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Market Intelligence

Italian last-mile delivery market analysis: size, structure and competitive dynamics

Italy counts 94,724 online retailers, with clothing, groceries and beauty leading the mix, average home delivery cost at €6.5 and OOH at €5.8. With continued investment and InPost’s strong market entry, OOH delivery is expanding rapidly and reshaping the competitive landscape. This Italian last-mile delivery market analysis maps the structure, methods and provider portfolios behind the numbers.

Working in last-mile delivery and interested in another competitive market analysis beyond Italy? Let's connect. Download the full report here.

Italian last-mile delivery market analysis

Italy remains one of Europe’s most active e-commerce markets by merchant count and parcel flow. To help last-mile executives benchmark strategy, this report profiles the market composition, delivery method availability and pricing, and the competitive landscape across six core providers: GLS, Poste Italiane, DPD BRT, DHL, InPost, and FedEx (TNT). You’ll see where demand concentrates by category, how pricing positions each method, and how provider client portfolios skew by retailer size and expected growth.

All figures are derived from Tembi’s continuous monitoring and analysis of Italian online retailers and checkout setups, with consistent taxonomy and normalisation to support like-for-like comparisons. Use it to maintain competitive advantage, capture share in attractive segments, and understand market dynamics with clarity.

Quick takeaways

  • Market scale: 94,724 active online retailers with an expected CAGR of 4,5%.
  • Method economics: Average home delivery (non-express) €6.5 vs OOH €5.8; OOH grows, but still underrepresnted.
  • Competitive mix: GLS and Poste Italiane show the broadest share of presence; first-position frequency is led by GLS, followed by DPD BRT and Poste Italiane.
  • White-label checkout: over 50% of retailers don't provide delivery choice by brand, just method.

Market overview: size, growth & drivers

Italy’s 94,724-strong retailer base skews to clothes & shoes (≈12.1%), then food & groceries (≈6.7%), and beauty (≈5.4%). The size pyramid shows most merchants are medium, fewer large, and about 1% very large, indicating a wide long-tail with concentrated head accounts that influence parcel mix and service expectations. The latest available data from 2020 suggest that around 830 million parcels are shipped domestically each year. Given the latest e-commerce growth estimation of an average annual growth rate of 4.5%, parcel volumes could now be approaching one billion shipments.

Online retailer size distribution in Italy

Delivery provider landscape: who dominates?

GLS and Poste Italiane hold the broadest presence across Italian webshops - GLS appears in 48.7% of retailer checkouts and Poste Italiane in 46.3%. DPD BRT, DHL, InPost, and FedEx (TNT) follow, forming the rest of the competitive landscape.

Share of presence visualises which delivery provider is working with the most retailers.

When looking at the first delivery option offered to shoppers, GLS leads with roughly 30%, followed by DPD BRT (26%) and Poste Italiane (22%).This ordering pattern reflects how retailers prioritise providers based on network reach, reliability, and negotiated terms rather than pure visibility.

Across Italian retailers, GLS holds the first position in 29.8% of checkouts.

In short:

  • GLS commands the widest network and often the top checkout position.
  • Poste Italiane mirrors that reach with strong national coverage.
  • DPD BRT competes closely in second- and third-position slots, supported by regional partnerships.
  • InPost and DHL show smaller overall shares but specialise in lockers and express shipments respectively.
This chart visualises how often each provider appears across the first four checkout slots.

Delivery methods: consumer options and OOH uptake

Across Italian retailers, home delivery remains dominant, offered by roughly 89% of webshops. Parcel shops (≈9%) and parcel lockers (≈3%) are still at an early stage of rollout, but both formats are expanding as networks and integrations mature.

Looking into delivery methods and deliveyr providers

The limited share of OOH options reflects the market’s current infrastructure capacity rather than consumer demand alone. With continued investment from providers such as InPost, Poste Italiane, and DPD BRT, OOH coverage is expected to increase steadily over the next few years, giving retailers broader flexibility in how they structure delivery choices and costs.

Pricing patterns by method and provider

Pricing across delivery methods follows a clear hierarchy. Home delivery is the most expensive, with DHL and FedEx (TNT) positioned at the higher end in line with their express and international focus.GLS, Poste Italiane, and DPD BRT sit around the market average, reflecting large-scale domestic coverage and standardised pricing structures. InPost maintains the lowest price levels across OOH deliveries, consistent with its parcel-locker model and high network density.

The pricing gap between home and OOH - €6.5 vs €5.8 on average - highlights the economic rationale for providers to keep expanding out-of-home capacity, and in line with most other markets. As networks grow denser, these price differences will continue to influence retailer delivery mix.

Provider portfolios: size mix, categories and growth potential

Tembi’s analysis segments retailer clients by size and growth outlook, showing how each provider’s portfolio is positioned across the Italian market.

Average retailer size score (0–100) for each provider’s client portfolio.

This chart summarises the average retailer size of each provider’s client base on Tembi’s 0–100 scale, where higher scores represent larger and more established webshops.

  • Poste Italiane (48) and GLS (52) sit closest to the market average, reflecting broad SMB and national coverage.
  • DPD BRT (54) leans slightly higher, showing stronger ties with mid-sized merchants.
  • DHL (57), FedEx (61), and InPost (64) serve larger retailers on average - a clear indicator of focus on high-volume or cross-border accounts.
    Together, these values illustrate the spectrum from volume-driven national carriers to enterprise-oriented networks.

Share of small, medium, large, and very large retailers in each provider’s portfolio.

The stacked bars show how each delivery provider’s clients are distributed by retailer size:

  • GLS and Poste Italiane have the broadest spread, with roughly two-thirds of their base in small or medium segments.
  • DPD BRT follows a similar pattern but with a slightly larger share of large retailers.
  • DHL, FedEx (TNT), and InPost have more concentrated portfolios: over half of their clients are categorised as large, and the very large segment grows from 2% for DHL to 4% for InPost.
    This pattern shows a clear divide between carriers anchored in national SMB volume and those positioned around larger enterprise webshops.

Client portfolio growth potential

Using Tembi’s forward-looking Growth Indicator - a composite of product portfolio development, traffic momentum, financial proxies, and export activity - InPost has the highest share of high- and very-high-growth retailers, reflecting its alignment with fast-scaling digital merchants. DHL also skews towards higher-growth segments, supported by its express and cross-border strengths. Meanwhile, GLS, Poste Italiane, and DPD BRT hold proportionally larger bases of mature retailers, providing stability and recurring parcel volume.

Client portfolio growth potential based on Tembi’s Growth Indicator (6–12 month projection).

OOH infrastructure: the locker and parcel shop build-out

Locker and parcel shop networks are entering a phase of rapid expansion across Italy.InPost leads with more than 3,000 lockers installed at the start of 2025. DHL and Poste Italiane jointly reported around 500 lockers by mid-2025, alongside an ambitious plan to reach 10,000 units in the coming years. DPD BRT, through its Fermopoint network, aims for up to 4,000 lockers within five years, while GLS initiated its own rollout during 2025.

This coordinated investment places Italy on a clear multi-year OOH growth trajectory, reshaping how carriers balance cost, capacity, and customer reach. The build-out is not just a convenience upgrade; it’s a structural shift in network economics - each new locker or parcel shop reduces last-mile cost per parcel and expands delivery capacity in urban areas.

Why it matters
Rising locker and parcel shop density directly influences:

  • how retailers configure delivery options in checkout,
  • how carriers manage peaks and failed deliveries, and
  • how overall OOH adoption evolves in response to cost differentials - currently €6.5 home vs €5.8 OOH on average.

As the network matures, OOH will become a central component of Italy’s last-mile infrastructure, shaping both consumer choice and carrier efficiency.

Strategic implications for market planning

Tembi’s analysis highlights three practical dimensions that matter for market strategy and portfolio alignment.

1. Segment by retailer size and category
Italy’s retailer landscape is dominated by small and medium merchants, but larger and premium-category retailers - such as fashion, beauty, and consumer electronics - set higher expectations for service speed, reliability, and returns. Delivery providers should align SLAs, OOH coverage, and returns management to match those standards while maintaining efficient access to the long tail.

2. Model the price–mix effect
With home delivery averaging €6.5 and OOH €5.8, even a modest shift in checkout mix can materially improve cost-to-serve for both carriers and retailers. Tracking these dynamics by category and region helps identify where OOH incentives or dynamic checkout sequencing can achieve measurable margin impact.

3. Track portfolio momentum
Provider client portfolios differ in growth exposure. InPost and DHL are more concentrated among high-growth retailers, while GLS, Poste Italiane, and DPD BRT anchor the market’s stable core. Monitoring these shifts over time helps providers balance predictable SMB volume with faster-growing digital retailers, ensuring coverage across both maturity extremes.

