Cross-border online shopping ups in EU

More and more European Union (EU) consumers are shopping online and their trust in e-commerce has increased, particularly in buying online from other EU countries, the 2017 edition of the Consumer Conditions Scoreboard showed Tuesday.

The share of Europeans buying online has almost doubled in ten years, surging from 29.7 percent in 2007 to 55 percent in 2017, said the Scoreboard.

Meanwhile, it also shows that consumer trust in e-commerce has dramatically increased. On a year-on-year basis, consumers' levels of trust have increased by 12 percentage points for purchases from retailers located in the same country and by 21 percentage points for purchases from other EU member states.

In another development, for retailers, however, the Scoreboard shows that many are still reluctant to expand their online activities and continue to have concerns about selling online to consumers in other EU countries.

Such concerns are mainly linked to a higher risk of fraud and non-payment in cross-border sales, different tax regulations, differences in national contract law and in consumer protection rules, read the document.

The Consumer Scoreboards provide an overview of how the Single Market works for EU consumers. Published since 2008, they aim to ensure better monitoring of consumer rights and provide evidence to inform policy.