2020 was a big year for e-commerce in Europe: last year, the total value of online commerce was estimated at € 717 billion, an increase of 12.7% on the previous year. compared to. This hefty figure comes from the report by Ecommerce Europe Europe 2020: Ecommerce Region Report, one of Europe’s most prestigious trade organizations, which shows that Western Europe continues to be at the forefront of e-commerce, accounting for 70% of all European online commerce. but the eastern half of Europe is not ashamed either, as the biggest growth is in our region.
Online also in Hungary
According to the report, last year in Romania, Bulgaria and the volume of e-commerce in Hungary also increased by around 30 percent. The lowest increases were in Belgium (7%), Ireland (7%), Austria (4%) and Ireland (3%).
The proportion of online shoppers was highest in the United Kingdom (94%). ), but Denmark (86 per cent), Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden (84 to 84 per cent) are also high on the list. In Hungary, according to the report, about half of the population bought online, which puts the country in the middle.
The Ecommerce Region Report also analyzes that how much shoppers in each country like domestic and foreign online stores. According to statistics, the Dutch are the most loyal: 95 percent of them prefer domestic stores, but they are almost as attached to domestic online stores in Poland (94 percent). In small countries, on the other hand, the opposite is true: in Malta and Cyprus, 96% and 95% of online shoppers buy only abroad, respectively. In Hungary, four-fifths of purchases were made to a domestically registered website
Lasting aftermath
E-commerce was the last straw in the first wave of the epidemic for many traditional shops, which were forced to close during quarantine, so Ecommerce Europe at the end of 2020 also looked at the changes that the pandemic had brought to European e-commerce. Researchers contacted European e-commerce organizations and received answers to their questions from 19. (However, the comparison is complicated by the fact that some countries did not follow the same rules at the time of the outbreak. In Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Romania and Sweden, traditional shops could still be open, in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Greece, In Italy, Poland and Hungary, only shops selling vital goods could resell, while in Austria, France and Ireland only those that closed areas where non-essential goods were sold, and in the Netherlands, traditional shops were virtually completely closed down.) responses showed that the expansion of the e-commerce sector was welcomed almost everywhere, and although they were initially concerned in traditional stores that they would not be completely stifled by this form of operation, they soon realized that if they wanted to survive the crisis, they too they must change
However, it is noteworthy that not all e-commerce segments were able to benefit from closures. Online sales of travel and tickets, for example, fell by 40 to 70 percent. Overall, however, most respondents are optimistic about the future and expect e-commerce to continue to grow and become dominant in our region over time.
Not just for those in their twenties
Data from Germany may be of particular interest in drawing the trend in European e-commerce. The total value of German e-commerce kicked in at € 83.3 billion in 2020, an increase of 14.6 per cent compared to 2019 and exceeding the 11.3 per cent increase in the previous three years – a surplus clearly due to the epidemic and quarantine.
Last year, German households spent 1 out of € 8 on goods bought online. And while drugstores, grocery stores, and pharmacies may have been open in Germany, even here, there was a noticeable increase in consumer sentiment. One-third of online shoppers were over the age of 60 – a year ago, this group was still less than 25 percent present in online commerce. Customer activity has also increased, with 40% of online consumers ordering from the internet more than once a week
The coronavirus epidemic has greatly accelerated the transition to online sales. Merchants have responded quickly, and today it seems certain that change is irreversible: in the future, e-commerce will be the starting point for all kinds of shopping, and malls and retailers need to add value to their customers with digital tools. Like it, don’t like it, it’s the future!
That’s how it’s done in Africa
But it’s not just the old continent and the regions of the world that are thought to be “developed” e-commerce: the Covid epidemic has also brought about radical change in Africa and given a huge boost to the advancement of e-commerce. In Senegal, for example, the development of online commerce has been taken over by the state and a public e-commerce platform has been set up for traders wishing to join the project.
Although no general quarantine was introduced in the country, the borders were closed and, like in Hungary, everyone had to wear a mask on public transport and in shops and public institutions.
Senegal The Ministry of Commerce has responded to the epidemic with exemplary speed worldwide and has set up an e-commerce platform called E-commerce Covid, through which consumers can easily access food, sanitation and health products for small and medium-sized businesses. In the short term, they sought to reduce the number of physical contacts and, in the longer term, to lay the groundwork for the further development of online commerce.
The government has also embarked on a vigorous development of an ecosystem that favors e-commerce and local products. The declared goal of the Ministry of Commerce is to divert traditional business to the Internet and encourage companies that provide payment, commercial or logistics services to connect to the platform, and within a few years to develop a national network of e-commerce operators and business users.
However, the creation of technical conditions is not enough to achieve the ambitious goals: according to the leaders of the program, and this clearly goes beyond Senegal, market players need to change from a purely competitive mentality to a cooperative model, and
In addition to the e-commerce platform, the Senegalese Ministry of Commerce has developed an online platform to monitor the availability of stocks of essential food. . The state’s room for maneuver has been enhanced by the intensive development of e-commerce and the Internet in Senegal years earlier, and the creation of the right legal environment for the secure operation of e-commerce by regulating the protection of personal data
Based on the stability of the network infrastructure, the availability of online payment solutions and the regulation of data sovereignty issues, the country is now quite close to becoming cloud-capable. Senegal’s “cloud readiness” is in the two-tier rating system of Xalam Analitics; only three countries, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa, reach the highest levels in Africa
We went in to drugstores
In Hungary – according to a survey by Reacty Digital and LogiNet – online demand for drugstores and household goods increased significantly, but last year more people ordered health and well-being products online , as before. “Order your homeland” proved to be a motivation for us as well: more than half of the respondents ordered a Hungarian product at least once in the second half of 2020.
According to the research, online shopping is not remains monopolistic. A lot of people are waiting to buy shops, department stores again, without restrictions; half of those surveyed will shop online and offline after the epidemic subsides, one-third will prefer to shop, 16 percent will prefer to shop online, but more and more will be preparing for online discovery before visiting the store, so AR, voice-controlled and personalized
Our article appeared in the issue of Computerworld magazine on March 10, 2021 (Volume LII, No. 5).
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