Western European e-commerce to hit EUR 203 billion by 2014

The same source predicts that Europeans customers are to spend EUR 942 on average per year in 2009, while by 2014 the same amount is to reach EUR 1,086. Within the six-year interval, the e-commerce market in Western Europe, which includes Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the UK, is to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent.

In UK, almost 28 million consumers currently make purchases online, and by 2014 their number is expected to rise to 37 million who will spend GBP 56 billion online. Germany has witnessed a two-fold increase in the number of online shoppers since 2000 to 36 million in 2009, accounting for 44 percent of the adult population. By 2014, the study projects that their number will reach 44 million and they will spend EUR 44 billion via the internet, as compared to EUR 28 billion spent by the 30 million French online shoppers within the same period and EUR 17 billion spent by the 16 million Spanish online buyers.

Sweden has also registered a doubling in the number of internet buyers since 2003, to 4 million in 2009, representing more than half of the adult population (54 percent). This number is forecast to increase to 6 million by 2014, a consumer segment that is to spend more than EUR 5.1 billion on the internet. In the Netherlands despite the current economic downturn, by 2014, almost 10 million online shoppers will spend over EUR 8 billion for online purchases, with leisure flights, consumer electronics and hotels contributing most to the countrys e-commerce revenue, with EUR 1.9 billion, EUR 1.7 billion and EUR 1.1 billion, respectively.

The study was conducted by Forrester Research.