Seventy-eight percent of Portuguese Internet users have already made purchases through the Internet. Among these, there is no special preference between Portuguese and foreign sites, reveals a study by ACEP – Association of Electronic Commerce in Portugal and Netsonda.
The research reveals that it is by suggestion of friends, advertisements or through newsletters that Internet users choose the sites where they shop. The frequency of purchases online for the majority of respondents (70 percent) it is less than once a month, for an average expenditure of less than 75 percent (for 75 percent of respondents).
The most purchased products in the sales channels online cover the areas of information technology, electronics, tickets for shows and sports. The most used payment method is the credit card, as confirmed by almost half of the respondents.
This means of payment is simultaneously the one that motivates greater resistance to users, with an equally high percentage of Internet users refusing its use in this type of operations (32 percent). Payment collection and payment of services / MBNet are the most popular means of payment, after the credit card.
The vast majority of buyers online is satisfied with the sites it visits (97.7 percent) and recognizes in commerce online advantages such as convenience, access to better prices and uninterrupted operation of stores.
Most users continue to prefer the Internet just to look for information
The ACEP study reveals, however, that the majority of Portuguese internet users (77 percent) prefer to use the Internet as a means of searching for information about products and services, but end up making their purchases in traditional stores.
Liking to see and try products are among the main motivations for buying in a traditional channel, to the detriment of buying online. The lack of confidence in payment systems and the non-use of credit cards are also reasons cited by respondents.
The majority of respondents who do not yet buy online admits to doing so (65.9 percent) but a large percentage has no idea when they will do it (82 percent).
869 Internet users responded between the 5th and 26th of January.
Editorial Note: [2007-04-16 12:56] The news was corrected with a precision relative to the universe to which the analysis referred. Contrary to what was initially mentioned, the sample cannot be extrapolated to the universe of Portuguese, but only to that of Portuguese Internet users, since the survey was conducted online, which somehow justifies the disparity in results compared to official purchasing statistics online who report that only 3% of the population uses this platform.
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