Raising standards for consumers

Key Facts

Cross-border
onlineshopping
within the EU

European consumers are now living in a digital age. As more consumers shop online within theEU it’s important that they are offered the same rights and protection online as on the high street.
We surveyed 4135 European consumers from 22 EU countries between July and August 2015
to learn about their experiences of online shopping cross-border.

99.5%

9 out of 10

had experienceof buying a product or service
online, either in their home country,
within the EU or outside the EU.

bought something online within thelast month. A fifth had bought
something online during the last 24hours.

Cross-border online shopping habits
Of those that havenever shopped
cross-border
Half of consumers find it difficult to know
where internet retailers are based,
which can lead to unintentional crossborder purchases.

the most common barrier (74%) is being‘worried about resolving problems or
returning goods if something went wrong’.

Two thirds

havebought something from an internet
retailer based in a different EUcountry.

The main reasons for shopping cross-border:

66%“To get items not available in my home country”“To get items at a cheaper price”

58%

Goods and services most frequently purchased cross-border:

4 Electrical products or accessories
1 Clothes, shoes, accessories(e.g. TV, computer, washing machine)
2 Travel (e.g. flights, hotels, package holidays)
3 Downloads (e.g. streamed software, music, movies) 5 Books, magazines or newspapers
ANEC Study: Cross - border online shopping within the EU, 2015 – Key facts

Frequency

Confidenceand trust

Cross-border purchases tend to be infrequent with the majority ofpeople buying something once a year or less.

Only 10% of respondents shop regularly (once a month or more)from websites based in other EU countries, compared to 63.4% who
shop regularly from websites based in their home country.
Online reviews are influential - three quarters (77.7%) of
online shoppers agree that online review sites influence theirpurchasing decisions.
Three quarters of respondents (76%) agree that they would
be more likely to use a website with a trust-mark label orlogo.

Confidence decreases the farther they shop from home60%

feel very confident shopping from a website in their owncountry

28%

feel very confident shopping from a website within theEU

18%

feel very confident shopping from a website from aninternet retailer based outside the EU.

Almost one in three online shoppers (28.3%) do not trust online sellers in other countries.

Problems shopping cross-border
15.2% of cross-border shoppers have experienced a problem with atransaction. Of these:

27.4% had received items later than the specified date
24.5% had been refused service due to their geographical location
23.1% had problems with faulty goods
22.1% had ordered something that had never arrived

Respondents were more likely to experience problems with products than services
14.3% of those who bought a product cross-border experiencing a problem, compared toonly 4.3% of those who bought a service.

14.3%

vs.

4.3%

ANEC Study: Cross - border online shopping within the EU, 2015 – Key facts

Complaints… agree with the statement:

EU consumers are not shy about
1complaining

40%

Of those that experienced a problem
while shopping cross-border7 10inmade a complaint.

“I am less likely to complain
about problems to an online
retailer based abroad, thanan online retailer in my owncountry.”

Satisfaction with complaints is low

6in

56.2% were satisfied
with the outcome of
their last complaint toan online retailer

10

respondents witha problem
complained
directly to theonline retailer.

32.5% weredissatisfied

Complaints are not escalated - only a fraction of people who experienced problems took thematter further.
Only 3% complained totheirlocal
European
Consumer Centre (ECC).

2.7% contacted an independent dispute
resolution
scheme,suchasanombudsman.

Dissatisfied shoppers are more likely to ‘spread the word’ than make a formal complaint
Of those people who had a problem
serious enough to warrant a complaint:
75% told family or friends about their negative experience
52% left a negative review online

Knowledge of consumer rights

Only 2.2%
felt ‘very confident’ about theirknowledge of consumer rights
when shopping cross-border.

When tested on nine ‘true or false’statements about EU consumer
rights,only 10.5%of online shoppers got them allright.

ANEC Study: Cross - border online shopping within the EU, 2015 – Key facts

For more information about EU consumers’ experiences of online shopping – including
details of problems, case studies and quotes – please contact ANEC.

For a copy of the full report: “Cross-Border Online Shopping within the EU - Learning fromConsumer Experiences”, December 2015, please check ANEC’s website(http://tinyurl.com/o5rdqkz)

Raising Standards for Consumers
European Association for the Coordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation
aisbl
Avenue de Tervueren 32, box 27,B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 743 24 70
Fax.: +32 2 706 54 30
Email: anec@anec.eu; www.anec.eu

ANEC is the European consumer voice in standardisation, defending consumer interests in the processesof technical standardisation and conformity assessment, as well as related legislation and public policies.
ANEC was established in 1995 as an international non-profit association under Belgian law andrepresents consumer organisations in 33 European countries.
ANEC is funded by the European Union and EFTA, with national consumer organisations contributing inkind. Its Secretariat is based in Brussels.

ANEC is supported financially by the European Union & EFTAEU Transparency Register No. 507800799-30© ANEC 2015