Where are the seller hotspots for eBay Europe?

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Where are the eBay Europe hotspots which are getting the most from selling on the marketplace? And now we know. A new study from eBay looks at where eBay sellers are and what they sell. You can find the full report here.

eBay has looked at regions with the highest concentration of online small and medium size businesses (SMBs) per 10,000 inhabitants in 2016. The data demonstrates that in sharp contrast to many traditional businesses, eBay SMBs thrive outside of capital cities in what they term as ‘seller hotspots’.

In Italy, France and Spain the majority of sellers are in coastal regions, areas often famous for tourism rather than business, enabling seaside locations to enjoy high levels of digital entrepreneurs and enjoy the benefits of eBay Europe.

The top five seller hotspots for eBay SMBs exist outside of the ‘tech hubs’ for the country, as recognised by the European Commission. And in the UK, the so-called North-South divide is not in place for ecommerce as 10 out of the top 15 postcodes for e-business density are located in the north of the country.

Bavaria is the only region in Germany’s top five seller hotspots to house some of the country’s famous automotive companies, with BMW and Audi both headquartered in the state, demonstrating how ecommerce is thriving inside and outside of traditionally industrial areas.

Oliver Prothmann is President of BVOH, the German Federal Association of Online Trade and he noted:

“For European SMBs it is critical to have a platform like eBay as a main sales channel to address the growing eCommerce market. More and more manufacturers and brands are coming up with their own online shops and it can be hard to compete against the large marketing budgets. eBay is a lifeline for SMBs in Europe. We need SMB trade, because these firms bring a variety in products, innovation in sales channels, hire staff and feed a whole supply chain including packaging, logistics and technology. Without SMBs, shopping choices would be black and white – either big brands would offer the consumer the product or you wouldn’t be able to get it.”

2 Responses

  1. Well this is no great surprise. However how is is it critical to have ebay???, There are many more profitable options.
    Coastal regions for example in Spain now have very high unemployment, due to the nature of the Tourism, that has totally changed in the last 10 years out there with the decline of the package holiday and when hotels had guaranteed BED sales. Easy Jet and Ryan Air changed that.
    We have friends who worked in Malaga Airport all year around and now only ever get seasonal work these days, so hence turn to flogging things on ebay and Amazon to pay the rent, as there is nothing else.
    As for us in rural Scotland there is no real opportunities around here so many people have to make their own.

  2. It’s interesting for us we see Northern Ireland as a region that out performs others on eBay. The other interesting dynamic is that we see Eastern Europeans in the UK far out performing the natives.
    Anybody else seeing these trends?

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