Hamburg, Germany -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/11/2011 -- The entire region shows a strong upward trend for B2C E-Commerce activities. On the one hand, the number of internet users continues to grow steadily, while on the other hand the number of internet shoppers and B2C E-Commerce revenue figures are also growing. The latest trends include shopping clubs, group shopping and mobile internet.

Large population of internet users in Germany
Germany has the largest online population in the EU: by the end of 2010 already more than 50 million Germans were using the internet. As a result, the number of online purchases continued to grow. In 2010 almost 60 % of the German population had ordered goods or services for private use online compared to the EU average of only 40 %.

Forecasts predict double digit growth for B2C E-Commerce revenue from 2010 to 2011, following the trend from 2009 to 2010, where revenue had already shown a strong increase.

According to the “Central Europe B2C E-Commerce Report 2011” by yStats.com in 2010 “clothing and sporting goods” was the most popular category for online purchases, followed by the categories “books, magazines, e-learning resources”, “films/music” and “household items”.

The OTTO group (including its affiliated companies) is the leading B2C E-Commerce retailer in terms of B2C E-Commerce revenue in Germany, followed by Amazon. Shopping clubs are gaining in popularity as well. The biggest such portals are Brands4friends.de, Limango.de and Zalando-lounge.de. Furthermore, more and more Germans continue to show interest in group shopping. Groupon.de, DailyDeal.de and CooleDeals.de 2011 are the most successful providers of such services.

Mobile internet ushers in new trend in Austria
In the first quarter of 2011, almost 80 % of the Austrian population used the internet. More than 60 % of all internet users searched online for providers of goods and services.

This shows that internet penetration in Austria is much higher than in other CEE countries

More than 40 % of the Austrian population purchased online in 2010. According to the “Central Europe B2C E-Commerce Report 2011” by yStats.com the number of Austrians that accessed the internet via their mobile phones totalled more than 10 % in 2010, surpassing the EU average of 7 %. B2C E-Commerce revenue accounted for 6.4 % of all retail revenue in 2011. In 2010 the most popular B2C E-Commerce category in Austria was “Books, magazines, newspapers, e-learning resources”, followed by “Clothing, sporting goods”.

OTTO Versand Österreich and Neckermann rank as the leading B2C E-Commerce companies in Austria. Shopping clubs are also gaining in popularity: the French shopping club vente-privee.com successfully entered the Austrian market in 2010.

Impressive revenue growth for Swiss B2C E-Commerce
In 2010, the Swiss online market strongly increased its overall revenue. As much as 55 % of all Swiss users accessed the internet for buying or ordering online. It is particularly noteworthy that 50 % of all users wanted to use e-banking services, while only 16 % played or downloaded computer games online.

B2C E-Commerce revenue generated in Switzerland grew by more than 50 % in 2010 compared to 2009. In 2010, half of all Swiss online shoppers planned to purchase books, followed by the categories “plane tickets” and “clothing”. According to the “Central Europe B2C E-Commerce Report 2011” by yStats.com, the number of internet users in Switzerland reached more than 5 million in 2010, equalling approximately 80 % of the total population. Correspondingly, almost 50 % of all Swiss purchased online – an impressive growth compared to 37 % in 2008.

Generalist Amazon was the number one B2C E-Commerce business in Switzerland in June 2010 evaluated based on the number of unique visitors, followed by fashion retailer La Redoute, online media retail company Weltbild, consumer electronics online store Brack and online bookshop Exlibris. In the segment of group shopping sites in June 2011 DeinDeal had the most unique visitors in Switzerland, while Groupon and DailyDeal were ranked second and third, respectively.

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yStats.com has been committed to research up-to-date, objective and demand-based data on markets and competitors for top managers from various industries since 2005. Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, the firm has a strong international focus and is specialized in secondary market research. In addition to offering reports on markets and competitors, yStats.com also carries out client-specific research. Clients include leading global enterprises from various industries including B2C E-Commerce, electronic payment systems, mail order and direct marketing, logistics, as well as banking and consulting.