What’s the outlook for smartphone and tablet online retail in Europe and the US? This two-part blog post highlights what’s changed — and what’s ahead — for each region.

In Europe-5 markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK), COVID-19 has irreversibly changed consumer shopping behavior. In 2021, e-commerce will drive two-thirds of retail growth across these markets, and that will continue to grow in the next few years.

  • Overall e-commerce penetration in 2020 varied from market to market. In 2020, one-quarter of UK total retail sales happened online, and in Italy, that was less than one-tenth.
  • Smartphone and tablet surpassed desktop in online retail spend in 2019. In 2019, half of online retail sales across the Europe-5 markets occurred via smartphone and tablet. This share will grow steadily over the coming years. Driving factors: Consumers are spending more time on smartphones, plus screen sizes are bigger (i.e., making it easier to research and buy products).
  • The UK is the largest market — but Italy grows fastest. Currently, the UK accounts for 43% of total smartphone and tablet online retail sales across these five European markets. In second place: Germany. We expect Italy to grow fastest, however, at a CAGR of 25.9% from 2019 to 2024.

Learn more about the full EU-5 mobile retail forecast, see the US mobile commerce (retail and travel) forecast, and schedule an inquiry with me to discuss further details about this forecast.