01 · Scale
How big the market actually is
European B2C ecommerce turnover reached roughly €842 billion in 2024, up about 7% nominally and 4.6% in real terms once inflation is stripped out. That real figure is the more honest one: growth is genuine, not just price rises.
Around 78% of EU internet users shop online, though the gap between the top and bottom countries is roughly 38 percentage points. Europe is not one market, it is about thirty of them at very different stages, which is the single most useful thing to understand before choosing where to sell.
Europe's average tells you almost nothing. The spread between its best and worst ecommerce markets is about 38 percentage points.
02 · Growth
Where the growth actually is
This is the number that should change your plans. In 2024 Eastern Europe grew B2C ecommerce about 18% nominally, roughly three times the Western European rate of 6%.
B2C ecommerce growth by region, 2024
Nominal year on year. Eastern Europe is growing from a smaller base, which is exactly why the room is there.
Western Europe is bigger and more saturated: more competitors, higher ad costs, buyers who already have a preferred store for most things. Eastern Europe is smaller per capita and growing three times faster, with fewer sellers fighting for the same attention.
For a seller with limited capital, that trade is usually worth taking. You are not trying to capture a market, you are trying to find enough room to be profitable, and room is what Eastern Europe still has.
03 · Size
The biggest national markets
France overtook the UK as Europe's largest B2C ecommerce market in 2024. The top five by turnover:
Largest European B2C ecommerce markets, 2024
Annual turnover. Size and opportunity are not the same thing.
Poland at €43.4bn is the largest of the Central and Eastern European markets and the one most likely to matter to a COD seller on this list.
Read that chart carefully. France at €175.3bn is enormous, and also the hardest place on the list for a small seller to get traction: mature buyers, expensive traffic, established competitors. Poland at €43.4bn is a quarter of the size and a fraction of the difficulty.
04 · Payment
Where buyers still pay the courier
This is the map that decides whether the cash on delivery model works at all. Cash on delivery penetration remains highest across Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
Cash on delivery penetration by country
How widely the method is used. Not the same as the share of orders it represents.
Important distinction: penetration measures how widely a payment method is used in a market, which runs higher than the share of orders actually paid that way. For order share, Romania is commonly estimated at 60% to 65%, with Bulgaria and Greece in the 40% to 60% band depending on category. Both metrics point the same direction; do not mix them in the same sentence.
Card payment is growing quickly across the region, with card use at point of sale up sharply through 2025. But COD is not collapsing, it is being joined. In practice a seller who removes the cash option in Greece or Bulgaria is choosing to lose a large share of the market for the convenience of not handling cash.
05 · So what
What a seller should take from this
Growth and COD overlap almost perfectly
The fastest growing region in European ecommerce is the same region where buyers still pay at the door. That is not a coincidence, it is a market maturing in a particular order, and it is a window rather than a permanent state.
Market size is a poor guide to opportunity
France is four times the size of Poland and considerably more than four times harder. Small and growing beats large and saturated when you are funding ads out of your own pocket.
One country at a time
Thirty markets, thirty languages, thirty sets of buyer habits. Learn one properly before you touch the second.
Speed is the differentiator that is still available
You cannot outspend the big players on ads. You can beat most cross-border sellers on delivery time, and in a COD market delivery time is acceptance rate, which is revenue.
Where that leads in practice is on the market entry page, and the per-route economics are on the COD Europe guide.
06 · Sources
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is from published third-party reporting, not from our own books. Named below so you can go and check them. Figures are as published at the time of writing in August 2026 and will move.
- €842bn turnover, +7% nominal, +4.6% real (2024) and the East/West growth split: Ecommerce Europe and EuroCommerce, European E-commerce Report, 2025 edition covering 2024.
- National market sizes (France €175.3bn, Spain €95.2bn, Germany €94.0bn, Italy €58.5bn, Poland €43.4bn): same report, 2024 B2C goods turnover.
- 78% of EU internet users shopping online and the 38-point country spread: Eurostat, Internet purchases by individuals (isoc_ec_ibuy).
- COD penetration by country: ECDB analysis of payment method usage in Central and Eastern Europe. Penetration measures how widely a method is used, not the share of orders paid with it.
On reading market data
Published market size estimates for European ecommerce vary widely, from roughly €700bn to over €1.2 trillion, because different sources measure different things: B2C only or B2C plus B2B, goods only or goods plus services, EU or geographic Europe. We have used B2C goods figures consistently. If a number elsewhere disagrees with one here, check what it is counting before assuming either is wrong.
FAQ
Questions people ask
European B2C ecommerce turnover reached roughly €842 billion in 2024, up about 7% nominally and 4.6% in real terms after inflation. Estimates from different sources vary considerably depending on whether they count B2C only, include services, and where they draw the boundary of Europe.
France overtook the UK as Europe’s largest B2C ecommerce market in 2024 at about €175.3 billion, followed by Spain at €95.2 billion, Germany at €94.0 billion, Italy at €58.5 billion and Poland at €43.4 billion.
Eastern Europe. It grew B2C ecommerce about 18% nominally in 2024, roughly three times the Western European rate of 6%. It grows from a smaller base, with fewer sellers competing, which is why it is usually the better place for a small seller to start.
Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. On penetration measures Greece leads at about 85.6%, with Bulgaria and Slovakia around 80%, Serbia 69.2%, Lithuania 64.9% and Poland 60.7%. Note that penetration measures how widely the method is used, which runs higher than the share of orders actually paid that way.
It is being joined rather than replaced. Card payment adoption is rising quickly across Central and Eastern Europe, but COD penetration remains among the highest anywhere and removing the cash option in markets like Greece or Bulgaria still costs a meaningful share of conversions.