TL;DR
1 · Country market sizes
Scope note: Europe has no single unified per-country figure; the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy each follow their own association scopes (BEVH/FEVAD/CNMC/NETCOMM), and 'goods sales' vs 'total incl. services' differ by hundreds of billions. The table aligns to a goods/B2C scope where possible and flags vintage per row.
Definition conflicts
- Europe's 2024 total has two parallel figures: €819B (EuroCommerce official report) vs €842B (cited); cite the EuroCommerce European E-commerce Report 2025 official summary (€819B, 2024) as the primary figure.
- Germany 2025 has €83.1B (goods) / €92.4B (HDE online retail) / ~€110B (incl. services) side by side — the difference is goods-only vs total.
- Italy €90.6B (2025 incl. services) vs €62B (older vintage) — use the 2025 figure but note the scope.
- Spain's €43B is a cited annualised estimate; the official CNMC figure is quarterly (Q1 €25.75B).
Regional structure
- Western Europe = 58% of European ecommerce turnover; Eastern Europe is fastest (+18% vs +7% overall).
- Growth leaders in the East/Southeast: Türkiye, Bulgaria (ECDB).
- Europe-5 (UK/DE/FR/ES/IT) online retail will reach €565bn within ~5 years; by 2030 ecommerce will drive half of Europe-5 retail growth (Forrester).
3 · B2C & cross-border structure
- Marketplaces account for ~61% of European ecommerce (and rising); they are also the cross-border growth engine.
- Temu now matches Amazon in cross-border sales (~24% cross-border share each); the best cross-border sellers are Nordic multichannel firms Ikea, Jysk and H&M.
- Poland's cross-border is ~19% of its ecommerce; Dutch cross-border orders +9%; EU online-purchase penetration 76–78%.
- 78% of EU internet users shopped online in 2025; mobile payments are 59% of EU ecommerce transactions; 40% of Europeans want BNPL-style flexible payments.
- Europe's online resale market is €21.6B (expected +€2B in 2025); Vinted and Refurbed lead.
4 · Warehousing, logistics & fulfilment
Core conclusion: European fulfilment is not 'one warehouse for all of Europe' — it concentrates in a few countries along 'large market + strong ports + strong trunk lines + high fulfilment density'.
4.1 Tier-1 overseas-warehouse map
4.2 Seven-country site-selection matrix
Warehousing cost, return rate and large-item fit are industry estimates (B-tier sources), not official disclosures — marked 'industry estimate' rather than hard data.
4.3 Platform fulfilment networks
- Amazon Pan-European FBA — Core inventory countries = France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland; sellers must enable FBA storage in at least 2 of them; one inventory pool across countries, triggering multi-country VAT registration (paired with OSS filing)
- Zalando — Own logistics covering multiple European countries; reshaping its pan-European network after acquiring ABOUT YOU (closing the German Erfurt centre in 2026, ~2,700 roles); ZEOS logistics serves B2B partners
- Allegro — One Box parcel-locker network 16K+ APMs (incl. DHL); ~41% of Q4 parcels via lockers; Smart! free delivery across Poland
- Vinted — Vinted Go own carrier (BE/FR/NL/PT/ES) + third parties, 500k+ pickup points
- Temu/AliExpress/Shein — Started as direct mail, now pivoting to local warehousing/semi-managed; the €3/parcel duty plus the end of the €150 exemption reshapes the low-price direct-mail model — local warehousing (AliExpress Local+, semi-managed) benefits
4.4 Last-mile & parcel lockers
- European consumers prefer local dispatch + delivery within 3 days; locally shipped items convert notably better than direct mail.
- French consumers have a 14-day withdrawal right + 2-year legal guarantee, making local returns handling a must.
- Parcel lockers are spreading fast: InPost (Polish Paczkomaty), DHL Packstation, GLS, PostNL networks are all expanding (PostNL opened a German fulfilment centre in Mannheim in 2025).
4.5 Reverse logistics / returns
- European online return rates are high overall (fashion 30%+, FR ~25%, DE ~30%, UK ~20%) — reverse logistics is the biggest fulfilment cost.
- Global online return rate was ~15.8% in 2025, costing ~$850B — reverse logistics is turning from a cost centre into a competitive weapon.
5 · Country comparison (decision matrix)
6 · Platforms, brands & trends
What to watch
- The EU opened a DSA investigation into Temu (up to 6% of global turnover in fines); the two largest-ever fines have landed (Temu €200M, AliExpress €550M).
- From 1 July 2026 the EU ends the €150 duty-free threshold and charges €3 per small parcel — pushing 'overseas warehouse + local fulfilment' to become the entry ticket.
- Zalando completed the ABOUT YOU acquisition and is reshaping its pan-European logistics network (closing the Erfurt centre).
- TikTok Shop went live in 6 countries in April 2025, targeting 200M EU users in 2026.
- Europe's online resale market is €21.6B (expected +€2B in 2025); Vinted GMV +47%.
- European retail media spend €13.7B (+21.1%, IAB Europe).
Structural trends
- Platformisation is irreversible: marketplaces are 61% of Europe (globally ~83.4%, ECDB); Mirakl index shows 2025 marketplace GMV +34%.
- Low-price platforms localise: Chinese platforms (Temu/Shein/TikTok Shop) move from 'pure low-price direct mail' to 'localised + compliant + semi-managed'.
- Reverse logistics is turning into a differentiator (Vinted and Refurbed lead the circular economy).
- Regulation reshapes the model: end of de minimis + €3/parcel duty + DSA + country-specific VAT differences are the biggest structural variable this cycle.
7 · Data sources & freshness
Data compiled 2026-08; each figure cited with source & vintage.
Gaps to verify
- A single Europe-wide average annual online spend per shopper (not pinned by open sources; needs eMarketer/Statista paywalled data).
- Europe's exact share of global ecommerce (not pinned; only EU penetration 78% vs global ~60%).
- Otto / Cdiscount 2024–25 latest GMV (check BEVH/FEVAD primary reports).