Number of online stores in Austria has tripled in ten years

Last year, there were about 9,000 retailers across Austria that sold online. This means that the number of online stores in this European country has nearly tripled over the past ten years. Also during the same period, the number of online shoppers in Austria has doubled.

This is shown in the study ‘Internet-Einzelhandel 2018‘, which was carried out with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs. The study addresses both the supply side (retail) and the demand side (consumers) of ecommerce in Austria.

‘7 billion euros spent online in 2017’

The number of online stores in Austria has almost tripled over the past decade. And currently, over a fifth of all retailers sell their products online, the research shows. On the demand side, there are 4.1 million Austrians aged 16-74 who shop online and they spend, on average, 1,700 euros annually. This amounts to a total sum of 7 billion euros that was spent online in 2017.

According to the research, the number of online shoppers has doubled in the past ten years. And 62 percent of consumers aged 16-74 shop online, with online shopping being particularly popular among young age groups and high-income households.

‘Online visibility plays important role in retail’

The report also shows that 75 percent of Austrian (also) research online before they buy something in a physical store. “That’s why online visibility plays an increasingly important role in retail”, Wko.at writes. Three in four retailers that are based in Austria currently provide information on their own website.

Ecommerce accounts for 4.3% of total retail

With the dynamic growth of online shops in Austria’s domestic retail, online sales have increased significantly faster than stationary sales in recent years. The online domestic retail was worth 3.2 billion euros last year, which corresponds to 4.3 percent of the total retail volume.

These statistics also mean that 55 percent of what Austrians spend online goes to international retailers. In no other EU country, with the exception of small countries Luxembourg and Malta, do consumers buy more in foreign shops than they do in Austria. This is because most major online retailers in Austria are located abroad.