The European Commission has presented a roadmap for developing e-commerce in Europe with the aim of doubling it by 2015 and removing obstacles such as delivery prices, payment difficulties and market fragmentation.
“Online commerce is very little developed between Member States and remains very partitioned between national borders,” admitted Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, at a press conference.
Asset # 1 in e-commerce: a gain of $ 204 billion for consumers
Yet, “if DesignRush Ecommerce Development Companies accounted for 15% of retail trade and barriers to the internal market were eliminated, the gains for consumers could reach EUR 204 billion, or 1.7% of European GDP,” says the Commission in a statement. Currently, the share of online commerce in retail sales is 3.4% and the Internet economy less than 3% of European GDP.
Asset # 2 in e-commerce: 16 times more choice than in a store
Another argument put forward is that e-commerce offers the consumer choice, “16 times more than if he made his purchases in stores in his country”, and allows him to save money, said John Dalli, Commissioner in charge of Consumer protection.
16 proposals to develop European e-commerce
To improve the situation, the Commission made Wednesday 16 proposals to develop the range of payments for e-commerce in Europe (Internet and mobile payment, in particular) and strengthen their security.
A Green Paper will be presented in mid-2012 to “identify the points that block”, said Michel Barnier, alongside John Dalli and Neelie Kroes, Commissioner in charge of the Digital Agenda.
Brussels will also launch a consultation on delivery systems by studying the costs of postal services between countries. The results of this study will be presented at the end of 2012.
It will finally promote transparency on the Internet to ensure consumer safety.
Rififi in the Belgian e-commerce
SafeShops.be brings together a dozen online retailers, disappointed by BeCommerce.be, the “historical” association.
A dozen traders from the Net (Foto.com, Snapstore.be, Proxisazur.be …) have just launched the new SafeShops platform. be. Objectives: “Strengthen consumer confidence in online shops and actively support the development of e-commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg.” The new federation sets up its organizational chart and will launch a new quality label for e-commerce sites.
What prompted these actors to withdraw their marbles from the “historical” BeCommerce association? “We have nothing against BeCommerce but we are not satisfied with their services,” says Cédric Braem, co-president of SafeShops.be and managing director of InternetVista.com, an internet monitoring site. “BeCommerce is padlocked by actors like 3 Swiss or La Redoute.At the awards, they distribute the prices between them and they lack representation: out of 6,000 webshops, barely 150 are affiliated with BeCommerce.”
Destabilized by the dismissal of his former director Marc Périn, replaced in July by the former Open VLD minister Patricia Ceysens, BeCommerce sees founding members leave the ship. Under their new banner, they hope to revitalize Belgian e-commerce. A promising market, but behind other European countries. In 2010, transactions on Belgian sites reached 903 million euros (+ 28% in one year), according to online payment specialist Ogone. By comparison, the online trade in France (including foreign sites) represents, according to the Fevad (Federation of e-commerce and distance selling), a turnover of 31 billion euros.
Good and bad news for the European consumer
The text adopted Thursday by MEPs profoundly changes the daily rights of EU consumers when shopping in stores and online. The Beuc has listed its strengths and weaknesses.
MEPs on Thursday adopted a text profoundly changing the daily rights of consumers when shopping in stores and online. “In the beginning, this law was entirely devoted to reducing the obstacles for companies,” said Monique Goyens, Director General of the European Consumers’ Union, in a statement released Thursday that would have stripped European consumers of several crucial rights.
The European Parliament and the Council, however, “have been able to listen to the consumer associations and the most important duty reductions have been avoided,” says the boss of the Beuc, “this text is the result of a complex compromise. national rules are discarded but, overall, consumers will benefit from progress. “
Consumers will have the right to more information and transparency, “especially when shopping online,” says Monique Goyens. “In addition, this law will put an end to unfair commercial practices, such as the obligation to pay exorbitant fees when buying airline tickets over the Internet by credit card.”