Europe B2B ecommerce is now a $1.5 trillion industry, says a brand new report from Billie. Billie is a European buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider.
“While ecommerce plays a dominant role in business-to-consumer (B2C), it still has not penetrated that much into the net B2B market,” the report says.
B2B ecommerce in Europe:
- Only 50% of B2B buyers use ecommerce platforms.
- Scandinavia is an exception. There, 92% of B2B corporations expect sales to occur online. One in 4 B2B corporations are generating sales through ecommerce.
- 57% of the biggest ecommerce web sites in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden provide B2B services, but only 50% ship cross-border.
- Germany, France, and the UK lead as the biggest B2B ecommerce markets, like their prominence in B2C. “Nevertheless, e-commerce represents a smaller portion of overall B2B sales in comparison with its larger role in B2C transactions,” the report says. To place this into perspective, in Germany, 84% of individuals older than 16 purchase online usually, whereas only 50% of business buyers use e-commerce platforms.
“Unlike B2C, B2B e-commerce stays far more domestic,” the report says. “In B2C, it’s now the norm for buyers to buy using sites situated outside their country, using sites available in multiple languages, and offering shipping across Europe. In contrast, most B2B sites are only available to buyers inside the same country. When examining the highest 20 e-commerce sites in Germany, France, the UK, Netherlands, and Sweden, we found that only 57% provide B2B services. Moreover, amongst those, only 50% offer shipping outside their country.”
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