Online shopping 'usually cheaper'

Maltese consumers had better get more accustomed to buying online as according to a new EU study, many products bought from foreign online websites are at least 10 per cent cheaper than if bought from Maltese shops or local websites.

In an EU-wide Mystery Shopping exercise performed recently by the European Commission in all the EU 27 member states, shoppers tried to buy 100 products like cameras, CDs, books and clothes from a cross-border provider. Over 11,000 test orders were made.

The results show that Maltese consumers are not getting a very good deal when buying locally compared to the deals offered by foreign websites.

On over half of the 100 items ordered, the price of products offered by foreign online websites was over 10 per cent cheaper than the prices offered in Malta, even when including the shipping costs.

The study also identifies other problems being faced by Maltese consumers.

One of the major obstacles is that online shopping in Malta is almost non-existent with a mere five per cent of items in the EU's shopping list being available online.

The other main problem is availability, as many online suppliers across Europe do not ship to Malta. According to an EU official there might be various reasons for this.

"One of the reasons might be that the Maltese market is so small that foreign retailers do not feel it is worth offering the facility to ship there. However, another main reason might be that retailers in Malta, who in many cases act as agents for many products, put pressure to their foreign suppliers not to offer these products online to the Maltese market as this will mean losing their business," the official said. Recent data issued by Eurostat shows that Malta registered the highest inflation in the euro area in the past 12 months and it is widely known that prices of many imported items in Malta are much higher than in other EU member states.

However, according to the study, Maltese consumers are not the only ones facing problems. There are in fact widespread problems with refusals of orders by EU consumers trying to purchase goods online in another member state. The research found that 60 per cent of cross-border transactions could not be completed by consumers because the trader did not ship the product to their country or did not offer adequate payment facilities.

Malta fares as one of the member states which tops all the three main categories researched: higher prices in the local market, lack of supply by foreign traders and no facilities to buy online locally.

Consumers Commissioner Maglena Kuneva described the results of this research as "very striking" and said the figures showed the extent to which the European single market for consumers was not happening online.

"Better deals and greater product choice for consumers on our vast European market could be just a click or a mouse away. But in reality online shoppers are still largely confined within national borders. Europe's consumers are being denied better choice and value for money and they deserve better," she said.