E-Commerce Study 2020

New e-commerce study presented – online retail expenditure rises to over € 8 billion

The Austrian Institute for SME Research has conducted a nationwide study on consumer behavior in distance selling on behalf of the trade association and the platform “Versandhandel, eCommerce & Marktplätze”. Against the background of the Corona crisis, online shopping and smartphone shopping continue to develop dynamically. Voice shopping via voice assistants such as Alexa remains a niche program for the time being.

Dynamic growth in online shopping, more than half of orders placed abroad

In 2020, expenditure in the Austrian distance selling sector again rose significantly to € 8.7 billion. However, domestic webshops do not benefit fully from this growth, as one in two customers orders from abroad. Compared to the previous year, however, loyalty to Austrian webshops increased slightly. This year, the most important product groups in distance selling are clothing, electrical appliances and books. Due to Corona, the highest sales growth was achieved in the computer/hardware sector with +18%, cosmetics with +17% and sporting goods with +11%.

Cell phone shopping is booming: sales doubled compared to the previous year

Mobile commerce and smartphone shopping already account for € 1.2 billion of online retail sales, which represents a growth rate of +50% as compared to the previous year. Around a third of Austrians shop online via smartphone – especially the younger generation: seven out of ten consumers under the age of 29 use a smartphone to make purchases.

Voice Commerce remains (up to now) a niche program

More and more Austrians are using Internet-based personal assistants such as Amazon Echo or Google Home. However, the number of consumers who shop via Alexa & Co. is still at a low level for the time being and was around 38,000 shoppers in 2020 (2019: 30,000).

German presentation of the study

More about the study (German only)