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Online shopping has grown again in the EU in the last year. Portugal “followed” but less

Along with the use of the internet and the improvement of security conditions, online shopping continues to increase in the European Union (EU). The most recent data from Eurostat indicate that 60% of Internet users in the EU aged between 16 and 74 years old made purchases via the internet throughout 2019, a figure that compares with the 56% recorded in the previous year.


Denmark, Sweden and the Low Countries occupy, in this order, the podium places, with 84%, 82% and 81%, respectively, well above the average.

On the contrary, the numbers in Portugal remain far below the community average. While maintaining a positive evolution, they put the country at the tail of the EU. The report shows that the figure for the last 12 full months was only 39%, taco by taco with Greece and Cyprus, and only above Italy (38%), Romania (23%) and Bulgaria (22%) .

For companies, the most recent figures for Eurostat do not differ much from the last two years. Pointing to data from 2019, it is shown that 17% of EU companies registered online sales of at least 1% of their billing. Here Portugal is close, with a value of 16%, but worse than in the previous year, when 19% were companies that did business through the internet.

With 36% of companies selling online, compared to 31% in 2018, Ireland recorded the biggest increase among Member States. Denmark was in second (34%) and Sweden in third (31%).

In both reports, Eurostat points out that, with most street businesses and stores closed and the large number of people subject to social isolation, ecommerce growth figures are likely to increase over 2020.