European business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales totaled 106 billion euros ($133 billion) in 2006 and will grow at an annual growth rate of 25 percent over the next 5 years, tripling in amount to reach nearly 323 billion euros ($407 billion), according to eMarketer (via MarketingCharts). The European e-commerce market is forecast to reach $197 million this year - a growth of 37 percent - after which market growth is expected to gradually decelerate, reaching 16 percent growth in the fifth year of the forecast (2011).

The European market is far from uniform, according to "European B2C E-Commerce: Spotlight on the UK, Germany and France." The three countries in the title together now account for 72 percent of Europe's online sales:

• The UK is by far the largest of the three major markets, with projected 2007 sales of 42 billion pounds ($84 billion) and is on track to grow 39 percent this year.
• Germany, however, has the most online buyers, with 27.2 million, but produces less than half the online sales volume of the UK.
• France, in turn, produces less than half Germany's e-commerce sales volume and has 14.5 million online buyers.
• On average, German and French buyers are spending considerably less online per person than their UK counterparts.

The first European e-commerce wave began with the UK, Germany and France, and the next wave, over the next four years, will begin in smaller markets - Italy, the Netherlands and Spain - eMarketer forecasts.

The third wave will follow early in the next decade, as Eastern European states - Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic - begin to embrace e-commerce, it said.