EU online shopping adoption 2014–2024: from 59% to 77% of internet users (Eurostat)

Eurostat reports that 77% of EU internet users bought or ordered goods or services online for personal use in 2024, up from 59% in 2014 (+17 percentage points). The same dataset also shows large country differences, which matters if your competitor set spans multiple EU markets.

Key numbers (EU, 2024)

• 77% of internet users bought online (previous 12 months)
• +17 pp growth since 2014 (59% → 77%)

Country split (highest vs lowest)

Highest shares of online buyers in 2024:

• Ireland: 96%
• Netherlands: 94%
• Denmark: 91%

Lowest shares in 2024:

• Bulgaria: 57%
• Italy: 60%
• Romania: 60%

What this means for competitor price monitoring

1. Mature e-commerce markets have tighter price competition. In high-adoption countries, shoppers compare more and switch faster.
2. Cross-border “shadow competitors” become real competitors. If you sell into multiple EU countries, your true benchmark set is wider than your local rivals.
3. Price monitoring needs context, not just deltas. In markets with frequent online buying, promos and short-lived price moves are common—alerts should cluster events and reduce noise.

How Trackabl would use this data

• Country-aware baselines (adoption level → expected price-change frequency)
• Smarter alert rules (thresholds and cooldowns tuned by market maturity)
• Priority targeting: start monitoring the markets where online buying is highest (and where price pressure is strongest)