Conclusion

Italy’s last-mile market is broad, price-competitive, and evolving. Method economics continue to favour OOH expansion as networks densify; provider portfolios show divergent exposures across retailer size and growth; and the locker build-out marks a long-term structural transformation rather than a short-term initiative.

This Italian last-mile delivery market analysis outlines the market map and comparative signals needed to inform planning, benchmarking, and partnership strategies across the sector.

Download the full Italian market report or schedule a Tembi demo to see your competitive view updated continuously.


E-commerce

Delivery pricing trends ahead of Q4 2025

Delivery fees across the Nordics have followed clear seasonal patterns and strategic adjustments over the past two years. Drawing on data from over100,000 webshops in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway between Q1 2024 and Q32025, we track how average consumer delivery prices (in EUR) have shifted.

This analysis zooms in on the Q4 holiday peak, highlights country-specific behaviours, and compares delivery methods in urban areas - parcel lockers, pickup points, and home delivery. The aim is to show how webshops shape their pricing strategies and how these evolve through the year.

Seasonal pricing patterns and Q4 fluctuations

Seasonality is a defining feature of delivery pricing in the Nordics. Q4, the peak holiday quarter, typically brings stable or higher fees rather than discounts. In late 2024, Black Friday and Christmas did not lead to cheaper delivery - instead, many webshops kept prices firm or lifted them slightly.

· Sweden: average home delivery rose from €7.60 in Q3 2024 to €8.00 in Q4, the annual peak.
· Denmark: small increases, such as parcel shop delivery at €5.89 in Q4 versus €5.83 inQ3.
· Finland: parcel shop fees jumped by around 5% in Q4 2024.
· Norway: parcel box delivery peaked during the holiday quarter.

The pattern suggests that in high-demand Q4, retailers prioritise covering fulfilment costs over cutting fees - even when running heavy sales campaigns.

This shifts in Q1, when prices correct downward. After the holiday rush, many webshops reduced or normalised fees:

  • In Sweden, parcel box delivery fell from €5.26 in Q4 to €4.80 in Q1 2025.
  • In Denmark, the small Q4 upticks were rolled back early in 2025.
  • Norway saw a short-lived rise in home delivery(from €9.55 to €9.65 in Q1) before prices dropped sharply in Q2.

This Q1 softness reflects the post-holiday slowdown in demand and renewed competition to attract consumers during a quieter season.

All data is sourced via tembi.io

Q4 2024 stands out as a high point for delivery fees in several markets, corroborating that peak season surcharges and fewer free-shipping promos were in effect. In fact, during Black Week (Black Friday 2024), retailers across Noridcs reduced the prevalence of free shipping by 4% compared to 2023, opting instead to set spend thresholds or promote premium paid options (source: ingrid.com). In other words, fewer orders enjoyed “free delivery” in Q4 2024, as merchants nudged customers toward paid faster delivery or order bundling.This strategic move helped protect margins during the holiday boom – and consumers generally went along, paying for delivery when the value (speed, convenience) was clear (source: ingrid.com). The seasonal insight here is that peak demand doesn’t equal cheaper shipping; if anything, many webshops use the period to upsell premium delivery or maintain prices, rather than offer blanket free shipping.

Moving through 2025, the Q2 and Q3 2025 data show an interesting reset. By summer 2025, average delivery charges in many categories fell back to or below their levels from the previous holiday season. This sets the stage for how Q4 2025 might play out – which we’ll discuss in a moment.

Country-by-Country Insights

Each Nordic market shows distinct pricing dynamics, shaped by competition, consumer behaviour, and delivery costs.

Sweden

Swedish webshops consistently post the lowest delivery fees in the region.In early 2024, prices were modest - around €4.20 for locker delivery and €7.50 for home delivery. These rose steadily through the year, with parcel box and parcel shop deliveries more than 20% higher by Q3/Q4. Home delivery peaked at €8.00 in Q42024, reflecting inflationary pressures and webshop/carriers passing higher rates on to consumers.

In 2025, the trend reversed. By Q3 2025, parcel shop delivery had dropped from €6.57 in Q4 2024 to €5.37 (an 18% decline),while home delivery eased back to €7.59. This points to intensifying competition, with Swedish retailers willing to cut delivery prices quickly to gain an edge.

Denmark

Denmark’s delivery pricing remained stable through 2024, with parcel lockers and pickup points in the mid-€5 range and home delivery around €7.80–7.90. Even in Q4, increases were marginal- for example, parcel shop delivery at €5.89 in Q4 versus €5.83 in Q3.

The shift came in 2025. By Q3, parcel lockers averaged €5.00 and parcel shops €5.11 - 10–13% lower than the prior holiday season. Home delivery also dipped to €7.30 from €7.91 in Q4 2024. This gradual decline suggests Danish webshops began competing more actively on delivery price or carriers pressed the prices further down.

Finland

Finland remains the most expensive Nordic market for delivery - especially for home delivery. In 2024, Finnish shoppers paid €12–13 for home delivery, nearly double Sweden’s average. Out-of-home methods were also high at €7+. Prices climbed steadily through 2024, with parcel shops up 12% by Q4.

In 2025, home delivery crept even higher, peaking at €12.90 in Q2. But by Q3, parcel locker and shop fees had fallen sharply - down about 10% from Q2, back to early-2024 levels. Home delivery stabilised around€12.50.

Norway

Norway experienced the most pronounced swings. In 2024, home delivery peaked at €10.08 in Q2, while parcel lockers (€8.21) and parcel shops (€9.16) hit highs in Q3. Interestingly, Q4 home delivery was lower than earlier in the year at €9.55.

By 2025, Norwegian webshops had cut prices heavily, especially for out-of-home delivery. Parcel lockers fell from over €8in late 2024 to €6.64 by Q3 2025- a 20% year-on-year drop. Parcel shop delivery followed a similar pattern, down about €1.20 on average versus Q4 2024. Home delivery also eased slightly to €9.25 by Q3.

The widening price gap between home and pickup options suggests a deliberate push to shift volume to more cost-efficient methods. For carriers, Norway highlights how quickly competitive conditions can change - and the need to adjust pricing strategies in real time.

To summarize the country trends, Table 1 highlights how delivery fees in Q3 2025 compare to the last peak season (Q42024). Most markets saw notable declines in that period, especially for out-of-home deliveries:


Table 1: Average delivery price in Q4 2024 vs Q3 2025, by country and delivery method. Prices fell in most categories (especially parcel box and parcel shop deliveries) as of mid-2025, compared to the last holiday season.

Delivery Method Trends: Parcel Box vs. Parcel Shop vs. Home

Data clearly shows that out-of-home delivery is significantly cheaper for consumers in urban areas – a natural effect when carriers can deliver 5–10 times more parcels per driver compared with home delivery.

Parcel box (locker) delivery

· Cheapest option across all markets by 2025(~€5–6.5).
· Prices spiked in 2024 (e.g. Norway €6.6 → €8.3)but dropped back sharply in 2025.
· Volatility suggests retailers test price sensitivity, then reset as competition kicks in.

Parcel shop(pickup point) delivery

· Typically a few cents above lockers, but fell notably in 2025.
·  Norway: from ~€9 in 2024 to €7.2 by Q3 2025.
·  Pricing gap with home delivery widened, creating strong incentives for consumers to choose pickup.

Home delivery

· Premium service, consistently the most expensive.
· Held steady through 2024–25: ~€7.5 in SE/DK,~€9.3 in NO, ~€12.5 in FI.
· Only small price drops, with Sweden (-13% YoY)the exception.
·  Discounts remain rare and tied to high order values.

The bigger picture

Out-of-home delivery became cheaper in 2025, while home delivery kept its premium. This reflects a conscious decision: steer demand towards lockers and pickup points to cut last-mile costs and ease peak-season pressure. Black Week 2024 showed the effect in practice - locker usage rose by four percentage points and delivery times improved as shoppers embraced flexible collection (source: ingrid.com).

For logistics providers and retailers, aggressive pricing on out-of-home delivery seems to become a core lever: it nudges cost-conscious consumers, reduces operational strain, while keeping satisfaction high. But the gap has limits - home delivery still anchors convenience expectations and remains a profit lever. The real challenge is balance: keeping lockers and pickups highly attractive without eroding the value or accessibility of home delivery.

Collaboration between retailers and logistics providers is key here, ensuring service levels meet expectations as more customers choose out-of-home - seen clearly during Black Week, when lockers not only gained share but also delivered faster on average (source: ingrid.com).

Outlook forQ4 2025: What to Expect in the Peak Season

To keep the forecast transparent, we applied a simple model: for each country × delivery method, we took the Q4-over-Q3 seasonal change from 2024 and applied that ratio to Q3 2025 levels. Where 2025 trended lower than 2024, we also include a conservative midpoint between Q3 2025 and that baseline.

