By Ingrid Daschner
For many of us, the pre-Christmas period brings the huge stress of trying to find the right presents. The streets are full of rushing, jostling humanity, while the shops are heaving with masses of gift hunters desperate to find anything even vaguely suitable for friends and family.
There are moments when even the most peaceable, Christmas-loving human being can be gripped with strong feelings of aggression!
No surprise then that many people prefer the comfort of shopping on the internet during this period. However, despite the massive growth in e-shopping over the past few years, it’s clear that a lot of us are still wary about exchanging financial information online.
According to a recent survey conducted by TNS Research on behalf of VeriSign, more than 60 percent of all e-shoppers in Europe have failed to complete their order because they did not trust the security of the webshop during the payment procedure. In Germany, the percentage rate is even higher than the European average at 64 percent.
Clearly, many online dealers are still not inspiring enough confidence in potential consumers, and are thus not maximising the potential of the internet marketplace – and that’s a lot of Christmas sales they’re missing out on!
Still, it’s not all bad news for online shopping. For example, Forrester Research predicts that the volume of e-commerce business in Europe will grow to €263BN by 2011, which means that the number of Europeans who shop online should increase within the next five years from 100 million to 174 million.
Of course, if you haven’t got those last minute presents yet, the internet isn’t going to be much use to you now… And so in this spirit, I wish you a relaxing offline shopping adventure, happy holidays and a prosperous New Year 2007!
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