The first European Consumer Retail Returns Survey examines how consumers across the continent are experiencing and reacting to increasingly stringent returns policies. Notably, the findings reveal the importance that most consumers place on returns policies, with 61% of those surveyed acknowledging that a lenient returns policy significantly or moderately influences their buying decisions. A majority of respondents also stated that tighter returns policies deterred them from making purchases.

The majority of shoppers (63%) will abandon shopping carts after a maximum of two purchase attempts. The Applause survey was distributed in two parts, first in November 2024 on general holiday shopping plans and experiences, and second in December 2024 regarding respondents’ actual shopping experiences between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The survey found that despite continuing concerns around inflation and financial instability, consumers plan to spend more this year — though they are planning to spend smarter by paying more attention to sales and discounts. They are also becoming increasingly intolerant of poor purchasing experiences, prioritizing seamless checkout, ease-of-use and convenience.

Drawing on data from over 600 UK SME decision makers and 2000 UK consumers, Trustpilot’s new research* highlights how online reviews deliver benefits to both businesses and consumers, and help drive UK growth. With the UK government focused on boosting productivity, developing skills, and creating jobs to strengthen the UK’s economic foundations and prosperity, tech is an important catalyst.

Adopting digital tools like online review platforms across all sectors of the economy will be key to creating and sustaining a vibrant marketplace, helping to fulfil the Government’s growth ambitions.

Building on the previous three years reports into the burgeoning and blossoming European marketplace sector, the ChannelX Europe’s Marketplaces 2024 report takes a performance led approach to analysing the market across Europe. Outlining the overall performance of the sector across Europe, the report assesses how marketplace trading as a whole has changed since 2023, focussing on both the sectors using marketplaces and the regions where marketplace use has changed.

The global economy surprised to the upside in 2024. In the past year, inflation has fallen sharply in major industrial economies, labor markets have remained tight, real wages have risen, and economies have continued to grow—especially within an unusually resilient US economy.⁸ Heading into 2025, it is likely that the often hoped-for and rarely seen soft-landing will appear. That is, economic growth will likely continue and could include inflation easing further, central banks continuing to reduce interest rates, and financial market conditions improving.

While talking with C-level decision-makers and loyalty professionals — or holding presentations about our annual Global Customer Loyalty Report — I’m often asked: “These numbers sound great, but do you have anything for Denmark? Or Australia?” We have always aimed to extract geographical findings, but this year we have outdone ourselves: t he GCLR 2025 has over 500 regional statistics about AI, consumer preferences, and loyalty program ROI… just to name a few. Curious about what trends we found for your industry? Read on!

Europe’s consumer packaged goods industry players must achieve and scale commercial excellence to secure revenue, margin, and market share growth. Top CPG performers outcompete in four best-practice areas. In today’s highly fragmented and rapidly evolving retail environment, consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry companies must scale commercial excellence to outperform their peers, leading their categories in execution and advanced capabilities to grow revenue and market share.

The “Market Guide E-commerce in Portugal” outlines significant growth in Portugal’s e-commerce sector, contributing about 3% to the GDP. Despite a brief dip in revenues from $5.1 billion in 2021 to $4.5 billion in 2022 due to the end of lockdowns, the market is expected to grow at a 10% CAGR through 2026. Growth is driven by higher incomes, government investments in digital infrastructure, and consumer shifts towards online shopping for its convenience. Mobile and social commerce have notably increased. E-wallets, particularly MB Way, are the preferred payment methods. The report highlights the potential of Portugal’s e-commerce market for merchants, emphasizing the importance of understanding local consumer preferences.