Retail e-commerce continues to grow in the largest Western European economies, although smaller countries are likely to take market share from them in the coming years.

160.6 million European Internet users visited online retail sites in the month of October 2007, an increase of 5% over October 2006, according to comScore World Metrix.

"The fact that the online retail market now covers 70% of the European internet population and is still growing is impressive," said Bob Ivins, executive vice president of comScore, in a statement.

"The stronger than average growth rates in the UK and France portend a healthy Christmas shopping season there," Mr. Ivins said.



The variety of projections on the future of European B2C e-commerce sales widens as the forecast horizon lengthens.

eMarketer's 2010 forecast is more bullish than Forrester Research's but less positive than Deutsche Bank's. Divergent outlooks are not unusual given the complexity of forecasting macroeconomic trends and e-commerce growth for groups of markets around the world.



"Between 2006 and 2011, second-tier markets such as Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden will drive European B2C e-commerce sales growth," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"Among the major European economies, the UK, and to a lesser extent Germany, will lose share, while France's position will be enhanced by about one percentage point," Mr. Grau said.