European e-commerce grew by 14.3% in the B2C sector in 2014, reaching a total volume of 423.8 billion euros. This is indicated by the figures of the industry association Ecommerce Europe. According to the association’s data for the past year, the 28 countries of the European Union accounted for 368.7 billion euros of e-commerce sales.
The growth rate of 14.3% is well above the growth of the European gross national product, which grew by a mere 1.6% in 2014. EU-wide this figure was even lower, at just 1.4%. The share of e-commerce in the European gross national product amounted to 2.45%. Analysts at Ecommerce Europe expect this figure will rise to 6% by 2020.
Other indicators are also pointing to the increasing popularity of placing orders via the internet. The number of European B2C websites has increased from 650,000 to about 715,000 since 2013, and 4 billion packages were sent compared to 3.7 billion the year before. The association estimates that about 2.5 million jobs have been created in the B2C sector, with the most important European e-commerce market currently being the UK, which generated sales of 127.1 billion euros in 2014. Germany with 71.2 billion and France with 56.8 billion euros had the next highest sales. Central and Eastern European countries are, however, currently seeing the highest growth rates, with e-commerce sales increasing by 25.4% to 18.8 billion euros in Russia last year.
A light version of the 2015 European B2C E-Commerce Report is available for free on the Ecommerce Europe website. The full report can be ordered for 1,290 euros. (Source: Ecommerce Europe/rf)