Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4.2 European on-line
retail sales as percent of total,
2011
United Kingdom 12.0
Germany 9.0
Switzerland 8.7
Denmark 8.0
Norway 8.1
France 7.3
Sweden 6.9
Benelux 5.1
Spain 3.5
Poland 3.1
Italy 1.3
Source Center for Retail Research http://www.retailresearch.org/
onlineretailing.php
Germany, with Europe's largest single population of netizens, has a robust
e-commerce sector, the second largest in the world. German e-commerce tends to
consolidate spatially in distinct clusters, particularly in Berlin and Baden-Wurt-
temberg. Germany's success in this regard reflects its long tradition of adopting
new technologies, its history of nonstore shopping (i.e., mail order and catalogue
houses), and the politics of retail regulation, (Aoyama and Schwarz 2004 ). As with
the U.S., a secure legal environment protects German consumers' privacy and
gives them freedom from fraud. Oddly, however, a relatively small number of
German consumers use credit cards compared to the U.S. E-tailing has also been
greatly facilitated by online shopping clubs such as Brands4friends.de, Liman-
go.de, and Zalando-lounge.de. The most popular items purchased online, in
descending order, include travel reservations, shoes, and computer hardware.
Thus, even as the number of German retail stores and their sales declines,
e-commerce there grows steadily.
In France, the adoption of e-commerce was slowed by the country's reliance on
Minitel, whose applicability for e-commerce was negligible; the French internet, and
hence e-commerce, did not begin until 1997 (Brousseau 2003 ). Nonetheless, since
then the French have adopted it enthusiastically. Levels of trust in France tend to be
well below those in Germany, which has also affected their pattern of e-commerce
adoption (Sun 2011 ). Nonetheless, one-half of French Internet users have purchased
goods or services on-line. Segments of the European e-commerce market face
limitations: French curbs on Internet gambling, for example, have faced threats from
the European Union. In Italy, e-commerce supplements rather than substitutes for
the highly successful model of industrial districts such as in Emilia-Romagna
(Chiarvesio et al. 2004 ). However, e-commerce in Southern Europe is relatively
undeveloped compared to their northern neighbors: less than 10 % of companies in
Spain, Greece, and Portugal, for example, utilize the Internet for sales, compared to
30 % in Germany and the United Kingdom (Nicola et al. 2004 ), and in Italy, only
1.3 % of retail sales were conducted on-line (Table 4.2 ).
East European e-commerce reflects its nascent, emerging market. In Poland,
on-line sales amounted to only 3.1 % of the total, but are rising rapidly, particularly
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