Online shopping increasing in Switzerland

The Swiss are catching up with online shopping, with sales close to doubling to US$3.47 billion in the past three years. One of the foremost reasons for this increase has been the lessening of fears regarding internet security. The new results have been published by St Gallen University's Institute of Marketing and Retailing. Switzerland has 5 million internet users and according to the study, 40% of all Swiss internet users buy flights online. According to Thomas Rudolph, director of the institute, "There are still concerns about using credit cards and security is still a problem, but this is decreasing."

According to a report last year on online trade in Europe by Forrester Research, retail sales topped €100 billion (SFr162 billion) last year and will reach €263 billion in 2011.

Forrester predicts that sales in Switzerland will be more than €5 billion in 2011. This year the Swiss are expected to account for 1.3 per cent of Europe's €130 billion online sales.

This puts Switzerland roughly on a par with Denmark, ahead of Ireland, Portugal and Greece, but well behind big-hitters Britain and Germany.