Eurostat’s figures on online activity for Europeans up to the age of 34 may not be “light reading”, but it has some fascinating data.
Across the entire EU (27 states) the biggest areas are:
- clothes / sports goods
- travel / accommodation
Unfortunately the report doesn’t give much detail on what items / services people are buying, as I’d have to question the entire “clothes” thing.
Can consumer attitudes have changed that much?
Or are people examining goods in their local shop and then buying them online?
It would be interesting to know.
The travel / accommodation figure doesn’t come as much of a surprise!
Most airlines offer incentives to people who book online while others, such as Ryanair, won’t let you book “offline”!
Can you remember the last time you used a travel agent?
What about hotels?
Would you go to a hotel’s site or are you more likely to use one of the big booking sites like 1800 Hotels?
Why would you have to question the whole ‘clothes’ thing? I am a mid twenty year old female who is obsessed with fashion – and pretty much buy all my clothes online! And I’m not alone…websites like asos.com have become overnight phenomenons with 6.9million unique users each month! Also with the price difference from euro to sterling it makes economical sense to buy online. I can buy clothes from high street shops such as topshop, river island etc. get them shipped to Ireland and still come out with change from what it would of cost me to buy in their bricks and mortar stores!
We recently compiled a report, referencing Eurostat findings and travel/ accomodation is without a doubt the strongest sector in Irish e-commerce. Price comparison sites, not too popular in Ireland yet, are mainly used to compare airline fares.
http://toprice.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/62-of-irish-e-commerce-spend-goes-overseas/
@Sarah
Sorry for the delay in publishing your comment – it got trapped!
With regard to clothes – I’m delighted to hear that people are buying them online, but I know that quite a few people would be slower to buy them than other things. Admittedly I buy a lot of tshirts online, as you can’t really go wrong with them
Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences
Michele