The Czech Republic is most perspective European country for the development of e-commerce among the frequent users of mobile phones for online shopping, according to a study by US bank JP Morgan, daily iDnes.cz reported on August 28. Czechs make over 54% of e-purchase through their mobiles. 

“The popularity of shopping using mobile phones has increased significantly,” confirmed the Director of the Association for e-Commerce Jan Vetyska. The fast start of Apple Pay and Google Pay mobile payment applications also show the growing popularity of mobile phone shopping. Over the six months since February 19, 82,000 Czech bank Ceska Sporitelna ́s clients have digitized their payment cards. 

Ceska Sporitelna also confirmed an increase in the volume of purchases in online stores via mobile phones. The number of mobile banking users grew three times year-on-year, from approximately 200,000 users in 2018 to 630,000 in 2019. "This suggests that e-shop purchases via mobile phones had a similar growth curve," said Ceska Sporitelna spokesman Filip Hruby, daily quoted.

Czech e-shops are expected to grow the fastest among 18 European countries, at 16% until 2021. There are currently around 41,000 e-shops in the Czech Republic. In 2018, the Czechs spent CZK135bn online, up by 17% y/y, with the highest share for Apple and Samsung (40%). The fastest growing industry was food with 52% growth. 

The country is one of the leading countries in Europe for using contactless card payments both in the country and abroad, carrying out more than 1bn of online payments in 2018. “The volume of transactions reached almost CZK700bn (€27,290),” said the Executive Director of the Credit Card Association Roman Kotlan, adding that the trend of further expansion of non-cash transactions has been growing.