Lockdown spurs online shopper growth
About 50,000 Hungarians became active online shoppers between the middle of March and the end of April, when lockdown measures were introduced to contain the spread of the coronavirus, economic research company GKI Digital said on Thursday.
The additions brought the total number of active online shoppers to 3,350,000, GKI said, adding that the scale of growth would have required a period of eight months last year.
Increased online shopping has brought express delivery companies’ package volume close to levels usually only seen around the holidays.
Online retailers’ first-quarter gross sales climbed by 21.4 percent to 149.6 billion forints (EUR 424m) from the same period a year earlier. Orders were up 15.9 percent at 9,900,000.
GKI forecasts an increase of as much as 35 percent for online sales in the second quarter.
1 Comment
Online shopping can be great. Too bad that more food shops like TESCO won’t expand their online shopping delivery areas to cover almost the entire country. It would increase employment here in Hungary among the unemployed and would be good for the economy and help prevent the spread of illness and keep more people away from potential exposure. It would be worth an extra fee to me to be able to order online.