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Act before the market
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.
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’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 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’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 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’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 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’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’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 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’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 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).
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’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’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 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, 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.
Looking across all these countries, a few clear trends emerge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
European online payments are shaped by a mix of global platforms and strong local preferences. Below we break down the key payment providers across eight countries – Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, and Sweden – highlighting who’s active in each market, how they fare in B2B vs B2C, and domestic vs cross-border trends. We also discuss how platform-native solutions (like Shopify Payments and PayPal integrations) enable cross-market reach.
The analysis is based on 208.035 webshops monitored by Tembi with data from the 21st of May 2025.
Belgium - 18.237 active webshops
Switzerland - 30.007
Denmark - 32.370
Finland - 15.912
Italy - 63.672
Norway - 15.032
Sweden - 32.805
Belgian e-commerce is dominated by Bancontact, the national debit scheme, which remains by far the favourite online payment method – about 73% of Belgian shoppers prefer Bancontact and 70% use it most often (retaildetail.eu). Credit cards, once top, now take a secondary role mainly for higher-value purchases (pay.com.)
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs international adoption
Domestically, a Belgian online shopper expects to see Bancontact at checkout – it’s a trust signal and caters to local payment habits. International e-commerce players entering Belgium must integrate Bancontact (often via Shopify Payments or Adyen) to localise their offering (retaildetail.eu). Conversely, Belgian merchants aiming cross-border include methods like PayPal and credit cards to accommodate foreign customers who can’t use Bancontact. Thus, Belgian sites serving neighboring markets often support both local and global methods. This dual approach (Bancontact + an international wallet) is common in Belgium’s e-commerce, ensuring both local and cross-border sales are covered.
Switzerland’s payment mix is unusually diverse. Traditionally, bank transfers and invoices have been extremely popular – as of 2023, bank transfers (including pay-by-invoice) were projected to account for ~46% of Swiss e-commerce transactions (pay.com) Cards are also widely used (52% of online transactions, mostly credit cards in online contexts (pay.com). But the biggest shake-up has come from Twint, the Swiss mobile payments app. In recent years Twint has surged to become the dominant online payment method: it’s now accepted in roughly 4 out of 5 Swiss online shops (twint.ch) and counts over 5 million active users in a country of ~8.7 million (pay.com).
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs international
The Swiss market is small but high-spending, and cross-border e-commerce is significant (many Swiss buy from German, French, or global sites). Domestic shops therefore try to offer a mix of local and international methods. For instance, a Swiss webshop will almost certainly offer Twint and PostFinance for locals, but also Visa/Mastercard and PayPal to appeal to everyone (including cross-border shoppers or expatriates). International retailers entering Switzerland often integrate Twint now – given its reach, not having Twint could alienate a big chunk of local customers. At the same time, Swiss consumers use credit cards and PayPal especially when shopping on foreign sites, since those universally work. This dynamic means successful cross-border sellers into Switzerland either enable local methods via a PSP (Adyen, etc.) or rely on the Swiss buyer falling back to a credit card or PayPal. In summary, Swiss e-commerce shows a dual nature: traditional methods (bank transfer/invoice) remain very strong at home (pay.com), but mobile and global solutions are rapidly overlaying to facilitate seamless buying both domestically and across borders.
Denmark is a card-centric country with a twist – nearly every Dane has a Dankort (the national debit card, typically co-branded with Visa), so card payments have long been the norm. In 2024, about 37% of Danish online consumers cited paying by card as their primary method (ecommercenews.eu). Close on its heels, however, is MobilePay, used by roughly 33% of online shoppers as their preferred option (ecommercenews.eu). MobilePay, a mobile wallet linked to card or bank accounts, has become nearly ubiquitous (over 90% of Danes have the app, and virtually all younger adults do (statista.com)). PayPal and other methods exist but are less prominent – a few years ago PayPal accounted for ~13% of Danish online payments (oosga.com), and it remains a common option particularly for cross-border purchases. Overall, Denmark’s landscape mixes global card infrastructure with highly adopted local fintech solutions.
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs International Adoption
Danish online retailers focus on domestic preferences first – supporting Dankort/Visa and MobilePay to cover the vast majority of local transactions. Cross-border, Denmark has a high rate of consumers buying from abroad (over half shop abroad monthly (ecommercenews.eu), so Danish merchants also consider methods that international shoppers use. This means accepting foreign Visa/Mastercards (no problem via standard acquiring) and often keeping PayPal available. International merchants selling into Denmark are wise to enable MobilePay – increasingly, payment platforms (like Stripe or Adyen or Shopify Payments) let them do so easily. We see that cross-border giants (Amazon, etc.) have started to include MobilePay for Danish customers. In summary, domestic Danish e-commerce is characterised by card and MobilePay dominance, whereas cross-border commerce relies more on international card networks and PayPal – but the gap is closing as local methods become accessible to foreign merchants too.
Finnish online shoppers have a strong preference for direct bank payments. Rather than using individual bank buttons, Finland streamlined this through Paytrail, an aggregator that connects all major Finnish banks. As a result, online bank transfer solutions like Paytrail are the top choice for Finns (aboutpayments.com). According to industry info, Finnish consumers most prefer paying via their internet banking through services such as Paytrail or Trustly (aboutpayments.com). Cards are of course used as well, but historically Finland has seen lower credit card usage online than many other European countries. Instead, debit cards via bank transfer and recently mobile wallets are prominent. MobilePay (imported from Denmark) has also gained traction in Finland – it’s available and used by many, though not yet as dominant as in Denmark. Klarna is popular in Finland too (Finland was an early Klarna expansion market), and invoice payments are fairly common for certain purchases. In summary, Finland’s payment scene is a mix of bank-centric methods and a few select international options.
