According to the results of a survey conducted by The Association of Business and Retail Sales of Greece (H.R.B.A), ELTRUN and the e-commerce laboratory of the Economic University of Athens, Greek digital sales increased by 15-20% for the October-November 2018 period.
The survey showed that there were 7,000 Greek enterprises with online sales channels with take-away food the largest online growth sector.
Consumers were increasingly opting for Greek e-shops using smartphones and tablets but were still using personal computers for their online purchases.
More specifically, the survey showed that a 50 % of respondents used the Internet to book a hotel in the January-September 2018 period, followed by travel services (46 %), takeaway food (43 %), clothing/footwear (42 %), computer equipment (41 %), electronic devices (40 %), e-tickets (39 %), books (37 %), household items (36 %), pharmaceuticals (30 %), personal care (30 %) and insurance (26 %). All these categories showed insignificant changes compared with 2017, with the exception of the takeaway food order category.
Eighty-five % of consumers said that more than 80 % of online purchases were made from Greek e-shops, up from 60 % in 2016. In the nine-month period this year, average online purchases grew 20 % compared with the corresponding period in 2017. The only worrying sign for the outlook of the market is the number of new online purchasers, with only 1.0 % of respondents saying they began online purchases in 2018, 41 % began before 2010 and a 25 % in the last three years. Twenty-five % of total online purchases was made after a visit to retail shops. Debit cards remained the most popular way of payment (64 %), followed by payment on delivery (54 % from 57 % in 2017), credit cards (37 %) and PayPal (33 %).
Consumers used smart phones to access the Internet (93 %), PCs (73 %), desk-top computers (57 %) and tablets (33 %). The main problems facing online buyers are delivery of products and particularly high delivery charges, time of delivery and defective products.