E-commerce transactions in Taiwan topped NT$1.8 trillion (US$55.85 billion) last year, 1.7 times higher than that in 2019, National Credit Card center data showed yesterday.
The figure was based on the amount of credit card transactions last year, which grew from NT$660 billion in 2019, the center said.
The number of online transactions also rose from 370 million in 2019 to 1.57 billion last year, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
About half of the transactions in 2019 were for purchases of less than NT$500, and that percentage surged to more than 70 percent last year, it said.
This shows that people are more engaged in online transactions, including for purchases of daily items or necessities, it said.
Meanwhile, cross-border e-commerce transactions jumped 92.6 percent from 2019 to last year, with the annual amount exceeding NT$100 billion from 2022 to last year.
Cross-border transactions rose 63.5 percent from 2022 to last year, significantly outperforming overall online transaction growth of 35 percent, the center said.
However, the total amount of cross-border purchases was only about 10 percent of overall online transactions, indicating that people still shop largely on domestic e-commerce platforms.
Regarding items and services purchased online, more than 40 percent of the amount was for general retail items.
Online purchases for restaurant services accounted for 11 percent of the total last year, up from 2.2 percent in 2019.
Women accounted for about 54 percent of the total, the data showed.
People aged 30 to 60 mostly bought items and services from general merchandise retailers, while those aged 60 or older spent more on leisure and entertainment services.
Young people spent more on food delivery services, the center said.
Separately, Chunghwa Post and the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to deter financial fraud by monitoring and intercepting suspicious transactions and sharing intelligence.
As of last month, post offices across the nation intercepted 510 cases of fraud this year, with the amount of funds involved topping NT$230.66 million, up 50 percent from the same quarter last year.
The postal company also reported that suspicious accounts numbered 4,816 in the first quarter, down 8.5 percent from a year earlier.
Chunghwa Post chairman Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) earlier this month said that the company had identified 10,619 suspicious accounts last year, and the goal this year was to halve the number.
“As more migrant workers unknowingly get involved in financial fraud, we want to remind them that they should prevent their accounts from being used as straw accounts,” the company said.
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