Hey, big spenders: Record spending in Austrian e-commerce in 2017.

What a year: What made 2017 a record year for e-commerce.

We still like to remember that — a year that was a quantum leap for us: 2017. The trade association and the “Mail Order & E-Commerce” platform in cooperation with SME Research Austria presented the “E-Commerce Study Austria 2017 — Consumer Behavior in Distance Selling” on June 20, 2017.

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‍Shop til' you drop.

For the study, during the analysis period from May 2016 to April 2017, two thousand Austrians aged 15 and over were interviewed about their buying behavior in distance selling, which included not only Internet sales but also traditional mail order and teleshopping. The study shows an all-time high spending in distance selling, a change in buying behavior among young and old, and a continuing trend towards mobile commerce.

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‍The year of records: 2017.

Distance selling was booming back then — sales via smartphones rose sharply.
Austrian distance selling expenditure reached a new record level of 7.6 billion euros. 89% of this was due to e-commerce, which accounted for 6.8 billion euros. 530 million euros were attributable to m-commerce, which is sales via smartphone, which increased by 25% and thus increased sixfold between 2012 and 2017.

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‍If no one answers the phone...

It's probably because there are much more pleasant solutions — even back then! Orders sent by post or telephone in particular were falling. In a five-year comparison, the number of online shoppers in Austria rose by 24%, while the number of mail-order buyers fell by -37%. Even in the 60+ generation, online shopping has overtaken mail-order orders by telephone or post. Almost all product groups benefited from the increasing total expenditure in the analysis period of 2017, with the exception of furniture and furnishings. The highest expenditure in distance selling continues to be on clothing and textiles at 1.7 billion euros, followed by electrical appliances at 1.1 billion euros.

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‍Foreign shops remain very strong in turnover.

‍Although the number of buyers was generally stagnating, on the other hand, the turnover per buyer rose to a record 1,550 euros/per year. Around 50% of e-commerce trade was carried out via foreign shops. 13% of Austrian e-commerce buyers stated that they only buy abroad. As a result, the growth in e-commerce was also accompanied by an increased outflow of purchasing power. Even then, many foreign shops had an Austrian Internet address, which meant that many e-commerce buyers often thought they had bought in Austria while they were actually buying from a seller with a foreign company headquarters. The number of internationally competitive online shops in Austria is also relatively low.

Our conclusion back then was: There is much more to it! And recent years have proven that more and more people are turning to e-commerce. Because it simply makes sense: It's more convenient to buy from home. And since topics such as Click & Collect or perfect returns management have also become increasingly important, everything is working better and better. Because you can also offer a shopping experience online that is simply wow.

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