Swiss Biding Their Time On E-Commerce
The Economist Intelligence
Unit has just produced a report on e-commerce in Switzerland which
concludes that although a growing number of firms in the Alpine
country are looking to go down the e-commerce road, the great
majority are waiting for further developments in electronic security
and watching the actions and experience of their competitors.
According to the
EIU, the Swiss outlook on e-commerce varies widely according to
the type of business, industry and company size, but the overriding
attitude is one of caution. Most firms are worried about the security
risks involved in e-commerce. In fact, most mangers have not looked
much beyond websites and e-mail, and they regard the Internet
mainly as a marketing rather than an e-business tool. The EU's research
programme Esprit, in a June 2000 report, also found that the business-to-business
(B2B) sector is sceptical about e-commerce. Although two-thirds
of Swiss B2B companies have websites, these are primarily used
as 'brochure' sites. Only one-third of companies conduct business
on the Internet. The EU report stated that activity is greatest
in German-speaking Switzerland. The vast Swiss watch
industry tends to be watching and waiting, although some firms
have set up online. The same goes for the travel industry. Major
Swiss travel company Kuoni still only conducts about 1 per cent
of its sales online and continues to prefer the traditional high
street approach. There is however
some progress to be seen in the retail financial services sector.
Credit Suisse, for example, conducted an e-commerce pilot study
in Italy that has allowed it to double the amount of funds managed
via the Internet to SFr4bn in 1999 and has now installed a pan-European
e-commerce platform that is operating out of Luxembourg. Some
200,000 clients in Switzerland now use Credit Suisse banking services
directly on the Internet and its youtrade.com brokerage service,
launched in April 1999, counted 14,000 clients by mid-2000. About
36 per cent of its stockmarket operations now take place online. The Federal Banking
Commission reported that it had received several concrete proposals
in 2000 for retail online banking and expected a few of these
to start up rapidly. Major insurance company Zurich Financial
Services is also making great online strides. One reason why Internet
usage in the Swiss business arena is progressing slowly is that
electronic invoices are not accepted for VAT purposes. .
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