By Aijaz Alam
What percentage of EU businesses sell online?
23.59% of EU enterprises with 10 or more staff (employees and self-employed persons) sold online (made e-sales) in 2024, according to Eurostat's 2025 survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises. Size matters: 48.48% of large firms (250+ staff) made e-sales, against 31.67% of medium and 21.38% of small firms. The EU share was 18.93% in 2014.
- 23.59%EU enterprises (10+ staff) that made e-salesEurostat, 2024 sales
- 48.48%Large EU enterprises (250+ staff) that made e-salesEurostat, 2024 sales
- 21.38%Small EU enterprises (10-49 staff) that made e-salesEurostat, 2024 sales
- 19.49%Share of EU enterprises' total turnover from e-salesEurostat, 2024 sales
The numbers
The full breakdown
EU enterprises selling online, by size, 2024
| Firm size | Firms with e-sales | E-sales, % of turnover |
|---|---|---|
| Small (10-49 staff) | 21.38% | 8.65% |
| Medium (50-249 staff) | 31.67% | 15.41% |
| Large (250+ staff) | 48.48% | 24.24% |
| All EU enterprises (10+ staff) | 23.59% | 19.49% |
Eurostat size classes count employees and self-employed persons. Firms with fewer than 10 staff and the financial sector are not covered. About 83% of the 1.53 million enterprises covered are small, so the EU average sits close to the small-firm figure.
Enterprises with e-sales by EU country, 2024
| Country | Firms with e-sales |
|---|---|
| Lithuania | 43.03% |
| Denmark | 38.78% |
| Sweden | 36.72% |
| Ireland | 36.57% |
| Malta | 35.49% |
| Finland | 34.33% |
| Belgium | 31.83% |
| Austria | 29.64% |
| Spain | 28.62% |
| Netherlands | 28.55% |
| Slovenia | 28.26% |
| Czechia | 25.95% |
| Estonia | 25.47% |
| Greece | 24.74% |
| Cyprus | 23.87% |
| Croatia | 23.39% |
| Germany | 23.11% |
| Portugal | 21.81% |
| Hungary | 21.31% |
| Italy | 20.10% |
| Latvia | 19.61% |
| France | 19.44% |
| Slovakia | 19.14% |
| Poland | 18.55% |
| Bulgaria | 16.18% |
| Luxembourg | 14.70% |
| Romania | 14.57% |
Enterprises with 10 or more staff that made any e-sales in 2024 (Eurostat dataset isoc_ec_esels, 2025 survey). EU average 23.59%.
How EU enterprises sell online, 2024
| Measure | Share | Of |
|---|---|---|
| Web sales only (websites or apps) | 17.99% | All enterprises |
| EDI-type sales only | 2.9% | All enterprises |
| Both web and EDI-type sales | 2.7% | All enterprises |
| Web sales via own website or apps | 85.65% | Enterprises with web sales |
| Web sales via an e-commerce marketplace | 45% | Enterprises with web sales |
| Turnover from web sales | 8.39% | Total turnover |
| Turnover from EDI-type sales | 11.07% | Total turnover |
| Turnover from web sales to consumers (B2C) | 4.04% | Total turnover |
| Turnover from web sales to businesses and public authorities | 4.34% | Total turnover |
EDI-type sales are orders sent machine to machine between company systems. Fewer firms use EDI, but it brings in more turnover than web sales. An enterprise can sell through its own site and a marketplace, so those two shares add up to more than 100%.
Over time
EU enterprises with e-sales, by size, 2014 to 2024
| Year of sales | All firms (10+) | Small (10-49) | Medium (50-249) | Large (250+) | E-sales, % of turnover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 18.93% | 16.74% | 27.42% | 41.93% | 16.43% |
| 2015 | 20.25% | 18.31% | 27.57% | 41.66% | 15.75% |
| 2016 | 20.07% | 17.85% | 28.68% | 43.26% | 18.40% |
| 2017 | 19.18% | 16.97% | 27.65% | 41.95% | 17.17% |
| 2018 | 19.72% | 17.65% | 27.36% | 42.31% | 18.06% |
| 2019 | 21.04% | 19.00% | 28.66% | 43.32% | 19.83% |
| 2020 | 22.34% | 20.44% | 29.25% | 44.41% | 19.77% |
| 2021 | 22.83% | 20.86% | 29.96% | 44.16% | 17.62% |
| 2022 | 22.91% | 20.84% | 30.28% | 45.95% | 18.29% |
| 2023 | 23.83% | 21.88% | 30.51% | 46.45% | 19.13% |
| 2024 | 23.59% | 21.38% | 31.67% | 48.48% | 19.49% |
Eurostat datasets isoc_ec_esels (enterprises with e-commerce sales) and isoc_ec_evals (total turnover from e-commerce sales), EU27 from 2020, as published on 15 Jun 2026. The database is organised by survey year; each survey asks about sales in the previous calendar year, so the 2025 survey gives 2024 sales. The 2014 and 2024 values match Eurostat's Statistics Explained article.
