Dutch online spending grows

[Ove]

Apr 04 2002: Online spending in the Netherlands rose by 50 per cent in 2001, a new study by Blauw New Media, commissioned by the Dutch organization HBD, has shown.

Online
February 2002 30.2 million 36.37%

[nua.com...]

/Ove

[Rumbas]

Great find Ove.

In these days, where everyone is turning to PPC and PFI etc. it is nice that Joe Average is getting his credit card out and spending it online more often. He's even using it to buy more expensive products too.

Online spending in 2001 was worth USD280 million in Holland

Wauw, that's a big number!

[heini]

How do they pay?

We know the Netherlands are one of the most advanced countries internet wise in Europe - but the single most important problem with european online shopping behaviour is the lack of a widely accepted payment method.

Do Dutch shopper use credit cards?

[brotherhood of LAN]

A bit off topic, my dad is old school and was sceptical about online buying

Since his new computer last month, I daresay he has spent £200 online!!

[Remco]

I don't have the percentage of people that shop with credit card. I do know that lots of site like the book shop BOL.com offer to pay with "acceptgiro". This means that you will get the bill sent home. I think it depends on the shop if they sent the product before or after you have payed.

Sometimes you can also pay to the postman. In this way the dutch will never pay with creditcard online I think....

Biggest problem is not the security but that most people don't have a credit card.

[heini]

>most people don't have a credit card

So this would go in favour of online shops based in the Netherlands plus the very big online shops who do dutch branches. But a rather small shop from another country won't be too happy to accept payments the way you described it.

Still - I find this most interesting. As said before I tend to think the major culprit for online shopping not really taking off in most of the wealthy european countries is the lack of a suitable payment standard.

Take the UK for example - credit cards are widely used, online shopping takes much bigger volume than in Germany or France.

The dutch example however goes to show payment methods are just one factor involved.

[Remco]

I would advice those small foreign shops to have a look at bibit. They can process the payments for those companies. In this way you can offer a lot of payment options that are locally used.

For example lots of regional banks offer payment options, for example the abn amro has a e-wallet. Bibit supports this so you can offer it to your clients.

I had a look at their website, they offer 60 payment methods that you can offer.

[Damian]

>percentage of people that shop with credit card

From selling to Dutch customers in 2001 (we stopped that by now) I estimate we sold 80%+ via credit cards.

Of the offline (non-credit-card) orders at least half never get paid, presumably because it requires more commitment from the buyer as he/she has to mail the order in after deciding to buy.

In the end we had to conclude the advantage of accepting offline payment methods and dutch guilders (euro's nowadays) is very limited (credit card holders pay in other currency just as easy) when selling to a Dutch audience.

Part of creditcard sales working better for us I think is the willingness of credit card holders to shop online opposed to those that do not have one.

>problem is not the security but that most people don't have a credit card.
Good point. The number of people with credit cards in Holland is considerably lower compared to the US on average I think.