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs International
Finnish e-commerce is quite domestic-focused in method – a Finnish shopper expects to pay through their bank or an invoice. International merchants expanding to Finland often partner with Paytrail or a similar PSP to offer localized bank payments, because without those, they’d miss a large portion of sales. The prevalence of English-speaking Finns means many do shop on international sites, where they might then use a credit card or PayPal if Finnish bank options aren’t available. Indeed, PayPal is accepted on many Finnish sites (though not top-five in preference, it’s present on ~8,300 Finnish webshops per our data), functioning as a catch-all for cross-border transactions (e.g. paying a non-Finnish merchant). Adoption trends show that methods like Paytrail keep domestic transactions flowing in local currency and language, whereas global platforms like PayPal or card networks come into play for cross-border. Additionally, Finland being in the Eurozone makes cross-border shopping easier (no currency swap issues), so credit cards are slightly more used for EU-wide shopping. Finnish merchants, to expand abroad, will lean on PSPs that support international cards, PayPal, and possibly multi-currency – many use Stripe (found on ~4,200 Finnish sites) or Adyen for that reason. In sum, Finland has a strong local backbone (bank payments) that any entrant must integrate, and a willingness to layer global methods on top for broader reach.
Local Payment Landscape: Italy stands out for the prominence of PayPal in e-commerce. Italians have historically been cautious about online payments, leading them to gravitate towards PayPal for its perceived safety and buyer protection. Recent surveys show about 63% of Italian online consumers used PayPal in the past month, and 39% prefer PayPal over any other method – making it the #1 choice by far (rapyd.net). Credit and debit cards are of course used (especially with the widespread CartaSi/VISA and MasterCard), but only ~11% of Italians picked credit cards as their first choice, according to the same study (rapyd.net). Interestingly, a uniquely Italian method, the PostePay prepaid card (issued by the postal service), ranks high – about 12% choose it as their top payment method (rapyd.net). PostePay is essentially a reloadable Visa/Mastercard, and its popularity reflects Italians’ preference for controlled, cash-loaded spending. Cash on delivery (contrassegno) still lingers as an option in Italy for some categories, though its share is decreasing as digital payments grow. Overall, Italy’s online payment mix is a blend of global wallets, card networks (often through domestic brands like CartaSi or PostePay), and some remaining traditional methods.
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs International
Italian merchants historically catered to domestic buyers’ preferences (hence a heavy emphasis on PayPal). Now, with cross-border e-commerce growing (two-thirds of Italian shoppers have bought from international sites (rapyd.net)), Italian merchants are expanding their payment options. Many are adding methods like Amazon Pay (since Italians shop on Amazon’s platforms), or enabling multi-currency credit card processing to attract foreign customers. Likewise, foreign companies selling to Italy have learned that including PayPal at checkout is crucial – a UK or German site that adds PayPal might suddenly convert many more Italian buyers who trust PayPal over entering card details. We see platform-native solutions smoothing this process: for example, Shopify Payments allows a foreign merchant to offer Italian shoppers local payment options (like bonifico via Sofort or appropriate localized card forms) without that merchant needing an Italian banking relationship. Additionally, services like Klarna have recently launched in Italy as well, aiming to introduce more pay-later options; their usage is nascent but growing for cross-border purchases (e.g. an Italian buying from a German shop might use Klarna). In summary, Italy’s e-commerce shows a stark local preference for PayPal and familiar tools, and both domestic and international sellers adjust to that reality – often by prominently featuring PayPal, offering prepaid-friendly options, and maintaining trust signals. The reliance on platform solutions (PayPal, Amazon Pay, etc.) also lowers the friction of cross-border commerce for Italian consumers, effectively bridging domestic habits with international retail.
Norway’s consumers are highly digital and spend a lot online. Card payments are extremely common – in fact, Norway has one of the highest per-capita card usage rates. Cards (debit and credit combined) account for roughly 43% of all retail transactions (online and offline) in Norway (pay.com). The majority of these are through BankAxept, Norway’s domestic debit card system, which is co-branded with Visa/Mastercard for international acceptance (pay.com). Alongside cards, Norway has a very strong mobile payments culture thanks to Vipps, a mobile wallet app used by most Norwegians. Vipps has cornered the digital wallet market in Norway (pay.com), meaning alternatives like Apple Pay or Google Pay are secondary (though available). Klarna and other pay-later options are also popular – Norway, like other Nordics, embraced Klarna early for splitting or delaying payments. PayPal exists but plays a smaller role in day-to-day domestic payments (around 7% share of online transactions as per Norges Bank (pay.com)), used mainly for cross-border shopping. In summary, Norway’s landscape features high card usage with a layer of mobile wallet convenience and BNPL flexibility.
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs International
Norway’s e-commerce players pay attention to both local preferences and the fact that Norway is outside the EU (which affects cross-border trade, VAT, etc.). Domestically, a Norwegian merchant will emphasize Vipps and Klarna alongside cards to maximize conversions – these are what local shoppers expect. Internationally, Norwegian merchants know that foreign customers won’t have Vipps, so they ensure card payments (Visa/Mastercard) and PayPal are available. Many also support Klarna’s global offering in other markets (since Klarna operates across Europe and even the US, a Norwegian merchant can offer pay-later to customers in those countries via Klarna). Moreover, with high English proficiency, Norwegians frequently shop abroad; when they do, they typically use cards or PayPal – indeed PayPal’s main utility in Norway is for cross-border purchases (pay.com). This behavior influences Norwegian e-commerce sites too: for example, the prevalence of PayPal on Norwegian sites is partly to reassure and facilitate sales to non-Norwegians (and to Norwegians who might prefer it in certain situations). Another interesting point is that as part of the Vipps-MobilePay merger, Nordic payment integration is improving – soon a Danish customer might pay a Norwegian shop with MobilePay and it seamlessly works with Vipps (and vice versa). This will strengthen cross-Nordic commerce by leveraging each country’s local wallet. In summary, Norway shows a pattern seen in the Nordics: very high local adoption of innovative payments, and a parallel support of global methods to engage in cross-border commerce.
