One third e-shoppers in CEE own smartphones

2011-11-18



Approximately 14.2% of mobile handsets used in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are smartphones and their owners represent 31% of the e-commerce audience in the region, GfK reported based on a study conducted between May and July 2011. Also, smartphone owners, compared to feature phone users, are more avid customers of internet banking services. Three quarters of smartphone users in CEE states access social networks for personal communications.


The highest smartphones penetration at the moment of research was found in Slovenia, where 27.2% of surveyed mobile phone users had handsets falling into the smartphone category. At the other end of the spectrum was Romania with a smartphone penetration rate at 8.4%.



GfK research, which based their survey on 15,000 respondents in 15 countries in the region, also revealing that less than 20% of internet users in the CEE do online shopping. Relatively, the largest population of e-buyers was in the Czech Republic, with 53.6% of respondents declaring purchasing goods online.