LAST year, 94 percent of internet users in Slovakia purchased goods or services online. As many as 27 percent of Slovaks bought electronics on the internet, followed by books (10 percent), clothes (9 percent), white goods (7 percent) and cosmetics (6 percent), the SITA newswire reported, citing data from a survey carried out by the price-comparison portal www.eureka.sk on a sample of 3,000 respondents.
“Almost 22 percent of Slovaks spent between €202 and €400 in internet shops, while 19 percent bought goods and services for €401-€800,” said the portal’s project manager Tomáš Hodboď, as quoted by SITA. “17 percent of respondents spent more than €800 on internet shopping”.
About 43 percent of respondents paid for goods on delivery and 26 percent used a bank transfer. About 10 percent paid by bank card and nearly 7 percent of those polled paid at the physical site of the internet store. Four percent paid for goods in instalments, via micro-payment systems or by using other methods.
Heureka.cz conducted a similar survey in the neighbouring Czech Republic on a sample of 15,000 respondents. There, 96 percent of internet users bought goods or services in e-shops, two percentage points more than in Slovakia. The breakdown of goods bought by Czechs was similar to that for Slovaks, expect that children’s goods were more popular than cosmetics.