Sweden’s online payment landscape has two giants: Klarna and Swish. It’s often said that “everyone in Sweden uses Swish,” and that’s barely an exaggeration – about 98% of Swedish adults have Swish installed and ~95% use it regularly (ergomania.eu). Swish is a mobile payment system (bank account-linked) originally for P2P but now widely used in e-commerce and even brick-and-mortar. On the other hand, Klarna’s pay-later services (invoice, installment, etc.) account for a huge portion of Swedish e-commerce – over 50% of online transactions by value are open invoice payments (adyen.com) - many of those facilitated by Klarna and a handful of competitors. Credit/debit cards remain popular too (especially for some online services and travel), but Sweden stands out in that invoices/payment after delivery are the single largest category, surpassing cards (adyen.com). This is rooted in consumer behavior: Swedes historically liked to receive goods and pay by invoice, a practice that fintechs like Klarna turned into a smooth digital experience. Meanwhile, Swish’s instant bank transfers are siphoning off transactions that might have been card or cash. PayPal exists and is used in Sweden, but given the strong local options, it’s not a leading method for domestic shopping. Overall, Sweden is extremely advanced: high smartphone usage, multiple fintech solutions, and consumers comfortable with alternative payments.
Key Providers and Roles:
Domestic vs International: Swedish e-commerce players are very outward-looking (Swedes buy from international sites and Swedish sites sell abroad, especially to the EU). For domestic sales, not offering Klarna or Swish is almost unthinkable for a mainstream merchant – you’d lose too many sales. For cross-border, Swedish merchants rely on those platform capabilities: Klarna is expanding in many markets, so a Swedish merchant can offer Klarna in, say, Germany or the UK to attract foreign customers similarly. Swish, however, is domestic; a non-Swedish customer cannot use Swish, so Swedish merchants must also have card payments and PayPal to cover foreigners. This they generally do – either via a PSP or via Klarna Checkout (which by default shows local Swedish options but can fall back to card for others). International merchants entering Sweden often partner with Klarna to quickly gain local credibility. It’s common for foreign brands launching Swedish sites to heavily feature Klarna and Swish logos – it signals to Swedish shoppers that “you can trust and pay easily here”. Additionally, Sweden’s high trust in fintech means new entrants can get traction – e.g. Stripe is used by many startups in Sweden and can process Swish via plugins, so newcomers can offer Swish with minimal effort. Platform-native solutions like Shopify Payments also support local methods in Sweden (Shopify merchants can enable Klarna and Swish through integrations), which lowers the barrier for smaller foreign merchants to sell to Swedes. A noteworthy cross-border trend is the Nordics integration: with Vipps, MobilePay, and Swish collaborating, a merchant in one Nordic country might soon accept a wallet payment from a neighboring country’s app seamlessly. This will further blur domestic vs international in the Nordic region’s payments. All told, Sweden’s market is characterized by extremely strong local preferences (Swish, invoicing) that any successful player must adapt to, and a parallel accommodation of global methods for complete coverage. Swedish consumers will happily use a local method if available, but if shopping on a foreign site, they might use a card or PayPal – however, their expectation now is that more and more foreign sites will cater to them with Swedish methods.
One recurring theme across all these countries is the role of platform-native payment integrations – especially on popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce – in streamlining cross-border payment acceptance. Two prime examples are Shopify Payments (with its local method support) and PayPal’s ubiquitous plugins.
Shopify Payments (and Shop Pay)
Shopify Payments is the built-in payment gateway for Shopify merchants, powered behind the scenes by providers like Stripe/Adyen. Crucially, it automatically enables relevant local payment methods based on the shopper’s region. For instance, a Shopify merchant in the US can easily accept Bancontact and iDEAL when selling to Belgium or the Netherlands – they simply toggle those on, no custom integration needed (help.shopify.com). Shopify Payments supports Bancontact, iDEAL, Sofort, EPS, Klarna, etc., depending on the market (help.shopify.com), meaning merchants on Shopify can localize their checkout experience at the flick of a switch. This has huge implications: it lowers the barrier for cross-market expansion since even small merchants can offer country-specific popular methods without in-depth knowledge. Additionally, Shop Pay, Shopify’s accelerated checkout, is available globally – it stores customer details for one-click payments across any Shopify store. Shop Pay itself isn’t a separate payment method funded by a bank or card, but it streamlines card payments and now even installments (Shop Pay Installments by Affirm in some countries). Its presence (noted in our data across countries, e.g. ~6–13k sites in each country had “Shop Pay” enabled) underscores the impact of platform features. Shop Pay improves conversion and thus indirectly encourages merchants to sell globally, knowing returning customers can pay faster. In essence, platform-native solutions like Shopify Payments abstract away complexity: a single integration gives a merchant Apple Pay, Google Pay, local methods and credit cards in one – very powerful for cross-border commerce.
WooCommerce & PayPal/Stripe integrations
WooCommerce (the popular WordPress e-commerce plugin) relies on third-party payment gateways. PayPal and Stripe are two that have become nearly universal on WooCommerce sites globally. Because they are easy to install and free to use (no monthly fee, just transaction fees), many WooCommerce-based shops simply offer PayPal and Stripe out-of-the-box. This means an English WooCommerce site, a German one, or a Danish one – all likely have a similar PayPal checkout option (and Stripe powering card payments). Our analysis of PayPal’s presence found that a significant percentage of Shopify and WooCommerce stores across these countries have PayPal enabled – often 50% or more (e.g. ~72% in Italy, ~47% in Sweden, ~40% in Finland, ~62% in Belgium) based on the data of PayPal usage on those platform stores. This prevalence is no accident: PayPal comes built-in with Shopify and as a default plugin with WooCommerce, so many merchants leave it on as a convenient global method. The result is a kind of cross-market ubiquity – no matter if you’re shopping on a boutique in Oslo or a gadget store in Milan, you’re likely to see the PayPal button. That consistency gives consumers a familiar fallback and gives merchants confidence they can serve international customers (who might prefer PayPal if they’re unfamiliar with the local method on that site). Stripe’s integration on WooCommerce similarly allows merchants worldwide to accept not just cards but Apple Pay, Google Pay, and even local methods (if configured) like iDEAL or Klarna through Stripe. So, platform ecosystems have made a set of payment methods effectively universal across markets.
Cross-Border Influence of Key Players
Certain providers emerge as bridges across countries. PayPal is the obvious one – present virtually everywhere, it’s the default cross-border wallet. Stripe/Adyen as PSPs power many local methods but are invisible to consumers; their influence is in enabling merchants to support the right mix in each market. Klarna has grown from a Swedish BNPL to a global brand now active in all the discussed countries – a German shopper, a Norwegian, an Italian can all use Klarna, making it a cross-border payment option in its own right. Apple Pay and Google Pay – while not top of any country’s list except perhaps on tech-centric sites – provide a unified experience for a segment of users across borders (a tech-savvy Swiss or Italian might choose Apple Pay in lieu of typing card details, for example). Mollie and Nets/Nexi (regional PSPs) are extending beyond their home (Mollie from NL into Belgium, France, etc., Nets from Nordics into DACH), contributing to cross-pollination of methods.
