Perceived Barriers to E-commerce: Empirical Evidence from EU Countries

Internet usage is growing rapidly among the world. Furthermore, Internet usage is widely accepted among EU countries' citizens. In this paper intend is to research to what extent Internet sales by individuals is influenced by the barriers people perceive to buying/ordering over the Internet, using of Internet, and level of computer/Internet skills them posses. A data source for that research Eurostat database will be used. For investigating the research question the multiple linear regression models will be applied. As dependent variable percentage of individuals who used Internet for buying goods and/or services within last 3 months will be used. As independent variables following will be used: (1) perceived barriers are used for analysis, (2) level of computer skills, (3) level of Internet skills, and (4) level of Internet usage. The percentage of the individuals who bought goods/services over the Internet within last 3 months and factors: giving personal details over the Internet, level of necessary computer usage skills, and lack of necessary computer usage skills have been found to be statistically significant. In this research both hypotheses can be accepted, thus confirming that buying over the Internet in EU countries is influenced both by the level of individuals' skills and the level of perceived barriers.