Go to our global site (EN/PL)
A step forward in the e-commerce branch in Lithuania
2007-02-20
When the Internet market is growing more rapidly and online technologies are improving, e-commerce becomes more successful. In order to get a deeper insight into the situation of the e-commerce in the country, as well as reasons stimulating and smothering its expansion, Gemius Baltic, in cooperation with TradeDoubler, have carried out a study about this branch of e-business.
About the project
Gemius SA has been conducting a parallel research for several years in Poland and its results are used for online trade development. Together with expansion of the company into other European countries, the reach of the project has widened. At the turn of 2006 and 2007 the e-commerce study was carried out in the following countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. In Lithuania the research was conducted with the partner Internet Advertising Network TradeDoubler.
Asking online shoppers
The main purpose of the e-commerce research project is to determine the attitude of Internet users to online shopping in online stores and at auctions. The study was conducted on the Internet in the form of a pop-up survey (random sampling) in December 2006 and there were questioned 1420 respondents over 15 years. As a result, answers to the following research problems were gathered:
- frequency of online purchases among Lithuanian users;
- usage of online stores vs. auctions;
- reasons for online shopping and the reason for not purchasing through web sites;
- source of information on the basis of which the decision to do e-shopping is made;
- products and services sought and purchased most often.
First of all - obtain information
Purchasing - on the Internet and in traditional shops - is inseparable from the search of information about products that people intend to buy. Depending on the character of the sought products, respondents choose different sources of information (i.e. friends, family, press, shop assistants, advertisements and the Internet). As the study shows, the Internet is one of the main sources of information concerning train, bus or plain tickets (52% of respondents), travel services (43%), cinema and theatre tickets (37%), mobile phones (36%), computer hardware (35%) and software (33%). Another valuable conclusion about the most popular information sources is declared intention of using price comparison engines, which allow for comparing prices in different online stores. Even though this service is not widespread in Lithuania 81% of respondents who purchased something on the Internet at least once, stated that they would like to use it.
How often do Internet users do shopping?
During the study it was determined that 32% of Internet users have purchased something on the Internet at least once. Studying the frequency of their online shopping, it was revealed that buying on the Internet is not yet widespread in Lithuania: only 18% of respondents do online shopping once a month or more frequently, whereas the highest percentage (38%) buys in e-stores or at auctions only several times per year, others buy even more rarely. At the same time 44% of respondents declare to do online shopping more frequently in the future.
Where to buy? Popularity of online stores vs. e-auctions
85% of respondents, who have bought on the Internet at least once, done shopping in an online store, while online auctions were used only by 30% of research respondents. What are the main advantages of buying in e-stores? According to the study, 59% of respondents buying in online stores think that they save time. Besides, 55% of the surveyed users highlight that online stores provide the possibility to order a given product at any time and 43% declare that it is possible to find there products which are more difficult to find in other places. Lower price than in traditional stores was pointed out as the main advantage by 41% of online buyers.
What to choose? Most popular products and e-commerce leaders
According to the study's results, books, CDs, films (43% of indications), train, bus, plane tickets (35%), cinema and theatre tickets (28%), computer hardware (25%) and travel services (19%) are the products or services most frequently purchased online. Whilst doing shopping on the Internet, Lithuanians use three ways of payment: cash on delivery, credit card, bank transfer (equally all the three recorded about 30% of indications). An interesting fact is that in the meantime there are no outstanding leaders in the Lithuanian e-commerce market. When asked to point out three web sites which they remembered best, respondents gave names of various Lithuanian and foreign online stores but their popularity never exceeded 2%.
Why do Internet users still hesitate?
Answering the question about problems which they encountered during e-shopping 33% of respondents who have done shopping in online stores declared no problems, whereas 28% mentioned the lack of information, 26% of respondents were not satisfied with long delivery time. A half of the respondents who have heard about the possibility to buy on the Internet considered purchasing online to be risky and approximately one fifth of them - complicated. In addition, respondents who have never done shopping on the Internet justify their attitude with the impossibility to see the product and evaluating its quality (59%), being used to traditional shops (49%) and not relying on payment by credit cards (40% of answers). In spite of this, 63% of those who have never bought on the Internet claim that they were considering this possibility. When asked about their future intentions to purchase on the Internet 10% of respondents who have never bought on the Internet said that they would buy, 36% - that they will most likely buy, and only 6% declared that they would definitely never again buy online.
Internet users need higher credibility of online transactions
Expansion of e-commerce could be stimulated most effectively by changing the approach of Internet users towards purchasing on the Internet. In order to do this, security of paying for products and services should be ensured, their quality needs to be improved and e-stores and auction portals have to place more comprehensive information about the products they offer. When all these conditions are fulfilled, we can expect a significant increase in the number of online transactions in the nearest future.
In order to obtain the full report please contact Jolita Reidman
Download a complete version of the press release in a Word file
Press contact
Jolita Reidman, UAB Gemius Baltic, Head of Sales