Despite the increasing number of buyers, spending in the online and mail order trade has fallen. Consumers’ greater willingness to save and the partial shift to brick-and-mortar retail caused spending on distance sales to fall by five percent between May 2022 and April 2023, to EUR 10.5 billion.
This is evident from an e-commerce study by the trade association and KMU Forschung Austria. Of this, 5.4 billion euros went to foreign retailers such as Amazon.Clothing (EUR 2.21 billion), electrical appliances (EUR 1.47 billion) and furniture and accessories (EUR 0.86 billion) were the areas where the most money was spent in online and mail order.
In particular, sports equipment, electrical appliances and clothing have continued to increase, while spending on furniture, computer and hardware products has fallen in the wake of the corona pandemic. Almost half of the 1,000 respondents (15 years and older) use their smartphone to shop online.
In total, 79 percent or about 6.1 million Austrians shopped online or by mail order during the analysis period. That is an increase of five percent. However, according to calculations by KMU Forschung and Handelsverband, average expenses fell by nine percent to 1,760 euros per internet buyer.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
