Nearly 1 in 5 enterprises sold online in 2014 – fewer than 1 in 10 enterprises sold online to another EU Member State

In 2014, enterprises located in the European Union (EU) made 17% of their total turnover from electronic sales to other businesses or consumers, compared with 12% in 2008. As in previous years, EU enterprises engaged more in e-purchases than in e-sales in 2014, with 40% having purchased online, while 19% made electronic sales during the same period.

In 2014, while 18% of EU enterprises sold electronically on their domestic market, e-sales abroad (so called „cross-border e-commerce”) were more limited: 8% sold online to customers in another EU Member State, and 5% to customers in non-EU countries.

Among the EU Member States in 2014, electronic purchases were made by more than half of enterprises in Austria (68%), the Czech Republic (56%), Germany (54%), Finland and the United Kingdom (both 51%), while for esales, the share was lower in every Member State. It however concerned at least a quarter of enterprises in Ireland (32%), Sweden (28%), Denmark and Germany (both 27%), Belgium (26%), the Czech Republic and the Netherlands (both 25%).

Regarding turnover generated from e-sales, Ireland was, among those for which data are available, the Member State registering the highest share (37% of total turnover of enterprises), ahead of the Czech Republic (30%), Slovakia, Finland and the United Kingdom (all 21%). At the opposite end of the scale, a limited share of turnover originated from e-sales in enterprises located in Greece (1%), Bulgaria (5%), Cyprus (6%) and Romania (8%), most of these Member States also having the lowest shares for both e-purchases and e-sales: Greece 11% and 7%, Bulgaria 13% and 9%, and Romania 14% and 8%.

Enterprises engaged in e-commerce, 2014

Source: Eurostat