Greeks embrace foreign e-stores

A staggering 95 percent of Greeks who make online purchases do so from stores or companies located abroad, a recent study conducted by PayPal and GfK on cross-border commerce in Greece has found, noting that 54 percent of buyers prefer e-stores based in the UK, followed by China on 47 percent, the USA on 34 percent and Germany on 21 percent.

Twenty-seven percent of the consumers surveyed for the study said that they preferred to shop from the UK (followed by the USA and Germany, both on 22 percent) due to the reasonable prices. They also cited access to products that they could not find at home and better quality. The decision to make purchases from China, meanwhile, was motivated by low prices for 72 percent of respondents.

Greek consumers turn to online stores mainly to buy apparel (41 percent), followed by consumer electronics (31 percent) and jewelry and watches (17 percent). However, other products including digital goods and travel-related purchases are also seeing increasing interest from online consumers: Each of the two categories represents 11 percent of online purchases by Greeks from foreign-based e-stores over the past 12 months, the study found.

Among the consumers who participated in the study in Greece, 88 percent said they are not worried about making purchases from retailers based abroad and believe that online cross-border commerce is no longer considered exotic by Greeks. In fact, 35 percent of respondents said they don’t care where the company is based as long as it has a solid reputation, while 23 percent said they pay attention to prices and that if the overall cost of their purchase is affordable, they will not reconsider their decision. Another important factor for 88 percent of Greek online shoppers that determines their choice of retailer and country is the cost of delivery.

The respondents said they would make more purchases from retailers abroad if they offered special discounts or coupons (41 percent) and if their websites also included Greek among their languages (45 percent).

Payment methods are also important to Greek online shoppers, who said they are looking for speed (46 percent) and safety (44 percent).