Cross-border e-commerce earns £7.4 billion spending increase in Europe

Friday, October 2, 2015 - 09:25 by Mike Price

Although the UK has Europe’s most mature market for safe shopping online, with sales growth slowing domestically, the latest figures show that across the continent there is still plenty of momentum in the world of e-commerce, according to Retail Times.

Figures released by PostNord show that spending was up across Europe in the past 12 months, increasing by the equivalent of £7.4 billion. And analysts are arguing that one of the reasons for this sustained growth is that more and more consumers are comfortable with the idea of cross-border commerce.

This means that the boundaries between European nations are less relevant when it comes to safe shopping online and people are happy to place orders with a retailer, even if it is based in another country.

In fact, the UK is not quite leading the pack when it comes to cross-border commerce, with 58 per cent of British respondents to the study stating that they have made at least one purchase from a foreign e-commerce outlet. Meanwhile in the Nordic states, this level is closer to 70 per cent.

There are other parts of Europe in which online shopping has yet to catch on in a big way, with countries including Italy being seen as a little behind the curve. But this does mean that yet more growth is likely to be achieved over the coming years and even with growth in the UK starting to slow, other EU nations will be able to pick up the slack.

Average British shoppers were found to spend almost twice as much online as their closest counterparts, indicating just how culturally important this type of activity has become in recent years. And the report also points out that shopping online for groceries is more popular in the UK than anywhere else.