Following a report showing that only 14 per cent of EU companies sell goods and services using the internet, despite an increase in buyers, online parcel delivery company Parcel2Go has urged businesses to reconsider their trading strategies.
A study by international administrative department Eurostat has revealed that the number of online consumers in the European Union doubled between 2005 and 2010 – from 20 per cent to 40 per cent – but this growth has not been matched by a growth in the number of businesses using the internet to sell their wares.
With so many sales methods accessible online and a range of cheap courier services on offer to transport goods directly to customers, representatives of courier comparison website Parcel2Go have expressed surprise that more companies are not taking advantage of the opportunities available to them.
Parcel2Go Marketing Director, Richard Mercer said: “Online shopping gets bigger all the time, especially with the accelerated evolution of smartphones and tablets in recent years. Businesses which don’t use this avenue to sell their products are losing the chance to appeal to huge swathes of consumers.
“In today’s world, selling items online is a straightforward and accessible process with plenty of resources available to support it. Whether you are a sole trader or the proprietor of a large operation, online sales could do wonders for your bottom line.”
The Eurostat report showed that household internet access in the EU had reached 70 per cent by 2010, with clothes, travel, computing and electronic goods among the most commonly-bought items.
The data also demonstrated that most internet users prefer to focus on their home markets when shopping online; though this did vary from country to country, with more than 90 per cent of Maltese shoppers buying from another member state and thus requiring international shipping services, while only 10 per cent of Polish consumers did the same.
Via EPR Network
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