A report, Consumer Behaviour In A Digital Environment, has been released showing that EU consumers buying goods online has doubled from 20% in 2005 to 40% in 2010.
In Ireland, consumers shop more from websites in other member 
states than from domestic websites. In fact, the Irish are the 6th most likely to engage in cross border online shopping in the EU.
However this growth has mainly come from countries where e-commerce was already widespread and shoppers in Southern and Eastern Europe remain much less likely to buy online according to the study.
Despite the increase in online shopping, most consumers still focus on their home market with an average of only 23% making purchases from a seller based in another EU country. However, this figures hides big differences, with more than 90% of Maltese shoppers buying from another member state, while at the other end of the scale less than 10% of Polish shoppers buy abroad.
The most popular purchases made online were clothes and travel services.
Related posts: