Tag: E-Commerce

French E-Commerce

Posted by | Aug 1, 2008 | |

Online merchants in France took in EUR1 billion (USD 1.71 billion) during Q2 2008, according to the Association pour le commerce et les services en ligne (ACSEL) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
However, Q1 actually represents just a fraction of total French e-commerce—and less than one-quarter. Not only is Q4 the biggest of the year, but the ACSEL/PwC figure does not include online travel.
Another French trade group, the Fédération des entreprises de vente à distance (FEVAD), said that e-commerce sales in France will reach EUR 20.9 billion (USD 32.4 billion) this year. FEVAD includes both online travel and online B2B purchases.
The association projects e-commerce growth through 2010, when sales are expected to reach EUR 31.4 billion (USD 44.3 billion).

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Boom in Czechs purchasing American internet goods

Posted by | Jul 31, 2008 | |

The number of parcels arriving in the Czech Republic from the United States has shot up dramatically, with Czechs taking advantage of internet shopping and the strength of the crown.

Czech postal service is being inundated with parcels arriving from the United States. The postal service has handled over 120,000 packages arriving from the states in the first six months of this year alone – that is up from 70,000 during the same period last year. Ivo Mravinac is a spokesperson for Czech Post, he thinks the glut of incoming packages is down purely to economics:

“The dollar has taken a big hit against the crown and Czechs have done two things. One, they have become increasingly interested in internet shopping and two, they have realized that they can make big savings buying foreign goods, especially from the United States. And this has had a knock-on effect on the number of parcels we are receiving from America. In May 2007, we received 4,900 parcels from America, in May 2008, that number was up to 7,500.”

Couriers such as DHL and UPS back up Mr Mravinac’s statistics. DHL says it has experienced a 99 percent rise in the number of American parcels it handles.

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eBay and La Poste France offer e-postage

Posted by | Jul 18, 2008 | |

La Poste and eBay have signed a partnership that will enable French Internet vendors to purchase their postage online. The new service, in the pipeline since December 2007, allows eBay users to print out their own postage labels for letters and parcels direct from the auction site. The sender simply enters the weight, the destination and the required service (standard or registered post). Once payment has been received via PayPal, the label is simply printed out and attached to the packet to be sent.

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Amazon, others to suck up holiday shipping costs

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

Online retailers cannot afford to raise shipping prices. The high cost of fuel is hurting the wallets of American consumers and businesses alike, but online retailer Amazon.com Inc and others will likely forgo shipping price increases on its discount programs this upcoming holiday shopping season for fear of alienating hard-pressed shoppers in the weak economy.

Long-term contracts with shippers may insulate Amazon and some others, even as companies small and large scramble to find other costs to cut. Margins could suffer more as time goes on, but the biggest companies could watch smaller rivals fade away as the move to online shopping continues to accelerate.

Avoiding shipping price hikes may appear foolhardy — after all, the cost of diesel fuel has risen 154 percent in the last year. But companies such as Amazon and Overstock.com Inc rely on low or free shipping to stoke business in good times — so any rise in bad times could be a major problem.

Free shipping is a major competitive advantage for Amazon, which has already been lowering prices to stave off rivals, said Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

U.S. carriers like United Parcel Service Inc, FedEx Corp and the U.S. Postal Service have been raising prices due to higher fuel costs.

But Amazon and some brick-and-mortar companies with major online businesses say they’ve largely been able to insulate themselves by being more efficient elsewhere in their businesses, whether through better distribution or less waste.

Overstock will not raise its blanket USD 2.95 shipping price on a full order, and fuel increases have not affected the company’s profit margins, Chief Executive Patrick Byrne said.

Large online shippers have bargaining leverage over transport carriers when it comes to contracts, Amazon and Overstock said.

However, smaller online retailers that aren’t as nimble as Amazon will be struggling this holiday with higher fuel costs and be forced to raise shipping prices.

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Gap between domestic and cross-border e-commerce grows wider, says EU report

Posted by | Jun 20, 2008 | |

EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva today announced the results of a new EU wide survey on e-commerce and cross border trade. The figures show that even though e-commerce is taking off at national level, cross-border e-commerce is failing to keep pace. From 2006 to 2008, the share of all EU consumers that have bought at least one item over the internet has increased significantly (from 27pct to 33 pct) whilst cross border e-commerce is stable (6pct to 7pct). The pattern is similar for those with internet access at home – 56pct of consumers with internet at home have made a purchase (in any country including their own) by e-commerce compared to 50pct in 2006, while only 13pct (of those with internet access at home) made a cross-border e-commerce purchase compared to 12pct in 2006.
“These figures underline how much work we still have to do to boost confidence in the online internal market” said European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva. “Consumers and retailers are beginning to embrace e-commerce at national level but internal market barriers still persist online. The potential of the online internal market to deliver greater choice and lower price to consumers and new markets for retailers is considerable. We need to redouble our efforts to tackle the remaining borders.”
Amongst retailers, the cross-border potential of e-commerce seems not to have been fulfilled: 51pct of EU27 retailers sell via the internet, but only 17 pct of e-commerce revenue of those who sell cross-border stems from cross-border sales – as compared to 16pct in 2006. There appears to be a lack of confidence in cross-border shopping on both sides of the market, although consumer confidence appears to be growing: while 37pct of consumers said they would be more confident making online purchases from sellers/providers located in their own country, 57pct said they are equally or even more confident making purchases online from sellers in another EU country. This figure is up by 8pct compared to the 2006 survey.
The report published today was compiled from two Eurobarometer surveys on Businesses and Consumer attitudes to cross border trade. Data gathering was carried out in February – March 2008 amongst more than 26.000 consumers and 7.200 businesses in the 27 EU-countries and Norway.

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