E-Commerce Sales In Europe Peaked To €396 billion In 2021

Source: DHgate, Tag: Local Warehouse

The e-commerce sector is more popular than ever, particularly in the European Market. Find out how online sales are peaking in Europe.

• While many industries battled ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, e-commerce marketplaces in Europe saw a tremendous increase in sales with online sales peaking at €396 billion for the year. This is a significant growth when compared to the 100 billion from the previous year.
  The rise of online marketplaces
  More than half of all e-commerce sales can be contributed to online marketplaces. According to Europe Ecommerce News, European online marketplaces are estimated to value around 120 to 150 billion euros, with nearly half of all online product searches originating from the UK and Germany.

• A recent report published by RetailX noted that 50% of online shoppers use marketplaces, with 64% of UK online shoppers now relying on marketplaces to purchase products.
  Top 5 most popular marketplaces
  The 5 most popular marketplaces based on European consumer usage are listed below:

Marketplace landscape in Europe
While online marketplaces are particularly popular in the UK and Germany, the popularity of online marketplaces greatly differs from country to country, with Spain dominated by online marketplaces and retailer spin-offs such as El Corte Inglés and Privalia.es.
Polish marketplace Allegro was the third-largest marketplace in Europe with 185 million visits per month and is now just behind Amazon and eBay.
Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer continues to be popular in the country with 149 million visiting the site per month.
How the pandemic has affected big-box retail
While e-commerce continues to increase year on year, a sector that has seen a slow decrease is that of brick-and-mortar retail. With the effects of the global pandemic affecting millions of small and medium-sized businesses, another causality of lockdowns and social distancing has been big-box retail. Part of a chain of stores, the physically large retail establishment model known as big-box retail has been a major presence on the highstreets of cities and towns across the globe for decades, but as more consumers turn to online retailers and e-commerce marketplaces, the effects of the pandemic have seen big-box retail stores move into warehouses and fulfilment centres as pick-up and delivery become more popular.
With many consumers now turning to online marketplaces as opposed to retail parks, the online marketplace has become the new multi-shopping experience for consumers looking for a safer and more cost-effective way to purchase products.