E-commerce is increasing dramatically

The e-commerce companies are expecting a strong increase in sales. During the 3rd quarter of 2007, 44% more buys were done compared to the same quarter the year before. 94% of the Swedish e-commerce companies expect a sales increase through the Internet in the coming 12 months.

Zapera has together with DIBS Payment Services conducted the first survey ever of Nordic e-commerce, DIBS e-commerce index. It shows that there are 13 million active e-commerce customers in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The average customer shops for about 7500 SEK per year. The 35 – 54 year olds buy the most.

Travelling is the sector where e-commerce has had the largest break through. 61% of the consumers have bought a trip or a flight ticket online during the past year. Also the entertainment industry has succeeded well, 47% of the consumers have bought tickets to theater, concerts, sports or the like during the past 12 months.

The customers are everything from market giants like IKEA, the pharmacies, Apollo Travels and CD.ON, the largest internet shop in Scandinavia, to Björn Borg, the art museum Louisiana and Sports Clubs. If you e.g. sign up for Vätternrundan 2008, your payment will go through DIBS payment system.

One explanation of the success is the large internet penetration, 86% in Sweden, 83% in Denmark and 81% in Norway.

DIBS e-commerce index was completed in October and November 2007 and is the first complete survey about Nordic e-commerce.

- Our collaboration with Zapera works perfectly, says Jesper Lohmann, Vice Managing Director and Sales- and Market Manager at DIBS, which is the market leader on the market for payment systems for e-commerce in Scandinavia.

As an IT company we have good competencies for research. We have bought Zapera Survey System, which is used for analyzing on our own computers. The sample is collected from Zapera’s consumer panels in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. 3000 interviews were conducted with consumers and 870 e-commerce companies, equally distributed in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Zapera was included as consultants in the entire process and contributed as specialists when the questionnaire was constructed.

DIBS e-commerce index has gotten enormous publicity in all of Scandinavia. Since the interest is so big it will be carried out twice a year, Jesper Lohmann concludes.

Source: Zapera News, Issue 28, February 2008