In summary, platform-native integrations and globally-oriented providers smooth out the differences between markets. They ensure that a merchant doesn’t have to integrate Bancontact, iDEAL, Klarna, Swish separately with different contracts – instead, one integration (be it Shopify Payments, PayPal, Stripe, etc.) covers it. This has led to a situation where key payment methods achieve strong cross-border presence despite being local in nature: for example, Bancontact can be accepted by a German Shopify store selling to Belgium, and iDEAL appears on UK websites via PayPal’s Braintree or Adyen. Likewise, a Dutch merchant can easily offer Klarna to German customers through a single PSP. The significance is huge for market entry and expansion: a merchant can enter a new European market and immediately offer the familiar local payment options through their existing platform, rather than needing to sign deals with local banks. This greatly lowers friction in European e-commerce, effectively enabling the regional patterns we’ve discussed to coexist with global e-commerce flows.
Analysing these seven countries side by side reveals clear regional patterns and instructive differences:
Local dominance vs global universals
Each country has one or two dominant local payment methods – Bancontact in Belgium, Twint in Switzerland, MobilePay in Denmark, Paytrail (bank transfers) in Finland, PayPal (local favourite) in Italy, Vipps (and cards) in Norway, Klarna/Swish in Sweden. These methods stem from local banking systems or consumer habits and command loyalty in their home markets. At the same time, global methods like credit cards and PayPal are present “just about everywhere” (retaildetail.eu) as the common denominators. Cards are accepted in all countries (even if not always first choice), and PayPal’s familiar checkout is offered broadly to capture cross-border shoppers. This duality means successful merchants typically combine the local must-haves with a baseline of global options.
North vs south vs central
There’s a north-south divide of sorts. The Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) are heavy on mobile wallets and pay-later solutions: MobilePay/Vipps/Swish and Klarna/Svea are household names there, reflecting a tech-forward consumer base and trust in digital finance. Central-West Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland) leans on bank-based payments: Bancontact, iDEAL, Twint, Sofort – these are all bank-account-direct methods, indicating the strength of bank networks and a preference for direct debit-style payments. Southern Europe (Italy) has been more cautious historically, thus PayPal (a “foreign” but trust-building method) and cash/prepaid solutions took hold. Understanding these cultural and historical contexts is key – one size does not fit all in Europe. A Nordics-focused merchant will prioritise mobile wallets and Klarna, whereas a Benelux-focused one must integrate local bank payments or risk losing most customers.
Cross-border influencers – key players
Some payment providers have clearly managed to extend their influence across multiple countries: Klarna (originating in Sweden) is now a major player in Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc., showing that a popular concept can travel – especially BNPL in regions with similar consumer credit cultures. PayPal remains a pan-European staple for cross-border commerce – even where it’s not #1 locally, it’s the safety net for transactions that cross languages or currencies. Stripe and Adyen (though behind the scenes) power a lot of this by enabling local method acceptance to non-local merchants – they are the unsung heroes making, for example, a French website feel native to a Dutch customer by offering iDEAL. Mollie has grown beyond the Netherlands into Belgium and even across Europe, thanks to its easy integration – it’s becoming a regional champion for SME payments. Meanwhile, regional collaborations (like the Vipps-MobilePay merger and its partnership with Swish) hint at the future: key local methods might interoperate across borders, effectively becoming multi-country methods. If that succeeds, a Nordic wallet could rival card schemes in cross-border utility within that region.
Platform power – shaping market entry
The prevalence of Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and other platforms in online retail has greatly shaped how payments are adopted. These platforms have baked-in support for the dominant providers, which means merchants expanding to a new country often have the tools at their fingertips to accept the local payments. For example, a Canadian brand using Shopify entering the Dutch market can enable iDEAL and Bancontact via Shopify Payments in minutes – something that would have been a project on its own a decade ago. This reduces the friction of market expansion; payment localization is no longer a barrier reserved for enterprise retailers with local contracts, but available to SMBs. It also means that certain payment methods achieve widespread adoption simply by being defaults on platforms – PayPal’s presence on WooCommerce is a clear case. In effect, the e-commerce platforms act as conduits for spreading payment innovations across borders. If tomorrow a new payment method becomes huge in one country, chances are platform providers or PSPs will integrate it and thereby propagate it across thousands of merchants in multiple countries (much like Apple Pay rolled out or Klarna became a checkout option globally).
Consumer behaviour and trust
Underpinning all of this, local consumer behaviour and trust patterns dictate what gets used. In Belgium and Netherlands, trust in one’s bank and domestic systems is high – hence bank-based methods flourish. In Italy, wariness about fraud led to a trust in PayPal and cash – only now gradually shifting toward more modern solutions as trust improves. Nordics have high trust both in technology and in credit, enabling things like Swish and Klarna to thrive. These patterns highlight that any payment provider trying to enter a new European market must contend with deeply ingrained habits. Often, partnering or integrating with existing local systems (as Mastercard did by co-badging Bancontact, or as Klarna did by offering localised invoice terms) is more successful than trying to impose a wholly new behaviour.
To conclude, European e-commerce payments are a mix of local traditions and global tech. Merchants aiming for success across these markets need to literally “speak the language” of payments in each country – be it offering installment invoices in Sweden, MobilePay in Denmark, or Bancontact in Belgium – while also providing cross-border staples like cards and PayPal to ensure no customer is left out. The good news is that modern payment platforms and providers have made this mapping far easier. The direction is clear: meet customers’ local expectations at checkout, and they will buy confidently, whether they’re next door or across the continent. By recognizing the strengths and focus of each payment provider (from Twint’s local sovereignty in Switzerland to PayPal’s cross-border indispensability), businesses can craft a payment strategy that feels native in every market they serve, B2C and B2B alike. This localized approach, backed by data and smart integrations, is increasingly what defines competitive advantage in Europe’s vibrant online payments landscape.