Regional forecast (Q4 2025)

· Parcel box(lockers): €5.6–6.0
· Parcel shop(pickup): €6.1–6.3
· Home delivery: €9.0–9.2

Seasonal lift from Q3 to Q4 looks modest. Home delivery remains the premium option, while lockers and parcel shops stay clearly cheaper.

By market

· Sweden: home ~€8.0 (flat vs last year); parcel shop ~€5.3 and lockers ~€5.0 (well below last year).
· Denmark: home ~€7.4; parcel shop ~€5.2; lockers ~€5.1 (all lower than last year).
· Finland: home ~€12.5 (still high); parcel shop ~€7.3; lockers ~€6.4 (both down year-on-year).
· Norway: home ~€9.25 (slightly below last year); parcel shop ~€7.1; lockers ~€6.7 (~20%down year-on-year).

Summary outlook for Q4 2025

Nordic delivery prices have eased through 2025 after peaking in late 2024, especially for out-of-home options (parcel box and parcel shop). Applying last year’s Q4-over-Q3 seasonality to current Q3 levels points to only small Q4 uplifts: lockers and pickups remain the low-cost choices, while home delivery stays premium and broadly flat.

Country patterns matter. Sweden and Denmark have lower 2025 bases and limited room for Q4 increases. Finland remains structurally high - especially on home delivery - so stability is more likely than hikes. Norway has corrected sharply this year, with retailers continuing to nudge volume toward cheaper lockers and pickups.

The underlying pricing strategies are clear:

· Continued shift to out-of-home delivery. Lower pricing here is deliberate - directing volume away from costly home delivery and easing last-mile strain.
· Home delivery as a premium anchor. Price cuts are modest; competition is about service quality (slots, ETAs, first-attempt success) rather than cents.
· Seasonal resets. After Christmas, prices ease in Q1—a cycle webshops use to stay competitive in slower months.

Finally, weigh this outlook against external factors that can quickly shift the picture: capacity constraints and consumer sentiment. If sentiment weakens, retailers may lean harder on thresholds and targeted incentives.

Market Intelligence

Predict growth and size with real market data

For most companies, two questions matter when looking at the e-commerce market: which webshops will grow and how large they are today. These are not easy to answer. Financial accounts are published once a year and often with long delays. Website traffic tools vary in accuracy. Sales input can be useful, but it is not consistent across markets.

Tembi approaches the problem differently. We track over 800.000 webshops in 22 European markets, visiting them every two weeks, and we convert that activity into a clear view of current size and likely growth.

What the outputs are

From this data, we produce two measures.

  • The size score (size estimation) shows how large a webshop is relative to others in the same market. It runs on a 0–100 scale and is built from multiple operating signals, not just a single proxy like traffic or revenue.
  • The growth outlook (Growht prediction) indicates whether a webshop is likely to expand, remain stable, or decline in the months ahead. We classify this into five levels: Negative, Flat, Low, High and Very High.

Together, these outputs give a comparable and timely view of the market that has not been available before.

The data behind the model

What makes this possible is the breadth of signals we collect. Every webshop is assessed on seven main areas:

  1. Export markets – selling into multiple countries is strongly linked to scale and resilience.
  2. Delivery setup – the number and type of carriers and methods say a lot about maturity.
  3. Technical add-ons – tools for reviews, marketing, or experimentation signal investment.
  4. Infrastructure – the platform and payment systems in use, from lightweight to enterprise.
  5. Financials and employees – a valuable anchor when available, though not the only input.
  6. Traffic – used carefully as a directional trend.
  7. Products – the number of SKUs, their development over time, and their categories.

It is the combination of these factors, updated every two weeks, that produces a reliable picture of both size and growth.

Why this matters

Older approaches depend on delayed filings, unstable traffic estimates, or anecdotal sales input. They describe the past, not the present. By contrast, Tembi provides a structured, repeatable model that updates with the market itself. A Danish fashion webshop and a Spanish electronics retailer can be measured on the same scale, and shifts in momentum can be detected months before they appear in official reports.

See positive and negative signals to better understand the Growth predictions indication.

What this enables

  • Sales teams can prioritise accounts that are growing.
  • Category managers can see which product areas are moving up or down.
  • Carriers and enablers can track portfolio risk and adjust before market shifts affect revenue.
  • Corporate development can identify acquisition targets with proven momentum early.

This is not prediction for prediction’s sake. It is about replacing guesswork with evidence that is current, structured and comparable.

Tembi provides a way to see the market as it develops — which webshops are growing, how large they are, and where categories are shifting. It offers the clarity needed to make decisions with confidence, based on how the market is moving today.

See it in action

Growth predictions and Size estimation are available on all markets Tembi has been active on for more then three months.

Product

Introducing Tembi's Size indication: Understand webshop market size easily

Knowing which webshops to focus on helps your business succeed. That’s why we've launched Tembi’s Size indication, a simple way to quickly understand how active and big (or small) any webshop is in the market compared to the largest online retailers.

What is the Size indication?

Tembi’s Size indications scores webshops from 1 to 100 points, dividing them into clear groups:

  • Small: 0-24 points
  • Medium: 25-49 points
  • Large: 50-74 points
  • Very Large: 75-100 points

This makes it easy to compare webshops and see where they stand compared to others.

How does it work?

The Size indication uses hundreds of data points per webshop to decide each webshop’s score, including:

  • Size and variety of product offerings
  • Investment in technology and infrastructure
  • Amount of website traffic
  • Types of delivery methods provided

These factors, and many more, provide a clear picture of how active and large a webshop is. Each webshop’s score is clearly explained, showing both positive and negative factors.  

Why the Size indication is useful

The Size indication makes market analysis simpler. You can quickly assess market size and find webshops that fit your ICP. When looking at thousands of prospects, Size indication allows you to sort all webshops, and see their size in relation to each other.

Combine Size indication with Growth Predictions

Tembi’s Size indication works hand-in-hand with our Growth Predictions feature. By combining these insights, you get a complete view of the market opportunity - clearly identifying which webshops are not only large and active but also likely to grow. This powerful combination helps you pinpoint the best opportunities for strategic action and growth.

Want to get started?

Log in to Tembi and check out the Size indication now. All Tembi clients have access to our Growth predictions and Size indication for free during July.

Product

Predict who will grow: Tembi launches webshop growth predictions

In business, knowledge is power, but foresight is transformational. Until now, most market intelligence relies on delivered reactive insights, offering clarity on the past or present but limited visibility into the future. Today, Tembi changes that by launching a groundbreaking predictive feature for e-commerce: Growth Predictions.

Why predictions matter

Understanding past performance is essential, but knowing what's coming next is where you truly gain a competitive advantage. With Growth Predictions, Tembi analyses hundreds of critical factors across hundreds of thousands of webshops, giving you a clear view of each retailer’s potential growth over the next 3 to 6 months.

How does it work?

Our unique predictive model evaluates comprehensive data points, including:

  • Financial trends
  • Employee growth and changes
  • Product portfolio developments
  • Web traffic insights (powered by SimilarWeb)
  • Technological investments
  • Infrastructure reliability
  • Delivery partnerships and methods
  • Category-specific trends

At the heart of this model is our proprietary AI-powered data collection methodology. For several years, we've meticulously collected, structured, and continuously updated vast datasets. Our advanced machine-learning algorithms use this rich historical data to identify patterns, learn from past behaviours, and generate precise, data-backed predictions. This ensures that our Growth Predictions aren’t guesses - they're calculated insights driven by robust AI techniques.

We translate these complex signals into straightforward, actionable insights, predicting whether a webshop will experience high growth, stability, or potential decline.

Transparent insights for smarter decisions

Growth Predictions don't just give you a simple score. They explain precisely why we anticipate certain growth patterns. For example:

  • Positive growth signals: Stable infrastructure, Product portfolio expansion, added delivery methods or partners.
  • Negative growth signals: Limited product portfolio expansion, insufficient technological investments.

This transparency helps you quickly understand the underlying strengths or vulnerabilities of any webshop.

Transform your commercial strategies

If you’re responsible for partnerships, sales, or logistics, Growth Predictions become your secret weapon. Prioritise your efforts, target the right segments and customers, optimise your resources, and proactively manage your commercial relationships by focusing on webshops that have a higher likeability to succeed.  

First of its kind

No other e-commerce intelligence tool provides predictive growth insights at this depth. Using our unique dataset of retailers and product portfolios, we provide a comprehensive mapping of the e-commerce industry, helping companies plan strategically.

We update our dataset bi-weekly, ensuring teams can track prospects, provide insights and get a competitive advantage.  

Interested in knowing more, book a demo with one of our experts.

Growth predictions are available for free as an early release during July for all our clients.

