How big is the share of online shopping in total retail sales for specific product groups in the Netherlands and is this expected to change come 2023? In 2018, a consumer survey and expert study were combined to gain insights on how the Dutch use online shopping and how they would do this in the next five years. In 2018, for example, approximately 26 percent of all revenue made in telecom sales came from online sales. Both consumers and experts, however, expect this to increase by 2023, even though the experts believe this to increase much more than the consumers. The Netherlands was already considered to be one of Europe’s leading countries when it comes to buying fashion or sports goods online. One of the main take-aways from this ranking is that Dutch consumers expect the largest relative growth to happen within food/near food, household electronics and telecom, whereas industry experts expect the largest growth within consumer electronics and telecom.

How big is online grocery shopping in the Netherlands?

In 2018, roughly 18 percent of Dutch consumers purchased food or groceries at least once through online means. No exact user numbers are available. Different surveys were held to find out whether there was interest in this type of e-commerce. Living close to a supermarket, for example, was mentioned to be the most important reason to not use online grocery shopping. However, the share of supermarket revenue generated through online sales did increase between 2015 and 2018.

Where do the Dutch buy their consumer electronics?

In August 2018, 36 percent of Dutch online shoppers indicated that they would purchase electronics at an online marketplace with 22 percent saying they did not buy this online. An online marketplace is comparable to Amazon, but one should note that the e-commerce giant has but a small presence in the Netherlands. The company focused on Europe’s larger countries and has only partially translated (the books-segment of) its German website to Dutch. It is therefore likely, although not supported by any surveys, that the interest in online electronic sales in the Netherlands is due to a domestic player called Coolblue. This web shop specializes in both consumer and household electronics and is the country’s second-biggest online retailer (behind online marketplace Bol.com), as Coolblue generated a revenue of more than 1.3 billion euros in 2018.