eCommerce

According to the European Commission report on the i2010 initiative for 2008, Portugal is one of the best-placed countries in the European Union (EU) as regards eBusiness and eCommerce indicators in the European Union (EU). It is one of the top 5 EU countries in a series of 10 indicators examined for these areas. As well as Portugal, the other countries are Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria.

Portugal’s figures for 6 of the 7 eBusiness indicators are above the EU average, and even put Portugal 2nd or 3rd in the entire EU in three of the indicators:

• Automatic exchange of business documents with clients or suppliers (Portugal=39%; EU=25%; 2nd in the EU)
• Electronic exchange of information with clients/suppliers in value chain management (Portugal=31%; EU=16%; 2nd in the EU)
• Use of applications for employees to access Human Resources services (Portugal=21%, EU = 11%, 3rd in the EU);
• Using applications for integrating internal business processes in all enterprises (Portugal =53%; EU=41%; 7th in the EU);
• Using applications for integrating internal business processes in large enterprises (Portugal =82%; EU=70%; 8th in the EU);
• eInvoice issue/reception (Portugal=24%; EU=21%; 11th in the EU);
• Analytical client relationship management use (Portugal=16%; EU=17%; 11th in the EU).

Portugal’s figures are also above the EU average in 2 of the 3 indicators examined for eCommerce:

• Percentage of enterprises selling online (Portugal=19%; EU=16%; 7th in the EU)
• eCommerce as a percentage of total company turnover (Portugal=12%; EU=12%; 10th in the EU)
• Percentage of enterprises buying online (Portugal=20%; EU=28%; 11th in the EU).

There are certain aspects of eCommerce in Portugal that are often overlooked as they are seen as being traditional, yet they have a special importance due to the inclusive role they play. In actual fact, some are the most advanced Information Society services in existence at present, as is the case with the Multibanco ATM system and Via Verde toll system. These methods, as well as mobile phones and as will be the case with digital TV, are used by the bulk of the population and have overcome the obstacles encountered in computer and Internet penetration and use by adults who do not have secondary schooling.

Portugal has the highest rate of ATM penetration in the population of all the EU countries: more than 1,500 ATMs per million inhabitants, which is 15% more than the 2nd-placed country, Spain, 50% more than the third, the United Kingdom and more than double the EU average. The number of Multibanco system ATMs increased 30% from the end of 2004 to 2008. The number of transactions carried out annually on these machines was over 800 million in 2007, bordering on 130 million in payments, which, in addition to the very high level of electronic payments to the State (more than 3 billion Euros in 2007), also included a considerable number of eCommerce transactions (more than one billion Euros in 2007 too).

The survey on family ICT use carried out in 2008, which in 2007, by a UMIC initiative, started to include data on Multibanco system use, revealed that 68% of 16 to 74 year olds use the Multibanco system and many use it for eCommerce transactions: putting money on pay-as-you-go mobile phones (79%), buying tickets for shows (8%) and buying transport tickets (7%). Additionally, the Multibanco system is used a great deal for electronic payments: for water, electricity, telephone, cable TV services, etc. (62%), paying for non-Internet orders (e.g. catalogue purchases (25%), purchases made online (7%); to the State (36%).

The percentage of people using the Multibanco system to pay for distance purchases other than on the Internet (for instance, by catalogue) increased more than 80% from 2007 to 2008.

eCommerce via the Multibanco system (by more than 54% of individuals and more than 79% of Multibanco users) greatly exceeds the purchases or orders made online. In truth, according to EUROSTAT data for 2008, the latter are made by only 10% of individuals even though they have increased 67% since 2005, despite the fact that 34% of individuals (81% of Internet users) search for information on goods and services online.

Portugal is the European leader in another eCommerce area, namely in electronic transactions paid at automatic motorway toll booths. There were 2 million Via Verde toll system readers per capita in 2006, 2.5 times more than the 2nd placed country (Italy) and 11 times more than the 3rd (France). There were roughly 170 million toll transactions in 2007. More than 188 million toll transactions were registered from January to September 2008. The Via Verde toll system is also a particularly advanced form of eCommerce. It is completely virtual due to the use of distance sensors, which make it completely accessible. It is widespread as 62% of toll transactions, worth more than 20 million Euros a year, are made electronically. It is also a precursor of how things will develop in the future, when it is predicted that we will see more applications based on sensor networks.

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.