Market Intelligence

Retail reinvented: Winning in the age of AI and e-commerce

The retail industry is in the midst of profound transformation driven by two interconnected forces: the convergence of retail and e-commerce into a hybrid landscape, and the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI). These forces aren't just altering shopping habits - they're reshaping the entire retail value chain from manufacturing to fulfilment. McKinsey identifies these as key economic game-changers (putting aside broader geopolitical factors).

Two forces reshaping retail

1. The blended future of e-commerce and retail

E-commerce has evolved beyond a simple digital channel into three overlapping segments:

Manufacturers going Direct-to-Consumer (DTC): Brands like Nike, Zara, and Dyson build direct customer relationships through digital storefronts and direct shipments.

Pure-Play digital platforms: Born-digital platforms like Zalando and ASOS innovate with personalisation and logistics, with some even branching into physical flagship stores.

Traditional retailers adopting digital: Giants like IKEA and Walmart are integrating physical and digital experiences seamlessly.

These segments are merging into a highly competitive ecosystem where agility and market intelligence are essential. This blending doesn't simplify competition - it intensifies it, demanding constant vigilance and adaptability.

2. AI-driven retail intelligence

AI has moved from futuristic concept to operational necessity. Retailers leverage AI for personalised recommendations, dynamic pricing, predictive inventory management, and customer service automation, enabling smarter, faster, and more profitable operations.

Additionally, the expansion of cloud computing and the explosion of available data provide new opportunities to understand market dynamics in real-time. Historically, analysing every shelf in Europe was unthinkable; today, online data combined with AI makes large-scale, real-time market analysis entirely feasible.

A strategic framework for AI-enabled retail

Staying ahead requires a structured approach. Recently, Shish Shridhar from our partner Microsoft shared a strategic framework leveraging real-time data, AI, and automation, highlighting essential levers to drive growth.

Customer-facing levers

Place – Sales channels: physical, digital, hybrid
Product – Assortment depth, availability
Value – Pricing strategy, perceived customer value
People – Customer service, store experience
Communication – Marketing, promotions, loyalty programmes

Operational levers ("The Triangle")

Systems – Technology infrastructure, analytics, automation
Logistics – Efficient supply chain, fulfilment methods, delivery
Suppliers – Vendor management, sourcing and COGS

How market intelligence creates a competitive advantage

At Tembi, we equip retailers and brands with large-scale market analytics derived from real-time data. We continuously track over 600,000 online retailers and 300 million products across Europe - among the largest datasets in the industry. By connecting this data with location specifics, company details, and AI-powered analytics, commercial teams gain clarity and confidence in decision-making, eliminating guesswork when it comes to understanding what drives growth.

As I see it, by unifying data across digital and physical touch points, market intelligence at scale enables smarter decisions in Product, Value, and Systems - helping businesses thrive in a hybrid, AI-first retail world.

Place

• Based on the product categories that you excel in - which markets are then optimal, and in which geographies would it be optimal to promote and sell your products.
• If you have or plan to set up physical stores how are they threatened and compared to online retailers, and how is the specific area you think about investing in evolving. This will show whether you can expect optimal levels for sales per store and store traffic.

Product

• Predict which product categories and brands to invest in, when you decide where to play - which product segments are you in with which brand and pricing strategies to drive market share and inventory turnover and hence sales growth.
• Understand the competition in the product categories and brands you are in and the strengths and strategies of the other players in the market.
Improve out-of stock-rate by finding out when products are sold over the year and if that differs in different geographies, and thereby make sure that availability is secured.

Value

• Understand the current (or seasonality-defined) pricing in the market to increase gross margin, right-in-time markdowns, and possibility for price skimming but get an actual X-ray about the real price development in the market.

Logistics

• When being present in the market, or especially entering a new one, you need to know how to make it successful. One of the important things to understand delivery market standards in different markets, e.g. OOH, home delivery, free shipping thresholds, delivery time etc. Some D2C try to negotiate a pan-European delivery contract without factoring ion the different market dynamics, or simply enter with the wrong expectations. This quickly becomes very expensive - e.g. if the customers are used to home deliveries and you go in the market wth parcel boxes, you would need to wait for that to be changed. Hence, very important to understand if you model fits to assure fulfilment accuracy.

Intelligence as the new retail imperative

Success in modern retail isn’t about choosing between physical and digital - it’s about blending them intelligently. In the era defined by AI and hybrid commerce, tools like Tembi provide retailers the crucial insights required to navigate complexity.

Whether you’re a DTC manufacturer, a digital-first retailer expanding your reach, or a traditional retailer enhancing your omnichannel strategy, winning demands strategic clarity grounded in data and real-time market intelligence.

Customer stories

Use-case: Time outreach for new partnerships using checkout signals

How a Last-Mile delivery commercial team used Tembi to reach online retailers when they were most likely to engage.


The context

A last mile delivery provider was looking to improve how and when they approached new merchant prospects. While they had a solid understanding of who they wanted to work with, outreach often happened too early (before the merchant was ready to switch) or too late (after a competitor had locked in a contract).

Without visibility into what was changing in the merchant’s checkout, reps had to rely on cold outreach, hoping to catch a merchant at the right moment. They needed a way to:

  • Identify merchants that were actively reviewing or switching delivery providers
  • Spot meaningful signals, like new product categories or delivery method updates
  • Align outreach timing with actual changes in the merchant’s delivery setup

What they did with Tembi

Using Tembi Checkout Intelligence, the team started monitoring live changes in merchant checkout configurations. Tembi scrapers simulate checkout flows on thousands of webshops and detect:

  • When a merchant adds or removes a delivery provider
  • When delivery pricing or speed options are updated
  • When a new product category is added (suggesting operational changes)
  • When delivery method names or descriptions shift (e.g. switching from “standard” to “express”)

The team set up biweekly alerts on merchants that matched their ICP and showed recent changes in their delivery stack. This created a dynamic feed of prospects likely to be re-evaluating logistics partners, so an ideal timing for outreach.

The result

The team didn’t need to chase every webshop in a market. Instead, they focused on high-potential accounts showing signs of change. Over a six-week period, they:

  • Reached out to 37 merchants flagged by stack change alerts
  • Booked 22 first meetings, with 18 confirming they were actively reviewing delivery providers
  • Landed 8 new partnerships directly tied to alerts showing recent removals of a competing provider

Timing their approach based on real signals helped them avoid wasted effort and start conversations when interest was highest.


Why it worked

Actionable timing signals was more effective than cold outreach
Changes tracked automatically from actual checkout flows
Focus on merchants in motion who are more likely to convert
Fewer dead ends - reps only acted when there was a reason to reach out

Customer stories

Use-case: How a delivery provider’s local team used Tembi data to win more clients

A last mile delivery provider operating across several European countries needed to give its regional sales & partnerships team a clearer picture of how competing providers were positioned locally. Without reliable data, the team depended on anecdotal feedback from merchants or patchy CRM notes about which providers were in use. This made it difficult to:

• Prepare for calls with accurate competitor insight
• Spot new merchant opportunities based on delivery gaps
• Build region-specific messaging around speed, tracking, or price

They weren’t seeking a broad market expansion strategy, just precise, local visibility to sharpen commercial conversations.

What was done with Tembi

Using Tembi Checkout Intelligence, the team pulled data on hundreds of webshops in their target region. Tembi’s technology visits every retailer with an active webshop and creates visibility into checkout flows and extracts structured data on:

• Which delivery providers are actually offered
• Delivery speeds and  prices
• Labels and methods (e.g. express, standard, tracked) in use
• Recent changes - such as a provider being added or removed
• Images of how delivery options were presented

The data, updated every two weeks, enabled quick filtering by platform (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce), product category, and country/area. Local sales teams gained a trusted, up-to-date view of the real delivery landscape.

The result

With provider usage clearly mapped for their target region, the team could:

• Enter sales calls with confidence, knowing which competitor was in place
• Spot merchants lacking tracked or fast delivery options
• Tailor outreach to emphasise service gaps (e.g. slow delivery, high fees)
• Build target lists of merchants using weaker providers for displacement opportunities

No major strategic shift - just sharper conversations, better timing, and stronger commercial positioning at the local level. With a 20% increase in conversion.

Why it worked

• Data based on real checkout flows - not assumptions or outdated lists
• Biweekly updates kept teams working with fresh information
• Easy filtering by region and platform enabled targeted, local action
• Directly supported pre-call research, personalised outreach, and competitive mapping

Interested in exploring how Checkout Data and Webshop Monitoring can help you grow your sales? Book a call with one of our Last-mile data experts. Book a demo

Product

Launching Product Insights - Structured product data into each retailer

Today we’re rolling out Product Insights – a new tool that instantly breaks down the product catalogue of almost any webshop. By continuously monitoring 600,000 webshops and over 300 million products, Product Insights helps users find answers to questions that used to take days of manual work.