Our recent analysis of aggregated data from webshops in selected European countries confirms two straightforward insights about cross-border selling: webshops typically target neighbouring countries or seek out larger markets to grow their potential customer base. While these findings may seem intuitive, the data illustrates clearly how consistently webshops employ these strategies - particularly when supported by strong partnerships with local logistics providers and prioritised investments in localisation.
The obvious role of proximity
Webshops in Denmark primarily target Sweden (18.9%) and Germany (18%), reflecting straightforward cross-border logistics and cultural familiarity. Similarly, Dutch webshops predominantly sell to Belgium (17.4%) and Germany (13.5%), confirming that short distances and established regional logistics make neighbouring countries natural first choices. Swedish webshops follow the same logic, favouring close neighbours Denmark (17.2%) and Finland (15.9%).
Targeting larger markets beyond proximity
Webshops strategically pursue larger markets with robust consumer bases, such as Germany and France, regardless of direct proximity. For instance, Italian webshops commonly sell to Germany (14.2%) and France (14.1%), driven significantly by the size and high purchasing power of these markets, alongside geographical closeness.
Distinctive patterns in Eastern Europe
Webshops in Hungary display notably low cross-border priority: only 4.4% offer shipping options to Germany, Slovakia, and Romania. This cautious approach likely reflects specific economic calculations, infrastructural limitations, or less developed cross-border logistics partnerships, rather than purely geographical factors.
Latvian webshops clearly illustrate the proximity factor again, heavily targeting neighbouring Lithuania (16.8%) and Estonia (15.9%), highlighting ease of trade through geographic and cultural closeness.
Notable differences in cross-border engagement levels
A significant finding from the data is the variation in how actively webshops pursue international markets. Factors driving these differences include the maturity of the domestic e-commerce market, logistical infrastructure, consumer purchasing power, and particularly the level of investment into localisation and logistics solutions. Engagement levels notably decline with increasing distance, indicating logistical complexity and higher costs likely deter webshops from extensive international expansion beyond neighbouring or well-established larger markets.
Concluding remarks
Our aggregated data confirms proximity and market size as primary drivers for cross-border e-commerce decisions. However, the diverse patterns and varying engagement levels suggest that webshop decisions are influenced by more complex strategic factors, including infrastructural readiness, economic conditions, logistical capabilities, and the willingness to invest in localised consumer experiences. These factors ultimately shape cross-border success far more than geographical closeness alone.
The real estate sector, particularly in hospitality, is undergoing a significant shift. With growing data availability and the evolution of AI tools, companies can now make faster, more informed, and more strategic decisions. We recently sat down with Jochen Renz to talk about how he and his team are rethinking real estate development by embracing AI-driven insights.
This article is based on a conversation between Michael Bugaj , CMO at Tembi, and Jochen Renz, VP Operations Accor Switzerland & Southern Germany and Managing Director AccorHotels Switzerland.
Jochen begins by highlighting a central challenge in real estate development: identifying areas with future growth potential. "The question was, how can I ensure we define areas in a country with further potential growth than we might see today?" he explains. Traditional methods - macro- and microeconomic research, political and demographic analysis - often look backward, relying on historical data to predict future trends.
However, Jochen was looking for more than that. He wanted forward-thinking tools that could help them predict, not just reflect. This desire for a proactive approach led Jochen and his team to explore AI-powered solutions.
One of the tools Jochen explored is Tembi, a platform that helps identify emerging opportunities in different areas of cities based on continuously updated market data. While not yet rolled out in Switzerland, the tool was originally developed in Denmark and stood out to Jochen as a promising forward-looking platform.
"Tembi allowed us to do predictions in areas based on logistics, different sectors, and growing patterns," Jochen shares. "I compared this with more traditional development tools, and what stood out was its ability to look forward by analyzing data such as employer growth, financial data, and sector movements."
Traditionally, site selection was a heavily manual task involving fragmented data sources. Jochen’s team would combine macroeconomic data with localized insights, looking at street-level factors, emissions, and building potential. External consultants were often brought in to help collect and validate this information. "The consistent approach is not easy to achieve," he admits.
With AI-driven tools like Tembi, however, the potential for change is clear. While still a work in progress, the promise lies in being able to access relevant data for hundreds or even thousands of locations more quickly than before. Jochen notes that with tools like Tembi, it's becoming increasingly feasible to explore broader market patterns and opportunities in a more scalable way.
Jochen shared an example from Denmark: a promising opportunity in Odense. “I had never heard of the city before,” he laughs. “But by setting a few filters, we uncovered a significant movement in the city that revealed a growing need for hotels.”
With tools like Tembi, such discoveries become replicable. “You could look for similar movements in Sweden, Poland, or Belgium, just by changing the location input. That’s the power of structured data paired with AI.”
The ability to anticipate development opportunities earlier in the cycle will give companies a strategic edge. "If we know an area is developing and we can suggest the right brand early on, we influence the project from the beginning," Jochen explains. "That positions us in a completely different way in the value chain."
Perhaps one of the most powerful applications of AI, Jochen believes, is making complex data more accessible. "Think about someone running a 7-Eleven or Domino's Pizza franchise, they're not developers," he says. "But if AI can give them confidence in a location based on structured data, that opens up huge possibilities."
This democratization of insight, paired with AI’s ability to remove emotional bias from decisions, is transforming how Accor - and potentially the wider industry - approaches site selection.
As AI continues to evolve, Jochen envisions a future where real estate teams can monitor hundreds of markets at once, identifying trends and acting faster than ever before. “You don’t have to focus on one area anymore, you can analyze 100 areas and synthesize it down to the two best opportunities. That’s game-changing.”
The intersection of human insight and machine intelligence is reshaping real estate development. For Jochen and the team at Accor, tools like Tembi have the potential to become more than just another platform - they could evolve into essential partners in strategic growth.
As this conversation shows, the integration of AI into real estate decision-making isn't just a technical evolution, it's a shift in mindset. By empowering teams with better tools, clearer data, and broader perspectives, platforms like Tembi can help companies like Accor stay ahead in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving market.
