One in two Greeks shop online amid pandemic: survey

2021-01-22 14:06:17 GMT2021-01-22 22:06:17(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

ATHENS, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Online shopping is booming in Greece amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with an average of one in two consumers making at least one purchase online since the outbreak, according to a new survey.

In December, the rate of people shopping online rose to 61 percent, compared with 51 percent in June 2020 and 21 percent in December 2019, according to the poll conducted by Greece's Association of Business and Retail Sales of Greece, the Greek newspaper Ta Nea (The News) reported on Friday.

The country's e-commerce turnover in 2020 tripled year-on-year to 15 billion euros (18.3 billion U.S. dollars) as a result of the pandemic, according to recent estimates by the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship.

Greece had lagged behind other EU member states in previous years, but in recent months the country has taken significant steps towards the digital transformation of its economy and consumers make their purchases more often electronically, Makis Savvidis, vice-president of the Athens Traders Association and the Greek eCommerce Association, said in a recent interview.

"In the first lockdown (in spring 2020) we recorded increases of 70-80 percent in sales of e-shops. During the summer, this trend continued and we witnessed 40 percent higher sales compared to 2019. Now during the second lockdown (started on Nov. 7), we see that demand for online purchases has skyrocketed by over 85 percent," he told Xinhua.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, only 15 percent of Greek enterprises (about 8,000) had an e-shop, he noted. It is estimated that Greece's e-commerce market will have doubled by the summer of 2021, as another 8,000 businesses are working on launching their e-shops in the coming months, he said. Enditem

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