8 Popular E-commerce Platforms in Europe

Nearly three-quarters of European internet users made an online purchase in 2020, according to a recent study by Eurostat. We already knew that online shopping is incredibly popular in Europe, of course. But which ecommerce platforms are these sales actually taking place on, and to what extent does this vary by country?

Using a market analysis tool, we examined 8 popular ecommerce platforms in Europe. We selected seven countries with active ecommerce sectors and looked at which platforms were chosen most frequently in these countries.

In this article, you will learn all about the 8 largest ecommerce platforms in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The major players

According to G2 , there are hundreds of ecommerce platforms available. Some are more well-known than others, each with its own pros and cons.

As shown in the chart above, WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magento are the most popular worldwide. Is this the same in Europe? It turns out this varies by country.

Popular ecommerce platforms in Europe

Below, we provide an overview of eight popular ecommerce platforms by country.

Belgium

Belgium is one of the smaller players in the field of ecommerce in Europe. In the list of ecommerceDB among the largest e-commerce markets worldwide, Belgium ranks 24th. It is clear that WooCommerce is the most popular platform in Belgium, followed by the French-based PrestaShop.

Germany

In Germany, too, WooCommerce is clearly the largest, although the German platform Shopware comes close to WooCommerce in terms of numbers. The e-commerce market in Germany is significantly larger than that of Belgium. According to ecommerceDB Germany ranks fifth on the global list. 

France

Of the countries we researched, France is one of two where WooCommerce is not the most popular platform. PrestaShop, a French company, is the clear winner in France. The French e-commerce market is just slightly smaller than Germany's. In the aforementioned list from ecommerceDB France ranks seventh, not far behind Germany.

Italy

Italy is known for major luxury brands such as Armani, Gucci, and Prada. However, the size of the e-commerce market in this country is fairly average. In the list from ecommerceDB Italy ranks 15th, although Channable views Italy as one of the countries with the fastest-growing e-commerce market in Europe. 

The Netherlands

Just below Italy in the ecommerceDB list is the Netherlands, at number 16. A vast amount of online selling and returning takes place in the Netherlands. In fact, our country sees more returns than any other European country. WooCommerce is also by far the most popular in the Netherlands, with a significant lead over the number two on the list: Shopify.

Spain

PrestaShop, the French company performing well in Southern Europe, beats WooCommerce in Spain. The e-commerce market in Spain is average compared to the rest of Europe. In the ecommerceDB list, Spain is at number 13.

United Kingdom

A huge number of online sales take place in the United Kingdom. This country scores the highest of all the countries we researched and is at number four on the ecommerceDB list. WooCommerce is also the most used in this country, with nearly three times as many users as the number two: Shopify. A notable detail is that BigCommerce, a large American e-commerce platform, also performs well in the United Kingdom.

*BuildWith measures how many webshops use the platforms above. This does not take into account whether a webshop is actively selling or not. Consequently, the figures above may differ from reality.

Key findings

While WooCommerce, Shopify, and PrestaShop are clearly the most used in the countries mentioned above, we also encountered various differences between them. For instance, PrestaShop performs well in Southern Europe, Shopware is used extensively in Germany, and Lightspeed is popular in the Netherlands.

It is striking that WooCommerce ranks very high on the list in all countries. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, the most widely used CMS in the world. This is likely a major reason for the platform's enormous success. In addition, WooCommerce is a very user-friendly and flexible e-commerce solution.

Some examples of webshops built with WooCommerce include Weber and AeroPress.

As mentioned earlier, PrestaShopis widely used in France and Spain. PrestaShop is a French company that is clearly popular in its home country. The widely used platform is open-source and is known for its flexibility and user-friendliness.

Currently, PrestaShop is used by, among others, Adeko, Huygens and Housepet.

Magento ranks in the top four in all the countries mentioned above. The platform is known for being relatively complex but highly comprehensive, and is primarily used by larger webshops.

Magento is used by, among others, Land Rover and Paul Smith.

Also Shopify ranks in the top four in all the countries we researched. Shopify is extremely user-friendly and performs particularly well among smaller webshops. In recent years, however, Shopify has also convinced larger brands. For example, the platform is used by Red Bull and New York Times.

A platform that is often compared to Shopify is BigCommerceBigCommerce is an accessible platform used by both large and small brands. Opinions differ on whether BigCommerce is better than Shopify. However, BigCommerce seems to offer slightly more functionality than Shopify, while Shopify scores slightly better in terms of user-friendliness.

Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer a dedicated platform for enterprises: BigCommerce Enterprise and Shopify Plus.

Two well-known webshops on the BigCommerce platform are Pandora and Skullcandy.

Also, Salesforce Commerce Cloud focuses primarily on enterprises with higher volumes. For example, this platform is used by, among others, Godiva and Versace.

Two smaller platforms that perform well in all the countries mentioned above are Lightspeed and Shopware. The Dutch platform SEOshop was acquired by Lightspeed in 2015 and is particularly popular in the Netherlands. Shopware performs especially well in Germany. This German platform is used almost as much in its home country as WooCommerce.

The Dutch company Mipacha uses Lightspeed, and the RAWBITE website is built on Shopware.

Returnista integrations

An e-commerce platform rarely stands alone. There are countless external apps that can be linked to the platform to make its functionality even better and more complete.

Returnista has convenient partnerships with various major e-commerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify, and Lightspeed. This makes connecting the platform to Returnista effortless, allowing webshops to optimize their return process.

Interested in the integrations that Returnista currently offers? Take a look here the full list.

Do you want to improve your returns process too?

‍We would love to help you with that. Request a demoand we will show you what you can expect from our software.