Online spending study regarding Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the light of pandemic.
The E-commerce study 2020 about online shopping habits of Internet users in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania revealed that during lockdown, the spending of Internet users surveyed in Estonia increased more often than in other neighboring countries. In Estonia, the most popular foreign shopping site, unlike its neighbors, is amazon.com and one of the most important motivations for shopping online is the opportunity to buy goods that are not available at the respondents' place of living.
The study conducted in all Baltic countries this spring found that during the Covid-19 restrictions, 34 percent of Estonian Internet users rated their online shopping expenses as increased. Just over half - 55 percent - said their spending online hadn't changed, but only 11 percent evaluated it as decreased. Meanwhile, in Lithuania 37 percent of respondents and 25 percent of respondents in Latvia told that they spent less online within the national restrictions.
In all the Baltic States, foreign online stores are similar, however the website aliexpress.com is more popular in Latvia and Lithuania, where Estonian Internet users more often used amazon.com. Purchases made on foreign sites also do not differ - in all three countries, Internet users indicated that they buy clothes.
People in Lithuania and Latvia purchased reservation and rental services (34 percent of Latvian Internet users and 28 percent of Lithuanian respondents), while Estonian Internet users more often bought airline tickets (31 percent), which in Lithuania and Latvia was ranked as third most popular type of purchase.
Also, in all countries, the surveyed Internet users indicated tickets to public events among the three most frequently purchased goods online – in Lithuania and Latvia this is the number one choice of the respondents, while in Estonia the respondents most often purchased insurance. Buying clothes in domestic online stores was rated in TOP3 in Estonia and Lithuania, while in Latvia respondents more often than clothes bought household appliances.
Interestingly, among the three most common reasons for shopping online in Estonia, respondents indicated the possibility to buy goods online that are not available at their place of residence. Similar to neighboring countries, respondents in Estonia are also motivated to shop at better prices than in traditional stores.
Estonian respondents indicated that they use computers to shop online (96 percent), while less than half - 48 percent - have made purchases using smartphones. 54 percent of respondents In Latvia and 61 percent in Lithuania made their purchases on the Internet with a mobile phone. In Latvia only 1 percent of respondents shopped using smart TV, whilst in Lithuania and Estonia 4 and 3 percent of respondents respectively indicated this option.
The E-commerce study 2020 was conducted by Gemius and the international Internet research in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The research was created using a specialized Internet survey – gemiusAdHoc. The study is based on data obtained with the help of online questionnaires which were displayed to randomly selected Internet users on the most popular Internet portals in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 2020. The survey was conducted in Latvia and Lithuania in two stages. In Latvia 2813 respondents was interviewed in February and 1769 respondents in April. The respondents were aged from 18 to 74 years. In Lithuania 3805 respondents aged 15-74 were surveyed in February and 2192 in April. In Estonia the survey was conducted from 15 May to 17 June on the group of 1174 Estonian Internet users aged from 18 to 74 years.
More information - in the Gemius report on e-commerce trends in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.
