Dutch increasingly buy groceries online

Dutch people increasingly shop online, according to Statistics Netherlands. The online purchase of food products in particular increased sharply.

This year 76 percent of Dutch aged 12 and older made at least one online purchase, compared to 73 percent last year. Dutch consumers also buy online more often. Clothing is most often bought online, with 52 percent of Dutch having purchased clothing online at least once this year. Tickets to events come in second place with 45 percent.

The strongest growth in online purchases could be seen in food and cosmetics. This year 25 percent of Dutch bought food and cosmetics online, compared to 19 percent last year.

Dutch especially tend to buy expensive products online. About 25 percent bought a product between 100 euros and 150 euros online this year, compared to 23 percent last year. About 5 percent spent more than a thousand euros on an online purchase.

The Dutch online shopper also increasingly buys from foreign online stores. In the first half of this year, more than 600 million euros worth of products were bought from online stores based in another EU country, a 19 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Online sales of stores based in the Netherlands also saw a massive increase in the first six months of this year - up 18 percent compared to the first half of last year.

The number of complaints about online purchases increased slightly over the past year. This year 45 percent of Dutch online shoppers had problems, compared to 42 percent last year. Consumers complained most about late deliveries and technical problems.

Of the small proportion of Dutch who don't shop online, 80 percent said this was because they prefer a physical store in which they can see and touch a product before buying it. People in this group were also concerned about their privacy and some don't know how to shop online.