Stay tuned for more stories like this as we continue to explore the intersection of AI and real-world strategy across industries.
hen we talk about e-commerce opportunity, the conversation often starts, and ends, with the size of a market. How many webshops are there? Which countries have the highest absolute numbers?
At Tembi, we believe that raw totals only tell part of the story. To really understand where e-commerce is thriving, and where it’s just starting to take hold, you need to look at density, digital integration, and market readiness.
We recently analysed data across 20+ European countries, looking not only at total webshop numbers but how they compare to population size and national business ecosystems.
Some of the results are surprising:
Knowing how many webshops exist per capita or per company tells us more than just the size of the e-commerce sector. It signals how deeply online sales are embedded into the economy.
For commercial teams, this is essential context. Are you entering a market where most companies already sell online? Or one where there’s room to help businesses go digital? Are you facing established competitors, or discovering a still-fragmented field?
This kind of intelligence can shape your go-to-market plan, sales motions, and even your product localisation strategy.
In short: don’t just look at the number of webshops. Look at who they serve, how they scale, and how densely they operate within the economy. Because the future of e-commerce isn’t just about growth -it’s about depth, integration, and staying power.
hen evaluating market opportunities, many look at total size. But total size doesn’t tell you where momentum is building. New webshop creation - and survival - is often a better indicator.
Despite being considered mature digital markets, across Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland, 9,200 new webshops were launched in 2024 that are still active today. That’s not total launches, that’s survivors - which gives a better sense of which markets are currently supporting new players.
This challenges conventional wisdom about market saturation and highlights untapped opportunities in the region.
Sweden leads with the strongest growth, showing a 42% increase in the number of newly launched webshops that remain active compared to the previous year. Close behind is Denmark, with a 39% year-on-year growth. These figures suggest that both markets are currently fertile ground for e-commerce newcomers, despite heightened competition and shifting consumer behaviour.
Finland and Iceland also recorded positive, albeit more modest, developments. Finland saw a 14% increase in surviving new webshops, while Iceland posted 13% growth. These numbers may not be as dramatic as Denmark or Sweden, but they still point to a healthy pace of new market entrants that are finding ways to stay afloat.
Norway, by contrast , is the only market that moved in the opposite direction. Here, the number of newly launched webshops that remained active declined by 2% compared to the previous year. While not a steep drop, it stands out in a region otherwise trending upwards. This downturn was primarily concentrated in one category - Beauty & personal care - which appears to have experienced a wave of closures (more details on this in our previous blog post available here).
The contrast between countries suggests that, even within a shared economic region, local market dynamics and category-specific pressures can lead to different outcomes.
At first glance, it may seem contradictory: high closure rates alongside a surge in new webshop launches. Between August 2024 and February 2025, over 3,300 Danish webshops ceased activity. That’s 11% of the total market, gone in just six months. This might suggest a market in retreat struggling with saturation. But the full picture tells a different story.
In the very same period, 2,645 new webshops were successfully launched and remained operational. These aren’t just test stores or dormant domains. These are active webshops that made it past the initial setup phase and into actual trade.
One of the more common assumptions about Nordic e-commerce is that the market is saturated. With strong category leaders and high consumer expectations, it can appear that there is little room left for new entrants. However, the consistent entries of still active webshops launched in 2024 challenges that thinking.
These are not just short-lived experiments or weekend projects. They are businesses that have managed to find customers, generate sales, and carve out a place in the market.
In addition, sustainability is playing an increasingly influential role in shaping consumer choices. According to PostNord’s 2024 report, 8 out of 10 Nordic shoppers consider sustainability when making purchases. This creates space for newcomers with strong brand values, circular business models, or second-hand offerings, which are becoming more popular particularly in fashion.
This also presents strategic opportunities for established brands. The new entrants create a pipeline of potential partners, collaborators or acquisition targets. For incumbents, this is a chance to stay ahead of the curve by aligning early with brands that may become the next category leaders.
For entrepreneurs, the lesson is that everything is still very much possible. While competition is strong, the path to growth remains open to those with a clear proposition answering real customer needs. Differentiation, specialization, and a willingness to build something that doesn’t look like everything else on the market will again prove to be key advantages.
Rather than signaling saturation the current trends reflect a dynamic market. New players continue to reshape what is possible, and the space for innovation remains open.
At Tembi, we track over 600,000 webshops across Europe, updating our database bi-weekly to gather historical data and monitor the development of each webshop.
e’re excited to share that Tembi has officially launched in Germany, bringing our e-commerce intelligence to one of Europe's largest markets. With Germany now on board, Tembi covers 17 markets, offering commercial teams actionable insights to drive strategic decisions and accelerate growth.
At Tembi, our approach goes beyond basic data collection. Over the past month, our system has visited and analysed more than 500,000 websites, systematically verifying each one. Through this process, we identified and validated over 94,800 genuine, operating webshops - ensuring that our insights are based on high-quality, accurate data. Each webshop is individually assessed, capturing detailed insights into their operations, product offerings, and category performance. This level of precision provides commercial teams with unmatched visibility into Germany’s e-commerce landscape, helping them pinpoint exactly where to focus their efforts - whether strengthening their local presence or expanding internationally.
Our robust intelligence monitors the technology stack of webshops, including commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware, ePages,AVADA, and Magento, as well as other software solutions they use. This empowers businesses with clear insights to strategically optimise their tech infrastructure and drive growth.
Tembi’s comprehensive analysis of the German market includes:
• Last-mile delivery marketshare - identifying logistics providers, delivery methods and prices for every webshop.
• Tracking of payment providers used by webshops, including PayPal, Klarna, Google Pay, Apple Pay,Sofort, Shopify Pay, ShopPay, and Opay (and many others).
• Webshop growth data andproduct sold, revealing emerging market trends and growth opportunities.
This launch highlights Tembi's dedication to delivering verified, actionable e-commerce intelligence that helps commercial teams proactively identify growth potential and optimise their strategies in Germany and beyond.
Keep an eye out for future updates, insights, and trends straight from Europe's e-commerce hub.
Want to know more? Reach out to our sales team.
Clerk.io is a leading e-commerce personalisation platform, helping thousands of webshops optimise their customer experience through tailored product recommendations, search, and email personalisation.
