E-commerce penetration in the Netherlands 2022-2027, by product category

How big is the e-commerce share of total online retail spending in the Netherlands and how will it look like by 2027? A consumer survey gained insights on how the Dutch use online shopping and how they would do this in the next five years. In the first quarter of 2022, for example, approximately 70 percent of all spending made in computer and accessories sales came from online sales. Consumers expect this to decrease to roughly 60 percent in the coming years.

Tech dependency

Many products fall into the consumer electronics category, including computers, smartphones, headphones, game consoles, and tablets. In 2022, a staggering 97 percent of Dutch people used smartphones. Furthermore, approximately 65 percent of Dutch online shoppers indicated that they could not live without their smartphones, and around 30 percent buy new electronics even when their old ones still work. However, the shopping experience of consumer electronics has room for improvement. Surprisingly, purchases of consumer electronics were the third biggest category to be returned in the Netherlands in 2022.

Amazon leads the way

From a global perspective, the market size of consumer electronics is forecast to grow expeditiously during the next years, from over 340 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 to over 500 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. Worldwide, the leading web stores in the electronics and media segment by net sales are amazon.com, apple.com, jd.com, and bestbuy.com. Amazon experienced the highest sales in the tech category, with over 70 billion U.S. dollars in net sales in 2021.