Why sources differ
Same question, different answers
| Number | When | Who measured | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.59% | 2024 | Eurostat | Enterprises with any e-sales (web or EDI), 10+ staff |
| 20.26% | 2024 | Eurostat | Only enterprises whose e-sales were at least 1% of turnover |
| 20.69% | 2024 | Eurostat | Only web sales (websites, apps or marketplaces), leaving out EDI-only sellers |
| 21.38% | 2024 | Eurostat | Small enterprises (10-49 staff) only |
| 19.49% | 2024 | Eurostat | Share of turnover from e-sales, not a share of firms |
Every figure here comes from the same Eurostat survey, so the differences come from definitions, not from different samples. The headline 23.59% counts any enterprise with 10 or more staff that received at least one order over a website, app, marketplace or EDI link in 2024. Eurostat also publishes a stricter indicator that counts only firms whose e-sales were at least 1% of turnover, which gives 20.26%. Counting web sales alone gives 20.69%, because a few firms sell only through EDI messages between company systems. The 19.49% you may see quoted is a different thing: the share of total turnover that came from e-sales, not the share of firms selling online. None of these figures cover firms with fewer than 10 staff, the self-employed working alone, or the financial sector, so they say little about micro-businesses. Eurostat's database also labels each value by survey year, one year after the sales took place, so the same 23.59% can appear as 2025 in a table and 2024 in an article. Say which measure, which size class and which year you mean.
What it means
How to use these numbers
Selling online is still a minority activity for European businesses. About one EU enterprise in four (23.59%) made e-sales in 2024, up from 18.93% in 2014, a rise of under five points in ten years.
Size is the main divide. Nearly half of large firms (48.48%) sell online, against about one small firm in five (21.38%), and e-sales make up 24.24% of large firms' turnover but only 8.65% of small firms'. Country matters too: 43.03% of enterprises in Lithuania made e-sales, against 14.57% in Romania and 14.70% in Luxembourg.
For a small business, these numbers show there is room to stand out by taking orders online, usually through its own website or a marketplace. For exporters selling to European companies, they show that many buyers still order the old way, and that large B2B customers often order through EDI links rather than web shops.
Method and sources
How it was measured
Method
- Publisher
- Eurostat, survey on ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises (2025 survey, Statistics Explained article 'E-commerce statistics' and datasets isoc_ec_esels, isoc_ec_evals)
- Sample
- About 157,000 enterprises surveyed in 2025 by national statistical offices, out of 1.53 million EU enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons
- Coverage
- Manufacturing, utilities, construction, trade, transport, accommodation and food, information and communication, real estate, professional and administrative services; financial sector, agriculture and mining excluded
- Definition
- E-sales: orders for goods or services received over websites, apps, e-commerce marketplaces or EDI-type messages, in the calendar year before the survey
- Checked at source
- 31 Oct 2026: Statistics Explained article (data extracted February 2026) and the Eurostat API for isoc_ec_esels and isoc_ec_evals (updated 15 Jun 2026)
- Next release
- Eurostat plans the next article update for February 2027 (2025 sales)
- Last changed
- 31 Oct 2026
- Data files
- CSV · JSON (stable links)
Sources
- ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises, Eurostat Official data
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FAQ
More questions people ask
Which EU country has the most businesses selling online?
Lithuania, where 43.03% of enterprises with 10 or more staff made e-sales in 2024, followed by Denmark (38.78%), Sweden (36.72%) and Ireland (36.57%). Romania (14.57%) and Luxembourg (14.70%) had the lowest shares.
Do EU businesses sell more through their own website or through marketplaces?
Their own website or apps. In 2024, 85.65% of EU enterprises with web sales used their own site or apps and 45% used an e-commerce marketplace; own sites brought in 7.08% of total turnover, marketplaces 1.30%.
Do EU businesses sell online more to consumers or to other businesses?
By value, slightly more to businesses: web sales to other enterprises and public authorities were 4.34% of total turnover in 2024, against 4.04% from web sales to consumers.
Are micro-businesses included?
No. The headline figures cover enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons, and leave out the financial sector.
Every number on this page was checked at its original source (Eurostat). Free to cite with a link to this page.