Online sales in Taiwan grew 32 percent last year to an estimated NT$243 billion (US$7.25 billion), a recent survey by the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) showed.
Clothes and beauty care items registered the largest annual growth rates of 88 percent and 49 percent respectively, while information technology products were hit hard by the economic downturn and posted the largest decline, the MIC said.
Neil Chan (詹超宇), an industry analyst at MIC’s software and applications department, attributed the rise in online shopping to its convenience and prices that are lower than at brick and mortar stores.
Chan predicted that the sector would continue to grow this year.
As more people become accustomed to shopping online, the average purchase value per year has also risen, with older shoppers found to be the biggest spenders, the survey said.
Last year, shoppers in their 50s spent an average of NT$19,968 per person online, while those aged between 20 and 29 spent an average of NT$8,814 — contrary to conventional wisdom that young men and women were the mainstream shoppers online.
The most visited shopping Web sites were buy.yahoo.com.tw (雅虎奇摩購物中心), shopping.pchome.com.tw (網路家庭購物) and www.books.com.tw (博客來網路書店), the survey found.
Buy.yahoo.com.tw drew the most online shoppers aged between 20-29, while pchome.com.tw was most popular among 40-somethings and www. books.com.tw largely attracted individuals in the 10-19 age bracket.
The survey also found that most online shoppers were concerned about not being able to examine the products beforehand, after-sales service, personal information security and vendor trustworthiness when visiting shopping Web sites.
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