In 2020, among the EU Member States with available data, the highest share of enterprises that started or increased efforts to sell their products online due to the pandemic was recorded in Malta (32%), followed by Cyprus (23%) and Portugal (21%). In contrast, the lowest percentages of enterprises were registered in Germany (5%), Poland (6%) and Slovenia (7%).
Latvia was in the middle of the pack with 10% of enterprises launching or boosting online sales.
"It needs to be kept in mind that the share of businesses that due to the pandemic moved to the internet as a new channel of sales or increased their efforts to sell online in 2020 depended on the initial share of enterprises already having e-sales, but also to a large extent on the type of economic activity of the enterprise. The highest share of enterprises that started or increased their online sales was registered in accommodation-related activities (25%), while the lowest share was recorded for enterprises active in construction (3%)," Eurostat said.
The figures relate to 2020, the first year of the pandemic. It is likely that 2021 saw an even greater proportion of businesses adopting online sales procedures.
