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Log on and buy: shopping online has become quick, easy and fun. Swiss News looks at how this industry has finally taken off.


More and more of us are logging on and buying online these days. The industry that seemed to be doomed a few years ago has risen from the ashes and is fighting back so much so that European European

emanating from or pertaining to Europe.


European bat lyssavirus
see lyssavirus.

European beech tree
fagussylvaticus.

European blastomycosis
see cryptococcosis.
 online sales had overtaken those in the US at Christmas Christmas [Christ's Mass], in the Christian calendar, feast of the nativity of Jesus, celebrated in Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches on Dec. 25. In liturgical importance it ranks after Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany (Jan. 6).  for the first time.

The success of eCommerce See e-commerce.  must be attributed to that of the Internet Internet

Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the
. In Switzerland half the population are considered regular Internet users Internet user ninternauta m/f

Internet user Internet ninternaute m/f 
, surfing surfing, sport of gliding toward the shore on a breaking wave. Surfers originally used long, cumbersome wooden boards but now ride lightweight synthetic boards that allow a greater degree of maneuverability.  the web more than once a week or daily. They go online for email (28 per cent), search engines (64 per cent), daily news (42 per cent), banking (11 per cent) and train schedules (16 per cent).

More Shoppers

Online shopping popularity has therefore also reached new heights. The new study conducted by WEMF WEMF World Electronic Music Festival
WEMF World Electronic Media Forum
 research institute shows that 64 per cent of the men and 59 per cent of the women interviewed (aged over 14 years) have made an online purchase in the last 6 months and 40 per cent of all participants make at least one online purchase every three months.

Most purchased items are books (42.9 per cent), tickets (39.7 per cent), music (35.6 per cent), hotel bookings (34.7 per cent), holidays (27 per cent) and clothing (25.4 per cent).

LeShop.ch

One of the eShop success stories is LeShop.ch. It was founded in 1997 as Switzerland's fast online supermarket.

After the dot com dot com - com  bust the Swiss lost their appetite for online shopping. At the end of year 2002 LeShop, then owned by the Bon Appetit Group, was threatened with closure after failing to meet projected turnover targets. Around 70 jobs were at risk.

Soon after, however, it was taken over by ShoppingNet Holding, led by a group of Dutch investors. ShoppingNet formed a strategic alliance with the Swiss supermarket Migros and since 2004 eShop has been successfully selling up to 6,000 Migros products on its website.

Swiss News talks to Catherine Crowden, a market researcher from the Gottlieb Duttweiler Gottlieb Duttweiler (15 August 1888 in Zürich - 8 June 1962 in Rüschlikon) was a Swiss businessman, founding the Migros chain of grocery stores, and politician, starting the (LDU) party.  Institute (GDI (Graphics Device Interface) The traditional programming interface (API) for output in Windows. When an application needs to display or print, it makes a call to a GDI function and sends it the parameters for the object that must be created. ) about this phenomenon.

Swiss News: What is the secret behind the success of online shopping these days?

Shoppers have become more accustomed to the Internet medium; there is more bandwidth for private home users and faster connections. Such factors make online shopping easier, more fun, and less tiring tir·ing
n.
See cerclage.
, eShops have become user-friendlier and are attracting more customers.

Do you find it ironic that despite the growing number of viruses these days people are even more willing to trust in online transactions?

Security and privacy are still worrying issues, but mostly for specialists. I'm not quite sure if people are more willing to trust or if they just don't put one and one together. I think that in Switzerland a lot of people still prefer to pay with an invoice An itemized statement or written account of goods sent to a purchaser or consignee by a vendor that indicates the quantity and price of each piece of merchandise shipped.

A consular invoice is one used in foreign trade.
, which is very typical and a lot more secure than giving their credit card details online.

How do you describe the Swiss as an online customer group?

Internet shoppers in Switzerland value service, product appeal, good selection and low prices in that order. There are probably more people using websites and eShops to evaluate their purchases, but a lot of the actual purchasing transactions are still taking place in stores, by telephone or mail, etc ...

The Swiss are Channel-Hoppers (just like other Europeans). This means that a lot of the customers are very well informed about the products they are about to buy when entering the store.

Pure online shoppers are still mainly male and are buying music, technical and financial products.

A recent study published in the Tages Anzeiger mentions that the number of women in Europe shopping online has rapidly increased over the last few years. How do you explain that?

In the beginning eShops weren't very consumer friendly and the product offering was mainly technical in nature. Therefore, one had to be quite technically savvy to shop online. Women, at the time, preferred online communication.

What are the most popular eShops for the Swiss?

Amazon, Ebay, cede.ch, ricardo.ch, easyjet.ch and ticketcorner.ch

What causes online customers to change their loyalties?

Customers are mainly affected by price, quality, and brands. We notice it mainly when well-known offline stores go online.

How do you see the future of shopping online?

Very bright! Online shopping is and will continue to be a part of our daily life. It will eventually become a very normal thing to do.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Swiss News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2005 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:Business
Author:Venning, Mona M.
Publication:Swiss News
Date:Feb 1, 2005
Words:735
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