Making it easier to buy online: our action plan for e-Commerce - Main contents
Are you one of the 40% of Europeans who purchases online each year?
If so you’re probably aware of the benefits of doing so - but also of some disadvantages. Online shopping and services can mean better choice, easier to use, easier to compare prices: all in all, better value for consumers. But some will worry about issues like, how can I pay for my product safely? If it’s a physical product, will it be delivered in time (and intact)? And what do I do if there’s a problem with the order? Others, unable to find the content they want lawfully, may turn to illegal content.
(L-R) Myself, Commr Barnier, Commr Dalli launching the e-Commerce action plan
These problems are why many don’t feel comfortable or able to buy online, particularly across national borders. And why, overall, e-commerce is still just 3.4% of European retail trade; a huge lost opportunity for EU consumers and companies. If that figure reached 15%, the gain for consumers could be over 200 billion euros - worth an incredible €400 in the pocket of each and every EU citizen.
Today the Commission launched its action plan to double the volume of e-Commerce in the EU by 2015. That means doubling both online sales, and the share of the internet economy in EU GDP. We’ll do this by making it easier, more transparent and more trustworthy to buy online. And by making it an integral part of our single market, so that you can have as much confidence when buying online in another member state as in your own - and can benefit from as much choice and opportunity online as possible. Because, remember, if you can buy from online shops across the EU, you will have - on average - 16 times more choice than if you only shopped offline in your own country!
There’s a lot of strands to this action plan: sixteen, in fact. Some of them are about the kinds of issues I mention above - being able to trust those who supply goods online, to pay for goods and services easily online, to respond to illegal content, and to rely on postal and delivery systems.
But, of course, we’re not just talking about old-style physical delivery of goods: it’s also online “virtual” services like video and music streaming, or online games. Those services need serious broadband bandwidth: and we need to ensure we can provide that infrastructure, through broadband roll-out and spectrum provision. Likewise, we need to look ahead to future developments, and make sure our strategy makes it easy to develop and use cloud services.
It’s no coincidence that this is the first initiative the Commission is launching in the new year. In 2012 I know the people of Europe will continue to worry - quite understandably - about prospects for the future. Boosting e-commerce is a real opportunity to provide more choice and value for consumers, more opportunities for businesses, and more jobs, well into the future.
For more information: check out the action plan itself, the homepage, the press release, or Q&A. Or you can comment on my speech at the launch event.