Of the 10,000 online shops started up in the Netherlands in 2013, only 6,700 are still active, the Financieele Dagblad says on Monday.

Most of the online retailers have closed down because they are not profitable rather than because of bankruptcy, the paper says. It bases the story on research carried out on its behalf by Creditsafe.

Patrick Kerssemakers, founder of online retailer Fonq.nl, told the FD web shops need a turnover of at least €1m to ensure an income of around €35,000.

Online retailing requires advertising and logistics as well as running a website, he said. Customer service is also crucial.

Sector organisation Thuiswinkel.org estimates more than half the 45,000 Dutch webshops have turnover below €100,000.

According to Shopping2020, four out of five webshops are run from home and in 53% of cases, the owner does another job as well.