Where to enter in 2027? The three marketplaces we check first

Europeans spent €911 billion online last year. This year the figure is set to reach €961 billion, and if the market keeps growing at the same pace, 2027 will be the first year above one trillion euros. Around 70% of cross-border purchases go through marketplaces.

So the question is not whether to sell on marketplaces, but where. There is no universal answer — it depends on your products, prices and margin. But when a new client comes to us, there are three marketplaces we always check first.

Our top 3 in short

• Amazon: Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands. And increasingly the UK and Ireland, where we are seeing a boom across client accounts.
• Allegro: Poland, plus Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary through automatic export.
• Kaufland: Germany, Austria and Czechia.

Which one fits you, and where to start, only shows up once we run the numbers on your products. Bol, eMAG, Cdiscount or Leroy Merlin come in depending on the category.

Where Europe is growing

European e-commerce has added almost €250 billion in five years — from €712 billion in 2021 to €911 billion last year, with €961 billion forecast for this year.

That growth is not spread evenly. Eastern Europe is adding the most (+14% in 2025), followed by the south (+11%). The west is the largest region but grows by only 5%.

And this is how the individual marketplaces are doing:

Four trends that follow from this

1. Marketplaces keep taking a bigger share. At Cdiscount they already make up almost three quarters of sales. At Otto the marketplace grows by 9%, own retail by only 3%.
2. Central and Eastern Europe is catching up. The fastest growth is Allegro outside Poland and Kaufland outside Germany (+124%).
3. Platforms are crossing borders. Kaufland adds new countries every year and Allegro shares offers into four countries. For sellers that means more markets from one account.
4. Cheap goods from Asia have it harder. Since 1 July 2026 a €3 per item duty applies to parcels from outside the EU. Sellers with stock in Europe gain an edge. We covered it in Your Asian competition just got €3 more expensive.

Amazon

Why: Amazon in Germany generated $45.9 billion in 2025 and Amazon.de has 423 million visits a month. No other marketplace in Europe gives you that reach.

Where we look first:

• Germany. Amazon's largest market in Europe, and the base from which you serve the rest of the EU.
• Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Competition is thinner here, and in France and the Netherlands traffic per seller rose by more than 40%.
• The UK and Ireland. This is where we see a real boom right now. The UK is almost as large as Germany ($43.2 billion in 2025) and growing faster. Ireland has had its own Amazon only since March 2025.

Which products: items priced from €15–20 upwards sell best. Below that, consider multipacks — otherwise fees and shipping eat the whole margin.

Case study: when the UK overtakes Germany

Germany is the largest market, but not the best one for everyone. In our experience many European sellers have avoided the UK since Brexit because of customs and UK VAT, which leaves less EU competition there.

That is exactly what we saw with one of our clients, a seller of seasonal home and garden goods. They sell on Amazon in ten countries, and a year ago Germany was clearly their number one. Within a single year that flipped.

Almost tenfold growth in the UK in one year. A market where the client sold six times less than in Germany became their biggest.

• Germany stayed flat. All the growth came from the UK.
• The summer season drove it. From June to August 2026 alone the client took over €640k in the UK, more than half of the full-year UK revenue.
• The UK account has the best account health of all ten countries the client sells in.

What to take from this: the order of countries is not a dogma. If your range competes with dozens of similar offers in Germany, the UK may be the faster route to volume.

Allegro

Why: 75% of Polish internet users visit Allegro and it has 20.9 million active buyers. Outside Poland it is growing 82% year on year.

Where we look first:

• Poland. This is where the volume is.
• Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary through automatic export. Offers are shared from the Polish account, so you are not setting anything up from scratch. In Hungary Allegro is already the leading marketplace, and Allegro.cz grew from 1.7 million visits a month in 2024 to 12.9 million this year.

Which products: Allegro does best with lower-priced products. More expensive goods are harder to sell there, but not impossible — we have clients selling items at €1,000 successfully.

Kaufland

Why: one registration opens several countries at once and there are still only 15,000 sellers on the platform. Revenue in Austria grew 439% against 2024.

Where we look first: Germany, Austria and Czechia. Further countries (Slovakia, Poland, France, Italy, the Netherlands) come in depending on the range. We covered the latest addition in Kaufland opened Spain and the Netherlands.

Which products: both cheap and more expensive goods work. Kaufland is strongest in home and garden, kitchen, DIY and electronics.

Other marketplaces: depending on what you sell

• bol (Netherlands, Belgium): 14 million customers and little foreign competition. Entry is demanding though: bol expects a potential of at least €500,000 in revenue in the first year. Best for established brands.
• eMAG (Romania, Bulgaria): over 1 billion visits a year. Strong in electronics, gaming, drugstore and food supplements.
• Cdiscount (France): the marketplace is growing 12.5%. A logical next channel for anyone already selling on Amazon.fr.
• Leroy Merlin (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland): for home, garden and DIY. In Spain the marketplace grew 53%.

By price: where your product belongs

By category: how we work

There is no universal table saying “category X belongs on marketplace Y”. So with every client we follow the same four steps.

1. We look at demand. How much your category actually sells on each marketplace, and what that is worth in money.
2. We map the competition. Who sells, at what price, and whether a few players dominate or the market is fragmented and open.
3. We calculate the margin on your numbers. After commission, shipping, advertising and returns. It often turns out the same product earns on Amazon but not on Allegro, or the other way round.
4. We propose an order. Where to start, what to add in three months, and what to leave for later.

As a rough guide:

• Electronics: Amazon, Kaufland, eMAG
• Home, garden, DIY: Amazon, Kaufland, Leroy Merlin
• Drugstore, cosmetics, food supplements: Amazon, Allegro, eMAG
• Toys, hobby, sport: Amazon, Allegro

When to start

Entering a new country takes weeks to months. EPR registration and approval on closed platforms take the longest. We covered what an authorised representative for EPR involves separately.

Anyone who wants to sell through all of 2027 — and to have reviews and sales history before Black Friday — should decide this year.

When we will tell you not to do it

When the margin does not work after commission, shipping and returns. When compliance is not sorted even on the markets you already sell in. Or when the catalogue is so small that a new language does not pay for itself. We would rather say it now than have you find out a year later.

Frequently asked questions

Which marketplace is best to enter in 2027?

There is no universal answer. We check Amazon, Allegro and Kaufland first. Where to start is decided by the category, price and margin of your goods.

Is the UK worth it when it is outside the EU?

Often yes. Amazon UK is almost as large as the German one and grows faster. Do budget for UK VAT and your own logistics into Britain.

Can you sell more expensive goods on Allegro?

You can, though it is harder. Allegro does best with lower-priced products, but we have clients selling items at €1,000 there.

Is it worth selling cheap products on Amazon?

Below €15 it is difficult, because fees and shipping eat the margin. Multipacks or sets are usually the answer.

How we know this

Market figures come from the European E-commerce Report 2026 (EuroCommerce and Ecommerce Europe, 22 September 2026) and from CBCommerce TOP 100 Cross-Border Marketplaces Europe (October 2025). Platform figures come from Amazon's 10-K annual report for 2025, Allegro's Q2 2026 results, Kaufland press releases, over.bol.com, Cnova and Casino Group, retail-fmcg.ro and idealista.com. Traffic data from Similarweb 08/2026 and Gemius Mediapanel 05/2026. The €3 duty: Council of the EU, 11 February 2026. The case study is an anonymised account managed by EXPANDO.