Dutch online spending increases by 11% in first half of 2018

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Sep 20, 2018

In the first six months of 2018, Dutch consumers spent  €11.83 billion at online stores, an 11% increase, compared to H1 2017.

Of the €11.83 billion that Dutch consumers spent online in the first half of 2018, €6.75 billion was spent on the purchase of products such as clothing, electronics and toys, a 14% increase, compared to the same period last year. The remaining € 5.08 billion was spent on the online purchases of services, including holidays, airline tickets and insurance, which is a 7% increase, compared to the first half of 2017, according to the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, a study on online consumer spending in the Netherlands.

In total, Dutch consumers made 105.60 million purchases online in HY1 2018. For the entire fiscal year 2018, it is expected that this number will rise to 230 million online purchases, a 14% increase compared to 2017, resulting in €25 billion in online spending for all of 2018, which will be an 11% increase, compared to a year earlier.

Wijnand Jongen, director at Thuiswinkel.org, said: “Just like last year, the Dutch retail market saw a strong first half year in 2018; Statistics Netherlands reports a growth of 3.8% for the first six months of this year. If we compare spending on products purchased online with total consumer spending on retail goods of €66.2 billion in the first six months of 2018, the online share of €6.75 billion in product sales is now 10.2%, compared to 9.2% in H1 2017.”

The product category Food/Near food shows the largest growth in online spending in H1 2018, a 39% increase; followed by Health & Beauty, which recorded a 22% rise; and Footwear and Personal Lifestyle, which saw a 21% increase. Telecom and Toys came in last in the top five, as both categories grew by 18%.

Furthermore, the study says that 91% of Dutch consumers aged fifteen and above made an online purchase in H1, which amounts to 12.8 million online shoppers.

According to Thuiswinkel, online purchases via smartphone increased rapidly in the Netherlands: 12 percent of all online spending in Q2 2018 was via smartphone, while online purchases by laptop and desktop decreased from 82% in 2016 to 73% in the same period.

The Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor is conducted by German market research institute GfK, commissioned by Thuiswinkel.org and in collaboration with mail, parcel and e-commerce company, PostNL.