Eurostat has just released the annual retail figures, and average internet sales in the European Union are up by 12%, reports Tamebay. Estonia is leading with a growth of 36%, whereas Finland’s sales deflated by 1% and Portugal was down by 9%. Online sales or sales by mail order have increased enormously in the past decade, and the annual growth of online sales in the EU has reached over 9%. The growth of the total retail sales has been a lot slower, with annual rates since 2014 in between 2-3%.
It gets interesting when we take a look at the internet sales of the EU on the marketplace. Despite the concerns about Brexit and suppressed consumer spending, the UK has grown by 16%. This number beats France with its average growth of 12% and Germany is decreasing to below the EU average with a growth rate of 8%.
Countries that performed surprisingly well are Spain and the Netherlands with 17%, but real growth is occurring in Eastern Europe. Countries with smaller economies such as Estonia (36%), Hungary (32%), Romania and Lithuania (26%) and the Czech Republic (22%) are, surprisingly, increasing their growth quicker than the average European Union.