Get structured product data from each retailer inside Tembi's E-commerce Intelligence platform

Understanding a retailer's product portfolio has always been a challenge – especially at scale. Tembi’s Product Insights structures each webshop’s catalogue based on Google’s product taxonomy (with over 2,000 sub-categories). Select a category, explore which sub-categories are sold, and get a clear view of the retailer’s product strategy.

Product Insights also lets you track trends over time. What categories are growing? Which brands are expanding? What product types are being phased out? With bi-weekly updates, your market understanding becomes sharper, faster, and far more granular than ever before.

From large to small retailers get a detailed view of brand and product sold on their webshop.

Track product portfolio development


See exactly which brands a webshop sells, the total number of SKUs, and how they’re distributed across product categories. Our time-series view lets you pinpoint when a retailer expands or trims its range – whether that means adding 50 new kitchen appliances in March or dropping three footwear brands in May. Drill down by category or brand to understand growth spurts, assortment gaps, and strategic shifts at a glance.

Get an overview of a retailers brand portfolio and how it develops over time
View product categories, the weight it holds in the portflio and what's added & reduced over time.

Product weight and dimensions

Visualise a webshop’s entire catalogue by weight and dimensions in one interactive chart. The horizontal axis splits product prices into six bands; the vertical axis divides weights into six ranges. Each bubble’s size shows how many items fall into that combined bracket.

Toggle size categories at the top - Mini, Small, Medium, Large or Oversized - to filter the view by estimated dimensions. Hover over any bubble to see exact counts.  

Track market trends

Go beyond individual retailers and tap into broader market movements. With Product Insights, you can zoom out and analyse how categories, brands, and product types are evolving across the entire e-commerce landscape in Europe (18 markets).

See which product categories are gaining momentum, what brands are expanding their reach, and how average product sizes or prices are shifting. Filter by country, industry or platform to spot changes in consumer demand, pricing trends, or assortment strategies.

Whether you're a brand manager trying to spot gaps, a logistics provider tracking shipping implications, or a buyer evaluating sourcing decisions – Product Insights turns market noise into clear, structured signals.

Discover and benchmark similar webshops

Instantly compare any retailer with others and uncover new prospects. Tembi’s Similar Webshops feature identifies other webshops with matching assortment structures, traffic levels, and category focus.

It’s a fast way to benchmark a client against competitors – or to find high-potential leads you might otherwise miss. Want to compare delivery providers across similar stores? Or find out how two apparel retailers differ in average price point and category spread? Just click “Full comparison” and dive into the details.

You can also scan for rising players in your segment. Use Similar Webshops to uncover up-and-coming stores with fast-growing assortments – perfect for partnership, outreach, or competitive monitoring.

Start exploring tomorrow

Product Insights is available now on Tembi. Whether you're tracking competitors, mapping out market shifts or sourcing prospects – the data you need is finally structured, searchable, and updated every two weeks.

Want to know more? Book a demo today!

E-commerce

Commerce platforms in European e-commerce: 17 countries analysed

When starting an online store, businesses can either build a custom site from scratch or choose a ready-made e-commerce platform to manage their online sales. Over the years, a variety of commerce platforms have emerged - from large international solutions like Shopify and WooCommerce to smaller local specialists such as Dandomain in Denmark or Voog in Estonia. Choosing the right platform is a crucial decision not only for merchants, but also for the ecosystem of plug-in developers and service providers around these platforms. Not all add-ons work with every framework, so understanding a platform’s market penetration in each region is key to gauging its success and where to invest resources.

In this article, we take a data-driven look at the most widely used e-commerce platforms across selected European countries. The analysis spans 17 markets (Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Sweden, and Slovakia), covering a total of over 600,000 active webshops (online stores) identified in these countries. The findings confirm that two platforms dominate the landscape: WooCommerce - the open-source plugin for WordPress - and Shopify - the popular SaaS commerce platform. Together, these two power roughly 70-73% of all identified webshops in these markets. WooCommerce alone accounts for about 40% of the stores, making it the preferred solution overall, while Shopify powers around 30% of the stores, having rapidly grown in recent years. This duopoly leaves a long tail of other platforms sharing the remaining ~30% of the market. Nonetheless, those “other” platforms number in the tens of thousands of sites - for instance, over 15,000 webshops use PrestaShop and more than 13,000 use Magento across these countries - indicating significant niches and opportunities still exist beyond the top two.

It’s likely no surprise that Shopify and WooCommerce dominate across Europe’s e-commerce scene. But who are the other key players in each country, and how do platform preferences vary by market? Below, we break down the leading commerce platforms in each country, highlighting local trends, growth patterns, and the fit of certain platforms to regional needs.

Platform Popularity by Country

Belgium 🇧🇪

Belgium has roughly 20,534 active e-commerce sites in total. The Belgian market is notable for being one of the few where Shopify takes the top spot in our analysis. About half of Belgian webshops (estimated 10,233 sites) are built on Shopify. The next most popular framework is WooCommerce with around 5,181 sites (about 25% share). Combined, Shopify and WooCommerce power roughly 75% of Belgium’s online stores. The remaining quarter is split among other platforms.

PrestaShop is the third most common, used by ~1.7k sites (~8%), followed by Magento (~1.1k sites, ~5%). Notably, Lightspeed - a platform known for its integrated point-of-sale and e-commerce (and which acquired a Dutch e-commerce provider - SEOshop - popular in Benelux) - powers around 765 Belgian webshops (~4%). This suggests a decent niche in Belgium for platforms that cater to omnichannel retail.

Overall, while global solutions lead in Belgium, a mix of mostly European platforms (PrestaShop, Lightspeed) make up the rest, indicating Belgian merchants have a range of mature solutions to choose from.

Bulgaria 🇧🇬

Bulgaria’s e-commerce market comprises around 8,554 - a smaller market where open-source solutions have a strong foothold. WooCommerce is the clear leader, used by roughly 4,625 Bulgarian online stores (over 54% of the total). The second place goes to OpenCart (about 1,507 sites, ~18%), an open-source platform historically popular in Eastern Europe. Shopify, which is second in many other countries, ranks third in Bulgaria with ~1.3k sites (around 15%). This suggests that many Bulgarian merchants favor self-hosted, cost-effective solutions (WooCommerce, OpenCart) over SaaS. PrestaShop is next with a few hundred sites (~304, ~3.5%), followed by Magento (267 sites). Local Bulgarian-specific platforms have a limited presence - for example, CloudCart (a Bulgarian e-commerce platform) appears further down with only a few dozen sites. In summary, Bulgaria’s platform distribution is dominated by WooCommerce and other open-source frameworks, likely due to their flexibility and low cost, while Shopify is present but not as dominant as elsewhere.

Switzerland 🇨🇭

Switzerland is home to about 33,395 online shops. The Swiss e-commerce landscape is led by the same global players, but with a twist. WooCommerce is the most used platform here, powering roughly 12,168 webshops (around 45% of the market). Shopify follows closely with about 9,841 shops (~36% share). Together they account for over 80% of Swiss stores. The remaining ~19% of sites are on a long tail of other solutions.

PrestaShop is the third-ranking platform (about 1.5k sites, ~4-5%), and Magento comes next (~817 sites, ~2%). Shopware, a German-born platform, also has a modest presence (~554 sites) in Switzerland. One of the only notable local players is PepperShop, a Swiss e-commerce software; however, it accounts for only a few hundred stores (roughly 374 identified) - a relatively small 1% share.

In essence, Switzerland’s retailers gravitate strongly toward the big international platforms, and despite having local solutions like PepperShop, these haven’t gained major traction against WooCommerce and Shopify.

Germany 🇩🇪

Germany’s large and mature e-commerce market (with around 133,860 webshops identified) has undergone a significant shift in recent years. Shopify has surged in popularity to become the number one e-commerce platform among German merchants, especially SMEs (cedcommerce.com). Our data shows about 57,000+ German online stores running on Shopify (roughly 42-43% of all German webshops). This marks a major change, as traditionally German-built solutions were dominant. Now, WooCommerce is in second place with about 32,000 sites (~24% share). Combined, these two account for roughly two-thirds of German stores. German-origin platforms still play an important role: Shopware - known for its robust, customizable platform - powers about 9,400 sites (~7%) in Germany. Another local contender is JTL-Shop, which along with Shopware caters to merchants needing advanced inventory and ERP integrations; JTL is used by ~4,000 stores (~3%) (and notably, JTL holds around 12% share in some analyses focused on SMB segment) (cedcommerce.com).

