Albanians’ online purchases surged in 2020

Albanians’ online purchases surged in 2020
By bne IntelliNews April 6, 2021

The number of Albanians who made online purchased surged during 2020, shows the Survey on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Usage for 2020, published by statistics office Instat. 

The Western Balkans region, including Albania, saw an uptick in online purchasing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

Online purchases were made by 19.5% of the population aged 16-74 in the 12 months before the survey, up by 9.4 pp compared to 2019. According to Instat, the most popular products and services in the year were clothing, shoes and accessories, which were purchased by 84.8% of respondents, a 2.2 pp rise.

The biggest increase was for online purchases of food or beverages, which grew by 16.6 pp year on year, followed by purchases of medicine supplements or vitamins, up by 9.2 pp y/y – both reflecting changed purchasing habits during the pandemic.

Source: Instat

Almost three quarters (72.2%) of Albanians aged between 16 and 74 are internet users, of which 88.2% use the internet every day, showed the survey. Of the internet users in the 16-74 age group, 98.8% access the internet through mobile or smart phones, and 24.4% and 7.2% respectively use laptops and tablets to get online.

96.2% of the target age group use the internet to make calls through programmes such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp, up by 3.9 percentage points compared to 2019.

83.3% of Albanian households now have access to the internet, a modest increase compared to 82.2% in 2019, Instat said. 68.7% of Albania households have fixed broadband internet access, up by 12.1 pp over 2019.

The number of individuals using the internet in the 16-74 age bracket increased by 3.6 percentage points compared to 2019. 

 

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