More than 80% of the population makes purchases on the internet. It is the second country in the world with the highest average spending on e-commerce.
It is a highly developed country in digital terms, with extensive use of e-commerce and high purchasing power. More than 80% of the population buys online.
Switzerland, the second country in the world with the highest average spending on online purchases, reached an amount per consumer of 1,534 euros in 2020, the latest annual report on social networks and digital trends published by the We are a social agency.
The digitization:
The digitization rate is higher than the European average and the internet user population increases year after year. In 2020, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, 91% of Swiss people between the ages of 16 and 74 accessed the internet at least once a week. This is equivalent to eight million users concentrated mainly in urban areas.
It is also among the 20 largest e-commerce markets in the world by total revenue, which in 2020 was 9,123 million euros, and is expected to reach 10,795 million this year.
In this context, Switzerland is a desirable market for E-commerces from all over the world that want to market their products in the country through the Internet.
Díaz Gibson underlines that when looking at the opportunities of the online channel, one must bear in mind that “being to a certain extent isolated as a non-EU country, but surrounded by EU countries, in Switzerland there has been a clear impulse to development of its own platforms, as is the case of Digitec Galaxus, a local leader in business-to-consumer online commerce with almost 50% of the market share”.
The world’s leading platform, Amazon, has chosen not to have a presence in Switzerland and to sell in that country through its portals in Germany, France and Italy, thus saving VAT management costs and duty.
The Swiss authorities tend to manage customs tariffs and VAT with a view to protecting their national market from imports of products similar to those manufactured on their territory.
In trade between Switzerland and the EU countries there are certain barriers to exports from the Member States. Industrial products are exempt from paying tariffs, but agri-food products and their processed products are still subject to these rates in many cases.
Amazon has chosen not to have a presence in Switzerland and to sell in that country through its portals in Germany, France and Italy, thus saving VAT management costs and duty.
