E-commerce growing steadily in Greece

The survey, based on a sample of 1,910 Greek online consumers, showed that a 29 pct of online consumers made more than 50 pct of their total purchases online in 2016, up from 25 pct in 2015 and 9.0 pct in 2014. The survey also showed that six out of 10 consumers made more than 80 pct of their online purchases from local e-shops in 2016, up from five out of 10 in 2015. This increase is attributed to the imposition of capital controls and the dynamic operation of thousands of local e-shops in all categories of products and services. Greek consumers, however, enjoyed one of the highest percentages of purchases in Europe from foreign e-shops, with around 30 pct. A 51 pct of consumers used credit cards for their online purchases in 2016, up from 44 pct in 2014.

 The five top categories for online purchases remained unchanged from 2015. Travel services topped the list with an 84 pct, followed by hotel reservations (70 pct), equipment and accessories (69 pct), entertainment tickets (69 pct) and clothing/footwear (62 pct).

 Online food delivery grew 5.0 pct this year, while payment of bills rose 9.0 pct, car rental grew 7.0 pct and supermarket sales rose 6.0 pct.

 The majority of online consumers said they preferred online purchases because they could find better prices (73 pct). However, three out of 10 online consumers said the made a purchase through an e-shop but never returned for purchases again.