Santa Claus is coming to town with the accompaniment of jingle bells… We are sure you know such festive season songs very well… and sometimes you even get sick and tired of them, when you hunt for Christmas gifts. Obviously, not everyone likes to spend their time in shopping malls, but cheer up… there is an alternative – online shopping! The Free Shipping Day, a concept which came to Europe from the US, and is adapted by many e-stores in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Poland, can surely encourage to shop online. But is it enough to make internet purchase a custom for Santa?
When Poland celebrated the Free Shipping Day on 30th of November this year, over 1.8 thousand local online shops took part in this consumer-oriented action. This results is impressive, especially if we know that 2.6 thousand merchants participated in its American counterpart that is being held since 2007. We don’t know the exact amount of the money spent online that day in Poland, but in the US, in just three years, Free Shipping Day has managed to dethrone the king of all holiday shopping events: Black Friday. OK, we know Americans love e-shopping, but what is the overall attitude of CEE internet users towards buying online?
The results of Gemius and IIBR studies show that the number of Polish internet users who do their shopping online is rising year on year. In 2008, 66% of internet users bought something online, one year later it was 67%, to finally reach 74% in 2010. According to the research conducted in other CEE countries, internet users in Slovakia and Czech Republic are even more interested in buying online then those in Poland. 84 % of Czech web users declare they visit and buy in e-shops, in Slovakia the respective amount is 82%. In Ukraine this share is lower, but also rises every year, amounting to 52% of internet users in 2011. How often do internet users visit online shops? Those very Gemius studies’ results show that 43% of the Polish users buy online a few times a year, and 13% even a few times a month. We can be more than sure that such a share increases significantly in the Holiday season.
Why do we prefer online shopping? Is this smart method of avoiding the crowds in shopping malls the only reason of the rise in e-shops popularity? No! It seems like many of us care the most about saving… time! – one of the most precious goods nowadays. Over a half of Polish internet users pointed at such feature of online shopping as its main advantage. Other benefits they mentioned were: saving money (50%), availability of goods which are difficult to find in traditional shops (45%) and sales, discounts and contests for customers (27%). The latter feature was less popular among Czech internet users (4%), Slovakian (3%) and Ukrainian (11%). The internet users from these three countries, prefer to do shopping online mainly because of the possibility of saving money.
Figure 1. Motivations for buying online. Source: Gemius/IIBR ‘E-commerce as seen by the internet users’; Poland 2010, the Czech Republic 2010, Slovakia 2010; Ukraine 2011 Percentage base: online stores customers (Poland n= 776; the Czech Republic n=1396, Slovakia n=1164, Ukraine n=739)
Where internet users prefer to buy? – in online shops or on web auction services? Polish internet users prefer to visit auction services such as for example Allegro.pl. As many as 80% of online buyers declared to visit such sites, while e-shops were indicated by 68% of those who admit to buy on the Web. Interestingly,60% of e-clients declare to know and use price comparison engines, which are the most popular tools supporting online shopping. The most recent trend, group-buying services such as Groupon, are said to be used by 16% of internet shoppers. Internet users from other CEE countries, where Gemius‘ e-commerce studies were conducted prefer to visit online shops rather than take part in online auctions.
Figure 2. Popularity of online shops Source: Gemius/IIBR ‘E-commerce as seen by the internet users’; Poland 2010, the Czech Republic 2010, Slovakia 2010; Ukraine 2011 Percentage base: online customers (Poland n= 1127, the Czech Republic n=1549, Slovakia n=1258, Ukraine n=789
Figure 3. Popularity of web auction services Source: Gemius/IIBR ‘E-commerce as seen by the internet users’; Poland 2010, the Czech Republic 2010, Slovakia 2010; Ukraine 2011 Percentage base: online customers (Poland n= 1127, the Czech Republic n=1549, Slovakia n=1258, Ukraine n=789
The main conclusion from the set of e-commerce studies conducted by Gemius/IIBR in Central and Eastern Europe is that e-shopping is becoming more and more popular during the last few years and it gets increasingly more trust of users. Even though the e-commerce habits seem to differ from market to market, both internet shops and auctions have their loyal customers. The decision-making process seem to be better-thought, thanks to the popular tools like price comparison engines, that help e-shoppers to get more information about the product and find out the best deals. Regional social shopping market grows as well, mostly due to group shopping sites, with players like Groupon leading the ranks, but also thanks to the local investments of the companies like Allegro, Onet and others.
According to some analyst, 2011 has been the year of e-commerce and 2012 will extend the trend. You can be sure that we will follow the development of this dynamic internet market in the region, measure it and present the results of our studies. So, make yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea… turn on your computer, visit your favorite online shop and enjoy shopping with no necessity to leave your cozy flat! And have yourselves a very merry Christmas! In the New Year 2012 do not forget about to monitor the measuretheweb.com blog to stay up-to date with all the data from the online reality!
