The significant change that has taken place and is now being consolidated among the consumer public in recent years in e-commerce and the great impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the online retail markets in Greece are highlighted by the results of a survey by SELPE (Business & Retail Association of Greece).

The research was carried out with the scientific support of the ELTRUN laboratory of the Athens University of Economics and took place in the period 3-5 June 2023 on a sample of 900 consumers.

The results document a mature consumer audience in electronic channels with growth prospects.

The maturity of e-commerce is documented by the fact that the growth of online shopping has been maintained during the periods following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic and the then traffic restriction measures.

According to the survey, 45% of internet users made an online purchase in the last 15 daysthe same percentage as in November 2022 and clearly increased compared to the 39% in June 2022.

This percentage is lower than the highest reading recorded in December 2020 (61%) at the peak of the pandemic, but almost double compared to December 2019 (26%), the last reading before the emergency. In short, this means that at least 7 out of 10 internet users are now classified as online shoppers. These significant percentages are still far from those of the mature markets of Western and Northern Europe where 9 out of 10 citizens now shop online.

At least 1 in 4 online consumers are now considered highly advanced as their online purchases represent more than 20% of their total purchases. In fact, for all online consumers, on average, online purchases now represent 10% of their total purchases, a percentage that shows an increasing trend compared to 2022.

Based on expert estimates it is expected 2023 to be another record year for BC e-commerce, with at least 20,000 Greek businesses now having an organized digital sales channel and several Greek online stores now having significant online annual sales of over 10 million euros.