Dutch consumers spent € 22.5 billion online in 2017

Smartphone for the first time more popular than tablet when shopping online

The turnover of Dutch web stores selling products and / or services amounted to € 22.5 billion in 2017. This represents a growth of 13% compared to the year before. This is according to figures from the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, the study into online consumer spending in the Netherlands. This research is conducted by GfK, commissioned by Thuiswinkel.org and in collaboration with PostNL.

In 2017, 95% of Dutch consumers aged 15 and over made one or more online purchases of products and services. * These online buyers spent a total of € 22.5 billion (+ 13%) on 201.7 million online purchases (+ 17%).

"The share of online product sales continues to grow and is becoming increasingly important within the Dutch retail trade," said Wijnand Jongen, director of Thuiswinkel.org. "In total, online spending on products in 2017 amounted to € 12.7 billion, * bringing the share of the e-commerce industry within the entire retail sector to 9.7%. ** This represents an increase of 1.3 percentage points over compared to 2016. Compared with five years ago, when the share of online purchases was 5.0%, the share has almost doubled. "

When we compare the growth in online spending for the whole of 2017 (+ 13%) with the growth in 2016 (+ 22%), we see that growth has slowed down. The growth in the number of online purchases is also smaller in 2017 (+ 17%) than in 2016 (+ 22%).

Whereas in 2016 it was mainly the Shoes & Personal Lifestyle, Insurance, Food / Nearfood and IT segments that showed significant online growth, in 2017 Health & Beauty, Food / Nearfood and Home & Garden were the biggest risers in terms of online spending .

In the fourth quarter of 2017, partly due to an increasing number of 'buying holidays', Dutch consumers spent considerably more online than in the other quarters. Online spending amounted to € 6.9 billion in Q4, a growth of 11% compared to the same period in 2016.

Amount spent per online product purchase lower in the fourth quarter

What is striking is that for a number of product segments the average amount spent per online purchase in Q4 is lower than in previous quarters. In the Sports & Recreation segment, for example, spending per online purchase was € 120 in Q1 2017 and € 78 in Q4. Seasonal variations naturally play an important role in this segment, but also within segments such as Consumer Electronics, Toys and Household Electronics in Q4 the average price per purchase is lower than in other quarters. The growing popularity of online holidays with big discounts, such as Singles Day and Black Friday, also plays a role in this. The number of purchases per online buyer is higher in Q4 than in the other quarters. In other words, more is being purchased in the last quarter of 2017, but at a lower average price.

Smartphone is beyond tablet among e-shoppers

The percentage of online buyers who had used a tablet for making online purchases at least once increased every quarter of 2016. However, since the first quarter of 2017, the penetration of the tablet for making online purchases has remained virtually stable .

The popularity of the smartphone within e-commerce has continued to rise, so that the penetration of the smartphone for online purchases from the second quarter of 2017 for the first time is higher than the penetration of the tablet. In Q4 2017, 28% of online buyers used a smartphone for at least one of their purchases and 24% a tablet. In Q4 2016 this was 21% of the buyers for the smartphone and 25% for the tablet.

The share of the smartphone in terms of spending also shows an increase. In the fourth quarter of 2017, 9% of all online spending was made via the smartphone, compared to 6% in the same period last year.