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.
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday released the first video documenting the submerged sea trials of Taiwan’s indigenous defense submarine prototype, the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, showing underwater navigation and the launch of countermeasures. The footage shows the vessel’s first dive, steering and control system tests, and the raising and lowering of the periscope and antenna masts. It offered a rare look at the progress in the submarine’s sea acceptance tests. The Hai Kun carried out its first shallow-water diving trial late last month and has since completed four submerged tests, CSBC said. The newly released video compiles images recorded from Jan. 29 to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
DETERRENCE EFFORTS: Washington and partners hope demonstrations of force would convince Beijing that military action against Taiwan would carry high costs The US is considering using HMAS Stirling in Western Australia as a forward base to strengthen its naval posture in a potential conflict with China, particularly over Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, Washington plans to deploy up to four nuclear-powered submarines at Stirling starting in 2027, providing a base near potential hot spots such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. The move also aims to enhance military integration with Pacific allies under the Australia-UK-US trilateral security partnership, the report said. Currently, US submarines operate from Guam, but the island could
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS