European e-commerce grew another 20% last year

300 billion landmark is coming close

According to the rapport the e-commerce
industry of the European Union + Croatia (which will be the 28th
member of the Union from July) had a turnover of a staggering 277 billion euro:
it is to be expected that the 300 billion landmark will be surpassed this year. The three
biggest markets, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, are worth no less than
69% of the European e-commerce sales.

The rapport also shows that next to a rise in
sales of 19%, the number of online shops have also grown by that same number
(about 550,000 at the end of 2012): this would mean that the average sales of
European webshops did not really show a rise.

In the meantime, online is worth about 3.5 percent
of the total European economy, a number that should rise to 10% by 2020.
Especially the mobile revolution should make this happen: m-tail is worth 5% of
all e-commerce sales in Europe, but in pioneer countries such as the United
Kingdom that is already 12% – and still growing.

Growth margin outside of EU and in Southern
Europe

In the part of Europe outside of the EU (mainly
Russia, Turkey and Norway) e-commerce does not yet soar that high: for that enormous
market online sales barely reach thirty billion euro.

The biggest growth markets can however be found
in that part outside of the European Union, with Turkey (+75%) and the Ukrain
(+40%) at the forefront. There was only one country from Western and Central
Europe among the biggest growers: Hungary (+35%). Over the next few years these
countries, but also Southern European countries as Spain and Greece, will experience
a big growth in e-commerce, despite the economic crisis.

A lot is expected from Turkey: despite the once
again massive sales growth, e-commerce only takes up about four percent of the
total economy. Still the country can show off excellent numbers when talking
about online presence (one of the most fanatic internet users in Europe) and
credit card penetration (way above the European average), and analysts are
expecting those factors to come together in a further boom of e-commerce in
Turkey.

France starts 2013 off well

In the meantime the first numbers for 2013 have
been published: French trade union Fevad saw sales of the online economy in the
Hexagon rise by another 14% in the period January-March. This was mainly
because of 19,000 new webshops, a growing number of e-shopping seniors (+27%)
and a larger frequency of online sales (from 1.6 to 1.8 per month).

Fevad is however concerned about the dropping average
amount of an online sale: that dropped another 4% to 85 euro in the past
trimester, the lowest number ever – a few years ago it was at almost 100 euro.

A possible explanation is that e-commerce is
becoming part of everyday life, which would mean that consumers are also buying
smaller products online – and not only big electronic devices or travels. The
Fevad points out that despite the drop the average e-shopper spent a record
amount of 467 euro online, compared to 427 euro last year.