, Russia and Sweden. Other fast-growing but smaller markets include Estonia (+35%), Bulgaria (+30%), Romania (+30%) and Lithuania (+24%).
Key trends identified in the report show that the country with the highest country online shopping rate in 2018 is Switzerland (88%), followed by the UK (87%) and Denmark (86%), while the lowest data for online shopping were registered in 2018 in Bulgaria (31%), Romania (26%) and Ukraine (22%).
In terms of cross-border purchases, Maltese e-shoppers are most likely to order from another EU seller (89%), followed by Cyprus (83%) and Luxembourg (82%).
The report also reveals the reasons for Europeans not to shop online and the challenges that consumers still face when shopping online.
Among the main complaints are speed of delivery, trust concerns about receiving and returning goods, complaints and redress concerns, and payment security concerns. Speed of delivery represents a main concern for Montenegro (22%), Hungary (12%) and Turkey (10%), while payments security concerns are strong in Portugal (29%) and Turkey (25%).
Marlene ten Ham, Secretary General of Ecommerce Europe, commented: “We at Ecommerce Europe are delighted to see that the ecommerce sector continues to grow across Europe. We have tremendous assets that fostered the growth of the sector over the past years, as the 2019 Report shows.”
Turning to political issues, she continued: “However, despite the progress made in the Digital Single Market, companies still face barriers to develop, especially cross-border. Therefore, we need to set ambitious yet achievable actions at EU level for the next years and speed up our efforts.
“First of all, we need to enforce current regulations before creating new ones. Secondly, we need to harmonize essential rules and standards so that companies can rely on one single set of rules across Europe. And finally, we need more investments in new technologies and digital skills so that ecommerce businesses are empowered to shape Europe’s digital future.”
Christian Verschueren, Director-General of EuroCommerce, commented: “This report enables us to understand every individual European market. What is clear is that Europe as a whole needs to catch up with the massive progress being made in digital tech and in online commerce in other regions in the world, most notably China and the US. This is a message for business, but also for regulators and policy-makers.
“We will continue to press for the right conditions for growth in all channels of sales, so that they help European retail to innovate and compete globally. There is a fantastic potential here, with of a market of 500 million reasonably affluent Europeans. Yet too many issues with differing consumer laws, VAT, labelling regimes, and many distribution restrictions deter entrepreneurs and leave this potential untapped.”
