The pandemic boosted retail ecommerce sales across the world and fueled double-digit gains in France and Germany in 2020. This year, both countries will see single-digit growth, as physical retail begins to recover.

On the Continent, by country: France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium have experienced massive plummets in consumer confidence as inflation rises. A quarter of German consumers rearranged investment plans in response to economic shifts resulting from the war in Ukraine.

Amazon has trumpeted its investment in electric vehicles, announcing a purchase of 1,800 electric Mercedes vans for European use in August 2020. But Amazon’s ability to fund such purchases is perhaps unique among regional online retailers. And electric vans still deliver just a fraction of Amazon orders.

It’s worth noting that Germany and the UK don’t even place in the top 10 by this measure. Though both are advanced ecommerce markets, digital buyers in these countries are relatively unlikely to be social buyers—chiefly because engagement with social networks is substantially lower than in countries such as China, Russia, the US, and Brazil. 

And in Germany, regulators have declared Facebook can no longer process WhatsApp user data, which will likely go on to be reviewed by the European Data Protection Board. Network effects are strong.

In China and the US, 59% of internet users are comfortable using secondhand clothing items, making those countries where the resale fashion economy is most ripe for growth.

Lower prices for most goods also pull shoppers back to Amazon—a key consideration for households feeling a financial pinch. Many smaller retailers are now locked into selling via Amazon, for better or worse. That trend seems to be most pronounced in Italy and Spain, where ecommerce had lagged behind markets such as France, Germany, and the UK.

The coronavirus pandemic has been disastrous for the vast majority of Europe’s retailers. Digital retail has benefitted, though. In Germany, we expect retail ecommerce sales to rise 16.2% this year, and total $92.33 billion.

Smart speaker penetration is lower in Germany and France. In Germany, there will be 11.4 million smart speaker users, or 13.7% of the population. By 2022, users will total 12.5 million users (14.9% of the population). In France, the number of smart speaker users—which has grown robustly in recent years—will reach 9.5 million, or 14.1% of the population.