Europeans shop e-retailers in their own language

E-commerce sites translated into different languages are those that succeed in the European Union’s major markets. According to the E-commerce: 10 trends study released by analytics company comScore in March 2018, Europeans shop e-commerce sites in their own languages.

This study analyzes online consumption habits in the EU’s five major marketplaces (the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy) and the results leave little room for doubt.

E-commerce giant Amazon is clearly the heavy hitter in the five countries examined, but under the localized website and national domain for each country (Amazon.es for Spain, for example).

Things get more interesting when we look at the second top e-retailer: while eBay is the second most popular e-commerce site in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, in Spain and France two local retailers beat out the international e-commerce platform.

The elcorteinglés.com e-commerce site is the second most popular with Spanish internet users, while our French neighbors opt for the electronics retailer Cdiscount.com. The third positions are occupied by five different local electronic stores, with the exception of Aliexpress.com in Spain.

Europe leads online consumption

Another result from this study is that Europe is the global market with the highest online shopping penetration rate, with 84% of the online population, while 83% of internet users in the U.S. make purchases online. These results are well above the world average, which is 66%. It follows that both Europe and the U.S. are mature markets with an extremely high penetration of e-commerce.

Germans and Brits spend more time shopping online

As for the hours spent monthly on online shopping, German and British users are leading the way with over five hours per month, while users in Spain and Italy average below three hours per month.

Apparel and electronics rule the internet

Apparel and electronic goods rank as the top two most popular online categories in all five countries. Reading comments and feedback by other users about the products that interest consumers reinforces consumer's purchase intention. If you have to choose what to translate on your e-commerce website, the two main priorities should unquestionably be the product descriptions and user comments.

In Spain, Amazon threatens large distribution chains

The study also shows that Amazon Spain has more buyers than other businesses like El
Corte Inglés have unique visitors and is quickly closing in on Hipercor and Dia. To date, however, Carrefour remains the unrivaled online retailer in this category.

You can download the complete study here.