Croatians love to buy books online
Since 1997, when the very first online order was made in Croatia, many things have changed. However, the country still lags behind the European Union in the area of digital economy. In Croatia, 47 percent of population uses internet banking, while in EU that number is 57 percent, reports Večernji List on March 17, 2016.
Although the research of the European Union “Digital Economy and Society Index” shows that only 44 percent of Croats are shopping on the Internet, a new poll done by Croatian companies Perpetuum Mobile, PBZCard, Symantec and Bug reveals that actually 65 percent of Croatian citizens buy stuff online.
But, some things have still not changed since 1997, when then minister Ivica Kostović bought “The Great Book of World Wide Web” at the Interliber Book Fair. That is to say that when it comes to online payments today Croats still mostly buy books, appliances and software, and pay bills. These are followed by various services and tickets for musical and cultural events.
It is interesting that the use of PayPal has almost reached the levels of credit card usage. Croats mostly use credit cards (75.6 percent) for Internet orders, but PayPal usage is approaching the same level (72.7 percent), which shows that people want simple transactions on the Internet. It is not therefore surprising that those who use e-banking are doing so because of the easier access, and one fifth of them does not want or does not have time to go to the bank.
“The research results indicate that Croatia is still lagging behind European and global trends, but it is also clear that its citizens understand all the advantages of the digital economy. If we want to increase these trends we have to digitalize public institutions and state bodies, and not only companies”, said Blerim Sela, CEO of Perpetuum Mobile.
