In 2020, 22% of EU enterprises had e-commerce sales and 19% reported that their online sales reached at least 1% of their total turnover, a 1 percentage point (pp) increase compared with 2019 and 6 pp up from 13% in 2010. The steady growth in the use of e-commerce sales in many countries was heightened by the coronavirus pandemic and movement restrictions, which led both customers and businesses to an increased interest in online sales.
Denmark recorded the highest share of enterprises selling online (e-sales of at least 1% of their total turnover) among the EU Member States with 38%, the same share as the previous year. Ireland and Sweden came in second with 34% each, registering a 1 and 3 pp increase compared with 2019.
Belgium and Finland registered the highest increase in enterprises selling online (e-sales of at least 1% of their total turnover) in 2020, both up by 5 pp to 31% and 24% respectively. In contrast, Romania recorded the highest decrease among the Member States, down by 6 pp to 12%, followed by Czechia (-5 pp to 25%) and Portugal (-4 pp to 16%).
Source dataset: isoc_ec_eseln2
Similar to previous years, and based on the location of the customers, it was most common to sell to clients in the own country (22% of enterprises), with sales to clients in other EU countries (9%) and the rest of the world (5%) less frequent.
Moreover, in 2020, 19% of EU enterprises conducted online sales using websites or apps (web sales), either to private consumers (B2C) (15%) or to business and government (B2BG) (12%), and 6% used EDI-type sales in order to sell mainly to their business customers. The enterprises performed their web sales through the enterprises’ own website or app (17% of enterprises) or through an e-commerce marketplace (8%).
For more information:
- Eurostat data on COVID-19 impact available here.
- Eurostat dedicated section on digital economy and society
- Eurostat database on digital economy and society
- Data presented in this article was collected by the survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in 2021.
- Data in the database are organised according to the survey year; the results above refer to the calendar year prior to the survey.
- Methodological information related to surveys on ICT usage can be found here.
To contact us, please visit our User Support page.
For press queries, please contact our Media Support.