Europe: sales on online marketplaces amount to 120 billion euros
It has been said before that marketplaces are a significant part of e-commerce in Europe, but with the growth of e-commerce itself, marketplaces have shown significant growth this year as well. Earlier this month, a study by Inriver found that nearly half of all online product searches in the U.K. and Germany started on marketplaces.
50% of online shoppers use marketplaces.
A recent report published by RetailX found that 50% of online shoppers in Europe use marketplaces. In the U.K., 64% of shoppers primarily turn to marketplaces. This is a significant change from the previous RetailX report: 57 percent. A quarter of all online purchases in the U.K. are made on Amazon.
E-commerce in Europe will reach 396 billion euros in 2021
Total e-commerce revenue in Europe is estimated at €396 billion in 2021. Since marketplaces account for about half of e-commerce sales, RetailX estimates the value of European marketplaces at €120 billion to €150 billion. That's a significant increase from the €100 billion estimate in last year's RetailX report.
The landscape of retail sites in Europe
While trading venues are becoming increasingly dominant in Europe, the report shows that there are significant differences by country. In Spain, mixed marketplaces that are offshoots of retailers, such as El Corte Inglés and Privalia.es, still dominate the market. Europe's best-known marketplaces have grown in their regions, with Bol.com in the Netherlands, for example, reaching 79 million visits per month. Germany's OTTO increased its 2020 revenue by 37 percent over net sales in 2019.
Top 5 most popular shopping sites
Below are the top 5 most popular shopping sites based on how often European consumers use them:
Germany and the UK have a very high share of marketplaces compared to non-marketplace retailers in the entire sample of online retail traffic. The share of retailers who also become marketplaces, operate marketplaces, or want to sell on marketplaces is growing.
The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Sweden and Slovenia are at the other end of the scale, as they all have very little presence on marketplaces. Most online sales in these countries are from sites that do not have marketplaces.
The report notes that in Spain, Italy, Poland and, to some extent, France and Portugal, there is almost a 50 percent split between marketplaces and non-marketplaces. Amazon is not the dominant company in these markets. Allegro and Wildberries are targeting these markets and may soon fill Amazon's void.