Danes love shopping online

In Europe, only the British buy products on the internet more often than the Danes do

Almost 80 percent of Danes bought something over the internet last year, placing the nation in second position in a European comparison.

Only the British shopped online more often, according to the European Commission.

Other Scandinavian countries ranked high with Norway placing third, followed by Sweden.

Dansk Erhvervs has calculated that after deducting housing expenses, some 10 percent of private spending was used on e-commerce.

It's cheaper and more comfortable
“When the domestic market is active and e-commerce thrives, Danish online shops have an opportunity to expand abroad,” Marie Louise Thorstensen, a consultant at Dansk Erhvervs, told Politiken.

Besides shopping online in general, more than every third Dane bought something from a website in another EU country.

Thorstensen believes ordering products from abroad may be cheaper as prices are generally high in Denmark due to high wages and taxes.

"There are also some things you simply cannot get in Denmark, and although shopping across borders is not a new phenomenon, what’s new is that people can do it from the comfort of their home now,” he said.


FACT BOX: E-commerce in EU (Source: EU-Commission)
Proportion (percentage) of the population that shopped online in 2014

TOP FIVE

UK 78.7
Denmark 77.7
Norway 76.7
Sweden 74.8
Luxembourg 74.0

BOTTOM FIVE

Romania 10.1
Bulgaria 16.6
Italy 22.3
Greece 25.7
Lithuania 26.0




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