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Southern Europe Catching Up on E-Commerce Boom
- 06 June 2013
But the fastest-growing markets are in Central Europe and the austerity-hit Mediterranean, according to the findings.Europe – defined by report compilers Ecommerce Europe as including the whole continent rather than the EU alone – continued to maintain a lead over the United States, the second largest market, which it first overtook in 2010.
In 2012 European e-commerce - including sale values of online retail goods and services such as travel bookings, ticketed events and downloads - grew by 19% to €311.6 billion, compared with €294.2 in North America. The EU comprised 88.7% of that total, or €276.5 billion. The findings showed that during 2012 Europe’s strength in e-commerce continued to be dominated by the UK (€96 billion) Germany (€50 billion) and France (€45 billion) which between them account for 61% of Europe’s total share of sales.
Smartphones and tablets set to release new wave of on-line buying
But the relative growth of e-commerce is much faster in the Central and Southern Europe. Whilst the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway increased their e-commerce tallies by between 10% and 15% last year, Germany, France, Italy and Spain were ahead with 20-25% growth. Meanwhile the fastest-growing states, with between 30% and 40% growth, included Poland and Greece.
Ecommerce says that 2013 will see a definitive break with the past as the relative share of e-commerce conducted over mobile phones and tablets – rather than conventional computers – reaches new highs.
So called ‘m-commerce’ (retail conducted through hand-held mobile devices) accounted for 5.5% of total sales in 2012, the report finds, forecasting that this share will jump during 2013 as smartphone and tablet ownership rises.
In an interview with EurActiv, Wijnand Jongen, the executive committee chairman of Ecommerce Europe, said the buying behaviour of consumers in Europe’s largest countries was “like youngsters” in e-commerce terms, whereas in the emerging countries, “we are like toddlers learning how things work and what the opportunities are”.
“Over the next five-to-ten years, e-commerce will be immersed in every part of life, consumers will adapt, and this adaptation is exponential,” Jongen said.
Source: Retail Excellence Ireland - Southern Europe Catching Up on E-Commerce Boom