Magento and ePages (a SaaS platform often used by hosting providers in Europe) each are used by roughly 4-7k German stores (around 3-5% share each). Overall, the trend in Germany is clear: Shopify’s user-friendly interface and accessible pricing have propelled it past traditional German platforms (cedcommerce.com). Shopware and others remain relevant for businesses that require more localized support or complex customizations, but the ease of SaaS has won over many German SMEs. It’s also worth noting that custom-built e-commerce solutions (proprietary platforms) still exist in Germany - in fact, we can see that custom solutions account for close to half of e-commerce traffic in Germany - meaning many high-volume retailers use their own systems. By sheer number of sites, however, custom builds are only a small fraction (only ~2% of German stores in our count), as most companies choose established platforms.

Denmark 🇩🇰

Denmark has about 39,460 online stores in total. The Danish market is dominated by the two usual suspects: WooCommerce and Shopify. WooCommerce slightly leads with around 15,447 webshops, about 39% of the market. Shopify is a close second at roughly 14,689 stores (~37%). Combined, they power roughly 76% of Danish e-commerce sites - a very tight race between the open-source and SaaS approach. The remaining quarter of the market includes several platforms, notably a strong local player. Dandomain - a Denmark-based e-commerce platform - accounts for about 2,339 sites, making it the third most popular choice (~6% share). Dandomain’s local roots and integration with Danish hosting services likely contribute to its continued popularity in Denmark.

After that, we see Magento (~1.3k sites, 3%) and PrestaShop (~1.0k sites, ~2.5%) in the rankings. Additionally, Denmark has a few hundred webshops on Optimizely (formerly Episerver, a Swedish enterprise platform) and SmartWeb (a Danish SMB platform), reflecting that some Danish businesses opt for specialized solutions.

In summary, Denmark mirrors the broader trend of WooCommerce and Shopify dominance, with a notable chunk of merchants sticking to a home-grown solution (Dandomain) for its local advantages.

Estonia 🇪🇪

Estonia’s e-commerce scene, while small in absolute numbers (around 9,956 webshops total), is unique in having an extremely dominant #1 platform. WooCommerce is used by about 5,846 Estonian webshops - roughly 68% of the country’s online stores. This gives Estonia the distinction of the highest WooCommerce market share among the countries analyzed.

Shopify is a distant second with only 739 sites in Estonia (~9% share). In third place is a local platform: Voog, an Estonia-based website and commerce platform, which powers about 570 webshops (around 6% of the market). Voog offers native Estonian-language support and caters to small and mid-sized businesses, which explain its solid foothold despite WooCommerce’s dominance.

The remaining ~17% of Estonian stores are split among various other providers (about 1,800 stores in total). Aside from Voog, no other single platform has more than a few hundred sites in Estonia - for example, PrestaShop and OpenCart have a few hundred each, and there’s a long tail including Ecwid, Magento, and others.

In essence, Estonia is a case where one open-source solution (WooCommerce) completely outshines the competition, with local specialized services like Voog carving out a niche alongside it.

Finland 🇫🇮

Finland has roughly 18,632 e-commerce sites in total. Like most Nordic markets, the top two platforms are WooCommerce and Shopify. WooCommerce is used by about 8,126 Finnish webshops (approximately 44% market share). Shopify is the second choice with around 4,835 sites. Combined, these two make up roughly 70% of Finland’s online stores.

The remaining 30% is quite fragmented. Notably, Finland has a higher proportion of custom-built stores than many other countries - about 5% of Finnish webshops are custom solutions (roughly 800+ sites). This reflects Finland’s strong tech culture and businesses opting for bespoke e-commerce solutions tailored to specific needs.

Among packaged platforms, a local contender MyCashFlow stands out as the third most popular in Finland. MyCashFlow powers about 1,327 Finnish webshops (~9% of the market). This platform is Finland-based and has likely gained trust for its local support and features, showing that domestic providers can hold their own niche.

After MyCashFlow and custom builds, other platforms in Finland include PrestaShop (~3% share) and Magento (just over 2%), plus smaller presences of Vilkas, Squarespace/Wix, and others. In summary, Finland’s e-commerce platform distribution is led by global platforms, but with a notable segment of merchants choosing local solutions or fully custom builds to leverage local expertise and meet specific requirements.

Hungary 🇭🇺

Hungary’s online retail market includes about 27,060 webshops. Unlike many Western European countries, Hungary’s top platforms after WooCommerce are local ones. WooCommerce is number one with roughly 12,605 stores (~47% share) - nearly half of all Hungarian e-shops run on WordPress. The second most popular platform is Unas, a Hungary-based e-commerce platform, used by around 4,605 stores (~17%). Close behind is Shoprenter (another Hungarian SaaS e-commerce solution) with about 3,611 stores (~13%). These local platforms have been long-standing options in Hungary, offering Hungarian language support and local integrations (payments, delivery) which likely contribute to their significant uptake.

Shopify comes in fourth place in Hungary with roughly 2,511 stores (~9%), indicating that the global SaaS giant lags behind the domestic services here. Other platforms collectively make up the remaining ~14% of the market - for instance, OpenCart (around 989 sites, ~3.7%), Magento (~578 sites, ~2%), and a variety of smaller solutions including Shopware, PrestaShop, and some Romanian/Central European platforms that show minor presence (e.g. Shoptet, a Czech platform, appears with a few hundred Hungarian shops).

The Hungarian case underlines how local e-commerce providers can capture a large portion of the market by catering to regional needs (language, local logistics), even as global platforms are available.

Iceland 🇮🇸

Iceland’s e-commerce sector is the smallest in this group - we identified roughly 1,712 online stores in Iceland. Interestingly, Shopify absolutely dominates this tiny market. Approximately 1,169 Icelandic webshops run on Shopify, which is about 68% of all online stores in the country. This is one of the highest national market shares for Shopify among the countries examined. WooCommerce is the second most common, with around 507 stores (~30%).

Combined, Shopify and WooCommerce account for an astonishing ~98% of Iceland’s e-commerce sites - essentially a duopoly. This leaves very little room for other platforms: the third-place contender (far behind) is Magento, with only about 16 identified sites (<1%). A handful of stores use OpenCart (a dozen sites) or PrestaShop (just 4 sites).

The overwhelming preference for Shopify in Iceland could be due to the lack of any local e-commerce solution and the appeal of an easy-to-deploy, cloud-based platform for a small market. Additionally, many Icelandic businesses likely cater to international audiences or use English online, making a globally-oriented platform like Shopify a natural choice.

In summary, Iceland’s platform landscape is an outlier: Shopify is nearly synonymous with e-commerce here, with WooCommerce capturing most of the remainder and virtually no other platform having any significant footprint.

Italy 🇮🇹

Italy has an estimated 72,334 active webshops in this analysis. The Italian e-commerce platform distribution skews heavily towards WooCommerce. WooCommerce is used by roughly 39,852 Italian online stores, about 55% of the total. This aligns with WooCommerce’s popularity among small-to-medium businesses in many European countries. Shopify is the second most used platform in Italy, powering about 17,804 stores (~24-25% share). Together, WooCommerce and Shopify make up nearly 80% of Italy’s e-commerce sites.

In third place is PrestaShop, which has a strong user base in Italy (around 6,349 stores, roughly 9% share). PrestaShop’s open-source platform, originally from France.. Beyond the top three, no single platform has more than a single-digit percentage of share. Custom-built solutions account for around 2-3% (we identified ~2,061 custom sites) indicating some companies opt for fully bespoke stores.

Magento, once a leading platform for mid-sized and enterprise merchants, now powers only about 1,938 Italian stores (~2.7%) - showing a decline in relative popularity as easier solutions have gained ground. Other platforms in Italy include smaller counts of OpenCart, Wix (for simpler websites with stores), and local SaaS offerings (though none of the local Italian platforms stand out in the data - the market seems largely served by international or open-source solutions).

In summary, Italy leans strongly on WooCommerce for a majority of shops, with Shopify as a robust second choice and PrestaShop still holding a notable third-place share. This suggests a mix of merchants: many favoring WooCommerce for its low cost and WordPress integration, and a significant group opting for Shopify’s simplicity, while an older guard or specific segment continues with PrestaShop and Magento.

Lithuania 🇱🇹

Lithuania’s e-commerce market, with about 14,604 webshops, also shows a strong preference for WooCommerce. Around 7,983 Lithuanian online stores (about 55%) are built on WooCommerce, making it the dominant platform by far. Shopify is the second most popular, used by roughly 2,734 stores (~19% share). Combined, these two make up roughly 74% of the Lithuanian market, similar to other countries.

However, Lithuania has a more notable third-place presence than some others: PrestaShop powers about 1,706 stores (~12% of the market). In fact, PrestaShop is not far behind Shopify here - 12% vs 18% - showing that PrestaShop remains a viable choice for many Lithuanian merchants.

