E-commerce: 7 out of 10 internet users shop online, according to survey

The expansion of e-commerce in Europe continued in 2021, increasing by 13% reaching 718 billion euros, with the growth rate slightly increased compared to 2020.

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This results from the European E-Commerce Report for 2022 published jointly by the Hellenic E-Commerce Association, E-commerce Europe and EuroCommerce.

Maintaining momentum from the pandemic

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B2C turnover figures for 2021 show that e-commerce continues to grow, despite the lifting of lockdowns and the ability for consumers to visit physical stores again.

Since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce has become even more firmly entrenched in the economy and society, according to the authors of the report, based on data from European markets.

Two trends

Overall, two trends can be identified: On the one hand, the normalization and stabilization of sales compared to the excellent previous year: e-commerce continued to grow in 2021 and the same is predicted to happen in 2022, with growth stabilizing albeit at slower rates.

On the other hand, the report points out that consumers are more careful with their spending. The effects of the war in Ukraine, inflation, disrupted global supply chains and a general sense of uncertainty are pushing growth figures back to pre-pandemic levels.

However, the fact that e-commerce sales are experiencing only a slight decline so far shows that the digital commerce sector has become indispensable and very resilient.

In addition, the online services industry, such as e-tourism, events and tickets, has seen a steady recovery over the past year.

In Greece

According to the data of the report, in Greece consumer access to the internet reached 79% in 2021 from 70% in 2017 and the estimate for 2022 is that it will rise to 81%.

The percentage of Internet users who made online purchases shows a leap from 45% in 20217 to 59% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic and restrictive measures, it rose even more to 69% in 2021, while it is estimated to reach 71 % in 2022.

Users overwhelmingly use Google as their search engine at 97%, Yahoo at 2% and Bing at 1%.