E-commerce market in the Netherlands in 2024
The e-commerce scene in the Netherlands ranks among the top 10 in Europe and 20th in the world. With an estimated e-commerce market size of €30.5 billion in 2024, it’s expected to reach €47.5 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 9.31%.
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E-commerce market in the Netherlands: facts and statistics
The e-commerce scene in the Netherlands ranks among the top 10 in Europe and 20th in the world. With an estimated e-commerce market size of €30.5 billion in 2024, it’s expected to reach €47.5 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 9.31%.
No country in Europe had more people making online purchases in 2023 than the Netherlands (93%). The rise in online shopping activity coincides with an increase in the number of online stores in the Netherlands, which surpassed the number of physical stores.
The country now boasts 84.1 thousand online stores compared to 82.1 thousand physical stores. In one year, the number of online stores increased by 4.1%.
The rise in online purchases and the increase in online stores aligns with the growth of the courier, express, and parcel (CEP) market size in the Netherlands, which is estimated to hit €8.2 billion by the end of 2024, and is expected to reach €11 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 4.95%. This indicates that parcel numbers in the Netherlands are increasing in volume. The last recorded parcel volume data for the Netherlands shows that some 932 million parcels were delivered in 2022, up from 654 million in 2021.
With an estimated e-commerce market size of €30.5 billion in 2024, the Dutch e-commerce market is expected to reach €47.5 billion by 2029.
Popular e-commerce parcel carriers and shopping categories in the Netherlands
With an e-commerce market that’s the seventh largest in Europe, online shoppers have several preferred carriers for parcel delivery. DHL, DPD, FedEx, GLS, PostNL, and UPS rank among the most popular carriers, offering different delivery options to meet customer demand.
PostNL is the biggest parcel carrier in the Netherlands with an approximate 60% share of the domestic market. This dominant market share has been driven by PostNL’s shift from a national mail carrier to a fully digitized logistics service.
Most of PostNL’s revenue is generated by the company’s parcel division. The most recent data shows that PostNL’s revenue for parcel delivery amounted to more than €2.3 billion and the volume of parcels the company delivered increased to 384 million.
Other leading carriers hold a sizable market share in the Netherlands. For example, Germany-based DHL holds an approximate 35% share, while France-based DPD holds about a 5% parcel volume share in the Netherlands, offering flexible delivery services and a local network of pick-up parcel stores.
Clothing, shoes and accessories are the most popular items
As well as preferred parcel carriers, online shoppers in the Netherlands have several types of items they regularly like to purchase. Top of the list is clothing, shoes, and accessories, which accounted for 57% of all online purchases in the Netherlands in 2023. Plus, cosmetics, perfume, and beauty products, sporting goods, and furniture are popular purchases.
Most popular Dutch online stores
The Dutch shoppers’ love of online fashion purchases aligns with the services offered by the country’s most popular online store, bol.com – which accounts for 29% of all fashion purchases made in the Netherlands. In 2023, Bol generated a turnover of €2.9 billion in the Netherlands alone, representing 7.3% growth compared to 2022.
Other online stores like coolblue.nl, ah.nl, amazon.nl, and jumbo.com are popular for the purchase of groceries and electronics. However, several online retailers have carved out profitable e-commerce niches in the Netherlands, including marktplaats.nl, which attracts 8 million unique monthly visitors and tweakers.net, with 4 million unique monthly visitors.
Read more: E-commerce market in Belgium in 2024
Sustainable delivery in the Netherlands
Like most of the world, sustainable parcel delivery is a top priority for e-commerce companies in the Netherlands. In 2019, the Dutch e-commerce sector launched Bewust Bezorgd (Consciously Delivered), a sustainable calculation tool that helps online stores understand the carbon dioxide impact of parcel delivery and the effect of reduction measures.
Most parcel carriers offer Dutch customers sustainable delivery options, like PostNL’s point or parcel machine service, where customers can have parcels delivered to a PostNL point or in a parcel machine instead of a home address. This reduces the number of kilometres travelled to deliver parcels to one point at the same time.
Other carriers, like DHL, which from 2021 had the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the Netherlands, are moving toward zero emissions using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) for fuel. DPD Netherlands has adopted a similar approach, collaborating with Vos Logistics to switch to the use of HVO fuel in all vehicles used by Vos Logistics for DPD.
The future of e-commerce in the Netherlands
The e-commerce market in the Netherlands continues to grow. Having recently replaced Argentina as the 20th biggest e-commerce market in the world, there are no signs of growth slowing down in the Netherlands. However, there is room for improvement when it comes to sustainability. For example, only a little more than 5% of parcels in the Netherlands were delivered to collection points.
Increasing delivery to collection points will reduce carbon emissions, and with customers looking for more sustainable parcel delivery options, improving upon 5% delivery to collection points will help e-commerce carriers towards zero emissions.
At Paazl, our multi-carrier, all-in-one platform can help your cross-border e-commerce business make inroads within the Dutch market. Our data dashboard, checkout widget, and delivery anywhere solutions mean your customers receive a positive delivery experience, so one of the biggest e-commerce markets in Europe can become even bigger.
