Retail sales in France have taken a body blow during the coronavirus crisis, but digital retail is seeing gains. We expect retail ecommerce sales in France to total $77.27 billion (€69.01 billion) this year, compared with $66.00 billion (€58.94 billion) in 2019.

Every country we analyze in the region saw double-digit growth in ecommerce—those gains ranged from an estimated 11.8% in France to 36.0% in Spain. In fact, Spain was the third-fastest-growing retail ecommerce market worldwide among the 32 countries we track. Across the EU-4 and the UK specifically, the outlook also varied.

Reviews have always been a key aspect of a consumer’s shopping journey. But nowadays—particularly as more consumers lean on ecommerce—additional information in the form of user-generated visuals is becoming just as critical.

Our September 2020 Ecommerce Survey, conducted by Bizrate Insights, revealed that just 2% used voice shopping regularly, while 63% said they’d neither used it nor had any interest, up from 58% in our June 2020 survey.

Of course, many retailers were already taking on this imperative; 58% of those in France surveyed by KPMG and Fédération du E-commerce et de la Vente à Distance (FEVAD) in November 2020 believed that environmental consciousness was already well established among consumers.