70% of European online shoppers buy clothing, footwear and accessories, placing the category well ahead of multimedia products (56%) and streaming subscriptions (46%), according to 2024 figures recently published by Ecommerce Europe, the online retail confederation.

The ranking shows that 31% of consumers also buy perfumes and cosmetics online, and 26% buy sports equipment, based on a Eurostat survey that feeds into Ecommerce Europe’s annual benchmark report on the various European e-commerce markets.

The report indicates that 83% of Europeans place orders with domestic sellers, and 33% with sellers from other European countries. In addition, 16% of customers said they had ordered from a seller whose nationality they did not know, and 20% had placed orders with sellers based outside the EU. This last figure is identical to that in the previous report, although its evolution is being closely monitored amid the rise of Chinese platforms Shein and Temu.

“This year marks a significant shift in perspective at the European level on issues such as competitiveness and simplification. However, the urgency of the situation remains unaddressed,” said Luca Cassetti, secretary general of Ecommerce Europe. According to director general Christel Delberghe, “Europe urgently needs to step up enforcement to ensure that all companies, whether based in the EU or not, meet the same obligations, with consistent and rigorous implementation across all Member States.”

Company sizes and areas of activity

The annual report also highlights a technological gap between smaller and larger companies. Among companies with more than 250 employees, 46% and 41% report high and very high “digital intensity” (measured against criteria such as connection speed, remote working, automation, etc.), whereas among SMEs, 40% and 27% report low and very low levels, respectively.

Western Europe (France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, and the Benelux countries) remained the driving force behind European e-commerce in 2024, according to the benchmark report, accounting for 64% of B2C online sales. Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece) ranked second, with 19% of overall turnover.

“In absolute figures for 2023, Western Europe, Southern Europe and Central Europe (9%) generated 569, 166, and 79 billion euros respectively,” says Ecommerce Europe. “Northern Europe (6%) came just behind Central Europe with 56 billion euros, followed by Eastern Europe (2% of the total with 17 billion).”