After PrestaShop, the remaining ~15% of sites are on a mix of platforms. OpenCart is fairly common (around 1,052 stores, ~7%) and there is a long tail of small platforms and custom sites. Notably, two Lithuanian-developed e-commerce platforms, Shopiteka and Verskis, appear in the data - but they rank among the smaller players, together accounting for only a couple hundred stores. For instance, Verskis is used by fewer than 100 sites (only ~96 identified), and Shopiteka similarly under 100. This indicates that, unlike some other Eastern European markets, local Lithuanian solutions haven’t achieved high popularity against the global and open-source options.

Overall, Lithuanian e-commerce is heavily reliant on WooCommerce’s ecosystem, with a significant minority on Shopify and a continued loyal user base on PrestaShop - reflecting perhaps the influence of neighboring Poland/Europe where PrestaShop is stronger, and the needs of merchants who prefer an open-source but more standalone platform than WooCommerce.

Latvia 🇱🇻

Latvia has approximately 6,049 online stores in the database. The platform distribution in Latvia is a bit more balanced at the top than in Lithuania or Estonia, but WooCommerce still leads. Around 1,841 Latvian webshops use WooCommerce, making up about 37% of the market. Shopify is the second most common at about 1,201 stores (~24% share). Together, they account for roughly 61% of Latvian online shops.

The remaining 39% is divided among various other platforms. One notable aspect of Latvia is the significant use of other solutions: OpenCart is the third-largest platform with roughly 713 sites (~12%) based on our data. Following that, a considerable number of sites are custom-built (~471 sites, ~8%), indicating a chunk of merchants opt for tailor-made solutions. PrestaShop comes next with about 333 stores (~5.5%).

Latvia also has its own local website builder/e-commerce tool named Mozello, which appears to power around 270 stores (around 4-5% of the market) - a non-trivial share for a local platform. Mozello offers easy bilingual site creation (useful in Latvia’s multilingual environment), which might explain its uptake.

All other platforms (Magento, Ecwid, etc.) each account for only a few percent or less. The data suggests that while WooCommerce and Shopify are very important in Latvia, a large minority of merchants use a mix of open-source, custom, or regional tools, making it a more diverse platform ecosystem in relative terms (nearly 40% using “other” platforms beyond the big two).

Netherlands 🇳🇱

The Netherlands boasts a highly developed e-commerce market, with about 112,906 webshops counted in this analysis. Dutch online retailers have a clear favourite: WooCommerce. We found roughly 38,316 Dutch webshops using WooCommerce, which is about 46% of all online shops in the Netherlands. This aligns with other findings that WooCommerce has a very strong presence in the Dutch market. Shopify is the second-largest platform with around 21,534 stores (~26% share). Together, WooCommerce and Shopify account for approximately 72% of the market, leaving just over a quarter of sites on other platforms.

The Netherlands has a diverse mix of other e-commerce solutions making up that remaining ~27%. One notable player is Optimizely (formerly Episerver Commerce), an enterprise-level platform - about 7,928 Dutch sites (~7%) use Optimizely. This is a significant share and suggests many mid-to-large Dutch businesses invest in enterprise .NET-based solutions (possibly thanks to a robust ecosystem of agencies for Optimizely in the region).

Magento is also present, with around 6,176 sites (~5.5%). The Dutch market also continues to support Lightspeed (formerly SEOshop in Europe) with roughly 3,820 sites (~3.4%). Lightspeed’s continued use is expected given its local origins and focus on omnichannel retailers (brick-and-mortar stores integrating online). Additionally, a homegrown platform MyOnlineStore (also known as JouwWeb) powers about 3,600 shops (a little over 3%). Other platforms in the Netherlands include PrestaShop, Wix, Shopware, and custom builds, but each of those represents only 2-3% or less.

The key takeaway is that the Dutch e-commerce environment is heavily weighted toward WooCommerce for smaller businesses and content-driven stores, with Shopify catching up for pure-play online merchants, while a substantial segment of more complex or established retailers opt for enterprise or locally tailored solutions like Optimizely and Lightspeed.

Norway 🇳🇴

Norway’s e-commerce market includes around 17,316 webshops. The competition between WooCommerce and Shopify is particularly tight in Norway. WooCommerce is used by roughly 5,346 Norwegian webshops (39% share). Shopify is a very close second with about 4,931 sites (36% share). That’s a gap of only a few hundred sites, or about 3 percentage points, in WooCommerce’s favour. This near parity shows how strongly Shopify has gained traction even in markets traditionally dominated by open-source solutions.

The remaining ~24% of Norwegian webshops (about 3,192 sites) run on various other providers. Norway has a couple of notable local platforms in this “others” category. MyStore, a Norwegian-founded e-commerce platform, is the third most popular choice with about 1,071 sites (~6% share). MyStore’s presence indicates that some Norwegian merchants prefer a domestic solution, possibly for its local language support and integration with Norwegian payment or logistics options. Another Norwegian platform 24Nettbutikk accounts for around 701 sites (~4%), making it the fourth-ranked platform.

After these, the rest is fragmented: Magento has a few hundred sites (~2.7%), and there are many small contributions from others like Wix, WooCommerce’s forked variants, etc. The Norwegian e-commerce platform landscape can be summarized as a neck-and-neck race between the top global two, with local players carving out around 10% of the market combined (not insignificant for a country of Norway’s size). The close competition also suggests that platform choice in Norway might come down to specific business preferences - WooCommerce for content flexibility or existing WordPress usage, versus Shopify for ease of use - rather than clear-cut market leader advantage.

Romania 🇷🇴

Romania’s e-commerce market (approximately 31,892 webshops) shows a strong lead for WooCommerce as well, with some influence of local platforms. WooCommerce is estimated to power about 17,262 Romanian online stores, which is roughly 54% of the total. This is a majority share, indicating WooCommerce’s popularity among Romanian merchants, likely due to its low cost and flexibility in a price-sensitive market. The second most popular platform is Shopify, used by around 5,396 stores (~17%). Shopify’s share in Romania, while significant, is lower than in many Western countries.

The third place goes to PrestaShop with roughly 2,327 stores (~7%). PrestaShop has a community in Romania (the platform’s multilingual support and open source nature align well with local developer communities). Close behind, OpenCart is the fourth most used, powering around 2,179 stores (~6.8%). OpenCart has been historically popular in Eastern Europe for its simplicity.

Importantly, Romania has a couple of homegrown e-commerce solutions that make the top-five list. Gomag, a Romanian e-commerce SaaS platform, is used by about 1,773 stores (~5.6%). Another local platform, MerchantPro (formerly ShopMania BIZ), appears with a few hundred stores (~896 identified, ~3%). These local providers offer Romanian-language interfaces and local payment/shipping integrations, which can attract merchants. While Gomag’s share is notable, it still trails far behind WooCommerce.

The remaining portion of the Romanian market includes Magento (~828 sites, ~2.6%), along with other small players (including some regional ones like OpenCart as mentioned, and possibly osCommerce and Oxid with tiny footprints). The trend in Romania is that WooCommerce overwhelmingly dominates, with Shopify being the main international alternative, but local e-commerce service providers like Gomag have carved out respectable niches by addressing country-specific needs.

Sweden 🇸🇪

Sweden has a robust e-commerce sector with about 38,965 webshops. The Swedish platform distribution looks somewhat similar to Norway’s. WooCommerce holds the lead with roughly 13,293 sites (~39% of Swedish webshops). Shopify is not far behind at about 11,354 sites (around 34% share). The difference between them is only about 5% of the market (~2,000 stores), indicating a close contest in Sweden as well. Combined, these two account for roughly 73% of Swedish online stores.

The remaining 26-27% use other platforms. One noteworthy local platform in Sweden is Quickbutik, which is the third most popular solution with about 2,809 sites (~7.2%). Quickbutik is a Swedish e-commerce platform geared toward small businesses, and its ~7% share shows a significant minority of merchants opt for it, possibly for its simplicity and Swedish-language support. Another local contender is Wikinggruppen (part of Visma), which appears with a few hundred stores (~528 identified, around 1.4%).

Sweden also has a relatively higher incidence of custom-built stores - around 1,151 custom e-commerce sites (~3.0%) were noted, which could include large retailers and boutiques with bespoke solutions. Magento is used by around 932 sites (~2.4%), and PrestaShop by a similar number (~728 sites, ~1.9%). Additionally, Wix and Squarespace (general website builders with commerce capabilities) together account for a few percent (Wix around 480 sites, for instance).

In summary, Sweden’s e-commerce platforms are dominated by the top global two, but a healthy ecosystem of local services like Quickbutik and other specialized platforms thrives in the shadow of those giants. The competition between WooCommerce and Shopify in Sweden is intense - only a 4% market share difference - showing that Swedish merchants are split between the convenience of Shopify and the flexibility of WooCommerce, with neither running away completely with the market.

