A new report shows impressive growth throughout 2013 in the Swiss Ecommerce and mail order business.
The report was conducted by Der Verband des Schweizerischen Versandhandels in cooperation with market research firm Gfk. As to the report, it shows a 9.7% increase in online sales compared to 2012, closing the year at 6.25 billion Swiss francs (€5.14 billion). A breakdown shows €3.8 billion were transacted on B2C Payments and €700 million were used for online auctions. More numbers show €658 million being spent on orders from outside Switzerland and an additional €165 million for orders from abroad and picked up in Switzerland.
“The huge growth of cross-border transactions has surprised us. Consumers seem to have more trust and use the global internet marketplace more often. Swiss consumers become increasingly more global buyers, as there is a high transparency of competition in terms of price, performance and better functioning supply chains”, stated the report.
Similar to other markets, mobile transactions fared quite well with 10% of sales being conducted of a smartphones and/or tablets. All in all, the online retail sector in Switzerland is responsible for 6% of the country’s total revenue.
A total of 85% of Ecommerce orders were placed online via a computer or mobile device, and only 15% were placed over the phone, continuing the steady decline of mail order purchases. 88% of Swiss resident prefer to pay by invoice, bringing credit card favored purchases to only 7%.
Top shopping categories were consumer electronics and clothing. Electronics purchases grew by a total of 10% compared to the year prior, while clothing grew by 8%, resulting sales of €1.08 billion and €1.02 billion respectively.
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