Site: EVO - Europe| Language: English
COLOGNE, 04 March 2010 - Women tend to look for bargains on the internet more often than men. In return, men spend more per purchase than women. While women initiate six out of ten online retail purchases in Europe, men spend on average EUR 111.50 per purchase, i.e. EUR 33.41 more than women. This is one of the results of the recently published "E-Retail Report 2009" by Deutsche Card Services. In contrast to other research, the sector-specific study of the Deutsche Bank subsidiary on "Purchasing and Payment Behaviour in E-Retailing" is based on real-life transactions, not on surveys. The database consists of roughly eight million transactions processed on the Deutsche Card Services platform. The Report shows that e-retailing has finally become a female domain and is therefore significantly different from overall e-commerce, which also includes sectors such as travelling and entertainment. In overall e-commerce, men are still predominant.
Typical European online shoppers make their purchases on Monday mornings in December
The typical European online shopper, as identified by the E-Retail Report 2009 of Deutsche Card Services, is German "Maria Mustermann": She (61.35% of all purchases are made by women) sits at home in Aschaffenburg (Hesse; 1.96% of all purchase transactions in Germany by two-digit postal areas) on a cold Monday morning (16.45% of all purchases) between 10 a.m. and noon (13.73%) and uses her credit card (74.85%) to buy a new pair of boots worth EUR 89.43 from a German shoe retailer. Sie zahlt per Kreditkarte (74,85%). German Ms Mustermann is somewhat different from her typical British counterpart: "Jane Smith" from Manchester tends to order accessories worth EUR 124.99 from a French couture label on a Tuesday (17.58%) in July (12.81%) between noon and 2 o'clock p.m. This representative of a typical British shopper (52.85%) also pays for her online purchase by credit card (85.37%).
More expensive shopping baskets and higher online sales
Online retailers have seen their sales rise significantly. The German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (Bundesverband des Deutschen Versandhandels, bvh) stated a 16% increase for 2009. This business trend is confirmed by the E-Retail Report 2009 of Deutsche Card Services. The average shopping basket value rose from EUR 74.96 to EUR 89.43 EUR an increase of more than 19%. Surprisingly, the rise in purchase values was largest for customers from the rest of Europe and not for customers from the two European e-commerce strongholds Germany and the UK. Customers from the rest of Europe raised the average value of their e-retail shopping baskets by more than 27%, to EUR 139.54. In comparison, the average value of shopping baskets in overall e-commerce was up 5.2% (from EUR 80.13 to EUR 84.31) during the same period.
German online shops become more attractive abroad
German online shops have become more attractive for international customers. The share of non-German buyers was up 3% year-on-year. The E-Retail Report 2009 of Deutsche Card Services shows that this trend is limited to online retailing. In overall e-commerce, German customers play a more important role. Goods from German online shops are particularly popular among customers from the rest of Europe. In contrast, German customers are relatively conservative in e-retailing. Their behaviour hardly changed in a year-on-year comparison, and they are still wary about international shops.
E-Retail Report 2009 segues seamlessly from former issues
The E-Retail Report 2009 segues seamlessly from the two preceding issues published as "Pago Retail Reports". By now, the study is well established as an informative and reliable source of information for online retail trade. It supplements the recently released E-Commerce Report 2009. The E-Retail Report 2009 distinguishes between consumers from Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), the rest of Europe and countries outside Europe. It covers both traditional payment methods such as credit cards, direct debiting and offline payment methods (e.g. COD) and ever more popular new online payment methods such as giropay and Maestro. The database consists of a selection of e-retail purchase transactions processed via the platform of Deutsche Card Services between October 2007 and September 2008.
The E-Retail Report 2009 is available at a price of EUR 250 (excl. VAT) from the online shop of Deutsche Card Services from now on. For more information please see www.deutsche-card-services.com.
Please note: Media professionals can obtain the E-Retail Report 2009 for free on request. Please get in touch with the contact set out below if you want to use the report for your work.