Ikea, Lidl and Zalando lead the rankings of the 500 best European cross-border webshops. International e-commerce sales are experiencing a growth slowdown due to inflation and falling consumer confidence.
Lower than expected growth
In 2022, total online cross-border trade accounted for a turnover of 179.4 billion euros (excluding travel), up 4.8% compared to 2021. The lower-than-expected growth is due to a difficult macroeconomic environment with challenges in the supply chain. Nevertheless, online sales outperformed overall retail sales in the EU, which indeed levelled off in 2022.
That is according to the Top 500 of Cross-Border Commerce Europe, the platform that promotes international e-commerce in Europe. That report ranks the strongest European players based on their online cross-border sales, SEO indicators, the number of countries in which the retailer operates and the number and percentage of foreign visitors.
Fewer multichannel retailers
In the top ten, accounting for 18.7% of the Top 500’s total sales, Ikea retains first place, with cross-border sales of 5.6 billion euros, up 1.8%. Lidl rises to second place, with Zalando grabbing the third podium spot. H&M and Lego drop to third and fourth place respectively. Newcomers to the top ten are Notino – a Czech pure player in the personal care industry – and Adidas.
The number of multichannel retailers in the Top 500 is falling, while the number of brand manufacturers with direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels is up by 8.3. Brands like Lego, Nespresso, Adidas and Philips, as well as luxury companies like Richemont, LVMH and Kering, are investing in better direct-to-consumer approaches to become less dependent on larger marketplaces. New “digital-native vertical brands” (DNVB) are also growing.
The number of marketplaces in the charts rose from 42 to 49, with record sales of 24.7 billion euros, a growth of 22%. European marketplaces strengthened their position compared to US ones thanks to the increase in sales of players such as Zalando, Decathlon and About You.
