Retail reinvented: How e-commerce marketplaces in Europe and the UK have grown

E-commerce in the UK and EU has seen remarkable growth, with projections indicating continued expansion. In less than 30 years, e-commerce in the UK alone has gone from 1% of all retail in 2000 to just under 30% in 2024 (down from nearly 40% during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21).

Across Europe, e-commerce grew steadily over the following decade in countries like Germany and France, with Amazon dominating, followed by platforms like Germany’s Otto and France’s Cdiscount. In 2016, e-commerce had a 10-15% slice of the total retail pie.  

Here, we take a closer look at how Amazon and other B2C marketplaces have played a significant role in this growth and shaped the retail landscape, and how you can get expert support with selling on multiple marketplaces.

What 3 factors have contributed to the growth of e-commerce marketplaces in the UK and Europe? 

1. The pandemic 

The lockdowns accelerated the shift towards online shopping, making marketplaces the preferred buying channel. AI-powered recommendations, mobile commerce, and secure payment gateways drive enhanced user experiences. Now, approximately 47% of digital purchases worldwide are now made via online marketplace platforms. 

2. Huge product assortment and consumer safety

Marketplaces have gained popularity due to their extensive product range, competitive pricing, and reliable customer protection. They simplify international selling by managing VAT, logistics, and multilingual customer service, utilising their own infrastructure like Amazon’s extensive range of Pan-European Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) warehouses in the UK and EU. 

Safety plays a part, too. Marketplaces implement various security measures such as identity verification, two-factor authentication, activity monitoring, and secure payment gateways to ensure user safety. 

3. Niche platforms giving customers exactly what they’re looking for 

Specialised platforms such as Zalando for fashion, Coolblue for electronics, and Etsy for handmade goods are expanding, catering to specific consumer needs. Meanwhile eBay, Alibaba, and Rakuten offer diverse product categories, and niche platforms like Reverb for musical instruments and Chewy for pet supplies are also growing in popularity.  

Why are e-commerce marketplaces so important for expansion into the EU and UK?

Platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Zalando attract millions of daily visitors and provide instant access to large customer bases. Sellers benefit from the marketplace’s built-in traffic, reducing the need for costly advertising. Services like PanEuropean FBA and third-party logistics providers simplify logistics, making order fulfilment more efficient.

Customers are more likely to buy from a secure marketplace they recognise over an unknown website, enhancing credibility and trust. Additionally, marketplaces provide valuable analytics on sales trends, customer behaviour, and pricing strategies, helping businesses optimise performance. 

Looking to the future: the 5 main trends shaping the future of e-commerce marketplaces in the UK and EU

Social commerce and user-generated content

Businesses are integrating e-commerce marketplaces and brick-and-mortar presence with social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to showcase their products and enable direct purchases. Overlapping with this, product reviews, photos, and videos created by users on social platforms and marketplaces themselves drive more sales by providing authentic content for potential buyers. 

Mobile commerce, omnichannel shopping and Augmented Reality

With over 75% of global e-commerce sales projected to come from mobile devices by 2025, optimising for mobile shopping will remain crucial, because offering a seamless experience across online and offline channels is essential. 

This overlaps neatly with meeting EPR (Environmental Producer Responsibility) requirements, with the advent of Digital Product Passports (QR codes printed on product labels, which link to product origin and care information) becoming required in the EU and UK.

Also, adding Augmented Reality (AR) into the mix will transform online shopping with virtual try-ons for clothing, cosmetics, furniture visualisation tools, and interactive product demonstrations, and the rise of smart speakers will drive voice-activated shopping experiences.

Sustainability and the circular economy

Consumers are increasingly demanding eco-friendly products, prompting marketplaces to highlight sustainable brands. As we mentioned with the DPPs, providing product provenance, care and recycling information ties in with the continuing focus on ‘green’ or ethical products and an increased focus on sustainable packaging design. The conversation is growing around how they align with legislation and action supporting the circular economy.

AI-powered platforms

Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay. Advanced algorithms used by platforms such as Profasee already offer dynamic pricing strategies; these enhance AI-driven personalisation, improving product recommendations, predictive analytics, and automated customer service.

