Low Cost Advisor

February 6, 2022

Dutch online turnover grew 24% in 2021

Dutch ecommerce businesses were able to increase their turnover with 23.6 percent when compared to 2020. While this turnover growth is higher than what physical stores achieved, it’s evident that the strong ecommerce growth in the country is slowing down. In comparison: in 2020 the online turnover growth was almost 44 percent.

Due to the lockdowns, many brick-and-mortar stores had to close for several months in 2021. Dutch consumers placed more purchases online, which is evident in the lower turnover growth of brick-and-mortar stores. For example, physical non-food stores had a turnover growth of 2.5 percent and a sales volume that was 0.2 percent lower than the year before.

Online-only revenue grew 19%

The data come from Statistics Netherlands that reports on yearly turnover growth in retail. According to the report, pure online players saw their revenue grow with 18.9 percent in 2021 when compared to the year before. Multi-channelers had a higher turnover growth, of 29.4 percent.

‘Online revenue growth in the Netherlands is slowing down.’

Though online stores reached higher revenue growth than brick-and-mortar stores, it seems that the explosive growth that was seen in 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus is now slowing down. In 2020, multi-channelers increased their turnover by more than 50 percent when compared to 2019. That year, online-only players also reached a higher turnover growth of 36 percent.

Turnover growth 2% in December

Another interesting find in the report was the fact that online revenue in December 2021 only grew 2.1 percent when compared to the year before. Statistics Netherlands looks at the revenue growth within that month, as it’s usually when consumers spend more for the upcoming holidays. It’s possible that consumers have spread out buying their gifts last year. When compared to 2019, the revenue growth in December was 2.6 percent.

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