170 per cent growth for e-commerce

The turnover currently being achieved through end-consumers by e-commerce is rising at breathtaking speed throughout Europe. Whereas users in Europe ordered goods and services via the Net to the value of € 4.2 bn between April and October 2001, from October 2001 to March 2002 they placed orders for € 11.5 bn. This amounts to an increase of 170 per cent, according to a GfK study in Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain. The proportion of consumers who made at least one purchase via the Internet during the period in question has also risen: in the spring of 2002 it came to 31.4 per cent of all 16- to 69-year-olds.