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I was really surprised yesterday to read in one of the major Bulgarian business newspapers that only 4% of the Bulgarian citizens use internet to buy goods. Even if I haven’t made it yet, the low ratio of e-commerce in my country was such a shock. Then I took a look at the other stats and saw a huge gap between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ members of the Union. In fact the Scandinavians trade over the net about 30 times more than users in Romania, for example.
Here are some raw statistics from the official ‘Report on cross-border e-commerce in the EU’:
“In the UK in 2008, 57% of individuals had ordered goods or services over the internet for private use in the last year. In Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands the corresponding figure was also over 50%. In the two newest Member States, Bulgaria and Romania, however, the figure was respectively 3% and 4%. Estonia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Portugal saw around 10% of individuals purchasing online for private use in 2008.
According to the Fédération du e-commerce et de la vente à distance (FEVAD), 66% of internet users in France have made a purchase online. In Germany in 2007, 58.3% of individuals who had used the internet in the previous three months shopped online occasionally or frequently. In the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland), 91% of internet users had traded over the internet in the previous six months.”
I was wondering what were the reasons for the huge differences. Lack of trust? The financial crisis? Bad experience? Probably all f the above. So “Brussels, we have a problem!” I don’t know about the differences between Estonian and German bloggers for example, but obviously there is a gap between the Estonian and German e-consumers.
My personal reasons not to trade over internet are simple. I’m not sure if someone wouldn’t use my personal data to empty my bank account. Or whether the purchased product will be good enough as described. And according to researches, it is the same with many of the users around the EU.
But how could this be changed. There are now some new steps in order to smooth over the problem. According to an official statement of the leading world international law organization DLA Piper, the Belgian office of the company has been selected by the European Commission to undertake a study reviewing the European legal framework for online services, to assess its gaps, future readiness and implementation hurdles. It also appears that new revised E-commerce Directive is expected to be launched in October 2009.
Not quite sure if that Directive would enforce I-net users to buy more goods online. I’m still not paying if travel cost remain half of the price of my purchase. Well, I could keep using torrent trackers to save money from audio-visual products to buy some books via Amazon but you must agree that E-commerce should lighten things, not make it harder.
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