Mail order sales in the Czech Republic have been growing, mainly owing to e-shopping, said Tomas Hajek, secretary of the country’s Direct Marketing and Mail Order Sales Association ADMAZ, according to the Prague Post.
Total turnover in Czech mail order sales rose by 30% year-on-year to 17 billion Czech korunas (CZK) ($754.8 million) of which e-shopping jumped 40% to CZK 10 billion ($444.5 million).
Online marketers beat traditional mail order sellers in terms of turnover for the first time in 2005.
“The importance of the Internet has been growing constantly. In 2004, Internet sales were lower than catalog sales, but last year it was the other way round,” said Hajek.
Mail order sales include catalog., Internet and telemarketing. The segment made up 2.9% of total retail sales worth CZK 600 billion ($26.7 million), excluding car sales, last year. The share grew from 1.4% in 2004.