Slovakia 🇸🇰

Slovakia, with around 17,616 online stores, presents an interesting case where a regional platform plays a major role. WooCommerce is still number one at roughly 7,144 Slovakian webshops (about 41% of the market). However, unlike most countries where Shopify is the automatic second, in Slovakia the second-place platform is Shoptet with about 3,502 webshops (~20-22% share). Shoptet is a Czech-based e-commerce platform very popular in Central Europe, and its strong showing in Slovakia (over a fifth of Slovak webshops) is testament to that regional influence.

Shopify, by contrast, is less prevalent - it actually ranks fourth in Slovakia. The third spot belongs to PrestaShop (~1,309 stores, ~7%) and Shopify comes in fourth with around 1,183 stores (~6.7%).

The remaining ~25% of Slovak stores are split among other providers. After Shopify, OpenCart accounts for roughly 800 stores (~4.5%). There are also a couple of local Slovak/Czech solutions further down: for example, Webareal (~727 stores) and eShop Rýchlo (eShop Rychle) (~529 stores) each have a small share. Upgates, another Czech platform, appears with a few hundred Slovak shops as well. The key insight for Slovakia is that regional integration matters - Shoptet’s platform offers integrations to Central European marketplaces and local services, which has made it more popular than even Shopify for Slovak merchants. This is a reminder that in certain markets, being attuned to local commerce ecosystems (language, marketplaces like Heureka or Alza, local payment gateways) can give a platform a significant edge. WooCommerce still leads thanks to its general appeal and flexibility, but Shoptet’s high adoption shows that merchants will embrace a solution that caters to their regional business needs, even if a global option is available.

Trends and Takeaways

Looking across all these countries, a few clear trends emerge.

1. WooCommerce and Shopify dominate the European e-commerce platform market.

In virtually every country analyzed, these two platforms account for well over half (often around 70% or more) of all online stores. WooCommerce tends to lead in markets with strong DIY or open-source communities, while Shopify often gains in markets where turn-key solutions are in demand. Their combined dominance poses a high barrier to entry for any new platforms - unseating either would require not just converting a few merchants, but a massive migration that seems unlikely unless a radically better value proposition comes along.

2. Local and regional platforms still matter, especially in certain countries.

We see this clearly in places like Hungary (Unas, Shoprenter), Norway (MyStore, 24Nettbutikk), Finland (MyCashFlow), Czechia/Slovakia (Shoptet, Webareal), and Romania (Gomag, MerchantPro). These platforms succeed by catering to local languages, regulations, and business practices, offering features or integrations out-of-the-box that global platforms might not handle as smoothly (for example, integration with local marketplaces, tax rules, or popular domestic payment methods).

While none of these local providers comes close to dethroning the top two in absolute numbers, they often secure a solid third-place position - sometimes even second, as Shoptet does in Slovakia - capturing anywhere from 5% to 25% of their home market. This indicates an industry fit advantage: in specific niches or regions, a tailored solution can beat a one-size-fits-all global platform. For e-commerce leaders, this means it’s important to be aware of and integrated with local platforms when operating in those markets, as they may have a loyal user base.

3. Open-source vs. SaaS dynamics

The data reflects a broader shift from open-source, self-hosted carts (like Magento, PrestaShop, OpenCart) toward SaaS and cloud-hosted solutions (like Shopify, and to an extent local SaaS like Shoprenter or Shoptet).

A decade ago, platforms like Magento and PrestaShop were among the top choices in Europe. Today, Magento powers only a small percentage of stores in these countries (generally 2-5%), and PrestaShop, while still significant in some markets (up to ~12% in Lithuania, ~9% in Italy), is far behind the leaders. This doesn’t mean these platforms are disappearing - indeed, Magento remains a top choice for many high-traffic and complex stores (often enterprise B2C or B2B, where its scalability and customization shine, even if the count of Magento stores is low) (mgt-commerce.commgt-commerce.com).

PrestaShop similarly maintains a strong community among mid-sized merchants who prefer open source. However, the growth seems to be with easier-to-deploy, maintenance-free solutions. Shopify’s growth is evident across Europe, even in traditionally resistant markets like Germany (where it reportedly grew its market share 35% since 2018 to take the lead (cedcommerce.com). WooCommerce, while open-source, benefits from being a plugin to WordPress - thus riding the coattails of the world’s most popular CMS - and remains accessible to non-developers via hosting providers and one-click installs, keeping it competitive in the era of SaaS.

4. Platform capabilities and industry fit

Different platforms tend to appeal to different segments of the market:

WooCommerce is favored by content-driven businesses (who already use WordPress) and smaller merchants who want full control with minimal cost. It’s highly flexible with plugins, but requires more hands-on management. The data shows WooCommerce having especially high shares in countries with strong WordPress usage and developer communities (e.g., Estonia, Italy, Netherlands).

Shopify appeals to merchants who prioritize ease of use, reliable hosting, and a rich app ecosystem without needing technical know-how. Its surge in countries like Germany and Iceland underscores how a user-friendly, all-in-one solution can rapidly gain trust, even in markets that once prized self-hosted solutions (cedcommerce.com). Shopify is also increasingly capable of serving larger merchants (Shopify Plus), which may further grow its share among enterprises.

PrestaShop and OpenCart still appeal to budget-conscious or technically oriented merchants, especially in Eastern and Southern Europe, who want an open-source store but perhaps find Magento too heavy. These platforms are often used for small-to-mid shops that need specific customizations and local hosting. Their share is shrinking in many places, but they remain part of the mix (often in the 5-15% range in various countries).

Magento (Adobe Commerce) has shifted to an enterprise focus. The relatively low count of Magento stores hides the fact that many larger retailers and B2B wholesalers run on Magento for its advanced features and scalability. For example, Magento is estimated to hold about an 18% share of Europe’s e-commerce revenue or enterprise usage (though only a few percent of the count of stores) (mgt-commerce.commgt-commerce.com). It remains strong in specific sectors like fashion and auto parts in Europe, where its robustness and the availability of skilled Magento developers are valued.

Local platforms often differentiate through localized capabilities: e.g., Shoptet’s integration with Central European marketplaces, MyCashFlow’s understanding of Finnish payment systems, or Dandomain’s tie-ins with Danish ERP software. Industry-wise, some local platforms cater to certain industries (for instance, Lightspeed’s strength among restaurants and brick-and-mortar retail with its POS integration). Quickbutik in Sweden markets itself to boutique retailers. These platforms might not scale globally, but they fit the industry and regional needs of their target users extremely well, ensuring their survival amid global competition.

5. Growth trajectories

The overall trend is a consolidation toward a few major platforms (especially Shopify and WooCommerce). Shopify’s aggressive growth is a common thread - it’s growing its share in essentially every market, often at the expense of older local solutions or smaller platforms. WooCommerce also continues to grow in absolute terms (the number of WooCommerce stores is rising), though its market share in some places is plateauing or falling slightly where Shopify gains. Platforms like Magento and PrestaShop, while still gaining new sites, are growing much slower or even declining in share as merchants replatform to easier solutions. Local platforms show mixed trends: some are growing (e.g., Shoptet’s expansion from Czech into Slovakia, or Gomag in Romania attracting sellers moving online), while others may be slowly losing ground if they can’t match the features or marketing of the global competitors. For example, the data for Germany implies platforms like Shopware and JTL, despite being robust, have ceded the #1 spot to Shopify and may need to innovate to maintain relevance.

In conclusion, understanding which e-commerce platforms dominate in each country is valuable for anyone in the e-commerce industry. If you’re a technology or service provider, these insights help in estimating your total addressable market on each platform and prioritizing integrations - for instance, focusing on WooCommerce and Shopify covers ~70% of shops off the bat, but if you target a country like Hungary or Slovakia, you’d miss a large chunk if you ignore local platforms. For e-commerce merchants or investors, knowing the popular platforms can guide you toward the solutions with the strongest local ecosystems (developers, agencies, plug-ins) in a given region.

Despite the pan-European dominance of WooCommerce and Shopify, the diversity of platforms in the remaining share is a reminder that one size does not fit all. Each market has its nuances, and platforms that align with local languages, regulations, cross-border possibilities or industry niches can capture significant share. As the e-commerce sector continues to grow and evolve, keeping an eye on platform popularity and trends in each country can provide a strategic advantage - whether that’s choosing a platform for your next webshop or deciding which markets to expand platform-specific services into. The data confirms a broad trend toward a few leading frameworks, but also highlights where opportunities lie in serving the ecosystems around the myriad of other platforms that together still power tens of thousands of European webshops.

Sources: The platform usage data is derived from a 2025 analysis of hundreds of thousands of European webshops (Tembi Market Intelligence and other sources). Additional context on regional platforms and market shares was taken from industry reports and studies. Each country section above cites specific data sources.

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