Spending in European webshops up by 15 percent

These purchases concern online purchases of goods by Dutch consumers from companies located within the European Union but outside the Netherlands. For all foreign webshops which record product sales to Dutch consumers exceeding 100 thousand euros per year, VAT declarations in the Netherlands are compulsory. These declarations have been used as the data source. European webshops with product sales below 100 thousand euros are not included in the research. As a result, the total amount spent by Dutch consumers in European webshops is underestimated. Figures have been calculated on the basis of a new method still under development and are therefore provisional. The margin of error in relation to total turnover amounts to approximately 5 percent.

Turnover of domestic webshops increases more rapidly

Webshops registered in the Netherlands saw sales increase by nearly 22 percent in Q1 2018. This is more than the turnover growth realised by European webshops for sales to Dutch consumers in this period (15 percent). Turnover generated by Dutch shops with only online sales grew by 19 percent; Dutch retail companies which operate a webshop aside from their brick-and-mortar shop(s) recorded turnover growth of 26 percent. Total turnover in the Dutch retail sector rose by 2.7 percent in Q1 2018.

Turnover share of European webshops small

To Dutch consumers, the distinction between domestic and foreign webshops tends to be blurry. Foreign e-commerce websites are often multilingual, including Dutch. Purchases made by Dutch people in European webshops account for a relatively small part of total spending on similar products by Dutch consumers. These purchases amounted to less than 2 percent in 2017.