Even before lockdown prevented us from doing most of our shopping face-to-face, the click-to-buy economy was surging.
Last year, 60% of Europeans aged 16-74 made an online purchase, up four per cent on the year before, according to a new survey from Eurostat. [1]
The increase was almost double from a decade ago, when just 32% of people had shopped online in the 12 months prior to the survey.
And with most of the European Union and United Kingdom confined to our homes because of coronavirus, eCommerce is set for an even bigger boom in 2020, says our Head of Product, Eric Horgan.
“The current situation has seen exponential growth in people of all ages making online purchases. What was traditionally a market for consumer goods is now seeing people turn to online stores for essential shopping, from groceries to meat, pharmaceuticals to toilet paper,” Eric Horgan says.
“It’s really given eCommerce a shake up, and those businesses with online offerings are outcompeting those without.”
In Elavon markets, the UK had the highest percentage of population making an online transaction last year, at 87%.
Norway and Sweden (both 82%), Netherlands (81%), Germany (79%), Ireland (67%) and Belgium (66%) were all above the EU average of 60%.
More than half of people surveyed in Spain (58%) and Poland (54%) had also shopped online in 2019.
Source:
[1] ‘Online shopping continues to grow’ - Eurostat, April 2020.
