While B2C E-Commerce throughout Europe continues to grow, online shoppers across the Old Continent are showing a clear preference for purchasing clothing and travel and accommodation services online. Those two categories dominated the online purchases across the European Union, with each being bought by over half of active online shoppers in 2015.

Furthermore, the rising trend in product choice seems to blur the otherwise clearly defined boundaries between emerging and developed markets in the region, expressed mainly through comparatively high growth rates in the former and higher share of B2C E-Commerce in total retail sales in the latter. As such, clothing, sports goods, and accessories emerged as the most purchased online product category in several Western European countries, including the UK, Germany, and Belgium, while simultaneously becoming the most desired products in the biggest emerging market of the region, Russia, as well as several Central and Eastern European states such as the Czech Republic and Poland.

On their side, travel, tourist and accommodation services were a top category in Italy and the Netherlands, where they were purchased by over one half of online shoppers, while also ranking in top four in Greece, and second in Turkey. For instance in Turkey, when it comes to travel arrangements booked online, the differences between male and female online shoppers’ purchase behavior are nearly indistinguishable, with above a fifth of them purchasing them via the Internet in early 2015.

To find out more details about this and other emerging trends in the B2C E-Commerce markets across Europe, visit our webpage and our newly published report “Europe B2C E-Commerce Market 2016”.