After a weak 2023 for e-commerce in Europe, 2024 is a make or break year. Is improvement in the air? And where are the opportunities and challenges?
Very unevenly distributed
With a European average of 6.1%, inflation continued to mark the retail market in 2023 – even if it was lower than the previous year. Although European sales in B2C (business-to-consumer) e-commerce grew by a modest 3% last year, to 887 billion euros, when adjusted for inflation there was actually a decline in online turnover.
Especially in Western Europe, traditionally a strong market, there was a slight decline of 1%. In Germany, online sales were even down 9%.
However, the differences between the regions were significant: Central Europe showed resilience with an 8% increase, while Southern and Eastern Europe even showed strong growth rates of 14% and 15% respectively. This is according to the latest European E-commerce Report, which analyses online behaviour in as many as 38 countries.
