Major improvements for UK consumers when shopping online ‘cross-border’

Oct. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Consumers tend to be more confident when purchasing goods and services online domestically, rather than with traders based outside their home country elsewhere in the EU, according to a report out this month (October 2011) from the European Consumer Centres’ Network.

The report, ‘Online cross-border mystery shopping – state of the e-union’, is being launched today (4 October 2011). It shows that the number of consumers shopping online increased from 37% in 2009 to 40% in 2010. But only 9% of these shop cross-border (in other words outside their domestic environment).

In the mystery shopping exercise, a total of 305 online non-domestic purchases were made early in 2011, with 17 out of the 29 ECC offices submitting lists of trader’s websites and product categories ranging from clothing and sporting goods to video or computer games and household goods (blender, lamp etc). The largest number of test purchases in a single country was 54, made in the UK.

Jed Mayatt, UK European Consumer Centre Manager, said: “It was decided that each Mystery Shopper would carry out up to 20 purchases each, The Mystery Shoppers were given a comprehensive shopping guide explaining how to carry out their 20 purchases. They were made by individuals using their private credit cards and the products were delivered to their home addresses.”

The report reveals that consumer conditions have improved when shopping online across borders compared to an ECC-Net report of 2003. The delivery rate of ordered products for the 2011 report was 94% (of which 99% was the same as the order), a real improvement from the 66% in the 2003 report. In addition, 86% of all purchases were delivered within 14 days.

The report also shows areas with room for improvement. One of the major barriers is the lack of traders willing to sell to consumers in other countries.

Information is still missing
Even though EU directives have been implemented in all countries within the internal market, clearly stating what information the trader must present to the consumer, these requirements are not met by all traders.  For example:
•   In 18% of the purchases the Mystery Shopper was not informed about the legal right to withdraw from the contract.
•   In 63% of the purchases the websites did not contain information about the legal guarantee.
•   In 12% of the purchases the Mystery Shopper could not find the trader’s email address.

Lack of reimbursement
The Mystery Shopper was reimbursed in 90% of all the purchases, which is another great improvement from the 68.5 % in 2003. At the same time it cannot be ignored that in more than 50% of the purchases the trader did not reimburse the delivery costs. This needs to improve in order to ensure a continuous positive development in cross-border e-commerce.

The report showed that it was surprisingly difficult to find enough web traders who were willing to sell cross-border, with almost 60% of the websites initially submitted for the project not being usable.

Mr Mayatt said: “Even though the internet is often referred to as a borderless market, there are still some barriers to overcome in order to reach the European Commission’s goal for 20% of the population to buy cross-border online by 2015.

“However, there are encouraging signs regarding cross-border online shopping. The research showed that 61% of the websites used in the shopping exercise provided information in more than language. In 2003, the corresponding figure was only 24%, so 61% represents a huge improvement.”

The full report can be found at http://dokumenter.forbrug.dk/forbrugereuropa/onlinecrossb...

The UK ECC website carries hints and tips for successful online shopping – under the ‘online shopping’ leaflet in the UK ECC website’s publications section. http://www.ukecc.net

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The UK ECC is part of a network that is made up of 29 centres throughout Europe. The centres work together in order to try and resolve consumer cross-border disputes in an amicable manner. We provide advice, information, and support to consumers.