eCommerce

However, it is worth noting that these data refer to people who ordered or paid for goods or services in transactions conducted on Internet pages and therefore disregard the lion’s share of eCommerce, which is conducted via ATM machines, mobile phones or sensor networks that detect service provision.

Also in accordance with EUROSTAT, the 2007 data for small, medium and large enterprises as a whole indicate that only 24% use the Internet or other electronic networks to make/receive orders, although the figures for each of these types of business are 49%, 34% and 21% respectively.

In Portugal, the MULTIBANCO system has enabled a particularly advanced form of eCommerce, despite being a relatively traditional method due to its simplicity of use and the widespread nature of ATM machines, which is notably different to the situation in other countries.

The survey on family ICT use, which was conducted by the INE – National Statistics Institute in conjunction with Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC), obtained data in 2007 (1st quarter) for the first time on eCommerce operations conducted by means of the MULTIBANCO system.

The survey data reveal that 67% of 16 to 74 year olds use the MULTIBANCO system. Many of these people conduct eCommerce transactions through the MULTIBANCO system, including: pay-as-you-go mobile phone top-ups (76%), payment of water, electricity, cable TV, telephone services, etc. (57%), paying for non-Internet orders (e.g. catalogue purchases (14%), paying for Internet orders (10%), buying tickets for shows (9%), buying tickets for public transport (9%).

The MULTIBANCO system was also used by 34% of people for making payments to the State (tax, social security, etc.).

EUROSTAT data also does not include electronic transactions by means of the Via Verde toll system, an example of an advanced form of eCommerce that has been made completely virtual through the use of distance sensors and which is much more widespread in Portugal than in other countries, given that Portugal is the European leader for this type of service with a per capita number of readers (2 million) that is 2.5 times higher than the 2nd placed country (Italy) and 11 times higher than the 3rd (France). Transactions carried out by means of the Via Verde toll system at 141 motorway toll booths, 98 service stations, 47 car parks and 4 historical neighbourhoods total an average 550 thousand per day for a total annual sum in the region of 20 million Euros.

Additionally, the Study on eCommerce in Portugal (text in Portuguese) published by the Association for eCommerce in Portugal (ACEP) and by the Netsonda Research Group in February 2007, based on data obtained from a survey of Internet users, indicates that: 77% of respondents search for information on the Internet to then conduct a purchase using traditional methods, 78% buy online; the most-purchased products are I.T. products (39.6%), electronic/mobile phone products (36.5%) and tickets for shows, sport and others (36.1%); credit cards are the means of payment most often used (43.9%), followed by payment on collection (36.4%) and Payment of Services/MBNet (34.6%).

Furthermore, a Marktest study conducted in October 2007 revealed that online banking is used by 1.055 million people in Portugal.

The data from an ACEP/IDC/NetSonda Study on eCommerce in Portugal 2001/2011 was released on 7th November 2007. It indicates that 10% of the Portuguese population regularly uses eCommerce sites, B2C eCommerce in 2006 was some 602 million Euros and B2B some 1.62 billion Euros.

Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) and ACEP – Association for eCommerce in Portugal ((site in Portuguese)) worked in partnership to promote the third version of eCommerce Week, an initiative running from the 4th to the 14th May 2006, which kick-started the debate on this subject area in various locations around Portugal. One of the activities that was on the week’s programme was the publication of the “Buying on the Internet” manual including the Practical Guide for Companies (text in Portuguese) and the Practical Consumer Guide (text in Portuguese), which were widely distributed as inserts in a leading newspaper.

The same organisations also promoted the 4th eCommerce Week event, which was held from 6th to 16th November. Of the initiatives carried out, the following are noteworthy: TSF Forum on eCommerce (text in Portuguese), eBusiness: Opportunities, Risks and Benefits for Portuguese Enterprises (text in Portuguese) Seminar, Internet Banking: Trends and Challenges for Online Financial Services (text in Portuguese), Electronic Invoicing: Efficiency and Competitiveness of Organisations in a Digital and Global World (text in Portuguese) Conference, Mobile Commerce as a catalyst for eCommerce (text in Portuguese) Workshop, free distribution of the Practical Guide "Buying on the Internet” (text in Portuguese) with the Jornal de Notícias and Diário de Notícias newspapers (250,000 copies), "ICT use for SME competitiveness" Conference (text in Portuguese), Ibero-American Seminar on Self-Regulation in eCommercc (text in Portuguese), New business opportunities: Buying and Selling in electronic markets for enterprises (text in Portuguese) Workshop, Accessibility in eCommerce in Portugal – Main conclusions from the Integra21 project (text in Portuguese) Workshop.

Virtual trade relations will also be made easier through inducing the adoption of eInvoicing in the private sector, which will naturally go hand-in-hand with the adoption of electronic invoicing in the Public Administration, following the Council of Ministers' Resolution in this regard in September 2005.

In actual fact, the sheer size of the Public Administration means that the adoption of eInvoicing in its transactions will make a sizeable contribution to spreading the practice of issuing and receiving electronic invoices in the scope of the country’s economic activity, galvanising public and private companies to act in the same manner, rising above the fact that use of eInvoicing in Portuguese companies is still in its infancy and thus contributing to modernising the country.

The adoption of eInvoicing, once it has become stabilised, will enable processing costs to be cut, obviating the need for repeated data entry on invoices for the various organisations involved and reducing data entry errors and subsequent correction costs. It will make it easier to archive and access invoices using computers and will result in accountancy and financial management efficiency gains.