More Maltese shoppers are opting to purchase their needs over the internet from the comfort of their home and placing their trust in plastic money, according to online retailers.
Online shopping from foreign websites has been quite popular locally, but people had been more reluctant to pay a Maltese company online for a variety of reasons, including the fear of low security as well as the fact that distances in Malta did not warrant the 'hassle' of paying online.
The arrival of two different online services some three years ago started changing the scene.
Smart Supermarket (www.smart.com.mt), Marks and Spencer's winedrop.com and Wand's wands.com.mt all launched their online shops about three years ago, making the first impact on the market.
James Azzopardi from Acrosslimits, which takes care of the Smart Online Shopping, said the service they were offering was well received by the public.
Hundreds of shoppers used the service regularly, even though it had not reduced custom from the shop itself. Most of the products available at the supermarket can be bought online, but a minimum of Lm40 has to be spent.
Mr Azzopardi said that nowadays the majority paid online, where initially they had preferred to pay in cash on delivery. Interestingly enough, even though online orders can be placed at any time, people still tended to shop during opening hours, which meant many were placing their order from their place of work.
The service offered by Smart is an exceptionally comfortable one and it has recently invested in fridges for their delivery vans and added a pickup service.
Jean Pierre Agius, on behalf of Marks and Spencer's winedrop.com, said the service was launched about three years ago and the amount of purchases is quite steady.
Deliveries are made within 24 hours and customers pay online. Mr Agius also said that, like Smart's customers, their clients were initially sceptic of online payments, but nowadays though they can still pay on delivery, no one used this option.
Next came the little specialised shops - those catering for niche markets, which could be very profitable if exploited well. These include maltagiftservice.com, maltastamps.com and cupidlingerie.com to mention but three. These are all run by individuals who tried to beat large corporations at their own game on the internet.
While stores targeting foreigners did not find any problems with regard to trust, stores catering for the local market found customers to be quite sceptical of using the service if no actual shop existed.
A maltagiftservice.com representative said foreigners, especially those of Maltese descent, used the service quite regularly to send presents to their loved ones or friends in Malta - no security questions were ever asked, probably since this was mainly targeted at foreigners.
David Gauci from cupidlingerie.com said that most shoppers still called or e-mailed to see if the place really existed, and at times they even insisted they did not pay online. He said that for Maltese shoppers, an online shop served just as a catalogue, and most shoppers did not feel they could exclusively trust an online store.