Comerç electrònic a Àustria

E-commerce

E-commerce market

In 2017, B2C e-commerce sales amounted to US$ 9.2 billion, an increase of 14.3% compared to 2016 sales. As for the total e-commerce revenue, in 2017 it amounted to US$ 4.4 billion, a rate that is expected to reach US$ 6.6 billion by 2021. The main online shops in the Austrian market are Amazon, Universal (generalist), Zalando (clothing, German), Otto (clothing and multimedia, German), Eduscho (generalist), E-Tec (multimedia), H&M (clothing) and Conrad (generalist). For second-hand buying and selling, Austrians use mainly two websites: Willhaben and Ebay. The Austrian e-commerce market can be very connected to the German one. For example, Amazon sales in Austria are all shipped from the company’s fulfilment facilities in Germany. Consequently, shipping costs are higher for Austrian e-customers but they benefit from a 14-day period to return the product (also known as “cooling-off period”), which is the rule in Germany, as opposed to 7 days in Austria. Cross-border sales in Austria also come from Italy, Switzerland, China and the Czech Republic. Fashion (textile, clothing, shoes and accessories) is the leading segment, accounting for US$ 1.2 billion market share, just ahead of the Electronics & Media, which accounted for US$ 1.1 billion in 2017.

Social media

Over 60% of Austrians - about 5.8 million people - are social media users. WhatsApp is the leading communication app in Austria. Even though it is popular among all age groups, it is particularly used by those under 18, as 93% of the population in that age group use the app. Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with 3.4 million users. Of those users, half are male and half are female, while most of them are between 25 and 34 years old (29% of all users). Instagram has 1.7 million users in Austria, and is particularly popular among younger generations, as only 10% of the users are over 45 years old. As of August 2018, the most popular social media platforms by market share in the country were Facebook (66.37%), Pinterest (18.45%), YouTube (5.67%), Twitter (4.41%), Instagram (2.58%) and Tumblr (1.46%). Some German social media are also present in Austria, such as Xing (the 'German LinkedIn') and StudiVZ (student network).