Dublin, Feb. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “Europe B2C Ecommerce Market Size & Forecast by Value and Volume Across 80+ KPIs – Databook Q4 2025 Update” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The ecommerce market in Europe is expected to grow by 7.9% annually, reaching US$1.18 trillion by 2025. The ecommerce market in the region has experienced robust growth during 2020-2024, achieving a CAGR of 9.6%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.9% from 2025 to 2029. By the end of 2029, the ecommerce market is projected to expand from its 2024 value of US$1.09 trillion to approximately US$1.54 trillion.
Competition is set to tighten further over the next two to four years. Cross-border discount platforms will sustain price pressure, while EU regulatory changes on product safety, customs, and packaging will create compliance-driven differentiation. Omnichannel retailers with strong store networks, particularly in groceries, electronics, and home categories, are likely to consolidate share by leveraging domestic fulfilment capacity. Social commerce will expand but remain category-specific. Overall, Europe’s ecommerce landscape will move toward more regulated, disciplined competition, favouring players with scale, operational efficiency, and local market presence.
Current State of the Market
- Europe’s ecommerce landscape is characterised by a mix of large domestic retailers, multi-country marketplaces, and cross-border entrants reshaping competition. Western Europe, particularly the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, remains the most consolidated region, with established omnichannel retailers strengthening their online presence.
- Central and Eastern Europe is seeing faster retailer digitisation, led by grocers, electronics chains, and local marketplaces expanding their online operations. Competitive intensity has increased as platforms invest in faster fulfilment, broader assortment, and integrated payments and loyalty. At the same time, EU-level regulatory moves around consumer protection, platform accountability, and sustainability are influencing how major players operate and compete.
Key Players and New Entrants
- Amazon retains a leadership position in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. At the same time, national champions such as Zalando (Germany), Otto (Germany), Cdiscount (France), El Corte Ingles (Spain), Allegro (Poland), and Bol.com (Netherlands/Belgium) remain influential in their home markets. In groceries, players like Tesco, Carrefour, Ahold Delhaize, and E.Leclerc continue to scale omnichannel and rapid-delivery propositions.
- New entrants include low-priced cross-border platforms such as Temu and Shein, which have aggressively expanded across Western and Eastern Europe through app-led acquisitions and promotional pricing. TikTok Shop’s rollout in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain has added a new commerce channel, intensifying competition in fashion, beauty, and impulse categories.
Key Trends and Drivers
Cross-border discount platforms intensify price competition and trigger regulatory pushback
- Ultra-low-price cross-border marketplaces such as Temu, Shein, and AliExpress are gaining share across major European markets, especially in fashion, home, and small electronics. In France and the UK, regulators and media have highlighted their growing role in online fashion and general merchandise, often undercutting local players such as Zalando in Germany or Asos in the UK on price.
- These platforms increasingly behave like pan-European retailers rather than niche cross-border sites, running country-specific apps, localized logistics, and aggressive digital advertising, particularly in France, Germany, Spain, and the Nordics.
Social-commerce and creator-led selling move from pilots to scaled channels
- Social platforms are turning into transactional channels. TikTok Shop, already live in the UK, launched in France, Germany, and Italy in March 2025, onboarding retailers such as Carrefour in France and fashion player About You in Germany, as well as beauty brand Cosnova. In Germany, recent analysis suggests that TikTok Shop reached roughly 1 in 10 online shoppers within months of launch, putting it among the country’s larger online retailers by traffic.
- Younger shoppers in countries like the UK, France, Germany, and Spain increasingly start product discovery inside social apps rather than search engines or retailer websites. Brands and retailers see social commerce as a way to turn influencer and creator content directly into sales, with measurable GMV instead of reach. Platforms are investing heavily in local infrastructure: TikTok is adding one-click payment in continental Europe, integrating local logistics partners, and recruiting domestic brands to reduce reliance on cross-border sellers.
Instant payments and local wallets erode card dominance at checkout
- In markets such as the Netherlands and Belgium, A2A wallets built on iDEAL and Payconiq rails are already dominant in online checkout; the European Payments Initiative is building on these to launch a broader euro-area wallet.
- Policymakers want more “European” control over retail payments and less dependence on global card schemes. The Council’s adoption of instant-payment rules in early 2024 explicitly aims to improve competitiveness against non-European card networks. Merchants across Germany, Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe are looking for lower-cost alternatives to cards as ecommerce penetration stabilises and fee sensitivity increases, while banks are investing in open-banking APIs and fraud tools that make A2A payments viable at scale.
- Expect “Pay by bank” and domestic wallets to become standard options on major retailer sites in euro-area markets, particularly for high-ticket purchases (travel, electronics) and repeat subscriptions, where lower fees matter most.
- Card networks will likely respond with bundled services (chargebacks, instalments, loyalty) to defend share, while PSPs shift their product roadmaps toward instant rails. For ecommerce leaders in France, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux, tender-mix management will become a more strategic lever in P&L. The trend should strengthen materially, but not eliminate cards; instead, Europe will move toward a mixed environment in which A2A grabs incremental share, especially in mature, banked markets like the Nordics, Benelux, and DACH.
Profitability and sustainability pressures reshape logistics, returns, and packaging
- Fashion and general-merchandise retailers are tightening returns economics. H&M, for example, now charges online customers a return fee in many European markets unless items are returned in-store; similar charges have been adopted or raised by peers such as Zara, Next, and others in the UK and continental Europe. In parallel, the EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), adopted in late 2024 and effective from 2026, will require all packaging placed on the EU market to be recyclable by 2030, introduce design-for-recycling criteria, and cap empty-space ratios for ecommerce parcels.
- Quick-commerce and rapid-grocery models are consolidating. After years of expansion, Getir is exiting all remaining European markets outside Turkey, contributing to a shake-out of standalone “10-minute grocery” players. At the same time, incumbents like Tesco and Carrefour are expanding their own rapid-delivery offers. Tesco’s Whoosh service in the UK and Ireland now delivers full-basket grocery orders in as little as 20-60 minutes, while Carrefour Sprint in Italy promises 30-minute delivery through Glovo.
- High reverse logistics and last-mile costs, combined with labour and energy inflation, have put pressure on ecommerce margins in markets such as the UK, Germany, and the Nordics. Charging modest return fees and nudging shoppers toward in-store returns have become practical levers to limit waste and discourage serial returning, especially in fashion.
- More retailers, especially in fashion, home, and specialty categories, are likely to introduce or increase online return fees, shorten returns windows, and promote click-and-collect. This will be visible first in the UK, Germany, the Nordics, and the Netherlands, then spread to Southern and Eastern Europe as competition allows. PPWR and related rules will push cross-border sellers and marketplaces to redesign packaging, consolidate shipments, and use more standardised, recyclable materials, with a particular impact on high-volume parcel flows into Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
- Rapid-delivery propositions will not disappear but will be recast as premium or membership-linked services run by large grocers, with standalone quick-commerce startups playing a smaller role. Overall, the trend toward more disciplined economics and tighter sustainability standards is set to continue, reducing some of the “free, unlimited” elements consumers became accustomed to over the last decade.
Key Attributes:
| Report Attribute | Details |
| No. of Pages | 1870 |
| Forecast Period | 2025 – 2029 |
| Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 | $1.18 Trillion |
| Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 | $1.54 Trillion |
| Compound Annual Growth Rate | 6.9% |
| Regions Covered | Europe |
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n2w3ws
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- European B2C Ecommerce Market
