Online shopping in Europe

The company is active in eight countries: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Galaxus wanted to find out whether there are relevant differences in the individual countries and analysed the shopping behaviour of its customers in the period from 1 January to 29 February. One finding was that in the south, people tend to shop online later – and in Germany, there are significantly more men shopping than in the other countries.

Galaxus.it recorded the most hits via smartphone: over 80 per cent of customers surfed through the online store on their cell phone. In France, the figure was 75.5 per cent. In the other national markets, too, most visits to Galaxus are made via smartphone. Users from Switzerland and Germany are significantly less mobile-savvy. Only 67.1 per cent and 64.3 per cent of customers respectively use their smartphone for online shopping. In Germany, the rate of desktop access is highest at 34.4 per cent. In Italy, only 17.9 per cent of all purchases are made on the desktop. Tablets only play a subordinate role in online shopping in all countries.

Most users are on Galaxus on Mondays between eight and nine in the evening. In Italy and France, the Mediterranean lifestyle makes itself felt, with the peak shifting to one hour later.

Across all national markets, most Galaxus users are between 25 and 34 years old. In France, this figure is as high as 29 per cent of all online shoppers, in Germany 28 per cent and in Austria 21 per cent. Only in Austria are silver surfers in the lead: 24 per cent of users belong to the 55 to 64 age group. In France, Italy and Germany, on the other hand, silver surfers only make up 9 per cent. It is striking that 18- to 24-year-olds in Switzerland and Austria account for fewer visits to the Galaxus website than the other age groups, featuring even less than the 65+ age group. The situation is different in Germany, where young adults account for a quarter of traffic on galaxus.de. In Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland, 40 to 50 per cent of people surfing on Galaxus are female, and the trend is rising. At Galaxus Germany, on the other hand, the figure is only 35 per cent – almost two thirds of users are men.