Retail ecommerce sales in Western Europe rose by 26.3% in 2020, to €481.54 billion ($539.18 billion). The pandemic is fueling other shifts in the retail landscape, too, such as a greater focus on buying local.

The number of click-and-collect buyers in Germany increased slightly during the pandemic, but not as much as in other Western European countries—and that lag will continue over the next few years. One bright spot, however, is that buyer penetration rates in Germany will steadily rise during that time.

Even before the pandemic, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space was heating up in Western Europe. But the side effects of stay-at-home orders helped accelerate D2C’s popularity, and the landscape looks to be permanently altered.

One reason is that social network adoption in much of Western Europe—particularly France and Germany—has lagged behind the US and Asia-Pacific nations. And countries with higher levels of social network use are more likely to engage in “emerging” social activities such as social commerce.

France’s GDP fell by 8.3% YoY in 2020—one of the worst drops in Western Europe, according to the European Commission’s February 2021 estimates. Not surprisingly, traditional ad formats suffered big losses.

This year the UK will pass France to have the highest social buyer penetration rate among internet users in Western Europe, a position it will hold through 2025. However, the UK will remain some way behind the major global markets of China and the US.

In a Signicat survey from May and June 2020, 63% of adults in five Western European countries (including the UK) said they had abandoned a digital banking application in the past 12 months, up 25 percentage points from 2019. In-app card activation helps smooth the process by letting customers skip a phone call or a trip to the computer and, instead, start spending immediately.

After a complicated 2020, most industries in Germany will accelerate their digital ad spending growth in 2021. The rebound for travel and auto will underwhelm, but retail spend will soar.

The pandemic super-charged digital habits in the UK, particularly among higher-income groups. These people are also in a better place financially as pandemic restrictions lift, but there’s pent-up desire to spend across all income brackets.

Following rollouts in Ireland and France, Square launched an early access program in Spain, where it can capitalize on rising digital payments use.