April, 2014

Retail and wholesale: key sectors for the

European economy

A significant and diverse sector 5.5 mio firms 22% of all European private sector enterprises

99.9% are small or medium-sized businesses

30% of all European SMEs

€8.3 tn turnover

20% more sales than manufacturing

7 x more sales than information & communications

3 x more sales than construction

€350 bn in ecommerce sales

27% of all global retail online sales

18% consumers shop across borders

€17 bn in mobile channel sales

Sources: Enterprise, sales, employment & training and value added data – Eurostat. Online sales estimates – EMOTA, Euromonitor. Mobile channel sales estimates, Ecommerce Europe. Cross-border online consumer data – Eurostat. International retail sales estimates – Deloitte.

A significant and diverse employer 29 mio jobs (18.6 mio Retail – 10.4 mio Wholesale)

13% of all employment (± 1 in 7 jobs)

20% of all 15-24 year-olds work in retail or wholesale Employment in retail & wholesale 4 x Information & communication 5 x Finance 6 x Food industry 12 x Automotive

25 x Chemical industry

More than Agriculture

2/3 employed in SMEs

63% firms undertake vocational training

2 mio jobs in/directly from online retail

A significant & diverse contributor of value €1 tn in added value

€871 bn in demand from other sectors (excl sales)

5 out of top 10 global retailers are European

Summarising the contribution