Subscription models and loyalty programmes

Amazon Prime and Zalando Plus encourage repeat purchases through exclusive benefits. Stronger regulations and compliance requirements, including new VAT rules, data privacy laws (GDPR), and evolving marketplace seller responsibilities, also impact operations.

While these trends are becoming more commonplace, they do bring their own considerations and challenges for implementing and maintaining them.

What are the challenges with following the marketplace trends? 

• Omnichannel shopping: System integration, inventory management, and data security are key challenges in providing a seamless omnichannel experience. 
• Social and mobile commerce: As large as those platforms are, their relatively limited reach and privacy concerns over where the user data is stored can hinder the effectiveness of integrating social media with e-commerce.  Those security issues, user experience (UX) optimisation, and connectivity problems must be addressed to ensure smooth mobile shopping experiences. 
• User-Generated Content (UGC): On both social media and marketplaces, it’s challenging to manage quality control, handle negative feedback and navigate legal issues, which are essential for leveraging UGC effectively. 
• Sustainability: Avoiding greenwashing, ensuring supply chain transparency, and balancing sustainability goals with profitability are critical for brands. 
• Augmented Reality (AR): High development costs, hardware compatibility, and user adoption are significant hurdles for AR implementation. 
• Voice Commerce: Privacy issues, functionality limitations, and integration complexity pose challenges for voice-activated shopping. 

What about the tariffs?

US-based sellers are already considering the benefits of selling on Amazon EU and UK. AVASK can offer plenty of support with VAT registration and OSS/IOSS registration for selling across the EU, plus EPR, shipping and customs.

With that said, there are key strategies you can use to optimise these trends for winning on marketplaces.

7 ways businesses can win on e-commerce marketplaces

1. Choose the right marketplaces for your market: Whether you sell a wide range of items or have a niche market, pick the platforms that best suit your product assortment, brand, and the market you’re selling into. Weigh up the benefits of global platforms like Amazon or eBay versus local platforms like Allegro (Poland) or Cdiscount (France). How visible will your brand and products be? How much will listings and advertising cost? You can expand successfully into smaller or underserved markets with the right research.
2. Leverage social media and influencers: Work with key individual influencers and run local campaigns to boost your brand.
3. Optimise listings and advertise effectively: Use good-quality images, detailed and localised descriptions, and competitive prices to stand out. Use ads and promotions to increase sales and visibility.
4. Set competitive prices and monitor your inventory: Use tools like Amazon Repricer to adjust prices and stay profitable. Track stock to avoid running out or paying extra fees.
5. Provide excellent service: Respond quickly to questions and concerns, offer easy returns, and aim for high ratings. Provide great support, clear return policies, and local content. Manage returns well by understanding local return policies and having a strategy for each country.
6. Use reliable fulfilment services and store locally: It’s all about getting those products to your customers! Simplify shipping and returns by using trusted service providers partnered with your chosen marketplace(s). Give customers options for both standard and express delivery. Keep inventory in the UK and EU to speed up shipping, avoid customs delays, and get expert support from AVASK with shipping small pallets and parcels across the customs border. 
7. Get expert support with the sales side of your expansion: Companies like Base.com offer comprehensive support for e-commerce sellers looking to expand globally. If you’re selling on multiple marketplaces, the platform integrates seamlessly with popular sites like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. This allows sellers to manage all aspects of multi-channel sales from a single dashboard. 

Navigate the complexities of e-commerce marketplaces and global selling

The growth of e-commerce marketplaces in the UK and Europe is undeniable. It’s been driven by several factors over the last three decades, including the pandemic, increased mobile device usage, social media and AI, which accelerated the shift to online shopping and enhanced user experiences. Using Base.com’s advanced features will help e-commerce businesses streamline their operations, enhance customer satisfaction, and focus on scaling their global presence.

The trends shaping the future of e-commerce bring their own challenges and opportunities. With President Donald Trump’s tariffs also impacting e-commerce, now’s an excellent time for US-based sellers to consider the benefits of selling on marketplaces in the EU and the UK.