This was reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on the new figures. Growth was much lower for both European and Dutch internet sellers compared to previous quarters. Not entirely unexpected as stores in most countries reopen in the spring.

Since 2014, Dutch consumers have spent more each quarter in European online stores than in the same period the previous year. This spending has witnessed a sharp increase, especially since the outbreak of the Corona crisis. In 2020, quarterly growth peaked at more than 38 percent, and in the first three months of 2021, a record growth of around 64 percent was achieved. After a full year of Corona, growth in the second quarter of 2021 was for the first time compared to the years before the crisis.

In the second quarter of 2021, the sales volume of Dutch internet sellers was more than 16 percent higher than in the same period the previous year. This percentage is also much lower than in previous Corona quarters. In the first quarter of 2021, a record growth of nearly 85 percent was achieved. The sales volume of Dutch Internet sellers includes sales to both Dutch and foreign consumers.

With regard to Dutch internet sellers, a distinction can be made between pure web stores and multi-channel, which sells online and through retail stores. Pure online stores generated more than 15 percent in the second quarter of 2021, while the multi-channel online trading rate was 18 percent higher than the previous year. Multi-channel companies in particular have seen a sharp rise in their internet turnover since the Corona crisis. In the first quarter of 2021, online sales were more than double what they were in the previous year.

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