Interview: Europe’s cross-border marketplaces market

According to our estimates, cross-border sales from marketplaces operated by companies with European capital represent a turnover of €9 billion in 2018 (excluding travel), representing only 21% of the total market for cross-border marketplaces in Europe, estimated at €42 billion, with Amazon generating €28 billion. However, cross-border sales are expected to increase by more than 50% to reach €15 billion in 2020.

We see two factors that explain this trend.

– – The major EU cross-border marketplaces players Farfetch, Fruugo and Asos (UK), Fnac, Pixmania and Spartoo (FR), Zalando and Mobile.de (DE), Bytbil (NO) and Coolshop (DK) will experience strong organic growth, while on average 50% of their turnover is generated by sales made by third parties. This share is expected to increase further.

– EU marketplaces which operate locally are looking for growth opportunities beyond their borders. This includes 2dehands and 2ememain (BE), Marktplaats and Bol.com (NL), On Buy and Flubit (UK), CDiscount, LaRedoute and Priceminister (France), Real.de and Otto.de (DE), eMag (Eastern Europe), Fyndiq (SE), Worten.pt and Allegro (PT), Clasohlson (SE), Wilhaben.at (AT), Gigantti and Verkkokauppa (FL) and Jofogas.hu (HU).

In France, Amazon has a market share of 14.2% excluding travel, followed by CDiscount (7.8%). Only 5% of Amazon’s e-commerce is done in France compared to 95% for CDiscount. In the Netherlands, Bol.com plans to expand into new geographical areas. Its marketplace is the main driver of growth. Today 23,000 third party e-merchants sell on Bol.com.

The top 5 B2C marketplaces with European capital are Zalando, Fruugo, Asos, Farfetch and Carrefour.

“Retail as a service” which is offered by most marketplaces is increasingly becoming a “must”, including the following services: transport, returns management, feed management, cloud computing services, payment and online marketing.

We expect the emergence of new European niche markets by 2020. They are now very popular in the United States and the United Kingdom, for example: Newegg for the global electronics market, Reverb for musicians, Zibbet for independent artists and Houzz for interior design enthusiasts.

To learn more about marketplaces, check out our white paper:

Image: GregMontani / Pixabay