Dutch consumer spends more on holidays online than ever in 2023

Dutch consumers spent €34.7 billion online in 2023, up 3% on 2022. The number of online purchases increased by 1% to 365 million. The online growth comes mainly from spending on holidays and tickets for attractions and events. Notable is the online cross-border growth: cross-border spending increased by 13% and the number of purchases by 17%. This is according to the latest figures in the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor , the research into online consumer spending in the Netherlands. This research is conducted by GfK, commissioned by Thuiswinkel.org and Retail Insiders, in cooperation with PostNL, Currence and Betaalvereniging Nederland.

Online spending on travel and events higher than ever

Online growth is explained by the purchase of services. The number of online purchases in the services sector increased by 4% and online spending by as much as 10%. There was also a slight shift from physical to online ( 1%). Online purchases and spending on products remained almost the same. Marlene ten Ham, director of Thuiswinkel.org says: “The growth in the services sector is mainly due to online spending on travel. In 2023, for instance, we spent 21% more online on package holidays and 15% more on individual airline tickets and accommodation. This is more than ever before. This is of course due to inflation, but earlier the ANVR/GfK booking monitor also showed that 2023 saw the most holiday bookings ever. We also never before spent so much online on tickets for attractions and events, with a 10% growth.”

Online cross-border grows, biggest growth from China

Online cross-border spending is up 13% compared to 2022, and now amounts to almost €4 billion. The number of online cross-border purchases shows an even stronger growth of 17%, accounting for 40 million purchases. Dutch consumers now spend 12% of their total online spending cross-border. Germany is number one, with a quarter of online cross-border spending going to our eastern neighbours. China shows the biggest increase, both in spending (from 5% to 7% in share, accounting for €265 million of spending) and in number of purchases (from 18% to 22% in share, accounting for 8.9 million purchases). Categories often bought online from Chinese webshops include DIY/Garden, Home & Living and Clothing. Marlene ten Ham: “In the previous two years, we actually saw spending by Dutch consumers at Chinese online shops decrease, as they are no longer exempt from VAT since 2021. In 2023, we see a big increase. Also to other countries outside the EU, we see online spending increasing.”

Most purchases via desktop/laptop; iDEAL increases share

About half of all online purchases in 2023 were made via desktops/laptops. This share is stable compared to 2022. Smartphone use increased again (from 33% to 35%), but the rapid growth of recent years seems to be slowing down slightly. Whereas in recent years the increased use of smartphones has mainly been at the expense of the use of desktops or laptops, in 2023 it has mainly been at the expense of the use of tablets.

iDEAL is still by far the most used for paying for online purchases, followed at a distance by credit cards. In 2023, the share of iDEAL in the total number of online purchases rose slightly again from 70% to 72%. The share of credit cards is stable at 8%. iDEAL is not only used most often on Dutch websites but also cross-border. There, however, the share is much lower at 51%. Credit card use is actually higher cross-border at 25%. Both the share of iDEAL and credit cards increased cross-border in 2023 (both 3%), mainly at the expense of PayPal.

View the infographic of the Home Shopping Market Monitor 2023…