According to the eCommerce News website, the eCommerce market in Europe has risen in the past few years.
Before the Covid pandemic, Europe was set to score over 700 billion in online sales (source). With the actual pandemic hitting every single country in the world, the eCommerce growth was even faster than expected.
Europeans like to shop online within European online stores.
This minimizes costs for buyers, who can order whatever they want from the numerous European countries without extra costs from Customs, and products arrive with relative speed too.
eCommerce in Europe is definitely a market to bet on and to invest in for all of those who wish to expand operations and/or market share.
What eCommerce in Europe looks like
Europe is a sort of safe haven for online shoppers in the Continent.
Buying things from outside of Europe has become expensive given that Customs’ costs are high and that most products can actually be found in any European country.
Moreover, orders from within Europe arrive much faster and in safer conditions.
eCommerce in Europe is perceived as safer than just shopping from other countries.
Markets
To no surprise whatsoever, markets related to Clothing and Beauty are in the top 5 of favorite things for Europeans to buy online.
The next spaces of the top 5 belong to Books, Home electronics and CD’s/DVD’s.
What isn’t such a good market in Europe is Food, particularly grocery shopping.
With the Covid pandemic, online grocery shopping has increased significantly but it’s still far from other countries’ numbers.
In terms of countries that use online shopping the most, it’s no surprise that western Europe takes the lead.
Not only is there more wealth in western Europe, but also a lot more eCommerce businesses.
Why you should seriously think about eCommerce in Europe
Before we dive into this let’s clarify a couple of things.
Investing in Europe can happen in (at least) three different ways:
- Buying an European eCommerce
- Investing in an European eCommerce to help grow
- Scale your own eCommerce business by expanding it to Europe
Buying an European eCommerce
There are dozens of eCommerce businesses being sold in Europe right now. Businesses with potential for growth and good clients throughout their countries and the continent itself.
If you prefer to have a first eCommerce in Europe the easy way to “test drive” the market we can recommend buying an online business that’s currently for sale.
Contact AEPIC Partners using this link, set up a free call, and we can assist you with buying a good, profit potential business.
Investing in an European eCommerce
This is also a good idea if you don’t want to go all in.
You can find a business with growth potential and work with the current owners to scale the business.
AEPIC Partners is more than happy to help you find a suitable eCommerce in Europe for you to invest in.
We help you read the numbers and analyze the business to understand whether there’s actual potential or not.
Scale your own business in Europe
This third option has actually been taken by several other online businesses worldwide.
Because shopping in Europe is easy between countries who are a part of the EU, it makes it relatively easy for you to scale your own business there.
You can build your headquarters in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain or any Eastern European country and sell to all of Europe combined.
Benefits of Europe
We’ve mentioned at least one of them – and it’s the very best one.
You can literally sell to all EU countries from whichever European country you base your headquarters in.
There’s tremendous potential for scale and growth because of this.
A clothing eCommerce based in Portugal can feature a website in Portuguese, English, German and French. With these 4 sets of languages, you can sell to the wealthiest countries in Europe.
We could stop listing benefits right here because this turns Europe into a very interesting place to create and grow an eCommerce.
Here’s another excellent benefit: Europeans love brands more than products.
This means they’re loyal to a brand and will hesitate to change. Unless the difference in price is really high and the other brand also grants them certain perks, they will not stop buying from you.
For LTV purposes this is excellent news.
Last but not least, Europe has some pretty interesting rules for companies looking to expand businesses.
For example, Portugal created the Golden Visas, and Estonia actually has a programme called e-Residency that allows you to start and build a European company without ever needing to step foot in Europe.
Downside of Europe
Yes, there’s also a downside. Not all is perfect.
You need to keep a good track of your finances and all accounting rules of the different countries.
Thankfully, the EU rules help you in managing this but you cannot have a business in Europe without an accountant or accounting consultant.
Europe is still not the USA in terms of advertising or buying behavior.
Advertising costs are rising, which means more and more businesses are doing paid ads now, but the Europeans don’t find certain ads to be trustworthy.
Make sure you have a paid ads expert with you to ensure your money is being well spent.
Approximately a third of online European shoppers take shipping costs in high consideration.
eCommerce businesses with free shipping will always have a lead compared to other online shops with no free shipping.
Moreover, on average people expect their product to arrive in 3-4 days. This can be troublesome if you’re shipping from one end of the continent to another so be sure you’re clear on your eCommerce web pages.
Conclusion
Europe is definitely a bet you should take.
The benefits are stronger than all the downsides and this can mean a lot of money pouring into your eCommerce.
If there were ever any doubts about investing in Europe we’re hoping this small post will help you make up your mind.
AEPIC Partners is based in Europe and is the only M&A Advisory company that’s specialized in helping eCommerce businesses in Europe and business owners who wish to come into Europe.
Schedule your free call with an AEPIC Partners advisor and let’s have a chat about your future eCommerce in Europe.
