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E-commerce in Hungary
2007-12-13
Almost half of the Internet users from Hungary (45%) have already shopped online. E-commerce is considered time-saving, however one out of three potential e-customers believes it is risky. The latest Gemius report reveals the most important information on Internet user attitudes towards shopping online.
The popularity of e-commerce
About half of the Internet users (51%) love or like shopping and most are aware of the possibilities of doing their shopping online (91%). Therefore, it comes as no surprise that 45% of these Internet users have decided to buy via the Internet. Those who purchase on the Internet at least once a month constitute almost one-fourth of all e-customers (24%). What is more, 23% of the respondents who have ever done shopping online declare that they want to buy online more frequently than up to now.
In order to encourage the users to do their shopping on the Internet, sellers should especially pay attention to their pricing policy. According to the study, e-customers would buy more frequently if and when offered special discounts (16%) or lower prices (18%). As over one-third of the Internet users (36%) who have ever heard about the possibility of buying online consider it risky, increasing the safety of transactions would probably also attract new e-clients.
Online stores and auctions
The majority of Internet users prefer online stores to auctions. As much as 92% of the e-clients have done their shopping at online auctions. They especially appreciated the fact that this form of shopping saved time (50%) and gave the possibility of ordering at any time (42%). For the majority of users the credibility of information and the fact that objects ordered and received were the same were also important factors. Every fourth online store shopper mentioned these features as the advantages of e-shops over auctions. Moreover, e-clients are, by and large, satisfied – 70% of the Internet users who have bought something from online stores have not encountered any problems when shopping.
Even though auctions seem to be less popular than online stores – only 24% of the e-customers have decided to buy products at an auction – this form of shopping also has many advantages. Internet users who have shopped at online auctions appreciated the fact that they could buy products difficult to find elsewhere (48%) and at lower prices (45%) compared to those of traditional stores.
Products bought in online stores and at auctions
Internet users mainly buy books, CDs and movies. These products were purchased by 61% of the online store customers and 43% of the auction participants. Interestingly enough, however, besides this category of products, e-clients rather look for other products in online stores and auctions. Auctions are preferred when buying computer hardware or clothes and jewelry. One out of four respondents who has ever done shopping at an online auction bought one of these products there. At the same time, online store clients decided to buy train, bus or plane tickets (33%) or movie and theater tickets (32%).
The findings, published in the latest Gemius report, confirm that e-commerce is on the rise in Hungary. However, there is still much room for improvement. In order to promote e-commerce, online sellers should make their offers as attractive as possible, both in terms of price and safety. Taking into account the visible interest of Internet users in online shopping, further development of this branch is very likely.
Gemius Hungary is a subsidiary of Gemius SA, with its formal place of business in Warsaw, Poland. Gemius Hungary was founded in October 2005 and it has already successfully introduced some products onto the Hungarian market. One of these is gemiusTraffic, which is a real-time online measurement of visitor behavior on web sites. Another product is gemius/Ipsos Audience, which is aimed to become the standard of Internet audience measurement in Hungary, providing the market with detailed socio-demographic profiles of web sites that sell advertising space. Gemius Hungary’s partner in this research is Szonda Ipsos.
Gemius SA is the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe. Recently the agency started its activity on the Danish market. The company has been dedicated to Internet market research since its founding in 1999. Due to its efforts to maximize trust, authenticity and accuracy, Gemius is already present in several countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
Download a complete version of the press release in a Word file.
For more information, please write to: Ács Tamás, tamas.acs@gemius.com