The Internet global supermarket is booming because people and businesses are looking for bargains and new outlets in bad times, a new report says.
And this great global shopping mall can only expand rapidly as mobile phone use explodes, the Chinese get involved and advertisers jump in, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecasts.
The e-trade revolution, however, is being held back by hidden frontiers, ranging from concerns over privacy of personal information, language problems, delivery costs and taxation and regulation barriers.
As the Christmas spending spree, vital to many retailers and manufacturers around the world, gets under way, the OECD also highlights other worries for consumers.
For example, Santa Claus may never turn up with the goods, or the purchases may be defective, or payment details may be stolen.
These are among the obstacles to increased cross-border trade, paradoxically even within the EU, which the OECD lists in a report on a conference under the heading: “Empowering e-consumers.”
The report found that the financial crisis had breathed new life into electronic commerce, with sales rising in Europe, the US and China at a time when the store-based retail sector struggles as consumers’ disposable income shrivels.
“The financial and economic crisis appears to be giving a e-commerce a boost as consumers search for ways to reduce expenditures by purchasing items online,” the OECD said. “The savings can be substantial.”
It cited a study showing that shoppers in the UK, Germany and France can save 17 percent by buying electronics goods, DVDs and clothing on online trading platforms rather than in physical stores.
In the US, online sales for 80 retailers rose an average of 11 percent in the first quarter of the year, another study said.
One site, Craigslist, is forecast to report sales of US$100 million this year, a 23 percent increase from last year. Another platform, Amazon, had net sales of US$177 million in the first quarter alone, up 24 percent from the first quarter last year.
The OECD cites a study by the Forrester research group predicting that western European consumers will buy 123.1 billion euros in goods online by 2014, for an average annual growth rate of 9.6 percent.
China too has experienced a jump in online retail activity. The online auction and retail Web site of the country’s leading e-commerce company, Alibaba Group(阿里巴巴), reported a 131 percent rise in transaction volume in February compared with a year earlier.
Helping to spur electronic commerce is the growth in mobile phone use.
The number of mobile phone subscribers grew at an average rate of 30 percent a year from 1993 to 2007 in the 30 industrialized economies in the OECD.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique