E-commerce doing well in southern Europe. On Thursday 16 October, the umbrella organisation for online retailers, Ecommerce Europe, indicated that goods and services sold online in southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta) increased by 18.9% in 2013 to reach a total value worth €40.8 billion. This accounts for more than 11% of total online sales in Europe, where online growth was lower last year, the equivalent of +17.5% (+14.7% for the EU 28 as a whole). With an estimated value in online sales of €47.8 billion in 2014 and average annual growth of 22% since 2010 in southern Europe, e-commerce provides a spark of hope for recovery in this region that has been particularly affected by the economic crisis, points out Ecommerce, which represents the interests of more than 25,000 companies selling goods and services online. In southern European countries, there are around 125 million regular Internet users, 48 million of whom use online purchasing services to buy products online. Online purchases also account for 2% of the total of all goods sold in the region. With a total of €14.4 billion online sales, Spain is southern Europe's most active e-commerce country, ahead of Italy (€11.2 billion) and Turkey (€8.9 billion). Despite the fact that e-commerce growth fell in Turkey, it is still in Turkey where e-commerce growth is most robust (+35% on average). Nonetheless, given the gradual saturation of the Turkish market, growth is expected to decline to 17.8% in 2014. Ecommerce is, however, forecasting strong online growth on the Greek market next year, +18.8%, just ahead of Italy (+18.2%). On average, southern European online shoppers spent €842 per person in 2013. This amount is significantly less than the EU 28 average of €1,500 and the European average of €1,376. Last year, Greeks spent practically the same amount as the year before (€1,345 as opposed to €1,347 in 2012) but they were still the biggest online spenders of the region. Behind Greece, Cyprus ranked second with an average spending per e-shopper of €1,000, followed by Portugal (€954) and Spain (€874). (IL)