Austin Gatt, Minister of Investment, Industry, and Information Technology, announced that age and education affect the e-commerce situation in Malta and consequently two measures have been taken to ensure that e-commerce users continue to grow in number.
In a partnership between the MIIIT and the National Statistics office (NSO), the Information Society Survey was carried out and the results were announced and explained by MIIIT Information Society secretariat, Bernard Agius.
He said that the statistics showed that of the 501 participants in the survey aged 18 years and over, 70.3 per cent of respondents have access to a computer at home and 62.6 per cent have internet facilities too. Around 71 per cent of those who have an internet connection use broadband while only four per cent use a dial-up connection.
A good 85.7 per cent of those aged between 18 to 24 years have used the computer within the last week, compared with the 13.3 per cent from the sample of persons aged 65 years or over. Only five per cent of those without education have used the computer within the last week compared to 91.9 per cent of those who have completed tertiary education.
With regards to e-commerce, ownership of a credit card is related to the age of a person. In fact 85.7 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 have a credit card, while only 37 per cent of those aged over 65 years have a debit card. Ownership of credit cards is also highly related to the level of education of a person, as 82.4 per cent of those who have completed a tertiary education have a credit card compared to only 10 per cent of those without a formal education.
On average 60.1 per cent of the respondents are not likely to buy online in the next 12 months while 16.6 per cent are. Online purchasing is also related to the age of a person as 54.6 per cent of those aged between 18 to 24 years are likely to shop online in the next 12 months compared to eight per cent of those aged over 65 years.
Online shopping is highly related to the level of education of a person as 54.1 per cent of the respondents who have completed a tertiary level of education have purchased something online during the past 12 months while those who do not have a formal education have never purchased something over the internet.
The level of agreement that online shopping offers buyers better prices also depends on the age of the person. 83.1 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 years agree that online shopping allows buyers to purchase at better prices compared to 38.6 per cent of those aged over 65 years.
A percentage of 68.9 will definitely shop online if a product needed is available only on the internet, while 54.5 per cent of the respondents will definitely shop online if a local shop they trust starts selling over the internet at a slightly cheaper price.
After the presentation Dr Gatt said that the results of the survey indicate that IT learning programmes for senior citizens must continue. He also added that fraud over Internet purchases should not be very common as when such an incident occurs the customer can always send a complaint and receive a total refund.
However he announced that to decrease the fear of fraud over Internet purchases and to give more exposure to Maltese shops abroad, the government is taking two particular measures.
One of the measures is the Trustmark scheme which will also be known as the EuroLabel. This will guarantee online buyers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get service. Through this scheme, Dr Gatt said, the public can rest assured that online sellers are reliable and dependable. This scheme is being set up by the MIIIT together with the chamber of commerce.
The other initiative is the issue of a tender for an e-mall department on the internet where Maltese shops can sell their products online and online buyers can buy products from their favourite shops over the internet. This will also relieve Maltese shops from the extra hassle and expense of setting up their own website and maintaining it. The minister explained that this initiative had been set up for quite a while but none of the private companies which were approached wanted to take it up.
Dr Gatt said that this initiative should create huge opportunities for Maltese businesses to sell their products abroad and thus e-commerce would expand both internally and externally as well.
He explained that even though e-commerce in other EU countries was slightly more popular, the factor of proximity with regards to Malta plays a huge part as distance is not an issue here for citizens to go shopping. Dr Gatt concluded that these measures were still in the works and that they will be launched next month.