Clerk.io needed to address two main challenges:
Christian, Head of Lead Generation at Clerk.io, explained: “We were looking for a solution to scan markets and get a clear understanding of their potential. At the same time, we needed to ensure the leads we pursued met specific criteria, like being transactional webshops. Our previous provider couldn’t consistently deliver on these fronts.”
Clerk.io turned to Tembi to tackle these challenges. With Tembi's market data & intelligence, the team gained access to:
Christian highlighted the impact: “Tembi gave us a market feeling. For example, in Norway and Sweden, we could see the potential and decide if this was something we should double down on. The data helped us make informed decisions about where to focus our sales efforts. And 98% of the leads we identified via Tembi were qualified, allowing us to focus on high-quality opportunities without loosing time on irrelevant prospects.”
1. More Accurate Leads. By leveraging Tembi's validation process and advanced filtering tools, Clerk.io increased the accuracy of its leads.Only 1% were unqualified, and another 1% didn’t match the ICP criteria.
2. Time savings. Manual qualification time was massively reduced, allowing the team to allocate resources more effectively.
3. Market viability assessments. Clerk.io used Tembi to assess markets likeNorway and Sweden, deciding where to prioritise their efforts for maximum growth potential.
“Tembi made qualifying leads less time-consuming, and the time savings alone justified the investment,” said Peter, Head of Marketing at Clerk.io.’
Beyond the technical aspects, Clerk.io found their collaboration with Tembi to be seamless and productive. Peter Tullin, CMO at Clerk concluded: “We’ve been very happy with Tembi. It was a seamless collaboration, and their local Copenhagen office made it even easier to work together.”
embi has secured a €3 million investment from Seed Capital to grow our market intelligence platform and expand our market reach.
The post below is a translation of a news article posted by ITWatch the 5th of December 2024 by journalist Tobias Krog Vind.
Market Intelligence Platform Secures Seed Investment: "We Believe This Will Be the Way Companies Work in the Future"
Tembi has just received a capital injection of DKK 22 million from Seed Capital. This marks only the beginning for the company, which aims to set the agenda for the future of market analysis through AI.
In a rapidly changing market, keeping up with emerging trends can be challenging, especially in a landscape with thousands of businesses and even more products. Forecasting developments adds another layer of complexity.
The Danish market intelligence platform Tembi, however, claims it can provide AI-generated insights tailored to the realities of each individual company.
Using image recognition, language models, and machine learning, Tembi's AI aggregates data from various sources and presents it as market analyses in clear graphs and actionable insights. Customers can manipulate the data and graphs as needed, customising the platform to fit their requirements.
“We enable our customers to predict market movements, helping them stay ahead of their competitors. At the same time, our services also support them in actively leveraging these insights in their strategies and execution,” says Kristian Mørk Puggaard, CEO of Tembi.
For example, Tembi's solution provides insights into trade and logistics patterns within e-commerce and retail, including which webshops and product categories are growing in a given country and which companies are experiencing the most robust growth.
“It’s crucial for a company's success to know what’s happening among competitors and customers within their product group. Our tool makes it easier—and far less resource-intensive—to stay updated,” adds the Tembi CEO.
The two-year-old market intelligence platform, which currently serves 50 customers across 14 European countries, has raised DKK 22 million from Seed Capital in its latest funding round.
According to Kristian Mørk Puggaard, the timing of the investment aligns with Tembi's rapid growth and the opportunities available, but it also requires immediate action to capitalise on them.
“To be the first to dominate this market in Europe, we need to act now. In a few years, I believe everyone will demand a platform like ours. We believe this is the way companies will operate in the future. To ensure we’re the ones delivering it, we want to accelerate our growth now,” he explains.
“It was clear they understand what we are building and the future we’re targeting. It’s vital for us to have partners who ask the challenging questions that push us to rethink what we might otherwise take as established truths,” says Puggaard.
He also highlights Seed Capital's network and strong reputation as decisive factors, enabling Tembi to take its next steps.
The next step for Tembi is to grow its customer base beyond Europe’s borders, which the company plans to achieve within the next two years.
“We aim to be on the radar of all leading companies, not just in Europe but on other continents as well. While we haven’t finalised the exact location, North America seems like a strong candidate,” says Puggaard.
Additionally, Tembi plans to expand its client portfolio, which is currently concentrated in logistics, trade, and real estate.
Given this trajectory, Puggaard anticipates that the company will be ready for another funding round within one to two years.
hen starting a webshop, you have two options: build a custom site from scratch or choose a ready-to-go commerce platform to manage inventory and sell products or services online. Given that webshops have existed since the early days of the internet, there are now numerous providers catering to both entrepreneurs and established businesses.
A variety of commerce platforms power European webshops, from large international providers like Shopify and WooCommerce to smaller local specialists such as Dandomain in Denmark and Voog in Estonia. Larger platforms often offer the benefits of scale, while local providers might offer specialized solutions and compliance with regional regulations that enhance scalability.
Choosing the right platform is not just important for those building webshops, but also for the ecosystem surrounding commerce platforms. Not all plug-ins and solutions are compatible with every framework, and understanding a platform’s market penetration can be a strong indicator of its success and investment in that region.
In this article, we take a deep dive into the most widely used commerce platforms across 10 European markets, examining which solutions are the most popular. It’s likely no surprise that Shopify and WordPress’s open-source WooCommerce plugin dominate, but who are the other key players?
Looking at Switzerland, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia we’ve identified a total of 242.061 active webshops. With over 100.479 webshops, or 32%, Shopify is trailing behind WooCommerce with 9%. Looking at these 10 markets, WooCommerce is today the preferred e-commerce platform with around 129.480 webshops.
The fact that we only identified 6.682 custom-built webshops (2,1% of the dataset), shows just how powerful commerce platforms are today, where both large and small webshops can benefit from the platform's investments in technology and solutions that make it easy, and possible, to operate and grow a business online.
Before diving into the specifics of each market’s platform penetration, let’s quickly explain how we gather and maintain the quality of this data.
