eCommerce market in the UK

The United Kingdom is the 3rd largest market for eCommerce with a predicted revenue of US$152,557.8 million by 2024, placing it ahead of South Korea. Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 6.0%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$192,595.0 million by 2028. With an expected increase of 7.3% in 2024, the UK eCommerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 10.1% in 2024. Like in the United Kingdom, global eCommerce sales are expected to increase over the next years. Seven markets are considered by ECDB within the UK eCommerce market. Fashion is the largest market and accounts for 28.4% of the UK eCommerce revenue. It is followed by Electronics with 16.5%, Hobby & Leisure with 15.6%, Grocery with 13.1%, Furniture & Homeware with 9.6%, Care Products with 9.3%, and DIY with the remaining 7.4%.

The online share refers to the proportion of the retail volume that is transacted via the Internet. It includes purchases via desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, both via website or app. Only retail of physical goods is taken into account. In the UK retail market, the online share is 26.7% and will increase by an average of 4.0% to 31.2% by 2028.

The biggest player in the UK eCommerce market is amazon.co.uk. The store had a revenue of US$16,112.7 million in 2023. Store rankings include every store that generates revenue in the United Kingdom. These stores can either have a national focus and only sell in their main country or operate on a global scale. For this evaluation, only revenue created in the United Kingdom was considered.

With 97.1% VISA the most commonly offered payment method of all online stores in the UK eCommerce market in 2023. Like VISA Mastercard with a share of 97.1% and American Express with a share of 62.2% the payment type Cards is the most common used by online retailers in in the UK eCommerce market in 2023. Other commonly used payment methods in that market are PayPal (E-wallets) with 82.2% and Apple Pay (E-wallets) with 20.1% of stores offering that payment method to the clients.

Despite Royal Mail's dominant position with 54.4% of online stores opting for its services, the UK eCommerce market in 2023 remains diverse and competitive. Several other shipping service providers, including DPD, DHL, UPS (United Parcel Service), and Evri, hold smaller but significant shares, contributing to a dynamic and fragmented market.

Although Shopify holds a commanding lead with 21.7% of online stores using the shop software solution, the UK eCommerce market in 2023 remains vibrant and competitive. This is due to the presence of several other shop software solutions, including Magento, WooCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and BigCommerce, which collectively hold a significant share of the market.