A recent report by Tradebyte, a digital ecommerce platform, shows that ecommerce growth and demand in Europe are shifting across different regions, product categories, and channels. Staying up to date on the latest customer trends and shifts is crucial for ecommerce brands that want to operate in the region.
The Demand for Ecommerce is Shifting in Europe
The report and analysis by Tradebyte were done based on marketplace data from over 1,000 different brands and more than 90 retailers from all across Europe. Specifically, the report looks at real transactional and performance data from both brands and retailers, as well as wider industry research and insight.
Generally, the report finds that overall ecommerce growth is steady, but the actual mechanics behind the growth and demand are beginning to shift. In particular, this ecommerce demand is shifting across new regions, to new product categories, and even fresh discovery channels.
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the key results and highlights from the report.
Growth Shifting East and North
The report highlights that ecommerce growth is beginning to shift to both the Eastern and Northern parts of Europe. While the Western section of Europe still dominates, with Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland making up 73% of gross merchandise value (GMV), other nations are emerging.
For example, Central and Eastern Europe grew by 59% last year, with the North growing by 37%.
Also, in addition to this expansion, smaller markets across the continent are also experiencing rapid growth when it comes to ecommerce. For example, Norway, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Greece, and Portugal all recorded growth of more than 100%.
While these markets are still quite small in terms of total GMV, this amount of growth is promising and shows that more and more people across Europe are flocking to ecommerce to get what they need.
Not only does ecommerce offer easy access to a variety of products from anywhere, it actually provides a massive savings boost for EU families, to the tune of over €880 (over $1000) per household annually.
Category Demand is Changing
Demand is also shifting amongst product categories. In 2025, the fastest-growing category in Europe for ecommerce was underwear, which grew by 45%. Next up were beauty products, which saw 16% growth.
In addition to beauty products seeing more demand amongst European online shoppers, they’re also one of the major drivers of the projected cross-border ecommerce growth. Finally, sportswear comes in at third place, at 10%. These top categories show that there’s a growing demand for comfort and wellbeing-related products.
Also, while fashion is overall still the largest segment in terms of ecommerce in Europe, growth is becoming more utility and value-led, according to the report.
Conversation Around Returns
The report also speaks about the importance of returns. In the world of ecommerce, returns are incredibly common and can be an expense that significantly impacts a company’s profitability. Returns are often higher with ecommerce because people cannot physically see or hold items before buying them.
As a result, they may show up a different size, color, “feel”, or quality than they were expecting, which prompts them to return the item.
While ecommerce brands across Europe need to deal with returns, how common they are actually varies widely from region to region. For example, return rates in the UK are only around 14%, but are over 50% in markets like Germany and Austria.
To combat these high return rates, many retailers are considering putting an end to free returns, to encourage people to do more pre-purchase research to ensure a product is the right size, style, color, and quality before they buy it.
Retailers in the UK have been more strict about returns for a while now, and the lower return rates there suggest that this strategy may be effective at preventing returns from being such a major problem for ecommerce brands.
Changes to Discovery
Lastly, the report said that discovery continues to fragment across different marketplaces, social platforms, and AI interfaces. Today, visibility often depends on algorithms rather than simply search or advertising.
As a result, things like structuring your product data well, using natural language within your content, and ensuring your prices/inventory numbers are up-to-date and consistent are crucial in getting discovered.
I feel that all of the highlights from this report are important for any ecommerce brand operating in Europe to keep in mind. If you ignore this kind of data, you could end up missing out on important information about expanding markets, what online shoppers are buying, and where they discover your brand or products in the first place.
Also, because of the fragmentation of discovery, it’s more important than ever for your brand to remain consistent from channel to channel. This goes for everything from your messaging, your customer experience, your pricing, and more. Moving towards unifying your ecommerce efforts ensures people get a consistent experience no matter where they first learn about your brand.