Monitoring hundreds of thousands of webshops on an ongoing basis demands a robust validation process to maintain high-quality data. At Tembi, we automatically filter out inactive webshops, businesses in bankruptcy, and webshops not registered as official companies, and we can only to this by actually visiting the webshops and analyze their operations continuously. We’re not B2B lead list generation company per se, but our data is used by many companies to improve sales and help identify business opportunities.
Once the validation process is complete, and we’ve analyized the webshops products, our system categorizes each webshop into a product category and enriches the data with for example website traffic data and company data.
If you're interested in learning more about how our technology works, be sure to check out our article: Insights from every Webshop on the Market
Having looked how the distribution looks over 10 European countries, let’s examine which E-Commerce platforms are popular in each country and see what insights we can uncover into regional preferences and market trends.
In Denmark, we can find a total of 32.720 webshops. We have identified that 13.567 webshops are built using WooCommerce, and 11.703 are built with Shopify. Just as it also shows in the picture of the ten European markets, WooCommerce and Shopify power the majority of the webshops. The remaining 24% (7.450 webshops) utilize various other providers. With 2.164 webshops, Dandomain stands as the third most used platform in Denmark, likely due to its local roots and strong integration with popular hosting services in the country.
Estonia has a total of 8.568 webshops, with WooCommerce as the clear market leader. WooCommerce is used by 5.846 webshops, representing 68% of all Estonian market. In second place, like in most markets, Shopify follows, but with only 9% of the market, totaling 739 webshops. WooCommerce’s strong presence in Estonia gives it the highest market share in the group of the analysed countries. In third place we find the local e-commerce platform, Estonian Voog, powering 570 webshops. Voog offers native language support and is perfect for small to medium-sized companies, which could also explain why WooCommerce owns such a big portion of the market.
The remaining 23% of E-Commerces, without the ones using WooCommerce and Shopify, are built using various other providers (1.983 webshops).
Finland has a total of 15.092 webshops, with WooCommerce and Shopify being the market leaders. 6.953 webshops in Finland use WooCommerce (45% of the Finnish market), while Shopify is used by 4.014 webshops, accounting for a 26% market share.
The remaining 28% (4,125 webshops) utilize various other providers. Notably, 644 webshops (5% of the market) are custom-built, highlighting a segment of businesses opting for fully tailored E-Commerce solution. With a strong tech and design culture, Finnish businesses likely leverage local expertise to create bespoke solutions cater directly to their target market. MyCashFlow, a Finnish E-Commerce Platform, is the third most used one in the country, accounting with 1.327 webshops, a 9% of the total.
There are 4.903 webshops in Latvia. Of this number, 1.841 webshops are built with WooCommerce (37% of Latvian webshops) and 1.201 webshops are built with Shopify (24%). The other 1.861 webshops (38%) use different providers.
Lithuania has a total of 12.077 webshops, with WooCommerce as the most popular platform, powering 6.568 stores, or 55% of the market. Shopify is the second most used (2.198 webshops) making up 18% of Lithuanian online stores. The remaining 26% (3.311 webshops) use various other providers, with PrestaShop ranking third, supporting 1.506 webshops and capturing 12% of the market. As we can see, PrestaShop ranks very closely to Shopify. We see how two Lithuanian E-Commerce platforms, such as Shopiteka and Verskis, are too the most used ones.
The Netherlands have a highly developed E-Commerce market with 81.224 webshops. WooCommerce has by far most clients, powering 38,316 stores, or 46% of all online shops. Shopify follows with 21,534 webshops, accounting for 26% of the market. The remaining 27%, or 21.374 stores, are distributed across various other providers.
Norway has an E-Commerce market with 13.469 webshops. WooCommerce leads the way, powering 5.346 webshops, or 39% of the market. Shopify is a close second, used by 4.931 webshops, making up 36% of the market. The remaining 24%, or 3.192 webshops, utilize various other providers. The competition between Shopify and WooCommerce is tight in Norway, with only 415 webshops more (a 3%) built with the latter. The third one is MyStore, an E-Commerce provider created in Norway.
There are 15.429 webshops in Slovakia. WooCommerce leads the market, powering 6.399 of these webshops, accounting for 41%. Shoptet follows with 3.502 webshops, making up 22% of the market. The remaining 36%, or 5.528 webshops, are built using a variety of other providers. Slovakia’s case is specially interesting, as Shopify is not the second choice. In its place we find Shoptet, a Czech platform that offers marketplace integrations to the Central European market. This can be relevant for companies looking to increase visibility and brand recognition in the region.
Sweden's E-Commerce landscape is strong, with a total of 31.588 webshops. WooCommerce has a solid position on the market, powering 13.293 of these stores, or 39%, showcasing its popularity among Swedish businesses. Shopify isn’t far behind, with 11.354 webshops, making up 34% of the market. The other 6.941 webshops, representing 26%, use a variety of different providers. We find similar data in Norway, the competition between WooCommerce and Shopify is close, with only a 4% market share of difference (roughly 2.000 webshops).
Switzerland is home to 26.991 webshops, with WooCommerce and Shopify leading the market. 12.168 of these webshops are built with WooCommerce (45% market share), making it the most popular E-Commerce platform in the country. Shopify follows closely, with 9.841 webshops, representing 36% of the market. The remaining 19% (4.739 webshops) are built using different providers. Of the most used platforms in Switzerland, only PepperShop is Swiss company.
The data from analyzing 242.061 webshops confirms that WooCommerce and Shopify hold a dominant position, commanding 73% of the market share. Breaking this dominance is no easy task, as it would not only require mass migration but also new solutions that offer greater value than the globally leading commerce platforms.
However, despite the dominance of these major providers, there are still over 80.000 webshops using other frameworks. For instance, with over 15,000 webshops on PrestaShop and more than 13,000 using Magento, there remains a significant opportunity to develop plug-ins and solutions for these platforms.
Whether you're developing plug-ins or building software reliant on specific frameworks, understanding your total addressable market (TAM) is a key indicator of potential and helps determine if an investment is worthwhile. Additionally, knowing how different markets are penetrated provides insights into where to focus future sales and marketing efforts. The more data you have, the better informed your decisions will be.
If you’re interested in more data around the webshops, don’t hesitate to contact us on hello@tembi.io. We are adding more countries continuously so sign up for our newsletter to get the latest updates.
