More than 56% of the population made an online purchase in the last three months and spending has increased. More than half of companies, which use the Internet, are using paid-for cloud services.
Newly released data from Statistics Estonia showed that 56.5% of the population aged 16-74 used e-commerce in the last three months. Compared to last year, the overall popularity of e-commerce has remained the same, but the amounts spent on purchasing goods and services have increased.
Statistics Estonia analysts Katriin Polluaar said the growth of e-commerce was mainly driven by women.
“Six out of ten women have ordered something from online shops in the last three months. The most bought items are clothing, footwear, sports equipment, travel and accommodation services and tickets for various events,” she said.
Compared to last year, the amounts spent on e-purchases have increased: 26% of those who purchased something in the last three months spent more than EUR 500.
In Estonia, 89% of the population aged between 16-74 use the Internet, and of those 95% use it on a daily basis.
The population aged 25-34 are the most active Internet users: 99.7% of them use it every day or almost every day.
The Internet is mostly used for sending e-mail and reading web publications, banking services and seeking information on goods and services.
The data show that 90% of households have an Internet connection at home and 82.6% have fixed broadband connection.
In total, 99% of families with children have Internet.
Mobile Internet connections are decreasing, as 75.5% of households have mobile Internet connection, down by 5% YoY.
The results of the enterprise survey showed that more than half of companies using the Internet used paid cloud services.
The use of cloud services has increased significantly in recent years. Slightly over a tenth of enterprises used these services six years ago, 22% four years ago, 34% two years ago and this year cloud services are being used by 57% of enterprises.
Leading analyst at Statistics Estonia Tiina Parson said many new cloud service providers had entered the market to facilitate the work of enterprises.
“Service providers pay significantly more attention to security and reducing security risks than in the past. Security risks remain an issue but have not prevented the wider use of cloud services,” she explained.
There are no significant differences in the use of cloud services between large and small enterprises: 51% of small enterprises with fewer than 20 employees and 74% of large enterprises with 250 and more employees use them.
Enterprises engaged in information and communication and professional, scientific and technical activities use the services the most.
A new subject in this year’s survey was the Internet of Things (IoT) used by 16% of enterprises. It is a set of devices interconnected in particular via Wi-Fi, enabling monitoring of the surrounding environment, the transmission of information between devices and automated remote control of different processes.
The Internet of Things is mostly used by enterprises engaged in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, transportation and storage, and water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities.
More than half of the enterprises using the Internet of Things use it to monitor the movement of vehicles and goods, 38% to improve customer service and more than a third to optimize energy consumption. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
