Germans lead Europe in ecommerce field

German consumers have adopted ecommerce faster than shoppers in any other country, according to a report released yesterday by Jupiter Communications.

The media research company predicts that German ecommerce revenues will reach $1.85bn by 2002 - more than France and the UK combined. Total online shopping revenues for the three leading European countries were $68m in 1997, the report states.

Jupiter surveyed online households and set up panels for consumers and vendors. Comparisons were made across different product categories and countries. As ecommerce becomes more accepted, Jupiter predicts sales will migrate from traditional retail stores into the online sphere.

At present, the most popular online purchase is air travel, closely followed by books, music and computer software. Phil Dwyer, MD of Jupiter's Internet strategies, said: "We can expect groceries and gift purchases to increase in the future, too."

Dywer concedes that Germany's large population has boosted its ecommerce statistics. But he explained that the country's infrastructure also had a lot to do with it. "The infrastructure there is more like the US," he said. "Consumers are not always located near shops, and ISDN lines are cheaper and denser than in the rest of Europe."

Jupiter spokesman, Henrik Ravn, said: "Germans are culturally more suited to spending money online. They travel a lot and are accustomed to using Videotext on their TV screens when buying travel services and books."

Dwyer said there are lessons to be learnt from the survey. "Existing European retailers are very complacent about their brands," he told Silicon News. "They should be building deals with the European equivalents of portals such as Yahoo and Lycos. The market is there to be won."