[E-commerce Barometer 2025] France, United Kingdom, Germany… traditional markets return to 2021 peak

In 2024, online product sales doubled (up by 5.4%) in the 6 main Western European markets of the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, driven by lower inflation and higher volumes. In 3 years, the peak of 2021 was matched or exceeded in the vast majority of countries tracked by mind Retail. While electronics confirmed resilience, FMCG stabilised. Despite aggressive sales by Shein and Temu, online fashion grew in value in Germany and France, gaining market share. Where 12 points of market share separated France and the UK in 2023, the gap is now only 5 points.

Through Morgane Monteiro, Sophie Baqué, Rudy Degardin, Aymeric Marolleau. Published on 05 August 2025 à 18h08 - Update on 01 September 2025 à 11h50

The 4 key points of 2024

  • In 2024, growth of online sales doubled (+5.4%) driven by France, the U.K. and Switzerland. In Germany and Italy the market exceeded the 2021 level and was the same in France and the U.K.
  • In the U.K., e-commerce accounts for 27.1% of total retail and for 22% in the Netherlands. Germany, France and Italy are between 13% and 10%.
  • Non-food e-commerce accounts for 40% to 50% of sales in the most mature countries. This is the case for electronics in Switzerland (54%) and Germany (43%). And for fashion in Germany (42.5%), the Netherlands (41%), the UK (28%) and France (23%).
  • Greocery e-commerce grew by 4.7% in Europe in 2024, slowing slightly in a year. Countries are stabilising, with France leading the panel with a 10.8% market share.

After falling by 5.4% in 2022 and returning to growth in 2023 of 2.8%, online sales of products (excluding services) in the 6 countries studied by mind Retail regained upward momentum in 2024. These grew by 5% in value across the panel (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland). The e-commerce market grew from 36.168 billion euros to 379.6 billion euros in 2024. This is a record for the European e-commerce market, surpassing a previous peak of 371.7 billion euros in 2021 by 8.2%.

For the fifth consecutive year of this barometer, and as in the previous edition, mind Retail summarised data from the e-commerce federations of the 6 countries in the panel (ONS, HDE in Germany, Fevad in France, Thuiswinkel in the Netherlands, Fédération du commerce et de la distribution in Switzerland, Osservatorio Istituto nazionale di statistica, B2C eCommerce Observatory and Netcomm for Italy). As the Spanish federation CNMC did not respond to requests, Spain is not included. The trend data is on a comparable basis.

In a year, e-commerce sales growth more than doubled in Europe

After a year of inflation in 2023, e-commerce in western Europe experienced healthier growth in 2024, driven by volume increases in 2024. This contributed to a doubling of the increase in turnover. This was particularly the case in the non-food categories.

In 2024,…

Morgane Monteiro, Sophie Baqué, Rudy Degardin, Aymeric Marolleau