The Dutch made more online purchases last year than in the previous year. The online growth is mainly due to spending on holidays and tickets for attractions and events. Online spending on travel was higher than ever. This is evident from new figures from the Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, a study of online consumer spending in the Netherlands. The study was carried out by GfK on behalf of Thuiswinkel.org and Retail Insiders, in collaboration with PostNL, the Dutch Payments Association and Currence. Dutch consumers spent 34.7 billion euros online in 2023, a growth of three percent compared to a year earlier. The number of online purchases rose by 1 percent to 365 million. The online services sector in particular showed great growth. “The growth in the service sector is mainly due to online spending on travel,” says Marlene ten Ham, director of Thuiswinkel.org, the interest group for webshops. ‘In 2023, for example, we spent around 21 percent more online on package holidays and 15 percent more on individual airline tickets and accommodations. This is more than ever before. Of course, this has to do with inflation, but the ANVR/GfK booking monitor previously showed that the most holiday bookings were ever made in 2023. We also never spent so much online on tickets for attractions and events, with a growth of 10 percent.’ With a turnover of 4.9 billion euros, individual airline tickets and accommodations are the largest online sector, followed by food/near-food with 4.3 billion euros and insurance with 3.2 billion. (Photo Shutterstock).
