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Online purchases are one of the benefits people have benefited from technology development. With the speed of one click, you can buy products without having to bump into stores to find what you need without being confined within your state boundaries. As the world is heading to online actions, Albania ranks among the latest member states and EU candidates for online shopping.
Albania is the country with the lowest percentage of online shopping compared to the European Union and candidate countries. According to the Quality of Life Survey, 85% of respondents stated they did not make online purchases and 15% stated they have made online purchases. Among the candidate countries, Macedonia has the lowest percentage of online shopping after Albania, with only 25% of respondents claiming to have made online purchases. In Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, the percentage of online respondents who have claimed online purchases varies from 31 to 34%.The average respondent in the European Union declaring that they have made online purchases is 67%.
European Union countries with the highest percentage of online shopping are Sweden with 85%, UK with 84%, Denmark and Holland with 83%, Finland with 76%. While the EU member states that recorded the lowest percentage of respondents claiming to have made online purchases are Croatia with 33%, Romania and Portugal with 36%, and Greece with 37%.
The law that taxed the online purchases
In August 2016, a decision was made that online purchases over EUR 22 will pay VAT and customs duty. If the taxable limit is exceeded then the buyer pays a tax of 22.4% of the value of the goods (20% VAT, 2.4% customs duty).
The data from Albanian Institute of Statistics shows that shipments grew by only 1% in 2017 with about 455 tons, but again without reaching the level of 2015. Mail deliveries have been declining. According to calculations, the online purchases are as much as 70% of the total revenue packets.