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Social media users in select countries (US, UK, Australia, France, and Saudi Arabia) trust brands over influencers when it comes to finance, apparel, and skincare, per an October study from Snap Inc. and IPG Magna. Finance is where this trend is most pronounced.

In France and the UK, digital is the majority media and has been for some time—since 2022 in France and 2016 in the UK. Digital advertising’s appeal is growing rapidly. Eyeballs still remain in traditional media, but legacy platforms will struggle to improve revenues as digital takes hold.

The news: Klarna is available as a payment option on eBay across Europe, rolling out in the UK, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands after a pilot in Germany, per a press release. eBay shoppers will be able to pay using Klarna’s Pay in 3, Pay in 30, or big-ticket Financing option.

The UK, Germany, Russia, and France remain the core European markets for ecommerce. The top 10 countries for retail ecommerce sales in Europe largely correlate to population size, with the notable exceptions of Russia underindexing and the UK heavily overindexing. Norway also overperforms, although on a much smaller scale.

In Western European markets where we forecast users (France, Germany, Spain, and the UK), their penetration rates as a proportion of social network users are ahead of X’s. In the three-speed market, they’re closer to Snapchat and TikTok than they are to X.

Since 2019, the percentage point increases in ownership have been significant in the US (up 19.1 points to 62.2%), UK (up 19.0 points to 64.1%), Canada (up 18.0 points to 57.3%), France (up 16.5 points to 44.4%), Germany (up 13.4 points to 60.5%), China (up 6.2 points to 47.9%), and Brazil (up 15.0 points to 71.5%).

The momentum was sustained in 2024 as France hosted the Olympics, with 9.6% growth (three times the global average) and total sales of $28.30 billion. Luxury sales in France will continue to track slightly above worldwide rates through 2028. India is poised for double-digit growth. The world’s most populous country accounts for just 2% of global luxury sales, according to Barclays estimates.

For example, its debut Super Bowl ad showed America struggling to find an adequate gift for France after receiving the Statue of Liberty. As consumers prioritized discounts this year, Etsy tried returning to its roots as a marketplace for homemade and handmade items with a notable campaign featuring the character Waldo of "Where's Waldo" fame.

Ranking as the fifth-fastest-growing digital ad spend nation worldwide, it leads European counterparts France, Italy, Germany, and the UK, according to our forecast. And although it captures only 0.6% of the global digital ad pie, Spain’s momentum signals a market ripe for expansion, with an eye on a greater international presence. Click here to view our full forecast for digital ad spending.

Wero is also live in Germany and France. It will launch in the Netherlands and Luxembourg soon. Why it matters: EPI is a coalition of major European banks, credit institutions, and other payments firms developing a unified, real-time payments system throughout Europe to challenge US-based players like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal.

In 2023, the shopping app topped the mobile download charts in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK, per a January 2024 report by Data.ai. It’s also among the top five retailers ranked by monthly visits in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, per Similarweb. Temu is outperforming its China-based rivals on several metrics.

In 2024, the UK will still be second only to China (50.1%) in terms of ecommerce penetration, significantly ahead of the US (16.2%), France (10.0%), Germany (8.6%), Spain (10.7%), and Italy (5.9%). Most growth in digital buying is coming from seniors and Gen Z. The number of digital buyers ages 65 and older is rising fast.

By the end of the year, Amazon will have transitioned most of its OTT viewers to an ad-supported subscription tier in the US, Canada, Germany, the UK, France, Mexico, and several other major markets. This will drive standout growth for Amazon in 2024 and buttress 2025 as well, as the initiative expands and matures in more countries. Behind the Numbers.

In our exclusive survey with ESW, data from shoppers in 18 countries reveals new twists in the path to purchase, the rising momentum of marketplaces, and the resilience of age-old fundamentals.