The European Ecommerce Report 2017, a joint effort by Ecommerce Europe, EuroCommerce and the Ecommerce Foundation, states that European eCommerce will continue to grow, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
Western Europe leads the way
Europe’s online sales grew 115 to 530 billion euro in 2016 and the different interest groups expect that trend to continue in 2017, with a similar growth (14 %) to 602 billion euro.
Online sales grew all across Europe, but at different speeds. Western Europe generates the bulk of online sales, with the United Kingdom top of the class (33 % of the entire European online turnover). 87 % of the United Kingdom is also active online.
Rest of Europe is catching up
Sales are not that high in Central and Eastern Europe, but their growth is much higher, with numbers from 25 to 40 %. An increasing number of customers shops across borders: Russia and Switzerland rank the highest in that sense, with more than 60 %.
“Many more consumers are buying online and many more retailers are selling online; more significantly, both are combining online and offline shopping seamlessly into what is becoming omnichannel retailing. And the EU can help: Europe needs policies to foster these developments and allow consumers and traders to make the most of the potential of a market of 500 million Europeans. Europe can be powerhouse for ecommerce, but we still have some way to go to get the environment right for this to be achieved”, Director-General of EuroCommerce, Christian Verschueren, said.
