EU to encourage cross-border e-commerce

More must be done to encourage online shoppers to buy products from other European countries, says the EU Commission.

The proportion of EU citizens making purchases over the internet has risen from 50 to 56 per cent since 2006, according to the Commission's latest research. But only 16 per cent of consumers have made international purchases over the web, a small rise on the previous figure of 15 per cent.

Europe must work to encourage confidence in cross-border purchases, said consumer commissioner Meglena Kuneva

"Consumers and retailers are beginning to embrace e-commerce at national level but internal market barriers still persist online," said Kuneva.

"The potential of the online internal market to deliver greater choice and lower price to consumers and new markets for retailers is considerable. We need to redouble our efforts to tackle the remaining borders."

Kuneva cited air travel as an example of an area where users may be blocked from buying their tickets from travel agents overseas. Surfers attempting to access foreign portals will often be redirected to the homepage of their own nation.

See also:

UK consumers reject mobile payments

Security is a major hindrance, says study  23 May 2008

Security weaknesses prompt EU cyber crime directive debate

European Commission increasingly worried about the level of cyber crime in the EU  01 May 2008

E-commerce tops Domino's results

Online and SMS sales at the pizza chain reach £32m in 2007  19 Feb 2008

UK to dominate European e-commerce

British transactions will account for 40 per cent of the continent's online shopping in 2008  18 Feb 2008

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!