Malta sees above average proportion of online sales

VALLETTA, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- According to statistics published Thursday by Eurostat, citizens in Malta made an above average number of online transactions in 2016.

On the whole, Ireland had the highest proportion of enterprises which made sales online at 26 percent. Malta placed 12th, having 18 percent of companies selling products via the internet.

Online sales include sales to both individual consumers, as well as businesses and can be made using websites or apps, or in an automated manner via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)-type messages.

Across the whole of the EU, online sales increased from an average of 12 percent of all sales in 2008 to 18 percent in 2016, with large companies being more likely to conduct business online.

Malta ranks the second highest in terms of proportion of online sales to non-EU countries, which was about 44 percent.

Meanwhile, about 91 percent of EU member state enterprises conducted business with Malta.

The European Commission has said that it would like to create a Digital Single Market where e-commerce among member states is as smooth as possible. However, almost 40 percent of respondents said they had experienced difficulties in completing online transactions. Enditem