E-commerce developments

According to a consumer survey by the European Union’s statistical office Eurostat, the percentage of individuals who made purchases over the internet has, on average, more than doubled from 20% to 43% between 2004 and 2011.

Even though according to this survey the trend is general in all countries except France, data by country shows strong disparities across Europe. Northern and Western markets show a much higher penetration of e-commerce. With percentages above 70%, Norway, the UK and Sweden are the leading European countries. At the other extreme of the range, Southern and Eastern European countries show levels below 10%.

The 2015 tragets set by the European Commission in its "Digital Agenda for Europe" are:

• regular internet use should increase from 60% to 75% by 2015 and from 41% to 60% for disadvantaged people;
• the proportion of population that has never used the internet should come down to 15%;
• 50% of the population should be buying online and 20% of the population should buy cross border online.

Films, music, books and software are the types of goods which are ordered most frequently over the internet in Europe. Eurostat data show that the percentage of individuals having bought this type of goods has increased by 9 points compared between 2005 and 2010. This first place is also related to the fact that this category is rather broad. The ranking would not be the same if each item were taken separately. In second and third place, holidays and clothes are the items most sold over the internet with 21% and 19% of individuals respectively having reported that they bought these items over the internet in 2010.

We are reforming our data collection system. More data will soon be available.