More than half of online sales in 2020 took place on a smartphone or tablet, accounting for €123bn in sales.

A new study by Forrester – 2021 Smartphone And Tablet Online Retail Forecast, Europe – that mobile devices are driving the boom in e-commerce.

The UK accounts for 43% of smartphone and tablet online retail sales across the five key European markets, followed by Germany.
Forrester expects Italy to grow the fastest, at a CAGR of 25.9% from 2019 to 2024.

And mobile will continue to grow beyond 2021, the study says. Smartphone and tablet online retail sales in Europe-5 will cross €265bn in 2024, up from €123bn in 2019 and growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5%).

The number of smartphone online buyers will also grow faster than overall online buyers, predicts the report, with the number of smartphone online buyers to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% in Europe-5, more than double the growth rate of total online buyers from 2019 to 2024.

In 2021, e-commerce will drive two-thirds of retail growth, increasing to 85% of retail growth by 2024. Based on Forrester’s retail models of the impact of COVID-19, offline retail sales reached their peak in 2019.