e-commerce weathering downturn

Recent payment card data shows European consumer confidence in the Internet has remained buoyant in the economic downturn.

The credit card giant Visa reported total EU e-commerce sales were up 136 per cent in the final quarter of 2002 on the same period the previous year.

Visa said European cardholders bought €2.5 billion worth of goods over the web in the last three months of 2002.

'Travel and entertainment' continues to lead the e-commerce growth sectors, with European online sales up 500 per cent.

Bookings for tourist attractions, hotels and airline tickets were also big climbers with online bookings for car rentals in the last quarter of 2002 almost ten times that of the same period the previous year.

Hugo Bottelier, Vice President of Visa EU, said: “Our statistics prove that shopping online is continuing to grow in popularity, particularly in the peak season run up to Christmas. As well as sustained growth in sales, the e-commerce arena is becoming increasingly diverse with more and more sectors beginning to take advantage of the convenience and accessibility of the Internet. With the introduction of new security measures, consumer confidence in shopping online will continue to grow and we predict that the figures will carry on rising for some time yet.”

However, online fraud remains a major issue for retailers and security-conscious consumers.

In the run up to last year's Christmas buying frenzy, online retailers in the US said they expected to lose about $500 million to fraud and suspect transactions before January.

Avivah Litan, Research Director for Gartner, which published a report on its findings, said in December: "e-tailers report fraud attacks are becoming more sophisticated, more frequent, and more menacing in nature. Despite efforts to curb online fraud, the rate of fraud has stayed constant at one per cent since mid-2000."

Steve Round from the Credit Card Research Group said although the scale of e-commerce fraud in the UK was smaller than it is perceived to be, there are still a number of important rules to follow before buying online.

He said: "The majority of online fraud originates from card details people have picked up elsewhere - like shop receipts and discarded statements, so it is important to always discard them properly.

"When you buy something online, know who you are dealing with, look for the retailer's phone number and postal address and never disclose your pin number to anyone over the web or by email.

"If you have been overcharged for a product or charged more than once, provided you've checked the payment conditions on the website and you are in the right, you can claim any unauthorised deductions back through your card provider who will chase the retailer."