eCommerce on Tour: Online Sales in Europe and its Preferred Platforms

2020 is the year that global ecommerce climbed into 14 digits as it broke the $10 trillion boundary. 

The state of ecommerce

Along with China to the east and the US to the west, Europe is one of the biggest ecommerce markets in the world, and home to some of the most recognized brands. By the time 2020 comes to a close, the Old Continent is forecast to be worth €717 billion, up 12.7% from last year.

Home to 70% of the continent’s ecommerce value, it’s little surprise that online shopping is concentrated within Western Europe, where 83% of the population shop online. Looking towards the top end of the table, the countries with the highest shares of online shoppers are the UK (94%), Denmark (86), and Germany (84%).

Yet in terms of strong growth, then you have to look eastwards towards Romania and Bulgaria, whose ecommerce markets have surged 30% from the previous year, despite the fact that only a third of their populations shop online.

Most popular platforms

When it comes to ecommerce platforms, Europe tends towards a preference for open-source solutions, including some that may seem unfamiliar to us across The Pond. So let’s take a look at some of the most popular ecommerce platforms in Europe.

PrestaShop

This open source ecommerce platform based in France has around 300 out-of-the-box features ranging from payments to product listings. In addition to this, it has a whole host of themes and features for purchase in order to customize your ecommerce website.

OXID EShop

The cloud-based ecommerce platform from Germany fits nicely with small-to-medium sized companies and provides template creation to personalize your brand. And training is also provided for in person rather than over the internet, likely thanks to its smaller client size.

OpenCart

Another open source solution, OpenCart offers fast setups and scalable capabilities that also supports multi-store functionalities. Ideal for starter businesses with low budgets.

WooCommerce

The money-making hand of WordPress, WooCommerce is one of the most popular ecommerce providers around the world, with the plugin both free and easy to set up.

Magento

Open source and free, Magento is written in PHP, a classic dev language with millions of developers well versed and literate in PHP, meaning there is a whole community working to improve and make advancements on the platform.

Shopify

Cheap to run and comprehensive in its functionality, Shopify also allows for simple scaling and access to a universe of templates to take advantage of at low costs. If you’re a startup or have a limited budget, Shopify is great.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

In terms of out-of-the-box functionality, as well as its universe of plugins that surround it, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a world beater. Its personalization powers and leading Einstein artificial intelligence provides brands the tools to deliver powerful online shopping experiences that can be tailor-made for specific groups of customers.

Many of the leading brands and retailers that are based in Europe use Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and have leveraged the platform to create digital experiences that are absorbed and soaked in the brand’s style. Brands that include the largest sports brand on the continent, Adidas. Brands like Puma, that relaunched its mobile-first strategy on SFCC. And quality retailers like Marks & Spencer, whose global reach was strengthened by an early adoption of SFCC’s power of personalization.

PS: UV is one of the world’s leading Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware) integrators. Contact us to see how we can work together.