St. Gallen Internet Day: Swiss online trade is booming

Swiss trade via the internet has increased significantly in recent years. This is the conclusion of a long-term study by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Chair of International Retail Management at the University of St. Gallen. In 2008 alone, Swiss consumers bought products worth around 5.87 billion Swiss francs via the Internet - an increase of over 38 percent in two years. The study will be presented on April 28, 2009 as part of the "St. Gallen Internet Day".
For the sixth time in succession, over 1,000 people were surveyed at the end of 2008 for the study "Swiss Online Retail - Internet Usage Switzerland 2009". In addition to the proven market data, the new edition of the study also provides a ten-year long-term analysis of changes in usage behavior for the first time. This shows that the proportion of online shoppers in Switzerland has risen from 30 to 84 percent over the last ten years. In 2006, online sales in Switzerland still amounted to CHF 4.24 billion.
The authors of the study attribute this strong growth in particular to vacation travel (+9.6% online customers), flight bookings (+7.6%), the sale of second-hand products (+3.6%) and electrical appliances (+1.2%). Almost 100,000 Swiss consumers also prefer to purchase less popular online products, such as food, online.

St. Gallen Internet Day 2009, April 28, 2009
Following the new trends of the study, the "St. Gallen Internet Day 2009" will focus on the "merging of two retail worlds". In addition to the developments on the Internet, the congress will focus in particular on their impact on established providers in the retail sector.
In St. Gallen, representatives from industry and trade will discuss and give presentations:
Ralf Kleber (Managing Director Amazon.de)
Frerk-Malte Feller (Managing Director Ebay Germany)
Dr. Beat Bühlmann (Head of Sales Google Switzerland)
Christian Wanner (Managing Director LeShop.ch)
Dr. Dieter Berninghaus (Member of the Executive Board of Migros Genossenschaftsbund)
Dr. Björn Schäfers (Head of Business Development Otto Group and Smatch.com)
Jan-Dieter Schaap (Director E-Business Perfumery Douglas)
Dr. Axel Seeger (Manager E-Commerce S.Oliver)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rudolph (Institute for Retail Management, University of St. Gallen)
Pierre-Alain Regali (Managing Director Ebookers.ch)
Marc Mielau (Head of Digital Media BMW)
Andreas Brandl (Head of Conextrade, Swisscom IT Services)
Paul de la Rochefoucauld (Managing Director iTaste)
Arie Struik (Managing Director Ala Test)
Jürgen Seitz (Head of Products & Platforms United Internet Media)
and others.