The e-commerce market category “Food & Beverages” contains the online sale of fresh and packaged foods (excluding baby food), delicacies, and beverages. This market category covers for example the sales of fruit, vegetables, pasta, snacks, sweets, refrigerated products, frozen food, soft drinks, and alcoholic drinks via a digital channel. The most significant competitors for online sales of food and beverages are, at present, the online stores of the large supermarkets and warehouse stores such as walmart.com. Not included in this market category are delivery services of ready-to-eat meals. Market volume, market growth, and all monetary figures at store level refer to the annual eCommerce net sales after the deduction of returns.

The e-commerce market encompasses the sale of physical goods via a digital channel to a private end user (B2C). Incorporated in this definition are purchases via desktop computer (including notebooks and laptops) as well as purchases via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. 

The following are not included in the e-commerce market: marketplace platforms only, digitally distributed services (e.g. travel tickets), online stores dedicated to digital media downloads or streams as well as online stores dedicated to B2B markets nor sales between private persons (C2C). Market volume, market growth and all monetary figures at store level refer to the annual e-commerce net sales after the deduction of returns.

For more information please visit the methodology page on ecommerceDB.com.