The volume of online shopping that Estonian residents did in the first quarter of 2019 was up one fifth on the first three months of the previous year, according to the Bank of Estonia.
Considering the experiences of other European countries and the fact that Estonian population boasts one of Europe’s largest percentages of internet users, the volume of online shopping has room to keep growing.
Estonian residents made an average of 90,000 online purchases valued at a total of €3.3 million every day in the first quarter of 2019, the Bank of Estonia said in a statement. “The purchases were distributed more or less equally between Estonian and foreign online shops,” the bank said. “Bank links are used most often to buy items from Estonian online shops – for some 33,000 purchases a day. Around every fourth purchase in Estonia is paid for using a bank card.”
Bank data also show that Estonian residents like gambling: they use a bank link to buy a lottery ticket or otherwise gamble 17,000 times a day.
Estonian online shopping has room to grow
The Bank of Estonia notes, however, that even though the rise of online shopping is impressive statistically, a comparison of European countries shows that Estonian online shopping has room to grow.
“According to a survey commissioned by the international parcel delivery service DPD Group, 8.2% of physical items are bought from online shops in Estonia. The most active online shoppers in Europe reside in Germany and the United Kingdom, where online shopping makes up 13.4% and 13.1% of all purchases. The European average for this share is 11.5% of all purchases.”
The survey also revealed that Estonian residents mainly ordered beauty and health products online, followed by technology and electronics, and then clothes. Estonian residents tend to order from China, the United Kingdom and Germany most often.
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The cover image is illustrative (Pexels).
