Easy payment favors online shopping

In this year's Swiss e-commerce mood barometer conducted by the HWZ and Swiss Post, respondents were asked about the reasons for and frequency of online shopping, the factors for a pleasant shopping experience and the advantages and disadvantages of shopping in online stores. 50 percent of respondents store in an online store at least once a month. Reason enough for Swiss companies to pay more attention to the needs of Swiss e-shoppers.Amazon and ricardo.ch are the frontrunnersSo-called virtual marketplaces were also taken into account for the first time. Among the most popular are the international provider Amazon and ricardo.ch. Amazon is particularly popular in Italian-speaking Switzerland.74% of respondents value the comparability of products when shopping on such marketplaces, followed by the bundling of different product categories (58%) and transparent product reviews (57%).Appropriate payment options and transparency requiredWhen shopping online, the Swiss attach particular importance to uncomplicated payment processing (91%) and store certification (82%). However, there is still a lack of payment options. 77% of respondents have already abandoned a purchase at least once because their preferred payment method was not available. Among younger people (under 25), this factor is even more decisive at 82%. The most popular payment method across all age groups is still the invoice (85%), followed by the credit card with 80% and the PostFinance debit card (42%). Other reasons for abandoning purchases are the lack of delivery options (81%) and hidden costs (78%).Smartphone use at previous year's levelOnly 20 percent of respondents use their smartphone frequently or always for online purchases. Just under a quarter of respondents use it occasionally, but still more than half (56%) rarely or never use it. The reasons for this are that the products cannot be displayed large enough, lack of mobile optimization and inadequate presentation of the product range, cumbersome ordering processes and security concerns. Smartphone use is therefore at the same level as in the previous year.About the studyThe Center for Digital Business at the HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich conducted the Swiss E-Commerce Sentiment Barometer on behalf of and with the support of Swiss Post. The survey was conducted by the Institute for Strategic Management: Stakeholder View at the HWZ. A total of over 10,000 people took part in the survey, 50 percent of whom were male and 50 percent female. 67 percent of respondents were German-speaking, 25 percent French-speaking and 8 percent Italian-speaking.