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1/3 Of French Citizens Would Buy Your Product If Better Than In Their Own Country. Get Your Professional French Website Now!
Posted by IMer | Posted in eCommerce | Posted on 27-03-2009
Sussex SME’s:
If you think you do not need French internet buyers then you may be making a huge mistake for the future of your business.
Reasons why you need european website particularly if you do not speak any French or feel lost in translation.
Europe main key facts:
27 countries – Population (2008) 489,111,662
internet users 297,001,040 representing 60.7 % of the EU population.
When an European Consumer Commissioner made a report on EU internet buyers and declared that 1/3 of the European Population is keen on buying your product if it?s cheaper or better than what they see online in their native language, you may wonder how to break into these market.
So what are you waiting for?
Well, I hear you saying ?je ne comprends pas le Francais?
?I can only ask for a cerveza por favor?
?German is difficult?
Then it?s urgent you read the following report from EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.
European Union report on “Barriers to E-commerce”, presented on March 5th 2009 by EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva shows that online shopping is increasingly popular in the EU.
But Meglena Kuneva warns that barriers to cross border trade are holding back its development.
The report published on March 5th 2009 presents a detailed analysis of current trends in e-commerce across the Euroland ? including per country, most purchased items and obstacles for consumers and business online.
Between 2006 and 2008 the proportion of European consumers buying at least one item over the internet increased from 27% to 33%.
These average figures mask the huge popularity of online shopping in countries like UK, France and Germany where more than 50% of internet users have made online purchases in the last year.
In the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland) the proportion of internet users who bought products and services online was 91% in 2008.
Euro countries like Italy and Spain are also fast growing markets. Against this pattern of fast growing national markets, the extent of online purchasing cross border remains small, at only 7% in 2008 (compared to 6% in 2006).
The report warns that numerous obstacles – linguistic, practical and regulatory as well as important trust issues ? are holding back the development of online shopping in the Euroland.
Commissioner Kuneva said: “European Union consumers have everything to gain from the Internet. It expands the size of the market they operate in and gives them access to more providers and more choice.
It makes it possible to compare products, suppliers and prices on an unprecedented scale. Internet use for retail shopping is destined to become pervasive.
Already 150 million European Union consumers shop online, although only 30 million shop online cross border.
We must see to it that adoption of the internet platform will not be unnecessarily slowed down by a failure to remove important regulatory barriers or to address important trust issues for consumers.”
1. EurolandE-commerce is doing well
EU consumers are particularly satisfied when it comes to comparing prices, wide range of offers, affordability of products and the choice of different suppliers.
2. There is a strong potential for cross border trade in online commerce
One third of Euro citizens would consider buying a product or a service from another Member State via the internet because it is cheaper or better.
3. The potential of cross border trade is failing to materialise.
From 2006 to 2008, the share of online shoppers in the EU has increased from 27% to 33% of consumers while cross-border e-commerce remained stable.
Only 7% of consumers currently buy cross-border online. And the gap is widening not narrowing!
The main barriers:
- Geographical segmentation: Most EU traders now have a website that is visible to consumers everywhere. And yet most European Union retailers still seem to operate on the assumption that the internal market is partitioned along national lines.
The range of possibilities is enormous, yet in practice, consumers end up being refused sales or redirected back to their country of origin.
- Language barriers, these remain an issue for most EU traders and consumers, although we should be careful not to overstate their importance. For example, 60% of retailers are already prepared to carry out transactions in more than one language.
EU regulatory barriers include for example consumer law, VAT rules, selective distribution law, intellectual property protection.
- Barriers undermine European Union consumer confidence ? in particular reluctance linked to payment issues, delivery, complaints, guarantees, requests for exchange and refunds (after sales support), as well as privacy issues. Difficulties seem to be aggravated in cross border transactions.
At Catalyst Entrepreneur, we answer all your queries about your new european website. Act now before your competitor does!
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